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/Cebo494]

Despite the highly suburban character of LA, it's actually the #1 most dense "Urban Area" in the US (as defined by the census bureau). It lacks a major urban core, but the suburbs themselves are significantly and consistently more dense. Lot sizes are fairly small throughout LA so they still fit a lot more housing across the region than anywhere else.

Obviously, downtown LA doesn't come close to something like Manhattan (nothing in the US does). But on a regional level, LA wipes the floor with NYC on density; once you get past the boroughs, NYC suburbs are full of big houses on big lots and pull the average density down a lot.

[u/userhwon → u/Cebo494]

Building up is a problem because earthquake protection makes upper stories a lot more expensive. So LA is probably not going to get more dense over time.

[u/Icy_Raspberry1630 → u/userhwon]

They should follow after tokyo, another earthquake prone are that is also more heavily populated. Which also has great public transport

[u/WorstNormalForm → u/Icy_Raspberry1630]

I guess people are coming from the Tokyo post lol

But yes Tokyo is a model for walkable urban density, but it's also not a feasible one...because you can't really undo suburban sprawl "in place" without fixing crime and public transport and cleanliness and the very idea of real-estate-as-an-investment first

The North American model of urban planning has diverged for so long that any piecemeal improvement is not going to fix car culture, NIMBYism or the politics behind it

[u/Icy_Raspberry1630 → u/WorstNormalForm]

I'm not sure what tokyo post yourw speaking of, this post just popped up on my feed and I'm just responding to your earthquake problem. Because it is possible to build higher in LA, both tokyo and SF are examples but yes I agree it won't happen for a long time due to the NIMBYism, which is unfortunate.

[u/WorstNormalForm → u/Icy_Raspberry1630]

Oh I was just joking about this post on the front page inspiring interest in livable urban design