r/geography • u/villehhulkkonen • 1d ago

La is a wasted opportunity Discussion

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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.

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u/Intrepid_Isopod_1524 1d ago

Not everyone wants to live in 10 story apartment buildings, stacked on top of each other. Some people like to have a yard and some space

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u/TheMysticReferee 1d ago

Redditors who hate cars can’t comprehend this for some reason. I don’t want to live in a bug pod with the risk of roaches from dirty fuckers living in the same building as me

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u/wescravenpresents 1d ago

This!!! I don’t want to live in whatever utopia they created in their head it sounds like a nightmare. I want LAND and space and to not hear my neighbor when he takes a shit. 

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u/SwangazAndVogues 1d ago

For sure. After almost 20 years of living in apartment buildings and all of the "fun" I had in that time... let's see:

  1. Roaches randomly showing up as you mentioned.

  2. Actually had mice get into my apartment from a vacant unit once, there was enough room for them to climb up the side of a pipe and into the cupboard under my sink. Woke up to the mice rattling around at 2am.

  3. Neighbors who thought it was a good idea to start a full bonfire on a 10th floor balcony next to mine one drunken night.

  4. Dogs who bark non. stop. all. day. (or night) long. when their owners are gone.

  5. Music coming through the walls one Tuesday night at 2am when I had to be up for work at 6.

You get the point. I used to be all "city! city! city!" but over time, I've gotten worn out. Now I have my own 4 walls, and you'd have to pay me a substantial amount of money to even consider living in an apartment or a condo again; anything with shared walls, really.

You can keep it. Enjoy.

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u/TheMysticReferee 1d ago

Yeah, when I was a kid my dad would be renting from shit apartment to shit apartment, and while his unit was always fucking SPOTLESS there was always an occasional roach or some shit in the bathroom crawling around while I was taking a shit, and they fucking scared me as a kid lol I’ll hopefully never rent a shared building apartment

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u/fvtown714x 1d ago

Redditors who are for better urban policies don't advocate for them at the expense of people who want a single family home, land, etc. Those are still available in say, The Netherlands.

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u/Tommy_Wisseau_burner 1d ago

Any they all complain about how poor they are and can’t afford rent in all these tiny shack ass places… like surprise the people moving to lower density do so in order to afford things

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u/JaimeeLannisterr 1d ago

Much of London and Paris and other European cities are singular homes with gardens, yet manage to be much more compact than American cities. LA is twice the size of London and could cover Kent even though the population is a bit less

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u/Intrepid_Isopod_1524 1d ago

Your definition of garden is not the same as the American definition of yard. Its simple math. The more people you squeeze into a smaller space the more crowded it gets. I don’t want to hear my neighbors.

England can fit inside most states in the US. We have plenty of land in the US and many enjoy having at least 10 feet (3ish meters) between houses, a large yard for kids to run around in. It’s not the same

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u/deerskillet 17h ago

Great, then live in the suburbs not the city! No ones trying to take that away from you. Just trying to have actually functioning cities

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u/Intrepid_Isopod_1524 17h ago

But we keep getting these shit posts every week about how we should cram everyone in like some European city so everyone can be happy. Most Americans don’t want to be packed in like sardines in a can. The ones that do live in apartments/condos but the majority do not

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u/deerskillet 16h ago

Where does it say we should cram everyone together?

We should densify our cities. Simple as that. Shouldn't be a controversial opinion

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u/Intrepid_Isopod_1524 16h ago

What if people don’t want to be densified? What if some like space? I know it’s hard for the European mind to comprehend