What do you like/appreciate about the urban experience of Los Angeles?

[destroycreate]

I can't think of a city more equally celebrated/reviled in pop culture, and in many ways LA challenges all of our preconceptions of what makes a "good" traditional city. A place full of contradictions, its bones are extremely unique -- not a Philly, but absolutely not a Houston (referring to built form here). Few cities in the US can match it's blend of polycentric streetcar-suburb urbanity that can be super walkable just as it is auto-centric. Some districts match the density of cities like SF/NYC; in fact, the metro as a whole is on average in the top 3 most dense metros in the country.

While for many it's a vastly misunderstood place (i.e. often not a first love for people in the way NY/SF/London/Sydney are) that they write off as a city of sprawl and cars, for many who visit multiple times they tend to begin to discover just how multi-layered and rich LA is in terms of vibrant neighborhoods, ethnic enclaves, and architectural styles.

What do you enjoy or appreciate about the City of Angels in terms of urbanity, what do you think makes it a special place?

[Centropolis]

it's always a notch MORE walkable than i expect when i explore a new neighborhood. it's ALWAYS full of surprises, interesting businesses/restaurants/bars. in my opinion it punches above expectations on the urbanity front. even the coastal towns have surprises i never expect when i walk around.

there's also the funny flora/geographical/geological surprises, funny little canyons, nooks.

los angeles beyond the (often false or limited) stereotypes is extraordinarily forgiving/rewarding, in a way unlike any other u.s. city.

[BG918]

I think most people misunderstand LA because they don’t know it very well. It’s so spread out with different areas that it’s hard for most people that don’t live there or nearby to really know it well. Unlike a NYC or Chicago where people are going to the same places LA doesn’t really operate in the same way. I’ve only been a few times and I find it a fascinating place but have only scratched the surface.

[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.

[MplsTodd]

Back in the early'90s when I first started visiting LA, I wasn't that much of a fan. This is likely due to the general seediness of many older areas (Hollywood, downtown, Mid-Wilshire, Long Beach). The city was clearly suffering from neglect.

On my recent visits, I've become a huge fan of LA. I really appreciate the number of good sized commercial districts that offer interesting architecture and active streetlife. Downtown LA has improved substantially from my earliest visits in the early '90s. The adaptive reuse of the historic part of downtown (around Broadway, Spring, Hill etc...) has created a fascinating district. I took a walking tour a few years ago and loved the historic architecture.

While downtown LA is not at the same level as DT Chicago or Manhattan, or even Washington, DC or Philly, it offers the possibility of many interesting walks. That said, the encirclement of downtown by freeways does negatively impact downtown relative to the peer group of cities (DC, Philly).

Offsetting the above however, is the large number of interesting commercial corridors and secondary downtowns. This is one area where LA excels. I really like the mixture of activity and interesting (mostly older) buildings along Wilshire (Koreatown, Mid-Wilshire, Miracle Mile). Plus areas like Highland Park (along Figuroa), downtown/old Town Pasadena, Melrose, Larchmont, West Hollywood, Abbott Kinney/Venice, downtown Long Beach, Westwood Village, Santa Monica offer great walkable environments.

I've even enjoyed some of the downtowns in the Inland Empire-such as Riverside and Redlands. Both have a large collections of historic architecture that make visits well worthwhile. Even places like Pomona's downtown, while no showpiece, have some interesting theaters and other buildings to give it an identity.

I generally drive when I'm in LA, but transit linkages have clearly improved in the past 10-15 years. The extension of Metro west along Wilshire to Santa Monica should really improve transit use.

Then you add in the ocean, the mountains, palm trees and nice weather--I doubt if I'd get tired of visiting LA!

Feel free to check out my Flickr Albums on Los Angeles (under name of MplsTodd).

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by 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.

i wouldnt say far larger, but the los angeles metro area made up some serious ground before world war 2. chicago proper was still appreciably more populous than LA proper in 1940. something to keep in mind is that the LA region was stringing streetcars through orchards across the basin between varying pre-war cores that were later finally filled in on a grid (think compton where the average house was built between 1940-1960 on a pre-war style grid), really blowing out this area.

[destroycreate]

Originally Posted by MplsTodd

Back in the early'90s when I first started visiting LA, I wasn't that much of a fan. This is likely due to the general seediness of many older areas (Hollywood, downtown, Mid-Wilshire, Long Beach). The city was clearly suffering from neglect.

On my recent visits, I've become a huge fan of LA. I really appreciate the number of good sized commercial districts that offer interesting architecture and active streetlife. Downtown LA has improved substantially from my earliest visits in the early '90s. The adaptive reuse of the historic part of downtown (around Broadway, Spring, Hill etc...) has created a fascinating district. I took a walking tour a few years ago and loved the historic architecture.

While downtown LA is not at the same level as DT Chicago or Manhattan, or even Washington, DC or Philly, it offers the possibility of many interesting walks. That said, the encirclement of downtown by freeways does negatively impact downtown relative to the peer group of cities (DC, Philly).

Offsetting the above however, is the large number of interesting commercial corridors and secondary downtowns. This is one area where LA excels. I really like the mixture of activity and interesting (mostly older) buildings along Wilshire (Koreatown, Mid-Wilshire, Miracle Mile). Plus areas like Highland Park (along Figuroa), downtown/old Town Pasadena, Melrose, Larchmont, West Hollywood, Abbott Kinney/Venice, downtown Long Beach, Westwood Village, Santa Monica offer great walkable environments.

I've even enjoyed some of the downtowns in the Inland Empire-such as Riverside and Redlands. Both have a large collections of historic architecture that make visits well worthwhile. Even places like Pomona's downtown, while no showpiece, have some interesting theaters and other buildings to give it an identity.

I generally drive when I'm in LA, but transit linkages have clearly improved in the past 10-15 years. The extension of Metro west along Wilshire to Santa Monica should really improve transit use.

Then you add in the ocean, the mountains, palm trees and nice weather--I doubt if I'd get tired of visiting LA!

Feel free to check out my Flickr Albums on Los Angeles (under name of MplsTodd).

Omg all of your albums are incredible, especially the vintage ones. Why do you never post photo threads here?

[the urban politician]

What I like about LA has little to do with the built environment, and more to do with the local vibe, topography, and climate

[jd3189]

I may reply twice differently to this question since I haven't been to LA yet but will be moving to the Inland Empire in a few months so by then I will have a better experienced answer.


So far, on what I've seen on Google maps and experienced through the media all my life.l, Los Angeles is a pretty interesting city and metro. It reminds me of Miami and South Florida in general, which is also a dense stretch of suburbia with pockets of urban centers and some good examples of streetcar suburbs. LA is of course many times bigger than Miami, but both cities are very compact by Sunbelt standards. You may still need a car, but you can walk around as well.


In addition, there's a lot of diversity in the city and the climate and landscape is very unique. Only issue is the same issue with SF and NYC: unaffordable to a certain extent. Also gotta deal with the homeless.

[Crawford]

LA is one of my favorite cities, but it isn't really because of built form. The atmosphere, people, landscapes, even the crisp light, is what sets LA apart.

And LA's built form and spatial organization is only unique from the perspective of older U.S. cities. It's a pretty common template throughout the planet, though particularly in Latin America.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

LA is the most unique of areas. Our urban built environment is improving drastically and quickly, but there is still many run down / neglected stretches. The city of LA has not properly invested in infrastructure, maintenance and city services for a few decades and all of that is adding to the run down feel of large parts of the city. Its very noticeable when you enter or leave LA for an adjoining jurisdiction like Pasadena, Glendale or West Hollywood for example.

On the positive side, you can do or live absolutely any way you would like within a 60 mile area. Just yesterday i was at my office in the middle of Glendale ( a city of 200,000) at 3 o clock and by 415 i was in the middle of an alpine forest at 8500 feet. The food scene here is incredible. The variety, the fusion of cultures and foods, the experimentation and willingness to try different ideas is a dream come true for anyone that loves and appreciates food. We also have very urban areas like downtown LA, Koreatown, Long Beach and Hollywood and quaint, mountain foothill mayberrys like Montrose and Monrovia, sometimes 10 to 15 miles apart from each other. Our beach cities like Manhattan beach, Hermosa, Venice and Santa Monica are incredible and all so different from each other.

Also, there is so much to do here. Opportunities are endless really. Its very hard for out of towners to grasp LA and its vastness with 1 or 2 visits but anyone that comes here a few times falls in love.

[MplsTodd]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

Omg all of your albums are incredible, especially the vintage ones. Why do you never post photo threads here?

Believe me, I tried, but I could never get it to accept my photos. So I guess I just gave up.
When I get a chance, I'll try again.

I'm glad you like the photos! I've had a life-long interest in cities (or at least since I was about 8 years old)!

[Obadno]

Leaving

*bu-dum-ching*

[maru2501]

unique american supercity.. and it's begun to centralize some

freakishly beautiful

[Sun Belt]

L.A. has it all.

Grit, glam, brilliant sunshine, droughts, floods, deserts, urban jungles, snow capped mountain towns, beach towns, Hollywood stars, artists, gangstas, hipsters, immigrants, transplants, tourists, mega sprawl, tangled freeways, small town main streets, big city super talls, garden apartments with pools to mega mansions to mid-rise condos to slums.

[the urban politician]

Praising LA for its "strides" in urbanism is like praising an athlete in the Special Olympics for crossing the finish line.

Its built environment is baked into its DNA, and to be honest, lets stop praising it.

What makes LA great is the fact that that it's just a wonderful region. It's got diversity, variety, great climate, and thus many people want to live there. What's wrong with that?

[iheartthed]

I like LA despite the urban experience...

[ThePhun1]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

I can't think of a city more equally celebrated/reviled in pop culture, and in many ways LA challenges all of our preconceptions of what makes a "good" traditional city. A place full of contradictions, its bones are extremely unique -- not a Philly, but absolutely not a Houston (referring to built form here). Few cities in the US can match it's blend of polycentric streetcar-suburb urbanity that can be super walkable just as it is auto-centric. Some districts match the density of cities like SF/NYC; in fact, the metro as a whole is on average in the top 3 most dense metros in the country.

While for many it's a vastly misunderstood place (i.e. often not a first love for people in the way NY/SF/London/Sydney are) that they write off as a city of sprawl and cars, for many who visit multiple times they tend to begin to discover just how multi-layered and rich LA is in terms of vibrant neighborhoods, ethnic enclaves, and architectural styles.

What do you enjoy or appreciate about the City of Angels in terms of urbanity, what do you think makes it a special place?

LA is not a Houston but how is it absolutely not a Houston? LOL

Don't forget LA may be more dense than it used to be but it's still just the king of Sun Belt cities and still doesn't provide a traditional urban experience for the majority of residents, both in the city limits and throughout the region.

[LA21st]

"Throughout the region".

So like every other city in America? And LA has more walkable areas in it's suburbs than most and likely far more than people realize. Again, many LA suburbs were built around the street car, so there's intact , walkable "villages" everywhere. Even in the Inland Empire.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by LA21st

"Throughout the region".

So like every other city in America?

yeah, the only US metro area i can think of that would even come close to providing a traditionally urban living experience to the majority of its residents would be NYC.

everywhere else, suburbia rules the day.