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Originally Posted by isaidso
A Dutch visitor who just arrived from LA said Toronto felt a lot like LA to her. I thought it was an odd comparison but is there some validity to it? I've not been to LA so it's hard for me to say.
On the surface they're both multi-nodal and have big heavily used freeways. A lot of LA and Toronto were built 1945-1995 and do have many similar characteristics. The climate is obviously different and downtowns of each are different. Perhaps they are similar in lots of other ways though?
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Both are cities that have solid pre-war (WW2) bones with modest beginnings and explosive post-war growth. Like Toronto, LA is heavily gridded and lacks a certain polish because it was never built with the grandeur of cities like Baltimore, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Detroit, etc., let alone New York, Philadelphia, Boston, DC, Chicago, and SF. Look at historic photos of LA in the early 20th century and you’ll see lots of low-rise buildings, single-story retail strips, and power lines everywhere.
Wilshire’s “fraternal twin” is Yonge Street, not Detroit’s Woodward Avenue. LA’s equivalent of Woodward would be Huntington/Foothill which takes you from DT all the way to the Inland Empire.