Quote:
Originally Posted by SFBruin
Some people have compared LA to Santiago, Chile. I have never been to Santiago, so I cannot support or reject this comparison with first-hand experience.
I will agree that LA has no geographical analog in the United States, being a coastal basin with a dry climate.
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Santiago metro is considerably more mountainous and a good 75 miles (or so) inland, so it’s not really a coastal metropolis nor does it have long stretches of beach. I’d be more than happy to exchange our mountain ranges for the Andes though, and more mountainous terrain in general to curb suburban sprawl.
Maybe I’m splitting hairs here, but I just think the climate in conjunction with the diversity and relative quality of its natural landscape makes LA’s geographic location less “transposable.” I’m not getting into place-specifics either (“But we wouldn’t have Mt. Baldy or Joshua Tree!!!”), but just saying that the convergence of these specific topographic features in a specific type of climate is... one-of-a-kind. Move LA farther north to Santa Barbara or south to San Diego and you lose that special, highly-specific combination.