Does Los Angeles have the greatest location of any city in the world?

[Westsidelife]

I've never been to Big Bear before! It looks amazing! Canoeing in Big Bear Lake...

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From Flickr, by SBNFA

[VZN]

I never knew places like this even existed in/near L.A.:

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Flickr, by driftor32

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Flickr, by rheaganmartin

[Westsidelife]

^ Where?

[Dimethyltryptamine]

I love LA, but I don't think it has the greatest location of any/every city in the world. Quite a few cities are similar to LA in what they have to offer. Even though my city is more often compared to Miami, from my house I can drive 30 minutes west and be in subtropical mountain rain forest, if I continue driving for another 30 minutes west and I would be in a desert terrain. I can walk 30 seconds east and be in the Pacific Ocean with the same 300 days of sunshine each year. Only thing we don't get is the snow.

I suppose it all comes down to what you like, but I would live in New York any day of Los Angeles and could happily never see another beach or mountain in my entire life.

[VZN]

Originally Posted by Westsidelife

^ Where?

The first picture is Eaton Canyon in Altadena, and the second one is the Los Angeles Poppy Reserve.

[pesto]

Fern Dell, right off Los Feliz, is another remarkably beautiful area right in the city.

Hiking to the ice house (above Pomona) can take you from desert heat to mountain snow through lovely green canyons. I don't believe any other major city is even close to this kind of diversity and beauty plus the weather to enjoy them.

[yamota]

Ever been to the French riviera? Now there's one of the greatest locations in the world!

[Westsidelife]

^ Yes I have and indeed it is.

[Indictable]

I think you do. Not as good as Christchurch (so awesome in NZ), although a couple of hundered km's further north wouldn't kill.

LA is good in terms of location. great, actually.

[croyboy]

even if other cities in the world had our awesome climate, i can't say i would live anywhere else. i need the laugh factory, toi thai restaurant, club avalon, rage, level 3 (all of hollywood and sunset basically), griffith, universal studios, disneyland, knotts, santee alley, grand central market, westwood, getty center (and other museums), carls jr, in-n-out, and to be surrounded by people ranging in colors from pink to white to yellow to brown to black... an angelino could go crazy trying to adapt anywhere else. plus we have pizza and alley-dogs and kogi trucks!!

as for fires in LA, they're almost always where people have put up mansions on dry hillsides on the edges of the metropolis (fail). even if we let the hill burn up, it wouldn't threaten the city or any consistently gridded developed areas ((only exceptions is a riot that occurs naturally every 30 to 50 years (lakers championship doesn't count)).

[tanzirian]

Plusses and minuses like everything else...

On the plus side, very pleasant climate and proximity to natural beauty of the coast and mountains...

On the down side, very depedent on external water that could conceivably run dry some day, plus also vulnerable to earthwquakes, fires, and mudslides. Also, the shape of the basin is very conducive to accumulation of smog.

A great city regardless of whether it has the best location...

[The Urban Politician]

I would say LA has one of the best locations you can have, with one exception:

It's naturally in a desert. Therefore, it must artificially obtain its water.

Other than that, party on!

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by The Urban Politician

I would say LA has one of the best locations you can have, with one exception:

It's naturally in a desert. Therefore, it must artificially obtain its water.

Other than that, party on!

This is not true. The LA basin is not a desert. Downtown LA gets 15 inches of rain a year on average, the foothills get more than 20 and the mountains get 35 inches plus below the snow line. The mountains above the snow line get between 150 - 300 inches of snow.

[tanzirian]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

This is not true. The LA basin is not a desert. Downtown LA gets 15 inches of rain a year on average, the foothills get more than 20 and the mountains get 35 inches plus below the snow line. The mountains above the snow line get between 150 - 300 inches of snow.

Still, the rainfall is quite inadequate for the needs of the population...and will be increasingly more so over the course of this century. SoCal is highly dependent on imported water. There's a big National Geographic article this month on water, with a large section on LA...check it out.

[Westsidelife]

Yeah, I do wish we got more rainfall here in LA for several reasons:

1) I like the sound and smell of rain.
2) It would help our smog problem.
3) More rain would mean less wildfires, which would mean less mudslides.
4) I like everything to be green, lush, and fresh.

And as much as I love the rain, I wouldn't want to be Seattle (though I love Seattle).

[milquetoast]

Hey heyyyy, you guys have earthquakes killin' everybody and smoggy solar radiation to go along with your mountains you can't even see until the rainy floods come and clear the sky out for a few seconds before the mud covers your entire neighborhoods and erases your childhood memories of a simpler time when you guys didn't have any culture to speak of whatsoever relative to any other location on the planet annnnndddd a desert is what you really are and you need your water flown in to make your stupid mocha chimichanga latte's you sip by the empty pools because you can't fill them because you're in a drought all the fuckin' time HOW CAN YOU STAND IT?

Don't you wish you had seasons like the rest of the normal kids? How can you go without leaves changin' colors in a world that's so boringly temperate you don't even know what time of the year it is?

How can you not have oil trucks pull up to your house while your stickin' a carrot in a snowman's face?

Your mountains suck and your beaches are ....... sucky and they're polluted all the time and the greatest thing you guys have are the car chases that interrupt our news about how you're going to drop off into the Pacific one day!

Other than that, losers, ROCK ON!

[saiholmes]

Mostly Marine Layer

Marine Layer

A marine layer is an air mass which develops over the surface of a large body of water such as the ocean or large lake in the presence of a temperature inversion. The inversion itself is usually initiated by the cooling effect of the water on the surface layer of an otherwise warm air mass. As it cools, the surface air becomes denser than the warmer air above it, and thus becomes trapped below it. The layer may thicken through turbulence generated within the developing marine layer itself. It may also thicken if the warmer air above it is lifted by an approaching area of low pressure. The layer will also gradually increase its humidity by evaporation of the ocean or lake surface, as well as by the effect of cooling itself. Fog will form within a marine layer where the humidity is high enough and cooling sufficient to produce condensation. Stratus and stratocumulus will also form at the top of a marine layer in the presence of the same conditions there.

In the case of coastal California, the offshore marine layer is typically propelled inland by a pressure gradient which develops as a result of intense heating inland, blanketing coastal communities in cooler air which, if saturated, also contains fog. The fog can last until midday when the heat of the sun is frequently strong enough to evaporate it. This phenomenon is especially common in the late spring and early summer, where it is locally referred to as "May gray" or "June gloom." An approaching frontal system or trough can also drive the marine layer onshore.

A marine layer will disperse and break up in the presence of instability such as may be caused by the passage of frontal system or trough, or any upper air turbulence which reaches the surface. A marine layer can also be driven away by sufficiently strong winds.

It is not unusual to hear media weather reporters discuss the marine layer as synonymous with the fog or stratus it may contain, but this is erroneous. In fact, a marine layer can exist with virtually no cloudiness of any kind, although it usually does contain some. The marine layer is a medium within which clouds may form under the right conditions, not the layers of clouds themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_layer

[Westsidelife]

Here's Terranea Resort on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Where do I check in?

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From Flickr, by TravelBlogger.com

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From Flickr, by Amin Bandeali

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by tanzirian

Still, the rainfall is quite inadequate for the needs of the population...and will be increasingly more so over the course of this century. SoCal is highly dependent on imported water. There's a big National Geographic article this month on water, with a large section on LA...check it out.

i read the article, it was a good one. my response was to the reference that LA is a desert. it is not, at least not most of it. Definitely agree that we are highly dependent on imported water. the LA region needs to develop ways to capture our rain and snow and use it.

[milquetoast]

Good luck getting that past The Sierra Club!