r/geography 2d 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/Cebo494 2d ago

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.

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u/theOG22 2d ago

Yeah but suburbs are not the city. New Yorks boroughs are huge and dense. If you want space you move out of the city, that’s the point.

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u/deskcord 2d ago

Except the "suburbs" in LA are often interspersed in between mini city centers. Larchmont and Hancock park are right between DTLA, Hollywood, and Koreatown. Pasadena is half-suburb, half town/city. Glendale is the same. The Valley is a giant suburb home to Studio City and Burbank. The San Gabriel Valley is an enormous suburb that's also the best Chinatown in the US. Much of Palms is a suburb but it's right next to Beverly Hills, Century City, and Santa Monica.

And on and on and on.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/deskcord 1d ago

This is a downright hysterical thing to have just typed out.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/deskcord 1d ago edited 1d ago

Again, this is just laughable, especially when you mention fucking Dallas.

Los Angeles has 14% of its land used for parks, the exact same as NYC, over a substantially larger piece of land. Dallas is 8%. Denver is 6%.

Do you just...say shit?

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/deskcord 1d ago edited 1d ago

Lol so you just actually have no idea what you're talking about. The response to actual facts and data about the total park utilization of each city gets a "wikipedia denver parks" link.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/deskcord 1d ago

"Actual statistics and facts are nothing, I use random wikipedia links of a single city!" lmfao kid

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u/No-Sky1906 1d ago

Griffith Park is the largest urban park in the country.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/clevideo21 1d ago

Just had a kids bday party at Griffith Park with a bunch of kids running around.