Where NOT to go in LA: Tourist Edition

I generally don't like to focus on the negative, but in this case it is worth it. If you ever come to LA, you should skip the Hollywood walk of fame area and the Venice Beach boardwalk. I know these are iconic LA locations, but trust me it is not worth it!

Let's start with the walk of fame. That area of Hollywood is trashy, smelly, and full of homeless people and weirdos. I am not sure why local officials haven't figured out that you need to keep your tourist areas nice. NYC got that right when they cleaned up the streets of Manhattan. I am extremely sympathetic to the plight of the homeless. Most of them have mental illness or debilitating addictions. Allowing them to live in our public space is not the solution. I think I'd be ok with it if it wasn't for the filth and trash they create. So skip Hollywood and do the Hollywood sign hike instead. It's just as iconic and a far better experience.

The Venice Beach boardwalk is like Hollywood on the beach, but add marijuana and alcohol to the mix. It is also smelly, dirty, and full of highly questionable people. You definitely don't want to bring kids here (unless you want it to serve as a warning as to why they should stay in school and not do drugs). The shops are full of cheap junk, the food is junk, and the people are sadly not that attractive. There are also "medical" marijuana shops which is essentially a way to buy weed legally by paying a premium for a "consultation". I've been fairly indifferent to the marijuana legalization movement, but it goes without saying that a high concentration of those shops is about as desirable as a high concentration of cheap beer joints. So skip the Venice boardwalk and go to Santa Monica Blvd between Formosa and Wilshire. There are artsy shops, a variety of restaurants, fascinating people watching, and it is clean and not smelly. It is a perfectly acceptable place to bring kids to show them diversity and creativity in a positive light. There is also the Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice, but it is an awful lot like South Congress in Austin.