Quote:
Originally Posted by Quixote
I don't agree with your observations.
Just about every major metro is "multinodal" to some degree (when will people actually come to this realization?); Miami-Dade County doesn't strike me as a stand-out metro in that regard. LA also isn't a true beach town even though it's been endlessly depicted as such in film and television. And LA's Latino culture is mostly Mexican/Central American, while Miami's is more Caribbean/South American. Warm-weather climate? There's a big difference between Mediterranean/dry and tropical/humid. Miami gets a ton of rainfall each year, while it "never rains in LA." One city has to deal with earthquakes/wildfires and the other hurricanes/floods.
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Well, you pretty much shared some similarities already, despite them being general. Miami isn't a beach town either, and I was referring to the metros themselves in terms of their coastal beach towns ( Santa Monica/ South Beach) vs their more inland suburbs (Inland Empire/ Homestead,Loxahatchee, and everything bordering the Everglades.)
It could be said that most metros are multi-nodal, but many metros are still more heavily centralized ( ex. Chicagoland, Greater NYC, Seattle, Boston, Atlanta, etc). Those metros pretty much have all their major economic, political, and entertainment options in the central city while the other outer cities serve mainly as bedroom communities with some businesses here and there.
Although LA and Miami are the largest and most dominant cities of their respective metro areas, they aren't the main action around. At least in South Florida, you can live years in Palm Beach or Broward county without ever having to go to Miami Dade. West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale have good downtowns for their size and several other towns that complement them like Boca Raton, Delray, Pompano, Hollywood, etc.
Even in Miami Dade county, a lot of the action is in South Beach as opposed to downtown Miami, which is similar to Downtown LA in that it has some old bones but is still on the path of becoming "solid".
So it can be safe to say that LA shares some similarities and differences with its Sunbelt peers. The similarities don't demean it. In fact, it makes it a bit more familiar, at least for me.