We in Los Angeles are blessed with amazing weather. Our skyline is a living embodiment of a Hollywood movie backdrop - clear blue skies with a few clouds painted on for good measure. It’s almost as if you could lean against it and watch it fall the ground…but not something I would recommend because you can never be too sure in this city of ours what’s real gold and what’s just gilded to make it shine.
However, in the last few months we have had to sit back with fingers crossed and hope our cityscape would brave the storm and make it through to see another sunny day. The rain that has hit LA has hit it hard giving us all pause to reflect on and appreciate just how beautiful this city is. But in this moment of reflection one cannot ignore the eerie crescendo of an ambulance siren creeping towards us and ever reminding the lucky inhabitants of Los Angeles to SLOW DOWN.
Rainy days should be spent at home curled up by the fake fireplace or swimming in the indoor heated pool or something equally as fabulous. But the reality is a 9-5 for many of us and in LA that means we must drive to work. We must bundle up and face the day -umbrellas in hand readying us for battle. We leave a little earlier expecting rain delays and resigned to the slugglish but necessary trek ahead. But WE are not everyone and LA in the rain is a social storm of epic proportions as traffic slows and deadlines can’t be met. The only explanation for the sorry display of driving during the rain is that every driver who makes their own lane in the shoulder, knowingly runs a red light and just can’t help but cut everyone else off is in fact Jack Bauer trying to save the world. Try as I might I cannot accept that this is always the case and it is not a coincidence that one hears so many more sirens in the rain. Slippery roads and brash drivers do not a happy motor marriage make and it is our responsibility to be street smart and hyper alert so that we do not become the victim of their reckless disregard for others.
Sadly, rainy weather is just a dangerous example of what has become a trend on the roads in Los Angeles. It’s become increasingly apparent the lack of driving savvy in this city and that a great majority of people are just more important than everyone else; they are governed by an elite set of road rules which just do not apply to the rest of the driving populous. For these select MANY yellow lights do not mean yield- HA, they are just a more intense green and a test to see how many people can get through before the light goes RED, oh- but don’t worry you stragglers you, red is like a fiery vixen luring you to the other-side… if you dare.
People are in such a rush to live their very important lives they forget that this city only works because of those red lights, double yellow lines and cross-walks. If everyone were as brazen as some people chose to be then the very foundation of what makes a metropolis operate and thrive would crumble and the sunny days we love so much wouldn’t seem as bright.
