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Hollywood is the most overrated neighborhood in L.A., according to the Time Out City Life Index

Michael Juliano
Written by
Michael Juliano
Editor, Los Angeles & Western USA
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Angelenos love eating, drinking and going out in West Hollywood, but they can’t say the same for its eastern neighbor Hollywood. In fact, Hollywood is the most overrated neighborhood in L.A., according to the results of our latest survey.

The Time Out City Life Index charts the most exciting cities in the world right now. We surveyed our readers and ranked 32 cities on criteria including food, drink and culture, local neighborhoods, friendliness, affordability, happiness and whether people were proud to live in their city.

We’ll get the bad news out of the way: We’re not the world’s best city. Yes, we know in our hearts that we are—albeit with some we’re-working-on-it issues—but that honor goes to Chicago, according to the index results. We, unfortunately, rank all the way down at 20.

Despite the disappointing ranking, most of you are pretty happy with L.A., or at least your neighborhood; 49% of respondents love their area, while 41% think it’s at least okay. But we’re not sure how long all of you plan on staying in those neighborhoods. Half of respondents never expect to own a house here, and a similar number thinks that L.A. is a ripoff. Apparently those steep rental prices have rubbed off on Angelenos’ opinions of some of the most sought-after neighborhoods: 18% percent believe that Hollywood is the most overrated neighborhood, followed closely by Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Silver Lake and Venice.

On the plus side, Angelenos are generally pretty content about our dining and cultural scenes. We love to eat tacos and sip on cocktails, and we tend to go to the movies on average 23 times a year, more than any other city surveyed. Despite the notorious traffic, more than half of those surveyed manage to keep their commutes under a half hour. But dating kind of sucks; 34% of you are single and dating, and only 28% have been on a date in the last week (though 44% of you have had sex in the last week, so congrats). And, tsk tsk, 42% of you have ghosted someone and felt just fine about it. We also have the dubious distinction of being one of the most difficult cities to make friends, and also one in which you’ll rarely bump into someone you know. Additionally, we’re slightly more obsessed with email and social media (and not-so-coincidentally antidepressants) than other cities.

Dig through more of the interesting findings here, and find the full list of overall rankings below:

1 Chicago

2 Porto

3 New York

4 Melbourne

5 London

6 Madrid

7 Manchester

8 Lisbon

9 Philadelphia

10 Barcelona

11 Edinburgh

12 Tel Aviv

13 Austin

14 Paris

15 Mexico City

16 Shanghai

17 San Francisco

18 Berlin

19 Tokyo

20 Los Angeles

21 Zürich

22 Beijing

23 Washington, D.C.

24 Bangkok

25 Moscow

26 Hong Kong

27 Miami

28 Sydney

29 Geneva

30 Boston

31 Singapore

32 Istanbul

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