Well said "CarsonBro". If you move to Azusa or Pomona, so be it. You'll need a car. But if you move to Hollywood and/or the urban core and work downtown or even work in Pasadena or as far as Long Beach or even Noho you won't need a car. I know plenty of people who live, work and play in the Hollywood,NOHO to downtown area who don't ever drive. That's an outdated way of thinking about LA. Though having a jalopy in the city is an added +, seeing that the transit system is still evolving.

CarsonCaliBrotha said:

No not really. Maybe where you live, but many parts of LA you can get around on bus. I know quite a few people who catch the bus to many places. The thing i like about LA is that even though its really good to have a car, you can still get around by bus or train pretty easy.

But the problem is, LA has too many damn parking lots! Walking around Downtown, its way too many parking lots!

Click to expand...

I'm actually proud of all of the problems and having a front row seat to see the city attempt to fix them. But I don't know if I really want them all fixed. The riots, the mass protests, the strikes.......I enjoy seeing the struggle that the city is going through, personified at best by Villaraigosa. On the one hand he wants to sympathize with his people about immigration but not want to alienate the rest of his city. He's at every board meeting, luncheon and backyard barbecue talking about the need for more rapid mass transit, the creation of parks and green space and of course density. We are basically watching a city being forced to grow up and potentially join the ranks of top tier cities of the world.
But I've got to admit, I really like it as the "fucked up but irresistibly charming and beautiful" underdog.

dweebo2220 said:

It isn't really a place to be proud of. It is majorly fucked up in a lot of ways. traffic. crime. smog. poverty. segregation and inequality. to name a few.

But to me LA is the most intriguing city on earth, and many people around the world are starting to agree. Some of you guys might not know, but LA is having somewhat of a "moment" right now, a moment that could turn into a pretty nice new identity. I'm graduating with a degree in cultural studies, so I've had to keep tabs on cultural trends. "culture" people- (artsy folks) really like to talk about LA now and how it's a really exciting place to live in because SO MUCH IS GOING TO CHANGE (for the better) AND YOU CAN BE A PART OF IT!

BUT
it's not there yet. If you've got a bad pre-conceived notion of LA, then please wait ten years before coming.

Click to expand...

Thanx "Sportsfan" for declaring clarity to this subject. What LA has now come to shoulder is all of the American architecture of the past century. From Decco to Modernist to Post-Modernist. I have friends who are architects and home designers who are swept up with this city. Nowhere are you going to find those wonderful flat roofed mid-century homes w/ open floor plans which incidentally sit in the Hollywood Hills overlooking what is now that famously beautiful nightime sprawl of city lights that seem to go on forever. So as LA ages it's not surprising that it is becoming more and more appreciated by the starched collar crowd.

Boston's one of the coolest looking cities in the country. The old architecture, the curved streets. Gorgeous city. Almost European.

Yeah, LA is unashamedly American. It is in my opinion the first major city in America to have been built in size and scale solely as an American city(no quaint little curvy cobblestone roads) in celebration of Manifest Destiny, so you may not find it quaint and inviting. But "smart growth" is to LA and the western cities of its generation(sans SF) what the "city beautiful movement" was to the older eastern cities in the 19th century.

LosAngelesSportsFan said:

i agree, those 60's buildings, the strip malls, etc, they all suck major ass. they are mostly concentrated in the valley though. you wont see much of that in central LA. thankfully, there are much stricter building codes and asthetics is an issue now , so we dont see horrible architecture like that anymore. Strip malls are endangered species, and its taken a turn for the better in LA.

Also, Boston is Beautiful.

Click to expand...

Los Angeles unfortunately has some of the strictest zoning laws and tightest earthquake codes in the world. Of course LA was a planned city, but alot of it was planned with the auto in mind. Smart growth tends to reclaim the city for the man and not the machine. Aesthetically functional over just functional. Smart growth advocates green spaces within walking distances, traffic calming, waterways, lighted streetscapes, better public transit, hidden or structuralized parking, doors facing sidewalks not vast parking lots, density as opposed to sprawl, using sustainable materials in construction and so on.
So the "smart growth" movement of today is very similar to the "City beautiful" movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries. So we are learning here in the newer cities that a city can be liveable and pleasant, not just funcitonal. Good example: The plan is to eventually unpave the LA river. Why of course! Who in the world would pave a river to begin with?? Aesthetics over purely functional.

One of the greatest achievements IMO to come out of the 19th century movement to make cities more beautiful and liveable was the creation of Central Park in NYC.

And ironically LA has worked hard since the '70's to control its urban sprawl so successfully that it is now the most dense urbanized metropolitan area in the US.

Yeah I know about that. But their had to have been a better way, perhaps it just cost more.

Can we please get back to LA's problems!!

Here we are in the US/California/LA desperately trying to convince people that different modes of urban transit will suit all of us best and Berlin is doing it with a snap of a finger in high style. Just take a look at this shit! :bleep:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/5017026.stm

And we can't even get a unanimous vote on a subway to the sea.