L.A. versus New York: Do you miss the bus?

L.A. is often criticized for lacking the bustling mass transit system of say, New York. But at a meeting over the weekend of New York transplants at Beverly Hills High School, one man put the burden of the car into perspective:

Beverly Hills residents Ed and Lorraine Feldman, both originally from the Bronx, said they have been coming to New York Day for nearly a decade. It's a chance to talk about the old days and live, momentarily, in the past. But unlike some who have made the move, the Feldmans -- California transplants since 1968 -- had little bad to say about their adopted state. "This is paradise," Ed Feldman, 79, said about the weather. And he had no complaints about having to drive everywhere in Los Angeles. "I haven't ridden a bus in 30 years and I don't miss it," he said.

Wasn't it Woody Allen who said: "I don't want to live in a city where the only cultural advantage is that you can make a right turn on a red light."

Jack Smith, the late great L.A. Times columnist, had this retort to Allen: "What about the drive-in bank, the Frisbee, the doggie bag? What about our Hansel and Gretel cottages, our Assyrian rubber factory, our Beaux-Arts-Byzantine-Italian-Classic-Nebraska Modern City Hall? What about the drive-in church?"

-- Shelby Grad

Photo: Karen Tapia-Andersen / Los Angeles Times