OS ANGELES, Sept. 26 — This city's attitudes toward New York were always a cocktail of sweet and sour ambivalence, blending braggadocio, competitive pride and cool indifference, with a twist of culture envy.

But watching the terrorism crisis unfold has cut through all that like no other event. Los Angeles has been riveted by what is going on in New York, and the usual emotional divide has been bridged, replaced with elemental anxieties: fear, empathy and even a touch of guilt.

Greatest of all is the fear, perhaps particularly palpable here because Los Angeles was the target of a foiled bombing plot two years ago and there have been warnings that it might be a target again.

In addition, three of the four jetliners hijacked on Sept. 11 had been headed for Los Angeles, and so some of those killed were residents of the area. That has added to a bond of grief with victims' families in New York, Washington and elsewhere.

"Two things made it real for people here, I think," said Stewart Kwoh, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California. "There was the indiscriminate nature of the killing, which means anyone could have been affected. And I think everyone realizes it could happen here. It almost did happen here."

Mr. Kwoh was referring to the 1999 arrest of an Algerian man later convicted of planning a major attack on Los Angeles International Airport at the millennium.

Terrorists "missed doing the damage they wanted at the World Trade Center the first time, and they went back," said Victor Hwang, chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance, a trade group.

"They also tried before to hit LAX and they missed; these guys are pretty stubborn," said Mr. Hwang, whose wife has insisted he not go near the airport.

Just last week the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned movie studios that they might be the target of a new bombing plot. The studios have tightened security at their many gates and have closed some, causing long lines of Range Rovers and Mercedes-Benzes. One result is that meetings that would have been conducted in sunny conference rooms over bottled European mineral water are now being held by telephone. In addition, movie executives have said they are postponing or canceling projects requiring extensive travel.

At Elixir, an exotic tea and herbal remedy bar on Melrose Avenue that is popular among celebrities, Jeff Stein, a co-owner, said the number of customers getting tarot cards read by a medium who works there had jumped since the attacks.

"There is an enormous amount of fear and apprehension about what might be coming next," Mr. Stein said. "People feel a real pride in New York now, but they also feel drained and just scared."

At least in some circles, there have also been vague feelings of guilt stemming from a perception that the entertainment industry has produced too much superficial fare and may have undermined the country's sense of purpose and vigilance.

"There is a feeling among people in show business that we contributed to a culture that let its guard down," said Chris Carter, the creator and executive producer of the popular television show "The X-Files."

Michael Tollin, a producer of the movie "Hardball" and of television shows like "All That" and "Smallville," a fall program about the young Clark Kent, said the prominence of Hollywood and resentment around the world over its products could well make this city a target.

"I think people are freaked by the threat," Mr. Tollin said. "Look, what is our biggest export? Movies and entertainment. We're the ones accused of cultural imperialism, so arguably we make a strong target. And people know that."

Still, Angelenos have expressed an unusual sense of unity. They have placed flags on thousands of their beloved automobiles, firemen have stood at street corners collecting money in their boots for the families of victims, and, most conspicuously, Hollywood celebrities have turned out in large numbers to perform at fund-raisers.

There is also still a touch of envy, some here say — not of the tragedy itself, of course, but of the kind of civic backbone New York has demonstrated. Los Angeles endured three disasters in the last decade — the rioting in 1992, a series of fires and floods the next year and the Northridge earthquake in 1994. Each time the city came together to rebuild, but many leaders acknowledge that the efforts were erratic at times and relatively short-lived.

"We've always been centerless, and that affects us a lot," said Linda Griego, a former deputy mayor and onetime head of Rebuild L.A., which helped in post-riot recovery. "People need to work a lot more to come together here, so it doesn't happen very often. You don't have that in New York. There's a spirit that just seems deeper, especially now."

Others said the relative youth of Los Angeles, a central fact in its self- image, had come to feel a little like a liability.

"Our civic maturity is a long way off still," said the state's librarian, Kevin Starr, the author of numerous books on the region. "We have a civic culture here, but it is very thin. We can come together, as I think we have now, but it dissipates very quickly. It is so obvious watching this that New York is different."