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/AdPsychological790]

Not just the East Coast cities. Even San Francisco’s mass transit and layout is better than LA. Why? It came into maturity almost 70yrs before LA due to the gold rush in the 1840s, not the 1940s. Southern California was cattle ranches until the late 1800s. But by the time it really exploded due to ww2, the car culture had already dug it’s fingers into S. California . SF was built like old world cities. LA was the original sunbelt sprawl city.

[u/stonecoldsoma → u/AdPsychological790]

LA surpassed San Francisco in population by the 1920 census, and was the 5th largest city in the US by the 1930 census. In terms of the city itself, the biggest jump in population occurred from 1900 to 1930. In other words, its rise came before car culture really took off post-WWII.

And it was the original sprawl city because of its extensive streetcar network, among if not the largest in the world at the time. *