"L.A. ditches traffic jams: A Hollywood renaissance for walking and biking"

[Mike Johnson]

Filliam H. Muffman wrote:
[quote=Mike Johnson]
LA is massive, and so diverse that you really cannot generalize.

It's population density is much lower than most of the cities in the overlay.

S.F. -17,620/sq mi
L.A.* - _ 526/sq mi

*Greater_Los_Angeles_Area
Sure, but you're comparing one city to an expansive metropolitan area with a whole slew of cities and even an island 26 miles off shore.

The population density of the actual city of LA is like 7500 per square mile.

Koreatown: 42,000 people per square mile
Westlake: 38,000
East Hollywood: 31,000

You can carve out a section of the city of Los Angeles, stretching from Koreatown to Watts. 43 square miles, with a population of 900,000. In other words, that dense cluster holds about a quarter of LA's population in less than 10% of its area.

That dense cluster is also smaller than the city of San Francisco, yet it holds more people. And that's just a cluster of contiguous neighborhoods all within the city of Los Angeles.

[vision63]

N-OS X-tasy! wrote:
[quote=vision63]
When I lived in L.A., other than at my Mom's, I always lived in areas that were great for walking, which meant that everything I needed was in walking distance. I mostly lived in the Hollywood and Downtown areas.

I love my hometown, from the top to the bottom. It's a magical place.

Gardena, right? First time I ever heard it described as magical. Perhaps back in the day...
Just north of Gardena on 122nd Street in the 1500 block. I went to Washington. Gardena was crackin back then. We had the skating rink on Rosecrans, the big slide and Go Kart track on Western and Rosecrans. Played at Gardena Municipal Gym, ate noodles at all the Japanese spots. Worked at Gemco where the Target is on Redondo Beach Blvd. Lomeli's Pizza, Crazy Gideons, The cool original Baskin Robbins on Crenshaw. The Big Donut on Western. Tons of my buddies and girlies. My high school tennis team (which I played on) used Rowley Park as our "home" courts. Gardena Municipal Bus over to the South Bay Center.

[N-OS X-tasy!]

Mike Johnson wrote:
LA is massive, and so diverse that you really cannot generalize. Good Lord, it's not uncommon for there to be a 35 degree difference in temperature from one side of the city to another. People walk in some neighborhoods and don't walk in others.

And that's just L.A. the city. L.A. county is larger, and the combined areas of L.A./Orange counties (often referred to as "the greater L.A. area") larger still.

[Bimwad]

L.A. doesn't have traffic jams per se, traffic is SNAFU.

Does it still take 30-40 minutes to travel the roughly ten miles between downtown and West L.A.?

The air quality is much improved over the last 25 years, though.

[N-OS X-tasy!]

Bimwad wrote:
Does it still take 30-40 minutes to travel the roughly ten miles between downtown and West L.A.?

That trip can take as long as 90 minutes now.

[Wailer]

90 minutes is about right from Downtown LA to Santa Monica (20 miles) at 8am. A lot of people think the traffic into Downtown LA is bad, but in the last 30 years the Westside of LA, including Beverly Hills/Century City, Westwood/UCLA and Santa Monica, has become where many of the jobs are.

The morning commute to the westside from every direction horrendous. If you are coming from the Valley, South Bay or Eastside, don't expect to exceed 15 mph from 7-9am on the freeway. Going home is just as bad from 3-7p. If it's raining, there's a riot, or it's Halloween night, it can take 3 hours to get out. It's similar to my experience of living in the Berkeley and community to SF and I'm guessing it's similar to NY, Boston, Chicago, DC, Houston, etc..

It can be unpredictable too. If I go to Staples Center (just 10 miles east as the crow flies) on a weekday morning, it's 20 minutes. But on a Friday evening it can be anywhere from 45 mins to 2 hrs. It sucks because you have to assume the worst if you don't want to miss your event.

But since I hate traffic, I try hard to avoid it by. I easily lose touch with friends who live more than 20 miles away.

[RAMd®d]

Yes, just like the Birmingham Fire Department was victimized by having to turn their firehoses on civil rights marchers?

Now that's just a dumbass statement. Nice try.


There have been 5 pedestrian deaths in S.F. in the last 15 days.

Yeah, so?

[N-OS X-tasy!]

Wailer wrote:
It can be unpredictable too. If I go to Staples Center (just 10 miles east as the crow flies) on a weekday morning, it's 20 minutes. But on a Friday evening it can be anywhere from 45 mins to 2 hrs. It sucks because you have to assume the worst if you don't want to miss your event.

And the Powers-That-Be want to add an NFL stadium to the downtown area?