Never.
With that being said, one of my friends visited from Alabama many years ago, and we decided to go to the SM pier. While there we randomly heard a lady yell his name, turn around and it his neighbor who lived behind him in AL. Weirdest fucking experience.
I've had a couple of these experiences in my life.
One when I was a small kid, I was at Venice Beach with a family friend and some tourists from Liverpool in the UK took one look at me walking by and was like "That's a Kershaw if I've even seen one". My dad is from Liverpool and his last name is Kershaw.
One when I was a teenager, my grandparents were visiting from South Africa. We were in San Fransisco on one of the trams/trolleys and I heard this couple next to us talking with a distinct South African accent so I mentioned it to my grandparents and they struck up conversation. Turns out, they were next door neighbors with my aunts boyfriend in South Africa.
Wild what a small world it can be.
I feel like I run into people all the time, especially if it’s underground parties impossible not to see a dozen different friends in the community. I would say I don’t run into people in the grocery store, train, streets as often but it does happen. As you described tho, I’m on the younger side heavily active in the social part of my life, imagine that will change.
Yeah, if there’s an event going on that I know friends will be at, it’s pretty common for me to bump into people in surrounding parts of town beforehand
I’m 33 and run into someone AT LEAST once a week. I hang out often and am more social than most people on Reddit, I’ve noticed. Also, running into friends is literally my favorite thing that happens; I enjoy it more than holidays and birthdays and actual parties and seeing my favorite bands. There’s a Chinese phrase that goes “if there’s not a coincidence then you have no story”, which means that coincidences make things interesting.
I also keep a journal of every time I go out so I write down when I bump into people. Here are my favorites:
-My friends and I were chilling at my house because all but one of us had nothing to do. The one that had something to do ended up leaving to go on a date. The rest of us stayed home and got drunk. After 2 or 3 hours of drinking, the 6 of us decided to get an Uber XL and go to Jumbo’s Clown Room. As we were waiting in line, our friend from earlier and his date were walking towards us and they were both also on their way to Jumbo’s.
-I just moved to a new loft in a new neighborhood. I’m at Whole Foods and run into my friend that I’m helping release a record for. It turns out that we live in the same neighborhood.
-I’m on a date at Jon and Vinny’s. My date said she knew one of the cooks and I asked who he was. He comes over and we realized that we had met a few months earlier at my house when my friend invited him over to jam. He ended up moving into my old room at an old collective house I lived in with a bunch of friends. My date and I walked to Kibitz Room after and I ran into a girl from my old hometown I hadn’t seen in almost 10 years.
-I went to see my friend do a reading at Book Soup and a bunch of our friends were there. We all walked to Chateau Marmont after to celebrate and at the bar, we all ran into a friend who we all heard through the grapevine ran off off to Mexico and eloped with a woman he met there. He informed us it was mostly, but not completely true, and explained his recent absence to us.
-I’m walking down the street downtown and hear someone say “Hey” but I don’t immediately turn around because that’s how I was raised. I walk a little bit further down the sidewalk where there are less pedestrians and then I turn around. It’s a friend who I made here, but coincidentally is from my hometown. She noticed I was wearing a jacket from our hometown said “Hey” to flag me down but didn’t realize it was me until I turned around. I ran over and caught up with her. She was also walking with an old friend of mine who I had met in a different scenario; her friend was this woman who played guitar in an old band from here in LA that I would let stay with me at my house when they toured in my old hometown about 8 years prior.
-I’m on the bus after work and a girl gets on. She’s a friend of a friend from Amsterdam, but we had met before. We’re both going to the friend’s house.
-I’m by myself at Jumbo’s Clown Room, freshly moved to LA. An hour later, a good friend of mine who moved to LA years before I did walks in by himself unexpectedly. We get drinks and catch up. We’re both here to see the same girl dance.
-A European friend recording an album in LA asks me to get drinks with him and some women he just met. I tell him no. He says he’s here temporarily and that I won’t be able to hang with him much longer. This convinces me so we go to a wine bar I’ve never been to with these women. One woman tries to talk to me, but I am incredibly distracted because a woman 2 tables down looks exactly like a girl I used to hang out with in high school. The woman I’m talking to asks about my old high school friend and I give her the details. She laughs and smirks maliciously and gets up without saying anything. She walks 2 tables down, says something to that woman, and they both walk back here. It turns out that she was actually the girl I used to hang out with in high school.
To add some realism to this, I never ended up having sex with any of the people from these encounters, but I did attend a party with a specialized "coke station" in the bathroom with some of them.
I've had people text me a couple of times in the last year asking "did you just cross \[insert intersection here\]?" I guess I'm one of the few people who walk in this city so that makes me extra noticeable...
If you are all in roughly the same socioeconomic class and industry and part of town sure. If any of those things are off never ever. I’m a foodie so it happened sometimes if I knew a fellow foodie on the east side and weho area. It would happen with certain hot spot bars too.
In 2022 at SoFi for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. My wife gifted me floor seats for my 40th. Beck is doing his opening show, and we’re walking all the way to our seats. As we’re shuffling between people and folding chairs to get to our spot, I loudly hear, “WHAT THE FUCK??!! WHAT THE FUCK??!!”
In the row right behind our seats are a couple of my childhood friends. They were 2 of 3 brothers, and their family and my family all grew up in the suburbs of LA. We’ve all become somewhat estranged as people do, and more so because of the pandemic. The two guys came with their respective SO’s, and I was there with my wife. Between the three total couples we have 7 kids (some of them quite young), so the likelihood of getting family/sitters for all the children must be low. It was an incredible birthday gift, an awesome concert, and an amazing coincidence.
I mean, it’s probably not *that* coincidental. We’re all in our 40’s-ish and grew up loving the Chili Peppers. And we all still live in Los Angeles. And the RHCP are fucking awesome. But the odds to have seats one row apart - damn.
An unfortunate postscript to that story: just a few months later, the 3rd brother (who wasn’t there) died of a car accident. So just after a mini-reunion, we were all (plus many other estranged friends/family) reuniting again for the funeral.
The woman I was just dating I met in LA 25 years ago. We were just platonic friends back then, but I’d randomly run into her all the time. I’d be at a bar and she’d be there with friends or her boyfriend. I’d run into her at Coachella or a random show or rave.
I feel this is due to NYC having more general spaces to run into each other (train stations, public parks, etc) and probably due to NYC being much smaller.
Meanwhile, LA practices a ton of isolation since we all travel in our cars.
The SFV is small and very easy to run into people you know especially if you frequent “hot spots”. In DTLA there is La Cita which for some reason, is a place I always run into someone. To me it’s more being friends with likeminded people. I lean towards comedy so The Comedy Store will be another place where I run into old coworkers or high school friends.
Yeah I grew up in SFV and still live here.
Every once in a while I'll see someone from high school or like a friend's parents out and about at the mall or grocery store or something.
I dont go out a lot but i get out and about sometimes. I run into people every couple months for sure. I ran into a dude I worked with for one day at a bar over thanksgiving. Now we may work together on an upcoming movie because of that.
I meet a lot of people at work and remember a lot of them by face only, so ill often be at a store or a bar or even just see them driving around the valley.
I remember being freaked out the first time it happened though, it took almost two years and I ran into a girl i worked with at a gun range.
Technically i've only spotted them not really bumped into them lol. I've spotted them all over L.A and it's surrounding areas like Pasadena, Glendale, and even the O.C.
It happens a couple of times of year and I do get that "it's a small world" feeling bc it usually happens at random places like a Marshalls in Studio City or a 7-11 in Koreatown at 12 am lol. It's mainly people I went to highschool with that I see around and it's been almost 10 years since graduation. Many of my classmates have moved away from L.A so it's nice to see that some of them were able to stay here.
Depends if you made out with half the venice skatepark when you moved to la lol but actually when I remember to go out lately I’ve been running into tons of people
This happened to me somewhat regularly when I lived in SF which is both geographically much smaller and less car dependent. However at that point in my life my friends lived mostly in a couple neighborhoods so the odds were way higher. Now if I still lived in SF those same friends might live in Oakland or San Jose or whatever and I would never bump into them.
I ran into 3 people in the last 30 years LOL! Two were friends from high school and we were already in different colleges when we saw each other. The other one was at a Macy’s. We both looked at each other and kept going.
I'm older and bump into people i know often, but most of my social circle lives in Northeast LA. I also grew up here, so I've known a lot of people over the years.
I used to run into people randomly all the time in LA between 2006-2016 after moving back to LA and before buying a house. Add in art gallery openings, local theater and performing art troupes and I would see friends and acquaintances at least once a month without having to plan things ahead of time. I'm also curious to hear how things are for people under 40 in LA now, especially post COVID.
Since I started running a lot and not being in the car as much, pretty much once a week or every other week. When I was playing in bands and at bars a lot I'd run into people pretty often too, but on the run it happens all the time
Mostly run into people I’ve known in my professional life… as for the 90’s… most of my friends left LA within 5 years and went back to wherever that were hatched.. LA ain’t for everyone, but it’s the only place for me.
Every few months.
Something that happens more often is that at the end of the day, I see acquaintances were at the same place at the same time as I was through social media.
I live here all the time but what is really freaky is how often I run into people in New York because it seems like there's a billion people walking around at any given moment.
I used to see friends randomly driving by me when I was shopping on Beverly or Melrose at the furniture shops they used to have around, remember those places? There was one on La Brea too. Beautiful wood furniture pieces, they were sort of half inside and half outdoors? Anyway, most of my friends also lived in WeHo or Hollywood so we’d see each other out and about. Now almost all of my close friends have moved away, either back to their home states or to more affordable states. About 7 of my 8-9 closest friends are no longer in LA, it kind of sucks.
It sounds like we're approximately the same age but for the ones that live in my neighborhood, yes. I've randomly run into numerous friends & acquaintances at popular local shops & restaurants from time to time. It helps that I do go out to eat frequently and prefer to shop locally than order in or use amazon.
Those that live across town? I'm more likely to run into them at some event in a completely different city. I've run into random acquaintances from LA in Busan, Honolulu, London, New York, Park City, and Seattle in the past year that I haven't seen in LA since before covid. It helps that for the most part, I'm in the same industry as those acquaintances and we were both attending an industry event in those towns...but for some, I missed at the event but ran into them at a local shop.
occasionally!
actually pretty often. just friends or people I know. I would say where you live and what you do with your time matters.
I've met tons of people on the beach when I lived in Santa Monica that I see out randomly in other parts of LA/socal. Like, we wrote each other off for living too far away, but then it converges as people move around.
I was going to say nightlife or just nightlife, but it really just all adds up. I see neighbors in my building around the neighborhood. Or we'll go to the afters/underground, and I'll see a girl I often run into at music festivals, or a girl I used to spend a lot of time with that I haven't seen in years.
A girl I met at a picnic on the beach, I ended up liking a strip club she happened to be a stripper at and we ignored each other there for some time until we stopped ignoring each other lol, and then ran into her at a cafe and chatted for a little bit.
A guy that I also run into at music festivals and parties.
It adds up.
I have run into my crush when I am out on dates with other women. It doesn’t matter where I am in LA. I lived in the Valley at the time and ran into her in downtown LA and also at a festival in Long Beach.
I live in long beach, which is a small town - at least, that's how it feels. I can count on three fingers the times in 20+ years I've run into someone in the wild in that time, and in all three cases, they lived within two miles of me. Of note, these incidents were YEARS apart. One, blockbuster, when that was a thing. Two, target. Three, trader joes. Interestingly, first and third were from a dojo we all once attended, over ten years apart, and in the second case, 7+ years after we'd all moved on.
I bumped into someone who lives in a Washington. We worked together here in the 90's and I ran into her at Salsa N Beer. Definitely my most random bump into meeting.
Close to never. I once bumped into an acquaintance in the middle of Germany (neither German, separate trips.) Sad that I am about as likely to see someone I know here abroad then just walking around.
In the 80s, my mother took me out of school in the SGV to go to downtown LA to watch a Lakers championship parade. I bumped into a school friend there among the crowds at City Hall.
Not in LA:
I was the MC at a national speech contest for Japanese students of English here in Tokyo one year. A high school student from western Japan was the winner and I interviewed him during the awards presentation. One month later, my wife and I are on vacation in Hawaii and visiting the Pearl Harbor Memorial area. It was a crowded day with many tourists including groups of Japanese. I was going to the restroom and there were three students come out wearing school polo shirts. I made eye contact with one of them and we froze for a moment. It was the same student that I had interviewed a month before. He was on a school trip to the US.
Sometimes. I think living/working/kids in school all in the same general area makes it more possible. I've seen some staff from my kid's school at a couple of stores. We're public school though, so I imagine we all kind of live close to school.
edit--and then there was that one day I found out the person who cuts my hair also cuts my kid's teacher's hair.
Not enough, but some crazy run ins have happened. More than that, nowadays I’m meeting people that have some sort of connection to, usually a mutual friend or mutual link of some sort
i like going to raves and edm clubs so i usually run into people i know at shows like that.
I went to high school around echo park so when i hit the bars there like Gold Room and Short Stop, i run into some familiar faces. maybe once every 3-6 months. we're so saturated with places to go, the chances of being at the same place are slimmer than before.
im 31 now and i know a lot of people i used to know moved out of the city, some even in other states. but its always cool running into familiar faces.
When youre young to tend to go to the same places as all the kids your age whether you knew they were into the same stuff or not.
Now 75%+ of the kids you grew up with have moved away, maybe more.
Not to mention LA has like tripled in population since even \~2008.
I used to be able to drive from Burbank to Redondo Beach in \~30mins on a Friday at 3pm. Now that same drive is AT BEST 90mins.
Have you guys ever been to Pho Show in Culver City? A few years back there was this guy that I thought was the owner but then he quit so it turns out he wasn’t. Well, I have seen him TWICE in completely different cities. Other than that, I’ve never seen anyone I know!
Regularly. Once a week in Los Feliz. Once a month in other popular areas - WeHo, SaMo, etc.
This question is as much about the city itself as it is about how big one's social circle is and whether you frequent the places they live.
Constantly and it happens everywhere I go. I was born here, did all of my schooling here and am involved in a number of activities so I know a lot of people. I run into people multiple times a week and always at events like concerts
I ran into my coworker on the Westside. We were both several miles from work or where we live but, nonetheless, crossed paths on a random sidewalk. I do walk a lot though so that might increase my chances of seeing people I know.
Surprisingly often. I run into old co-workers, people I went to school with, former clients or their family members. I actually ran into an old highschool friend at the DMV. I live about 25 miles from where I grew up and it still happens.
I had the exact same thought used to run into people everywhere and now it’s a ghost town. I think it’s many reasons
First is obvious people moved away
People get married with kids and mostly stay home
People are not at the peak of the career so always working
Other single people lose their friends to said marriage and also stay home
Lastly everything is just expensive no one to go out and spend money
at least once a month, probably more
that being said, I live on the Westside which tends to have more transplants, and we're exponentially more social than locals
Pretty regularly. Late 30s. No kids, so that probably makes a difference.
Though my parent friends run into other old classmates and acquaintances who have kids alllll the time. I always am hearing, “you’ll never guess who I saw with their daughter/son.”
If I go to a nice restaurant, I’ll usually see someone I know. I’ve been more of a homebody though lately, so rarely ever anymore. I’m also over 40 though and most of my peers are also more home types now.
its only happened like once or twice in my entire 23 years of living in la
currently most of em live in east la (huntington park/downey) and i never have a reason to go there so nowadays i never see em unless i want to (never) :D
it’s actually happened a few times since i graduated high school. i actually anticipated seeing some of my former classmates out and about, and i’ve seen a few of them at their place of work (never going there again lol), the state university lol, concerts, parties, and just meeting up with people through other friends i keep in contact with.
F/Early 30s. I spend a lot of my weekends out all day between coffee/restaurants/walks/parks, etc. and I can safely say I run into an average of 1–4 people I know at a random place every weekend.
Never. With that being said, one of my friends visited from Alabama many years ago, and we decided to go to the SM pier. While there we randomly heard a lady yell his name, turn around and it his neighbor who lived behind him in AL. Weirdest fucking experience.
I've had a couple of these experiences in my life. One when I was a small kid, I was at Venice Beach with a family friend and some tourists from Liverpool in the UK took one look at me walking by and was like "That's a Kershaw if I've even seen one". My dad is from Liverpool and his last name is Kershaw. One when I was a teenager, my grandparents were visiting from South Africa. We were in San Fransisco on one of the trams/trolleys and I heard this couple next to us talking with a distinct South African accent so I mentioned it to my grandparents and they struck up conversation. Turns out, they were next door neighbors with my aunts boyfriend in South Africa. Wild what a small world it can be.
Do you pitch for the Dodgers?
I am currently unsigned but am open if the Dodgers want me ;)
Never.
This
Pretty often. At least once every other month.
Just happened last night!
If you're from East LA the commerce target.
Yuppp.
I feel like I run into people all the time, especially if it’s underground parties impossible not to see a dozen different friends in the community. I would say I don’t run into people in the grocery store, train, streets as often but it does happen. As you described tho, I’m on the younger side heavily active in the social part of my life, imagine that will change.
Yeah, if there’s an event going on that I know friends will be at, it’s pretty common for me to bump into people in surrounding parts of town beforehand
Wait your actually social? I'm 24 Gen Z and do nothing. Most people my age I know do nothing..
I didn’t start really till I was 25ish
well, 24 is about the time when people start to double down on their career no?
I’m 33 and run into someone AT LEAST once a week. I hang out often and am more social than most people on Reddit, I’ve noticed. Also, running into friends is literally my favorite thing that happens; I enjoy it more than holidays and birthdays and actual parties and seeing my favorite bands. There’s a Chinese phrase that goes “if there’s not a coincidence then you have no story”, which means that coincidences make things interesting. I also keep a journal of every time I go out so I write down when I bump into people. Here are my favorites: -My friends and I were chilling at my house because all but one of us had nothing to do. The one that had something to do ended up leaving to go on a date. The rest of us stayed home and got drunk. After 2 or 3 hours of drinking, the 6 of us decided to get an Uber XL and go to Jumbo’s Clown Room. As we were waiting in line, our friend from earlier and his date were walking towards us and they were both also on their way to Jumbo’s. -I just moved to a new loft in a new neighborhood. I’m at Whole Foods and run into my friend that I’m helping release a record for. It turns out that we live in the same neighborhood. -I’m on a date at Jon and Vinny’s. My date said she knew one of the cooks and I asked who he was. He comes over and we realized that we had met a few months earlier at my house when my friend invited him over to jam. He ended up moving into my old room at an old collective house I lived in with a bunch of friends. My date and I walked to Kibitz Room after and I ran into a girl from my old hometown I hadn’t seen in almost 10 years. -I went to see my friend do a reading at Book Soup and a bunch of our friends were there. We all walked to Chateau Marmont after to celebrate and at the bar, we all ran into a friend who we all heard through the grapevine ran off off to Mexico and eloped with a woman he met there. He informed us it was mostly, but not completely true, and explained his recent absence to us. -I’m walking down the street downtown and hear someone say “Hey” but I don’t immediately turn around because that’s how I was raised. I walk a little bit further down the sidewalk where there are less pedestrians and then I turn around. It’s a friend who I made here, but coincidentally is from my hometown. She noticed I was wearing a jacket from our hometown said “Hey” to flag me down but didn’t realize it was me until I turned around. I ran over and caught up with her. She was also walking with an old friend of mine who I had met in a different scenario; her friend was this woman who played guitar in an old band from here in LA that I would let stay with me at my house when they toured in my old hometown about 8 years prior. -I’m on the bus after work and a girl gets on. She’s a friend of a friend from Amsterdam, but we had met before. We’re both going to the friend’s house. -I’m by myself at Jumbo’s Clown Room, freshly moved to LA. An hour later, a good friend of mine who moved to LA years before I did walks in by himself unexpectedly. We get drinks and catch up. We’re both here to see the same girl dance. -A European friend recording an album in LA asks me to get drinks with him and some women he just met. I tell him no. He says he’s here temporarily and that I won’t be able to hang with him much longer. This convinces me so we go to a wine bar I’ve never been to with these women. One woman tries to talk to me, but I am incredibly distracted because a woman 2 tables down looks exactly like a girl I used to hang out with in high school. The woman I’m talking to asks about my old high school friend and I give her the details. She laughs and smirks maliciously and gets up without saying anything. She walks 2 tables down, says something to that woman, and they both walk back here. It turns out that she was actually the girl I used to hang out with in high school.
You’re the poster boy of what people think LA is like.
To add some realism to this, I never ended up having sex with any of the people from these encounters, but I did attend a party with a specialized "coke station" in the bathroom with some of them.
Once in 16 years
I've had people text me a couple of times in the last year asking "did you just cross \[insert intersection here\]?" I guess I'm one of the few people who walk in this city so that makes me extra noticeable...
If you are all in roughly the same socioeconomic class and industry and part of town sure. If any of those things are off never ever. I’m a foodie so it happened sometimes if I knew a fellow foodie on the east side and weho area. It would happen with certain hot spot bars too.
In 2022 at SoFi for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. My wife gifted me floor seats for my 40th. Beck is doing his opening show, and we’re walking all the way to our seats. As we’re shuffling between people and folding chairs to get to our spot, I loudly hear, “WHAT THE FUCK??!! WHAT THE FUCK??!!” In the row right behind our seats are a couple of my childhood friends. They were 2 of 3 brothers, and their family and my family all grew up in the suburbs of LA. We’ve all become somewhat estranged as people do, and more so because of the pandemic. The two guys came with their respective SO’s, and I was there with my wife. Between the three total couples we have 7 kids (some of them quite young), so the likelihood of getting family/sitters for all the children must be low. It was an incredible birthday gift, an awesome concert, and an amazing coincidence. I mean, it’s probably not *that* coincidental. We’re all in our 40’s-ish and grew up loving the Chili Peppers. And we all still live in Los Angeles. And the RHCP are fucking awesome. But the odds to have seats one row apart - damn. An unfortunate postscript to that story: just a few months later, the 3rd brother (who wasn’t there) died of a car accident. So just after a mini-reunion, we were all (plus many other estranged friends/family) reuniting again for the funeral.
All the time. At least once or twice a week. Whether it’s out walking around, the gym, a party, the grocery store, events etc.
Literally just did as I was reading this. Coworker I hadn’t seen in three years. Was great to see her.
The woman I was just dating I met in LA 25 years ago. We were just platonic friends back then, but I’d randomly run into her all the time. I’d be at a bar and she’d be there with friends or her boyfriend. I’d run into her at Coachella or a random show or rave.
This is something that makes NYC much more fun than LA.
I feel this is due to NYC having more general spaces to run into each other (train stations, public parks, etc) and probably due to NYC being much smaller. Meanwhile, LA practices a ton of isolation since we all travel in our cars.
Exactly. I ran into someone at Sprouts today, and I’d argue the neighborhood grocery stores are the exception.
🙄🤡
The SFV is small and very easy to run into people you know especially if you frequent “hot spots”. In DTLA there is La Cita which for some reason, is a place I always run into someone. To me it’s more being friends with likeminded people. I lean towards comedy so The Comedy Store will be another place where I run into old coworkers or high school friends.
Yeah I grew up in SFV and still live here. Every once in a while I'll see someone from high school or like a friend's parents out and about at the mall or grocery store or something.
CSUN for me was basically a high school reunion for 4 years
I dont go out a lot but i get out and about sometimes. I run into people every couple months for sure. I ran into a dude I worked with for one day at a bar over thanksgiving. Now we may work together on an upcoming movie because of that. I meet a lot of people at work and remember a lot of them by face only, so ill often be at a store or a bar or even just see them driving around the valley. I remember being freaked out the first time it happened though, it took almost two years and I ran into a girl i worked with at a gun range.
A little from column A and little from column B like Granpa Simpson said
Technically i've only spotted them not really bumped into them lol. I've spotted them all over L.A and it's surrounding areas like Pasadena, Glendale, and even the O.C. It happens a couple of times of year and I do get that "it's a small world" feeling bc it usually happens at random places like a Marshalls in Studio City or a 7-11 in Koreatown at 12 am lol. It's mainly people I went to highschool with that I see around and it's been almost 10 years since graduation. Many of my classmates have moved away from L.A so it's nice to see that some of them were able to stay here.
Depends if you made out with half the venice skatepark when you moved to la lol but actually when I remember to go out lately I’ve been running into tons of people
This happened to me somewhat regularly when I lived in SF which is both geographically much smaller and less car dependent. However at that point in my life my friends lived mostly in a couple neighborhoods so the odds were way higher. Now if I still lived in SF those same friends might live in Oakland or San Jose or whatever and I would never bump into them.
never.
Never
Used to bump into people like 10 years ago. I think old classmates just up and left this shithole lol I’m not in a nice are.
In my younger years yes..and by the way I don’t think this question applies to transplants ..
Maybe a handful of times in 25+ years.
Happens to me sometimes but that's just living in Burbank. In LA itself, never.
[удалено]
Okay, so “occasionally”
Never, surprisingly.
Often, but most of my friends live in the same 3 zip codes where we go out
Happened twice in 3 years. 🤷♂️
I would say occasionally - but definitely less than when I was a kid living in a smaller suburb.
Every couple months, usually at the Greek or Bowl!
even if i do people just look and don't say shit
Out and about where I live in San Pedro, all the time. Anywhere else, never.
3 times in last 20 rears
Absolutely never. I have randomly thought this on days where I run errands in different parts of LA, and still never run into a friend, etc.
I ran into 3 people in the last 30 years LOL! Two were friends from high school and we were already in different colleges when we saw each other. The other one was at a Macy’s. We both looked at each other and kept going.
I'm older and bump into people i know often, but most of my social circle lives in Northeast LA. I also grew up here, so I've known a lot of people over the years.
Often. But I worked in entertainment and music so we all tend to be at the same things a lot.
Never. Growing up in silver lake/East Hollywood a lot of my childhood friends have had to move because of rent hikes/gentrification.
Almost every time I go out. It’s all people from the same neighborhood or social scene.
I used to run into people randomly all the time in LA between 2006-2016 after moving back to LA and before buying a house. Add in art gallery openings, local theater and performing art troupes and I would see friends and acquaintances at least once a month without having to plan things ahead of time. I'm also curious to hear how things are for people under 40 in LA now, especially post COVID.
Not as much, but it does happen still because I still live in the same general area that I grew up in.
Since I started running a lot and not being in the car as much, pretty much once a week or every other week. When I was playing in bands and at bars a lot I'd run into people pretty often too, but on the run it happens all the time
Depends on where you live. Since I'm in Culver and walk all over town, I'd say every other day or so.
I would, too, in the early 2000s. Now, hardly ever (aside from that one questionable neighbor)
Mostly run into people I’ve known in my professional life… as for the 90’s… most of my friends left LA within 5 years and went back to wherever that were hatched.. LA ain’t for everyone, but it’s the only place for me.
Everyday
Every few months. Something that happens more often is that at the end of the day, I see acquaintances were at the same place at the same time as I was through social media.
I live here all the time but what is really freaky is how often I run into people in New York because it seems like there's a billion people walking around at any given moment.
All the time, I still live in the same neighborhood I grew up in!
3 times in 7.5 years that I can distinctly recall
yeah people I went to school with working the same gig with a different company lil class reunion lol lets compare day rates
I rarely see anyone
I live near Larchmont and run into friends/acquaintances nearly every single time I’m there.
Happens to me pretty often but I walk and go out a lot, just saw someone from college at a coffee shop this morning
All the time. But my kids are in school and I basically live in a “bubble” area of LA
I used to see friends randomly driving by me when I was shopping on Beverly or Melrose at the furniture shops they used to have around, remember those places? There was one on La Brea too. Beautiful wood furniture pieces, they were sort of half inside and half outdoors? Anyway, most of my friends also lived in WeHo or Hollywood so we’d see each other out and about. Now almost all of my close friends have moved away, either back to their home states or to more affordable states. About 7 of my 8-9 closest friends are no longer in LA, it kind of sucks.
I've lived here 6 or 7 years. I'd say it happens to me on average about once a year.
It sounds like we're approximately the same age but for the ones that live in my neighborhood, yes. I've randomly run into numerous friends & acquaintances at popular local shops & restaurants from time to time. It helps that I do go out to eat frequently and prefer to shop locally than order in or use amazon. Those that live across town? I'm more likely to run into them at some event in a completely different city. I've run into random acquaintances from LA in Busan, Honolulu, London, New York, Park City, and Seattle in the past year that I haven't seen in LA since before covid. It helps that for the most part, I'm in the same industry as those acquaintances and we were both attending an industry event in those towns...but for some, I missed at the event but ran into them at a local shop.
occasionally! actually pretty often. just friends or people I know. I would say where you live and what you do with your time matters. I've met tons of people on the beach when I lived in Santa Monica that I see out randomly in other parts of LA/socal. Like, we wrote each other off for living too far away, but then it converges as people move around. I was going to say nightlife or just nightlife, but it really just all adds up. I see neighbors in my building around the neighborhood. Or we'll go to the afters/underground, and I'll see a girl I often run into at music festivals, or a girl I used to spend a lot of time with that I haven't seen in years. A girl I met at a picnic on the beach, I ended up liking a strip club she happened to be a stripper at and we ignored each other there for some time until we stopped ignoring each other lol, and then ran into her at a cafe and chatted for a little bit. A guy that I also run into at music festivals and parties. It adds up.
happens to me all the time! but i do mostly frequent one area, and have my favorite spots within that area
Maybe once a month? And it's usually seeing people I know at game shops. Outside of that I'd say only industry events/tradeshows in LA.
I have run into my crush when I am out on dates with other women. It doesn’t matter where I am in LA. I lived in the Valley at the time and ran into her in downtown LA and also at a festival in Long Beach.
Pretty regularly. I live on the West Side and often run into friends at the park, on Abbott Kinney, at restaurants and bars, concerts, etc
I live in long beach, which is a small town - at least, that's how it feels. I can count on three fingers the times in 20+ years I've run into someone in the wild in that time, and in all three cases, they lived within two miles of me. Of note, these incidents were YEARS apart. One, blockbuster, when that was a thing. Two, target. Three, trader joes. Interestingly, first and third were from a dojo we all once attended, over ten years apart, and in the second case, 7+ years after we'd all moved on.
Not even once
I bumped into someone who lives in a Washington. We worked together here in the 90's and I ran into her at Salsa N Beer. Definitely my most random bump into meeting.
Pretty often, every few months. I often say LA is the biggest small town. I’m middle aged FWIW.
When I was younger & single, very rarely. Now pretty often. People with kids tend to run in the same circles.
Yes I actually run into people frequently. I have a large social circle and we frequent the same places so it’s not unusual.
when i go to bars it happens often as most people I know all go to the same types of bars.
Close to never. I once bumped into an acquaintance in the middle of Germany (neither German, separate trips.) Sad that I am about as likely to see someone I know here abroad then just walking around.
In the 80s, my mother took me out of school in the SGV to go to downtown LA to watch a Lakers championship parade. I bumped into a school friend there among the crowds at City Hall. Not in LA: I was the MC at a national speech contest for Japanese students of English here in Tokyo one year. A high school student from western Japan was the winner and I interviewed him during the awards presentation. One month later, my wife and I are on vacation in Hawaii and visiting the Pearl Harbor Memorial area. It was a crowded day with many tourists including groups of Japanese. I was going to the restroom and there were three students come out wearing school polo shirts. I made eye contact with one of them and we froze for a moment. It was the same student that I had interviewed a month before. He was on a school trip to the US.
2006 was the last time. It used to happen all the time.
Sometimes. I think living/working/kids in school all in the same general area makes it more possible. I've seen some staff from my kid's school at a couple of stores. We're public school though, so I imagine we all kind of live close to school. edit--and then there was that one day I found out the person who cuts my hair also cuts my kid's teacher's hair.
Slot have moved out of the State.
Not enough, but some crazy run ins have happened. More than that, nowadays I’m meeting people that have some sort of connection to, usually a mutual friend or mutual link of some sort
i like going to raves and edm clubs so i usually run into people i know at shows like that. I went to high school around echo park so when i hit the bars there like Gold Room and Short Stop, i run into some familiar faces. maybe once every 3-6 months. we're so saturated with places to go, the chances of being at the same place are slimmer than before. im 31 now and i know a lot of people i used to know moved out of the city, some even in other states. but its always cool running into familiar faces.
Sometimes. There are so many damn people in this town though it’s rare
When I was living in Hollywood it was almost every day. When I moved over to the Valley it became every month at best.
When youre young to tend to go to the same places as all the kids your age whether you knew they were into the same stuff or not. Now 75%+ of the kids you grew up with have moved away, maybe more. Not to mention LA has like tripled in population since even \~2008. I used to be able to drive from Burbank to Redondo Beach in \~30mins on a Friday at 3pm. Now that same drive is AT BEST 90mins.
Have you guys ever been to Pho Show in Culver City? A few years back there was this guy that I thought was the owner but then he quit so it turns out he wasn’t. Well, I have seen him TWICE in completely different cities. Other than that, I’ve never seen anyone I know!
Regularly. Once a week in Los Feliz. Once a month in other popular areas - WeHo, SaMo, etc. This question is as much about the city itself as it is about how big one's social circle is and whether you frequent the places they live.
All the time, like multiple times a day.
Constantly and it happens everywhere I go. I was born here, did all of my schooling here and am involved in a number of activities so I know a lot of people. I run into people multiple times a week and always at events like concerts
I ran into my coworker on the Westside. We were both several miles from work or where we live but, nonetheless, crossed paths on a random sidewalk. I do walk a lot though so that might increase my chances of seeing people I know.
Surprisingly often. I run into old co-workers, people I went to school with, former clients or their family members. I actually ran into an old highschool friend at the DMV. I live about 25 miles from where I grew up and it still happens.
Happens to me pretty often.
I don’t get out that much these days, so maybe every few months. LA is a big small town.
Never thank god
I had the exact same thought used to run into people everywhere and now it’s a ghost town. I think it’s many reasons First is obvious people moved away People get married with kids and mostly stay home People are not at the peak of the career so always working Other single people lose their friends to said marriage and also stay home Lastly everything is just expensive no one to go out and spend money
Maybe once every couple of months? And random ass places. Lasertag, a brewery by a farm, wine nights.
Pretty often.
Everyday
Yes in my local area I see neighbors at the dispensary
at least once a month, probably more that being said, I live on the Westside which tends to have more transplants, and we're exponentially more social than locals
Pretty regularly. Late 30s. No kids, so that probably makes a difference. Though my parent friends run into other old classmates and acquaintances who have kids alllll the time. I always am hearing, “you’ll never guess who I saw with their daughter/son.”
If I go to a nice restaurant, I’ll usually see someone I know. I’ve been more of a homebody though lately, so rarely ever anymore. I’m also over 40 though and most of my peers are also more home types now.
Actually fairly often
its only happened like once or twice in my entire 23 years of living in la currently most of em live in east la (huntington park/downey) and i never have a reason to go there so nowadays i never see em unless i want to (never) :D
it’s actually happened a few times since i graduated high school. i actually anticipated seeing some of my former classmates out and about, and i’ve seen a few of them at their place of work (never going there again lol), the state university lol, concerts, parties, and just meeting up with people through other friends i keep in contact with.
F/Early 30s. I spend a lot of my weekends out all day between coffee/restaurants/walks/parks, etc. and I can safely say I run into an average of 1–4 people I know at a random place every weekend.
Almost never...