Pity the unwary travelers who calculate that if they leave Disneyland early, they can squeeze in the Hollywood Sign and then check out the scene at a World Cup match.
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Good luck with that!
Out-of-staters may think these spots are all in Los Angeles and thus a half-hour apart at most. Those of us who live in Southern California know better.
Still, even we forget at times just how vast the region is, how traffic can clog up at random times of the day, how destinations can be farther away than we remember.
Even if we remember correctly, they might take longer to reach. Rush hour, once a 60-minute period, has expanded into an amorphous block of time, the way “happy hour” at some places lasts much of the day.
Most of us would know better than to try to triangulate a journey from Anaheim to both Hollywood and Inglewood, which despite both having “wood” in their names are 10 miles apart rather than neighbors.
Southern California may all be “Los Angeles” to a visitor, but if you live here, SoCal is made up of cities and neighborhoods. Unless we’re commuting or going to a Dodgers game, people aren’t crossing L.A. on a daily basis.
A lot of single people won’t even date beyond a 15-mile radius. Given the time commitment, anything beyond that represents diminishing returns.
This brings us to the World Cup — rhetorically. I can’t bring you there any other way, sorry.
Whether it’s worth going is your call. I can’t say I understand soccer and, as a consequence, I’m not following the World Cup. Even at a remove, though, the energy is inspiring.
On Thursday evening in downtown Riverside, fans in soccer gear filled a sidewalk outside a downtown bar, Lake Alice.
I drove to Hole in the Wall Pizza, a lunch spot that is usually quiet at dinnertime, and entered, book in hand. The small place was almost full, twin TVs going, everyone’s attention riveted, cheering or groaning as the match unfolded.
As Mexico maintained its 1-0 lead over South Korea, I found myself watching. I witnessed one of goalkeeper Raul Rangel’s two spectacular saves to preserve the lead, which had people exclaiming in relief.
Anything positive that brings people together and gets them excited is worth honoring. (And if we don’t understand soccer, wait until the 2028 Olympics, when Fairplex in Pomona hosts cricket.)
SoCal, one of the world’s most diverse places, is a great place for a global event like the World Cup. Iranians, Paraguayans, Japanese, Belgians, Bosnians, Swiss, English and more are making their way to Inglewood, where eight matches are taking place at SoFi Stadium, rebranded as “Los Angeles Stadium” for the competition.
Speaking of which, Inglewood is also home to the Los Angeles Rams, the Los Angeles Chargers and the Los Angeles Clippers. Yet it’s an incorporated city of 102,000 with its own mayor. It’s not Los Angeles.
Or is it? That depends on what you mean by Los Angeles: the city, the county or the state of mind.
The city of Los Angeles is plenty big, with an estimated 3.8 million people within 508 square miles, a Rorschach-like blot that includes a thin strip that leads south to San Pedro and the Port of Los Angeles.
By some counts, the city has more than 100 distinct neighborhoods, most of which have their own character. Some are routinely mistaken for cities, like Hollywood. Some exist under the radar, like Arleta.
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Los Angeles County, meanwhile, is much larger, 4,753 square miles, encompassing 88 cities, including the city of Los Angeles.
In the 87 cities that are not Los Angeles, no one could vote in the L.A. mayor’s race because their city has its own mayor and city council. Among them: such famous names as Long Beach, Pasadena, Pomona, Beverly Hills, Malibu and Culver City. And Inglewood.
Los Angeles County has more people — 9.7 million — than 40 of the 50 states. And, by the way, Disneyland isn’t even in Los Angeles County. Like the Inland Empire, Disneyland is part of the state-of-mind version of L.A., the one that has little to do with lines on a map.
Still think you’re getting to the World Cup? Wherever you are, no matter what day the match is, if you want to have any hope of getting there, you’d better leave now.
Given astronomical parking rates, you probably shouldn’t drive. Public transit is better than people think, but complicated, given the distances involved.
This is a region where few places are easily walkable and where poor planning decisions of decades past are hard to unwind.
Take baseball. Most Major League Baseball stadiums are downtown and easy to reach by subway. Even a midsize city like St. Louis has a rail line that deposits fans, thousands of them, directly across the street from its stadium.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, our baseball stadium is in a ravine, the nearest rail stop is a mile away, the path between them unmarked and all but impassable on foot. The only transit to the stadium are buses, which have to inch along in post-game traffic.
Is there a solution under consideration? There is, although it’s not light rail, a subway or a dedicated bus lane. It’s a gondola.
A gondola!
(To be clear, the kind of gondola that travels on cables, like the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, not like the boats in Italy. Although I think if L.A.’s gondola plan ever comes to fruition, operators should sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in Italian.)
Less fantastically, you can get to SoFi Stadium by transit, should you choose. As you might be starting from any point in the region, telling you how to get there from wherever you happen to be is a little beyond the scope of this column. You’ll have to Google Map it.
But it would be a rail version of “The Californians” sketch on “Saturday Night Live”: “I took the A to the E to the K…”
You’re probably better off going to one of the 10 designated fan zones. The nearest one to the Inland Empire is at Pomona’s Fairplex on July 14, 15, 18 and 19. The most central is at Union Station June 25-28.
Metrolink will have special service on those four dates, saving you from the $65 parking fee at Union Station. The Metro A Line travels there, too.
If you want to cheer or groan along with other fans, or just watch them and hope the enthusiasm is contagious, there’s a simpler solution.
Watch a match at a bar, restaurant or other semi-public place in your town or neighborhood, close to home.
That’s where we true Southern Californians are most comfortable.
David Allen writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, close to home. Email [email protected], phone 909-483-9339, and follow davidallencolumnist on Facebook or Instagram, @davidallen909 on X or @davidallen909.bsky.social on Bluesky.
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