[hipster duck]

My favourite parts of Los Angeles are the historic, Beaux-Arts commercial blocks of DTLA, the residential streets in the hills of Silver Lake and the stretch of Venice around Abbott Kinney. I also like the area around Fairfax/Melrose, the Mediterranean flora along the residential side streets, and the early 20th century bungalow architecture. Oh, and the art deco jewels that pop up every now and then.

On an American urbanity scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is exurban sprawl and 10 is the Lower East Side, a good chunk of LA sits at about a 6. Certainly the best parts of San Francisco, Chicago or Boston are better, but the area covered by this 6/10 urbanism is far larger than any American city except New York.