Quote:
Originally Posted by Klippenstein
I honestly don't know LA that well, but just from the % of workers who work where they live when looking at job centers, it doesn't seem like a great sign for urbanism.
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What do you mean?
Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartthed
I thought the San Fernando Valley was a major drag on L.A.'s density, but that's not really the case. Backing out the Valley from L.A. appears to only slightly move the needle up in terms of density.
[. . . .]
So removing the Valley just slightly increases L.A.'s 2020 density from 8,312 ppsm to 8,802 ppsm.
Prewar L.A. also did not really match the big eastern cities in terms of scale of density . . . .
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First, yes--LA did not replicate the scale of density found in the eastern cities prior to WWII. The ethos of pre-war Los Angeles was about eschewing the New York model of city building. The plan, insofar as there was one, was for private developers to build homes, offices, shops, etc. for many millions of people--but in a more decentralized and lower-density fashion. Nevertheless, downtown, Westlake, Koreatown, Hollywood, etc. have densified over the decades. And for various reasons, LA now has a higher peak density census tract (or three, I can't remember) than most eastern cities. But that wasn't the initial plan.
Second, I think weighted density is the better measure of the population densities at which people actually live. However, when it comes to simply dividing the population of Los Angeles by its land area, the hills and mountains are what really drag down the city's overall density numbers.
The hills are lightly populated, relative to the flatlands, because of difficult terrain and zoning and fire codes restricting development on narrow, winding roads. Meanwhile, the mountains are unpopulated altogether. On the Google Map linked below, look at the Santa Monica Mountains from Topanga State Park eastward, the Hollywood Hills, and Griffith Park--they are all within LA city limits. So are the mountainous areas rising up from Chatsworth in the northwest, Sylmar to the north, and on both sides of Sunland to the northeast. These areas significantly reduce the population divided by square miles calculation.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Los+An...d-118.242643!16s%2Fm%2F030qb3t?entry=ttu
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