Quote:
Originally Posted by sopas ej
I fully agree with you on Orange County and the Inland Empire being the suburbs, no doubt about that.
But I wouldn't say that all areas north of the 10, south of the hills/mountains and west of the LA river are urban, or have an "urban" form in that American sense.
Pico, Olympic, Washington Boulevards... west of downtown, I see nothing "urban" about them at all; actually quite suburban, just miles of extended storefronts, punctuated with some mini-malls, and maybe a few highrises, with many single family homes or small apartment buildings on the side streets. I wouldn't doubt these streets decades ago gave LA that nickname of "100 (or whatever number) suburbs in search of a city." Melrose Avenue is definitely not an "urban" street in terms of how people on these boards define "urban."
Much of the San Fernando Valley, particularly the older parts, look like they could be parts of Washington and Venice Boulevards; so why would those Valley thoroughfares be "suburban" but Washington and Pico Boulevards are somehow more urban?
LA definitely is its own unique animal. Hard to define in terms of "suburban" vs. "city."
In my experiences in other metro areas, like Chicago, you can definitely tell where the city ends and where the suburbs begin. And Chicago suburbs, to me, even feel semi-rural. LA suburbs somehow seem more populated and busy and crowded, and even look somehow denser than Chicago suburbs. I know someone who lives in a place called Mt. Prospect; it's a suburb of Chicago, but it felt like and looked like its very own small town.
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I get what you're saying, and I actually mentioned that in my original post but it was too long so I edited it out.
Yeah my outline covers a large area, but to put it in perspective,
Where's most of LAs touristy spots ? within my outline
Where's LAs densest neighborhoods ? within my outline
Where's most of LAs nightlife ? within my outline
Where's the highest concentration of jobs ? within my outline
Where's all of LAs current rail and proposed rail lines geared/heading towards? within my outline
Where's most of LAs hustle and bustle "closest to 24hr living" ? within that outline
The only reason why I didn't include Long Beach, Glendale, Burbank, LAX(hotel row and El Segundo towers),Torrance and etc within that outline is because each Is deserving of being their own economic centers.
I'm not calling each of those cities "suburbs" but what I'm saying is, my outline is the center of LA county and where everyone finds themselves heading (tourists and citizens alike). Long Beach, Glendale, Burbank and etc. are nodal centers that have their own thing going on.
When most people in LA county say they are heading "downtown" or "to the city" or "out for the night" they aren't talking about long beach, they aren't talking about Glendale or Burbank. They are talking about downtown, Hollywood, west Hollywood, century city, Wilshire corridor, santa monica and etc. (everything within my outline)
The question wasn't whats dense and whats not. it was basically asking wheres the outline of your urban core (city Center) and suburbia. And as I said before, LA has more than one, but the most centrally located area that everyone flocks to is the area I outlined.