Author: openjargon

• Stevie Howell is an artist who has lived in LA for about five years.
• She enjoys the city's creative scene and the many produce that can be grown in the area.
• Howell says the isolation, dullness, traffic, and lack of green spaces and community is bad in LA.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Stevie Howell, an artist and business owner who lives in Los Angeles. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I moved to Los Angeles about five years ago from San Francisco, and I previously lived in New York City and Chicago.

I expected my move would be easy since I'd still be living in California — but I've been surprised that I haven't seen a lot of things in LA that I've seen in a smaller city like San Francisco. 

LA has many positives beyond the great weather that lets you do outdoor activities year-round. The city also attracts creativity — it's home to great design, art, and comedy. This area also has amazing produce — you can grow almost anything here, so it's lemon trees and passion fruit vines galore.

But these are the five of the worst things that I've experienced while living in Los Angeles.

1. LA has horrible urban planning 

LA's urban planning could be so much better. Decades ago, the planners made huge mistakes that destroyed this city. They removed most of the canals that made Venice, Venice; took away the streetcars; built freeways that cut through all the low-income areas; made too many huge streets that aren't walkable and buildings that aren't human-scaled; and put strip malls everywhere instead of charming storefronts to walk by and window shop.

In general, it seems as though LA doesn't value urban beauty. Beauty happens inside here, behind walls, and in private homes. 

I've noticed that there aren't enough green spaces. LA lacks great parks compared to other cities like San Francisco and New York City. If only Frederic Olmstead had made a couple of trips to Southern California.

Driving around LA I can see how the neighborhoods change. Some areas receive more attention and infrastructure while others don't. 

2. The city feels dull 

For a bustling city, life in LA can have a surprising lack of vibrancy. It doesn't feel urban the way cities like NYC or SF do — I don't feel an urban buzz or excitement.

People-watching is a rarity here unless I count DIY photoshoots set up in front of pink walls. While I love overhearing the occasional only-in-LA style conversation or hearing my neighbors practice lines in their backyard, the conversations generally involve too much talk about traffic. 

The traffic makes it so hard to get places that I end up doing a lot less than I'd do in other big cities. For me, this means less going to museums, galleries, shows, talks, or even just a dinner on the other side of town. Often the same museum shows exhibited in LA will travel to other cities, and there have been times when I've missed the entire duration in LA but see it on a quick trip to NYC or Chicago. 

3. I feel isolated 

LA felt socially distant even before COVID and before "socially distant" was a thing. It feels like a sprawling mass of suburban enclaves next to each other. People are kind of in their own worlds, doing their own thing.

It's common for me to go months without seeing my closest friends here. This is another thing that mostly has to do with traffic and how sprawling the city is — people seem to stay in their neighborhoods and homes.

4. Driving sucks here 

We all know traffic is a huge problem in LA — after all, LA is home to 11 of the top 25 worst traffic corridors in the US. Good luck ever seeing your best friend who lives 12 miles away. Going from the east to the west side or vice versa can be excruciating, even with an arsenal of great podcasts loaded up.

Walking isn't really an option in most cases because of huge streets and extreme distances, and every time I try, I almost get hit by a driver who just doesn't expect there to be someone walking — even in a crosswalk.

And on the rare day it rains, everyone forgets how to drive. A drizzle adds about double the commute time.

5. I don't feel any sense of community 

I don't feel a strong sense of community in LA. It lacks cohesion that brings the whole city together, and I think this is why people have to work to find a sense of community.

Because it's such a driving culture, I don't interact with people as much as I do in other cities I've lived in. I don't ride the subway and get to sit next to someone who lives a completely different life than I do.

Because of this lack of interaction with a wider demographic range, it's hard to feel connected to the city as a whole. 

If you moved to a new city or state and want to share your experience, email Manseen Logan at mlogan@businessinsider.com.

• Google Lens uses image recognition to identify landmarks, plants, animals, and more.
• Google Lens also facilitates reverse image searches and can translate text.
• Google Lens is available as a standalone app for Android users and incorporated as a feature in other Google-owned apps.

Google Lens is a tool that uses Google's image recognition technology to help you navigate the real world. 

It can help you recognize a brand logo, pinpoint a location, figure out who someone is, identify a product, and so much more. It's useful, fun, and almost unnervingly effective to implement.

Here's what you'll need to do to start using this helpful tool to identify images around you:

What images can Google Lens identify?

You can use Google Lens to identify images on your camera and gain more information about landmarks, plants, animals, products, and other objects. It can also be used to scan and auto-translate text. You can use Google Lens to scan images already in your photo library or, with an Android phone, you can activate Google Lens directly as you snap a new image.

Google Lens is also incorporated into Google Images: Snap a photo with it to perform a reverse image search.

Google Lens has numerous useful applications. You can use it to look up plants or insects you encounter to see if they're dangerous; you can use it to translate foreign street signs; and you can even use it to check out that funky rash you've developed (though Google points out that its technology should not be considered a medical diagnosis). 

Google Lens is also deeply embedded in the Google ecosystem, making it convenient to use it through other apps like Google Photos, Google Assistant, and Google's search engine.

Google Lens also has its disadvantages, however. Critics have complained that the technology is not yet sophisticated enough to be useful. It sometimes struggles with accuracy and fails to recognize products or brands.

How to use Google Lens

Google Lens should be enabled by default on Android phones. If not, the standalone Google Lens app is available for download for Android phones in the Google Play store. While iPhone users can't download the standalone app, Google Lens is still incorporated into other iOS-compatible apps like Google Translate or Chrome.

Here's how to use the Google Lens app to identify images on an Android phone:

1. Open the Google Lens app and swipe down.

2. Select "Open Camera" and grant the app approval to use the camera.

3. Take a photo of whatever you want Google Lens to identify by tapping the search button in the bottom-center section of the screen.

Once you snap the photo and Google Lens identifies the image, you'll get a list of relevant information about it.

You can select from a number of different options depending on the content your photo; use the document icon to scan text, the character icons to translate text, the shopping cart icon for shopping information, or the fork and knife icon for restaurant info, to name several useful examples.

How to use Google Lens through Google Photos

You can also access Google Lens via the Google Photos app.

First, snap a photo of whatever you want to identify (or you can have an image already in your camera roll that you want to inspect with Google Lens). Next, open the Google Photos app, select the relevant photo, and then tap the Google Lens icon.

From there, you will be able to access many of the tools and features mentioned above on in relation to Android phones. You will be able to identify locations (including screenshots from Google Street View), people (both friends and family in your own photos, and famous people like Google CEO Sundar Pichai), products, logos and more, all to the best of Google Lens' ability.

Just remember, while you can use Google Lens via Google Photos on your iPhone or iPad, some of your options will be limited; for instance, you won't be able to identify products via their barcodes. Overall, the user experience will be mostly the same for Android and iOS users, though.

• Three Black men sued American Airlines, alleging racial discrimination on a January flight.
• The men were removed because of a body odor complaint from a white flight attendant.
• American Airlines said it was investigating the incident.

A trio of Black men sued American Airlines on Wednesday, saying they faced racial discrimination on a flight in January.

Alvin Jackson, Emmanuel Jean Joseph, and Xavier Veal filed a lawsuit in federal court about their removal from and eventual reinstatement on the plane.

The three men, along with five other Black men, were flying from Phoenix to New York. None of them knew each other or were seated together.

Just before takeoff, they were individually ordered off the plane because of a complaint about body odor, an American Airlines representative told them, per the lawsuit.

Cellphone video from one of the men shows a man telling an American Airlines employee that they were taken off because of their skin color. She responds, "I do not disagree with you."

After an hour of waiting, during which American Airlines could not find later flights for the men, they were allowed to reboard.

They then had to "endure the stares of the largely white passengers who viewed them as the cause of the substantial delay," the complaint said.

The body odor complaint came from a white male flight attendant, the lawsuit said. One of the plaintiffs asked to be seated away from the flight attendant. Staff moved an Asian woman to first class and directed the man to her coach seat.

The other two plaintiffs were served by that unnamed flight attendant, who "continued to behave in a rude and discriminatory manner" during the flight.

American Airlines told one of the plaintiffs that he could speak with a representative inside the terminal after the flight landed in New York. After he disembarked, there were no employees available.

The trio of plaintiffs, represented by New York attorney Lindsay Goldbrum, are seeking a jury trial.

American Airlines did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment, sent outside normal working hours. The company did not file an immediate response to the lawsuit.

The company told NPR in a statement that it takes discrimination claims very seriously. "Our teams are currently investigating the matter, as the claims do not reflect our core values or our purpose of caring for people."

The lawsuit comes amid a series of high-profile incidents for American.

Last month, a former judge, who is Black, said she was racially discriminated against on a February flight. Seated in first class, she said a flight attendant made her use an economy-section bathroom and she alleged he falsely accused her of hitting him and threatened her with arrest.

And last year, two high-profile Black passengers — track star Sha'Carri Richardson and involving musician David Ryan Harris — were involved in disputes with the carrier.

In 2017, the NAACP issued a travel advisory, warning Black passengers of potential discriminatory and unsafe practices at American Airlines. The civil-rights organization lifted the warning the following year.

• Greg Bockman is the Senior Events Manager at AT&T.
• His mom, Kathryn Bockman, is the company's Assistant Vice President of Accounting.
• Greg said Kathy sometimes acts as his mentor and sometimes acts as his mom.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Greg Bockman, senior events manager at AT&T, and his mother Kathryn Bockman. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Sometimes when I'm at work in the AT&T office in Dallas, the elevator will open and my mom will stroll out. It's not a crazy coincidence or an issue of mom overstepping: we both work for the same company and in the same building.

If I bump into my mom coming out of the elevator or in the hall, we'll give a quick embrace, but not the type of mother-son hug we save for family events. Since we work in different departments it's rare that we're in a meeting together. If we are, we acknowledge each other with a polite smile or nod — the same way we greet coworkers who aren't family.

We've learned that it's important to keep up professionalism. And yet, working with my mom has been a really cool growth opportunity. I know her better because I get to see her as a professional and mentor, not just a mother.

I wouldn't want to report to my mom directly

I never expected to be working with my mom. Growing up I knew she worked at AT&T and had a lot of loyalty to the company, but our interests were totally different: I love planning events, while she's focused on numbers and finance.

Even after I graduated college and looked for a job in the corporate world, my mom didn't intervene. She didn't want anything to be spoon-fed to me. And yet, I felt a familiarity with life at AT&T, and when a job presented itself at the company where my mom is in leadership, I took it.

Luckily, I've never had family or coworkers give me a hard time about working with mom. I don't report to her and we rarely cross paths professionally. I'm glad we maintain that division.

I see my mom a lot more since we work together

Like most moms, mine would appreciate it if I saw her more. Outside work we get together probably two to three times a week. I'll head to her house for dinner and catch up with the rest of the family, including the dogs.

That doesn't give us too much time. So, bumping into her once or twice a week at work has really strengthened our relationship. We even have the opportunity to put a lunch date right on each other's company calendar, which makes keeping in touch much easier.

Having a mom and mentor in one can be complex

In our situation, I get a mentor and a mother. There's no doubt that my mom is good at her job, and seeing her in this environment as a career woman has really enriched my understanding of who she is.

Because of that, I really value her professional mentorship. There's a definite difference in her tone when she's speaking to me as a mom, versus as a mentor. As a mother, she tries to be understanding and soften the blow of any tough love. As a mentor, she's a straight shooter, reminding me to buckle up and get the job done.

There's love in both deliveries, but sometimes it can be hard to take advice from my mom. Once or twice she's told me things I didn't want to hear. I might get annoyed with my mom about that, but at the same time I appreciate the honesty from my mentor.

My mom has a great understanding of my work

In a big company like AT&T, it's easy to let other departments handle their areas of expertise, without really understanding why they're important. The same can happen with family — we often only have a vague idea what our loved ones do.

My mom has told me that since we work together, she has a better understanding of the value that my area of the company has. It's taught her about an area that she might not be aware of, if she didn't have family working within it. That can strengthen the organization because we recognize the potential for collaboration, and the value that everyone brings to the table.

• A new 155mm factory in Texas aims to produce 30,000 rounds a month, per The New York Times.
• It's part of the US plan to manufacture 100,000 rounds a month by the end of 2025.
• But that pales to Russia's annual production estimates, which go up to 3 million to 4.5 million.

The US has opened a new factory for Howitzer ammo near Dallas, which aims to pump out 30,000 of the 155mm shells a month as the Ukraine war chews through Western stocks.

The factory, run by General Dynamics in Mesquite, Texas, was built from scratch in just 10 months with the help of technologies from Turkish arms manufacturer Repkon, The New York Times' John Ismay reported on Wednesday.

Ismay noted that one of its production lines would be next to a Frito-Lays distribution center that appeared to be taking deliveries from Cheetos trucks.

The Texas plant's monthly manufacturing goal of 30,000 shells falls under a new push by the US Army to make 100,000 rounds a month by 2025.

Before the invasion of Ukraine, the US produced only 14,000 shells a month, but by the end of 2023, this had doubled to 28,000.

According to Ismay, the most updated production figures show that 36,000 shells are made monthly at two factories in Pennsylvania. The new facility at max capacity would bump total production to 66,000 shells a month for the US.

That might be two-thirds of the way to the US' 2025 goal but still pales to Russia's current production rate — underscoring a major advantage in artillery capacity for Moscow.

The Kremlin was estimated to be producing 250,000 shells a month, or 3 million a year, according to NATO assessments reported by CNN in March.

It is also unlikely that all of the forecast 100,000 monthly shells produced by the US would be reserved for Kyiv. Washington is also sending ammo to Israel, for example, and needs to think about replenishing its own stock.

NYT cited Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, saying: "Let's say a year and a half from now both the US and Europe are making, or buying, over a million shells each. That's still probably less than Russia is going to produce this year."

Kofman told the outlet that while the Mesquite plant would be important for long-term production, Russia would likely still be producing more ammo than the West even if the US hits its 2025 goal.

The US and Europe have sent Ukraine more than 3 million 155mm artillery shells since the war began. Ukraine has said the munitions are critical to its defense. Though Kyiv is burning through thousands of shells per day, Russia is estimated to be firing multiple times more shells back.

In March, the European Union earmarked another $2.15 billion to boost its production after only being able to supply about half of the 1 million 155mm rounds it promised to deliver by that month.

Meanwhile, the US Army said it would need some $3.1 billion to hit its 100,000-rounds-per-month goal and received $6 billion instead.

"So that, I think, is a vote of confidence as we make our way to 100,000 shells a month," said Doug Bush, the Army's top official for acquisitions, in March.

On Sunday, Sky News reported on a Bain & Company analysis that said Russia is on pace to manufacture about 4.5 million shells this year, at a cost of about $1,000 per round.

The US, on the other hand, spends about $3,000 to $4,000 to make a single 155mm round. With Washington and its allies expected to produce about 1.3 million rounds in 2024, that would be about a third of Russia's forecast capacity at triple the cost.

Press teams for the Pentagon and the US Army did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

• China is pushing yuan use globally to guard against potential Western sanctions.
• Beijing aims to reduce risks from sanctions in geopolitical tensions, like over Taiwan.
• But China's trade partners face challenges in using more yuan.

China is on a drive to expand the use of the yuan internationally. But Beijing's near-term intent is more about sanctions protection than currency dominance, according to a researcher.

"China's strategies to develop an alternative financial system are defensive rather than offensive — at least for now," wrote Zoe Liu, a fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, on Wednesday.

Beijing's goal now is to minimize any impact from potential sweeping sanctions from the West in "extreme geopolitical scenarios," such as a military conflict over Taiwan, which China claims as its territory, wrote Liu. Her post was published on the website of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, a London-based think tank.

"Expanding the use of the renminbi in trade is less challenging than increasing its status as an international reserve currency," Liu wrote.

Countries around the world have been diversifying their assets and chipping away at the dominance of the US dollar over fears that — like Russia — they could be shut out of the greenback-based world financial system should sanctions hit.

However, king dollar is so entrenched in the world's financial system that few really think it can be dethroned.

The yuan faces challenges in its globalization

While the US and China's strategic competition points to a possible race for currency supremacy, the Chinese yuan is far from ready — and even Beijing knows that.

An often-cited hurdle to the yuan's internationalization is China's use of capital controls to maintain financial stability. This means Beijing has control over how much foreign money can move in and out of China's economy, which in turn influences the foreign currency exchange rate.

However, capital controls are not necessarily a dealbreaker for the broader adoption of the yuan in trade, wrote Liu.

This is because China is already a top trading partner for over 120 countries. Furthermore, Chinese authorities are willing to facilitate exports by offering currency swaps and providing trade finance, Liu added.

However, the yuan's path to becoming an international reserve currency is fraught with obstacles because of other factors. They include the lack of risk-free yuan-denominated assets, the relatively closed nature of the Chinese financial market, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping's preference for one-man rule over the rule of law, Liu wrote.

Businesses have reservations about using the yuan

Recent data from China's central bank showed even Chinese businesses aren't that sold on the yuan, as they hold back on converting their foreign-exchange earnings into the Chinese currency.

This appears to be primarily due to the yuan's current weakness. It also shows it's not so easy to displace the mighty US dollar as the world's top reserve and trading currency of choice.

A recent global survey of 1,660 enterprises showed that there is just not enough interest in using the yuan to trade.

Conducted in March by China's Bank of Communications and Renmin University, about three-quarters of the survey's respondents were located in East Asia. Another one-fifth of respondents were from Southeast and Central Asia.

Half of the companies surveyed said the main stumbling block to wider use of the yuan was simply because their trading partners were not willing to use the currency.

About 64% of all respondents cited the "complexity of policies" as the main obstacle, while more than 40% of them cited other difficulties including barriers to capital flow.

• Two senior US officials told the NYT that Washington has sent plans for more than 1,000 weapons to Ukraine.
• The reported transfer comes amid a push from the West to help Ukraine boost its domestic weapons production.
• The officials declined to say which weapons plans were included, but left a clue, per the NYT.

The US has given Ukraine manufacturing plans for more than 1,000 American weapons in hopes of helping Kyiv bolster its own arms production, two officials told The New York Times.

The military officials told NYT's John Ismay of the transfer during a reporting visit to a new factory for Howitzer artillery shells near Dallas.

According to the NYT, these two officials were William A. LaPlante, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, and Douglas R. Bush, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology.

They told the outlet that the US has also translated technical manuals from English to Ukrainian but declined to say which weapons were involved, per NYT.

"What are they using the most?" Bush told Ismay.

Drones and artillery shells have been among the most prominently used weapons in the war, but neither official was reported to have given further information on the plans.

Their remarks came amid the opening of the $500 million Dallas plant, which is run by General Dynamics and aims to boost artillery shell production by another 30,000 155mm rounds a month.

The US has set a goal of producing 100,000 such shells a month by end-2025, after sending more than 3 million rounds together with its allies to Ukraine. Demand there for the ammo is pressing.

The US Army has said it would need about $3.1 billion to buy the rounds and expand production to achieve its ammunition goal. It's unlikely that all of these new rounds will be earmarked solely for Ukraine.

Before the Dallas plant was set up, the US was reported at the end of 2023 to be making about 28,000 Howitzer shells a month. NYT reported that production this month rose to about 36,000 shells without the new factory.

Meanwhile, Russia is estimated to be producing about 250,000 shells a month, according to NATO assessments reported by CNN in March.

Western countries are concerned by the rate at which Moscow has been able to rapidly expand and galvanize its defense manufacturing industry, with some think-tank estimates saying the Kremlin can sustain its high casualties in manpower and equipment for years.

Ukraine already needs more troops, and the US and Europe have been trying to shore up its military supplies.

The European Union promised in March to deliver 1 million more artillery shells to Kyiv over the next year. But with reports that it's only manufacturing about 30% of what's needed, some experts say Ukraine could eat up Europe's current entire annual production within two months.

Press teams for the US Army and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.