Elements of Urbanism: Los Angeles

[Metro Jacksonville]

Elements of Urbanism: Los Angeles



Metro Jacksonville shares sights and scenes from the downtown of America's second largest city: Los Angeles

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2011-sep-elements-of-urbanism-los-angeles

[duvaldude08]

That is just too many damn people. 12,000,000. Lord!

[Wacca Pilatka]

I believe Northrop Grumman recently relocated its HQ to northern Virginia (or is in the process of doing so).

[fsujax]

LA is an amazing place. I have been there many times. I have to say though, still like San Diego better!

[finehoe]

Urban Area Population Density (2000 census)

Los Angeles: 7,068.3 people per square mile
Jacksonville: 2,149.2 people per square mile

This is something that most people don't get about LA:  It is actually quite densely populated.  We tend to think of it as a huge suburban sprawl (which it certainly is), but most folks don't realize that significant sections of the city are pretty tightly packed.

[iloveionia]

All of LA county is tightly packed. 
Great job Ennis. 

The problem with the Fashion District is that it is totally ghetto: no public restrooms ANYWHERE and no place to eat.  Literally.  There is a McDonald's, but the line is always out the door as it is the only place to eat and pee.  Actually, I do remember finding a restroom: I walked down a long, dark corridor, in some desolate building and paid $2 to pee and wash my hands.  Honest.  Scary.  You will also see a lot of street vendors selling live animals on the curbs.  It is not clean and you have to pay strict attention there.  It is not a place to look like a tourist. 

The blue line and other colored lines are not too bad, problem is they follow the traffic.  In many areas they stop at the lights just like a car does.  I can get to downtown LA in 35 minutes from Long Beach.  For $6 you can get a round trip ticket and also ride the busses with that round trip tix.  If  you want to see where they make the movies in the crime ridden areas of LA take the blue line from Long Beach to Downtown LA.  You'll be surrounded  by it. 

The downtown area is very spread out.  Walking to all the areas Ennis highlighted is not easily do-able.  Talking the busses works and the bus drivers are helpful and know the routes. 

The arts district boasts the Walt Disney Concert Hall and near a dozen art museums, FIDM, and adaptive reuse buildings.  It is very clean and maintained in this district.

[fieldafm]

This is something that most people don't get about LA:  It is actually quite densely populated.  We tend to think of it as a huge suburban sprawl (which it certainly is), but most folks don't realize that significant sections of the city are pretty tightly packed.

You're right, any big city in California is dense in a people/square mile sense(San Diego, San Fran, LA).  The difference is that the sprawl is in the outlying counties.  All of Duval could ALMOST fit in the Los Angeles Basin: LA, Orange and Pomona Counties combined... yet all of that is considered the greater LA area.  When you compare those two realities... the only fiscally responsible thing Jacksonville can do is to encourage dense infill along certain areas(downtown has to start becoming a major source of property tax revenue, and the growth of the Southside still isn't paying for itself, it's still not even a revenue neutral area of town even with the growth of the Town Center and the Tinseltown area).  The health of the tax base simply cannot continue to subisidize single family housing sprawl to the outlying exurbs of the county.

LA's problem, and this is being fixed with an explosion of fixed transit right now.. is connecting the areas of their urban core together.  The same problems we face here, are the same things that LA is in the process of fixing.  It's time for us to get on board with that.

One interesting note... Old Bank is sort of a Back to the Future type of place for Jacksonville to pay attention to.  This area grew specifically b/c of zoning changes that encouraged a lot of infill within the massive historic building stock the neighborhood had.  This is something that the Mobility Plan in Jacksonville has the opportunity to accomplish. 

LA is my favorite city outside of Jacksonville. I used to travel there frequently and stay for long periods of time for business. I also have a lot of friends in SoCal(and NorCal for that matter).  If I ever leave Jax(which I have considered on many occassions)... that would be my destination. 

Great article Lake!

[finehoe]

LA is my favorite city outside of Jacksonville.

I love it as well.  A lot of people disparage it and compare it unfavorably with San Francisco or San Diego.  However, it "city" in a way that probably no place outside of New York is, in that anything you want, it's there.

[thelakelander]

The blue line and other colored lines are not too bad, problem is they follow the traffic.  In many areas they stop at the lights just like a car does.  I can get to downtown LA in 35 minutes from Long Beach.  For $6 you can get a round trip ticket and also ride the busses with that round trip tix.

I paid $5 for an all day pass on the days I heavily used the rail and bus lines.  No need to sit in traffic, buy gas, search and pay for parking.  That was a deal that really couldn't be beat.

If  you want to see where they make the movies in the crime ridden areas of LA take the blue line from Long Beach to Downtown LA.  You'll be surrounded  by it.

The ride through Compton, South Central (or whatever they're calling it these days) and Watts was pretty interesting.  Especially with the guys jumping on the trains trying to sell everything from water and candy to light bulbs.

[iloveionia]

They are still expanding the freeways here, meaning making them wider with more lanes.
It makes sense to me if they would have public transportation built above (or even inbetween) the existing freeway system. 

The public transportation system is NOTHING like NYC or Chicago. 
And it is true: there is everything to do here in LA or damn near close.  And the weather?  Perfect. 

$5 Ennis?  That's great.  My memory has failed!

[ChriswUfGator]

They are still expanding the freeways here, meaning making them wider with more lanes.
It makes sense to me if they would have public transportation built above (or even inbetween) the existing freeway system. 

The public transportation system is NOTHING like NYC or Chicago. 
And it is true: there is everything to do here in LA or damn near close.  And the weather?  Perfect. 

$5 Ennis?  That's great.  My memory has failed!

Yeah, California is an odd place, and LA specifically. Though it votes blue generally, there are tons...and I mean TONS...of your typical SUV-driving, Bush-voting, types out there who love their highways. We have our own version of California's freeway expansion policies here in Florida, it's Orlando. Every 5-10 years since my birth, this big gripe campaign gets going, with the result that I-4 and often surrounding capillaries are widened and expanded, with the stated goal of easing congestion. Within 6 months, it's back to being worse than it was before, and there is nothing to show for it except a huge construction bill.

At some stage, natural market forces need to be left alone. These highways reach their own equilibriums, where when commute times get too long, people find alternate routes, or begin living closer to work to cut down on the commute. This is exactly what we need to be encouraging. Continuing to expand highways that are already 16 lanes wide in the name of easing congestion is only perpetuating the problem.

[jcjohnpaint]

It just blows my mind that LA is that much more dense than Philly and even Chicago.  I would never have guessed.  But look at Tokyo and I don't know how that many people could possibly live like that. 

[Lunican]

Chicago and Philly are both over 11,000/sq mi.

[I-10east]

LA, the city that supposed to steal 1/4 of the NFL's teams.

[peestandingup]

What's sad is that LA used to have the biggest streetcar network in the world at one time (something like over 1,000 miles of track & over 900 electrified cars). Can you imagine that? LA?? They got rid of every single one of them by the 60s.

Its a big focus on the 1996 "Taken For A Ride" documentary (and the streetcar scandal in general).