Asian Life in Los Angeles | Asian American Poll

ASIAN LIFE IN LOS ANGELES
(Updated Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025, 06:39:09 AM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

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WHAT YOU SAY

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LA is a kickass party town but not a good place to start and raise a family. The younger asian community in the LA are is far too violent and self-destructive towards their own race.
asian couple moving to Bay Area, with a high yet safe Asian community! Friday, March 01, 2002 at 02:38:56 (PST)

westside,

No I am not Vietnamese, I'm of Filipino descent. And Houston does have a Little Korea, Little Pakistan, Little India, Little Persia, two Chinatowns (and the Bellaire version is more much bombastic than Monterey Park/Alhambra though downtown Chinatown LA is better than downtown Chinatown Houston), a growing Little Manila, a smallish Japan Square (unofficially)...........but Houston has African zones which L.A. doesn't compete with. (Houston has 100,000 Nigerians, Liberians, Ethiopians, etc. while LA has closer to 30,000 of same.)

Like you, I enjoy my share of yakitori, bulgogi and pho.....and both cities offer pretty much the same. But LA does have an advantage of being on the Pacific. (But Houston does have better access to that, oh, so incomparable Louisiana kitchen food that is missing in the LA comfort food scene.)

Proportionately to respective metro pops., Latinos are a wash. Houston and LA are like the first two cities where Latinos outnumber whites.

We consider that LA has been a Pacific Asian magnet since the late 1800s, while in younger Houston, Asians have only been flocking en masse to that city since 1978. The growth rate and accomplishments of the pan-Asian community in Houston are phenomenal in that Gulf Coast context.

Cambodians number 80,000 in H-town. It's not just Asians. Russians already number 30,000 and they are hot for Houston. So many immigrants make their way to Houston as well as California.

It's not just Vietnamese in Houston. But they seem to have surged along with the Tejanos in REALLY leaving their mark on Houston culture.
worldlyman Wednesday, February 27, 2002 at 19:19:08 (PST)

I'm originally from the Bay Area and go to college in Los Angeles. Both places have their advantages and disadvantages. One of the things that I hate most about Los Angeles is the traffic congestion and the sprawl. You can't get anywhere without a car and without hitting traffic. This has made me appreciate BART and the bus system in the Bay Area so much! I have friends who visit me in the Bay Area from Los Angeles and all of them fell in love with BART. Everything's much more compact in the Bay Area. But I also must say that the social life in Los Angeles is much better, so much more places to go and so much more people to meet. And the economy at this point is better than that in the Bay Area, which has been hit by the dot com bust and 9/11. In the end, both places are have their goods and bads, one is not better than the other.
baybee510 Wednesday, February 27, 2002 at 18:06:10 (PST)

"Dude, BART is broken down every other day. What a sack of S*** the Bay Area is."

You should look at the Washington DC metro. You will think BART is wonderful. The only metros that perform well are the ones in Asia: Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo. I have not been to Beijing...so I would not know. I also have not taken the one in Seoul.
Asian American Male Wednesday, February 27, 2002 at 10:33:05 (PST)

Whats with the hatin? How about some Cali Love from Diego to da Bay?
Dre and Pac Wednesday, February 27, 2002 at 00:18:59 (PST)

Dear Worldlyman,

Your point well taken. However, you had said variety is the spice of life. It seems you were writing from a Vietnamese person's perspective. The thing that makes LA the Asian capital outside of Asia is the variety. In LA, one can visit various Asian-American enclaves. Where else in the US can a person visit places like Koreatown, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Little Saigon, Thaitown, Little Taipei, Little Phnom Penh, Little India, etc.... On top of that, those communities are in more than just one part of Southern Cal. That's what makes LA special to Asian-Americans. I love having Japanese-style spaghetti whenever I want and also have the best Korean food in the US. Boba tea, pho and yakitori is plentiful in all parts of the city. And who doesn't like having Thai food served by aspiring Asian actresses. The Japanese-American National Museum in Little Tokyo is beautiful and educational. LA Koreatown has become the nightlife scene for not only Koreans, but also quite a bit of Chinese and Japanese as well as non-Asians. Even met Coco Lee in K-town and saw Hideo Nomo, Chan Ho Park and Mike Piazza at Velfarre.

Anyways, if you're only looking for the Vietnamese scene, then Houston is probably for you. But if you like more variety, then LA is the place to be.
westside Tuesday, February 26, 2002 at 14:07:21 (PST)

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