La is a wasted opportunity

[u/villehhulkkonen]

Imagine if Los Angeles was built like Barcelona. Dense 15 million people metropolis with great public transportation and walkability.

They wasted this perfect climate and perfect place for city by building a endless suburban sprawl.

[u/Actual-Ad-2748]

I love visiting LA. I would however not like to live there.

[u/DBL_NDRSCR → u/Actual-Ad-2748]

it's not hard to live carfree if you pick the right neighborhood, lots of people do

[u/FranklyDevious → u/DBL_NDRSCR]

I think you meant to say, "have the right amount of income."

Edit: anyone else’s brain read “carefree” instead of “carfree?” 🫣

[u/poilk91 → u/FranklyDevious]

no not really lots of low income people rely on the bus system, its just not great obviously. To live well car free you need to live and work along the subway, not all those neighborhoods are nice or expensive but they are gentrifying quickly because people are realizing more and more that driving sucks balls

[u/unskilledplay → u/poilk91]

It's dense and you don't understand unless you live there. Low income people live often in neighborhoods where you can use a bicycle to get anywhere you need to go. That's the reason why there is a bicycle culture in low income neighborhoods. It's useful.

Of course people without cars in the low income neighborhoods find most of the city closed off to them but the point is it's not just the gentrifiers who can live without a car in LA. It's the middle class who can't live without a car.

[u/poilk91 → u/unskilledplay]

I'm from there I'm there right now but I moved to the east coast a few years ago. If you dont have a car in LA your trapped in your little urban island unless your on a good public transit line. Yeah a bike extends your island and if you have a nice island with all the things you need within walking/biking distance youre probably fine I just suspect the amount of places like that isn't very high because much the city just isn't set up with that in mind unless your in the expensive urban centers

[u/jmlinden7 → u/[deleted]]

It's gentrifying because we've run out of room to sprawl, which means that land is inherently worth more

[u/Chendii → u/jmlinden7]

We definitely have not run out of land. Not even close. It's just that travel times from one side of the sprawl to the other are getting prohibitively long.

If it takes me 3+ hours to get somewhere why is it even called the same city.

[u/jmlinden7 → u/Chendii]

We've reached the limits of sprawl due to commute/travel times. For all intents and purposes, we've run out of land. The land we have left is not useful for housing purposes because it's too far from places where people want to go to.

[u/poilk91 → u/[deleted]]

I dont know what you want to argue about really. High income young people are moving into the parts of town with subway access in large numbers because they want to drive less its going to gentrify things

[u/unskilledplay → u/poilk91]

LA is different. High income people are LEAVING parts of the city whenever train stations get built. When the EXPO line expanded to Santa Monica, it provided access to a formerly nice area to people without other means to travel there. 3rd and Promenade used to be one of the premier pedestrian malls in the country. Today, about half the shops are now closed. You can no longer visit without seeing addicts and mentally ill people everywhere.

Things in LA don't work like Chicago or New York.

[u/poilk91 → u/unskilledplay]

Well its not LA, I'm in north hollywood right now on the red line and theres tons of new buildings here with a bunch of young professionals who work in the city. I can't speak to santa monica cause I never lived ther but I do think all malls across the country have been having a hard time for the last 15 years

[u/unskilledplay → u/poilk91]

NoHo has seen a tremendous influx of homelessness and drugs in the last 3 years precisely because that's where the red line ends. You said you moved to the east coast a few years ago. That's more than enough time to see the difference. North Hollywood is nothing like it was 3 years ago .

[u/poilk91 → u/unskilledplay]

I am staying at my friends house right now which used to be where a flop house was but junkies burned it down 5 years ago and they build luxury condos here... I dunno man it not great but it used to be worse

[u/CommentsOnOccasion → u/FranklyDevious]

Yes it’s the wealthy Angelenos who ride the bus and metro systems and walk to their jobs 

[u/FranklyDevious → u/CommentsOnOccasion]

Nah, I’m just a dyslexic goof who read “carefree” instead of “carfree” 🥴

[u/teddy5 → u/FranklyDevious]

You wrote carefree instead of carfree in your edit.

Edit: anyone else’s brain read “carefree” instead of “carefree?”

[u/FranklyDevious → u/teddy5]

Damn autocorrect got me