Home of Hip.

With artists and other style-setters flocking to Los Angeles, the city stands to be 2000's capital of cool

It's not hard to come up with scads of reasons why Los Angeles is a happening place right now.

Drag queen-extraordinaire RuPaul, a diehard New Yorker, just moved here. Born-and-bred Angeleno rocker Beck surely leads the world in magazine covers and copycat stoner bands. Raygun magazine is back - better, and far easier to read. Robertson Boulevard and Melrose Avenue near Beverly Hills are introducing local fashion mavens to some of the world's youngest and hippest designers.

On the Eastside, Sofia Coppola (now married to fellow hipster and director Spike Jonze) has livened up the fashion scene with her street-inspired Milkfed clothes.

The club scene is especially hot right now, with the Cherry dance club in Hollywood and Vibrator, a rock club with exotic dancers for trendy-not-sleazy types (an obvious paean to Jumbo's Clown Room, where Courtney Love got her start, as an exotic dancer).

But beyond people and places is a new passion for Los Angeles that goes beyond celebrity sightings, cool clubs of the month or even the best restaurants. It's a personal vision of a city that people find more manageable and lovable than ever.

"L.A. has gone from a beach bunny town to having real culture," says fashion designer Monah Li, who moved here 11 years ago from her native Austria. "I hadn't been to New York until last year, and I had really big expectations. All I can say is, all those super-cool stores there are boring."

Li argues that L.A.-area shops and designers are not only newer, fresher and more creative, but more supportive of each other. "We all go to each other's shows, and that's unheard of in New York," she says. When she goes out to eat, Li likes to stay in her own neighborhood, Los Feliz, and frequents Vermont and Fred 62 on Vermont Avenue.

Jeremy Strick, new director of the L.A. Museum of Contemporary Art, agrees that L.A. has become a kind of destination point for creative types. Strick came back to Los Angeles last year after spending 23 years in other cities, most recenfly Chicago.

"The position of artists and of culture has changed and grown here," Strick says. "Now, students want to study here, and graduates from other art schools outside of the city want to move here. It's become a place where they can (afford to) live, and where the most interesting work is being made."

L.A. also is developing a more refined sensibility toward its architecture. Just this month, the Getty Trust launched an initiative called "Preserve L.A.," under which it will grant money to help identify and restore local architectural treasures.

Developer Tom Gilmore, who was raised in New York, may best personify the sea change. His plans for breathing new life into long-vacant historic downtown bank buildings - by converting them into residential lofts - have garnered far more raves than snickers. What most people don't know is that he has two brothers back home in New York who are planning to move out here to open clubs and restaurants.

"The range of possibilities is actually diminishing there. L.A.'s diversity makes it better pickings," Gilmore says. "You can open a restaurant or club in Hollywood, or Culver City, or downtown, which is a whole other animal unto itself. The possibilities are endless."

What makes LA. the city of now? In many respects, it's the same stuff that has brought people out here for generations. "People come here to reinvent themselves," says Amy Inouye, an L.A.-lifer and graphic designer. "You can be whoever you want here."

That self-reinvention is made even easier by the fact that the families of many transplants don't follow them here, says Michael Kolasa, an ex-New Yorker and psychotherapist who lives and works in Beverly Hills.

"A lot of people are from back East and all their families are back there, and they've left all the craziness behind," Kolasa says. "You can experience family on your own terms when they're not knocking on your door."

Supposedly, 87 people a day move here from New York, according to the "Mad Monk's Guide to California." That certainly could be a factor contributing to L.A.'s elevated sense of art and culture.

The shifting attitudes are visible in the vibrancy of L.A.'s hip shopping and living environments - from Silver Lake to Venice to Atwater Village, to even Hollywood. All these areas are promoting promenades of sorts, much like Santa Monica and Larchmont Village have enjoyed for years, where people can live nearby, and walk to the local bar or newsstand - just like people do in other big cities.

And compared with other cultural metro areas, especially New York and San Francisco, L.A. remains relatively affordable.

"It's all about space," says artist Peter Shire, who works out of a vast studio in Echo Park and lives nearby. "I look for a place where I can put a table saw down. In New York, there's no place to put a table saw. When I go there, I see these artists who have 600-square-foot studios they're living in."

But what's still at the top of the list for a lot of people?

"Of course, it's the weather." Gilmore says. "Here Lam - it's 70 degrees, and I'm flying into New York tomorrow for Christmas, where they have a high of 28 degrees. LA. is such a livable city, where you can go club hopping on January 1 (and not wear a coat)."