Should there be any doubt that LA belongs among the big 6 urban US cities?

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by eschaton

When I lived in Capitol Hill 20 years ago, I kind of boggled at how little there was to walk to within a 10-minute radius of my apartment, despite the area clearly being 19th century and having good walking infrastructure. For most of my shopping needs I either biked to Eastern Market, walked to the mini-mall in Union Station, or took the Metro to another part of the city which was more active.

About 5 years ago, I discovered why. Capitol Hill used to be packed with corner stores, but in 1958 the city converted the area to use-based zoning, which all-but eliminated them. So you have blocks and blocks of single-use residential housing - nice, historic single-use residential housing, but nonetheless.

For sure, the lack of amenties hurt street life, because there isn't a ton of stuff to walk to. Which is my point of DC, outside of the core/urban DC, it is lacking for retail/storefronts in many neighborhoods.
Westlake in LA is uglier/less pleasant and low income, but there's storefronts all over the damn place there. It makes it feel more "city" even though its grittier.