What’s your historical Los Angeles and New York City connection?
I was raised in Fort Greene, Brooklyn as a third generation, first born daughter.  When I was 17, I met my boyfriend and we were together for 3.5 years long distance. As he wanted to be a screenwriter in 2006 after college, he moved to Los Angeles and asked that I join him.  The biggest hurdle for me was the car debacle–I bought a used honda in Yonkers with my bat mitzvah money from when I was 13.  I was moving to a place that was antithetical to everything I believed, starting a 2 car household, and Silver Lake, arugably the Williamsburg of LA would prove to be my new home.

On Los Angeles
Honestly–I thought New Yorkers were better people because we suffered through the seasons.  Now, I believe I’m a better person for not only having lived in New York.  In truth–our quality of life in LA is amazing for where we (my husband and I) are in our lives and careers.  

When moving to LA, it’s really easy to land in a place like West Hollywood and not explore.  Hard work getting to know LA as a city really pays off!  1) You always have to have a destination.  2) Curate the people and sources of information who you surround yourself with and 3) cultivate yourself as one of those types of people in order to get your best out of LA.

On your favorite street in NYC
Clinton Hill is my platonic ideal of a neighborhood–the way gentrification has happened in a relatively organic and non-disruptive way is really interesting, and people who live there are happy! It was a food desert when I was growing up, but look at it now.

On your favorite street in LA
It’s definitely Myra off of Santa Monica near Sunset Junction.  It’s one of those gems nestled between a really nice neighborhood and shitty one, and around the corner from a commercial strip.

What’s your role at Tumblr and how did you get there?
I’m the first west coast employee, with my focus being causes and politics.  I’m in charge of outreach and on boarding for those communities with an emphasis on partnerships and strategy, including our work for internet freedom and voter rights.

Before Tumblr, I did similar work at MySpace, and then when we got acquired by NewsCorp, I worked on the company’s environmental sustainability after having grown the climate change community, IMPACT on MySpace.  I lived in London for a bit, and also was involved in the big Copenhagen negotiations a few years ago.  Now, I get to focus on the areas on which I’m passionate and live in LA, all while working for a cool tech startup and platform full of creative people

From the 2462 Miles newsletter: connecting NEW YORK CITY + LOS ANGELES