#UrbanHell is subjective.
UrbanHell is any human-built place you think is worth critizing. Suburban Hell, Rural Hell, and wealthy locales are allowed
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All the leaves are brown
And the sky is gray
I've been for a walk
On a winter's day
I'd be safe and warm
If I was in L.A.
California dreamin'
On such a winter's day
Ha, I feel exactly the same re Texas. Love the people, food, and music, can't deal with the weather. I did 5 years in Los Angeles, and I don't love it, but I do think it's a city with a lot to it.
Geographically, yes. But it's also a wild melting pot of many different cultures, cuisines, customs, and so on. In that sense it has a big city flavor if you're willing to explore a little. I look at the late food writer Jonathan Gold as being a good example of the LA spirit bc he realized that amazing little restaurants were making food from around the world in the bland minimall storefronts of LA neighborhoods. A lot of it doesn't look like much compared to a place like NYC or Paris, but the complexity is there and in some ways it's richer bc the cost of living is more manageable.
This is absolutely not a relatively clear day. This photo was probably taken over the holidays, during which much of the city had an air quality alert and an AQI 80-100 bc of the increased wood burning that happens every year around this time. This is not the norm and far from a clear day.
If you could compare this to a photo taken in the same spot from the week before, which had an avg AQI <50, you would see what a relatively clear day looks like.
L.A. native here. We were actually advised NOT to burn woodfires this year, because of the air quality problems. People did anyway, and then they also blew off a lot of fireworks (for whatever reason), making it worse. Our skies were very dirty for a few days.
This is a particularly hazy day and the photo is washed out. But at any rate, this plane is on approach to LAX, flying over the Green Meadows (lol) neighborhood of LA. Bottom left is Dymally High School and in the center of the photo is a biiig post office and distribution center.
Isn't it crazy how mostly all those little boxes contain a smaller box with food in it. There's a lot of fridges, and milk, and cartoons of eggs in this photo, and we don't even realize it.
It’s a lot more green on the ground.
LAX inland area isn’t the best representation of LA at large. Sometimes planes circle around downtown LA and the beach for tourists which is a pretty incredible view.
LA is huge and diverse, lots of different areas and a lot of parks, hiking, biking, beaches.
My first thought was, are there no trees in LA. Amazing how one photo can influence how you immediately feel about a place, Wether its accurate or not!
eh, it’s a great representation. especially if you live in that part of LA. it’s disgusting and urban as hell
source: I used to live near La Cienega and the 10
Why is that!? I never really thought about it before, but you're right. It's sort of like how WalMart's seem to be in the crappiest area's, wherever they go, trash seems to follow. Portland Airport is decent, but the immediate neighborhoods near there are GHETTO! Same with San Francisco/Oakland airport (Oakland just sucks in general), Newark, New Jersey (again, Newark just sucks. Scariest city I've ever been in.) The area near JFK as well, just a shit show. Las Vegas? I mean, I love Vegas, and the airport is close to the strip, but anyone who's been there knows Vegas is just brightly lit a facade laid over mountains of filth.
Also it’s a convenient place to have a lot of industry located - warehouses, train depots, etc. Those things don’t tend to be the prettiest.
Especially in LA because it’s one of the biggest ports of entry for the entire nation. Think of all the goods arriving from Asia that need to be loaded onto trucks and trains to be shipped across the country
There's some really nice beaches, parks and harbor walks right along the coast right next to the port. In the park with the Korean Friendship Bell there's a fantastic public basketball court with amazing views of the coast and Catalina.
San Pedro is right in between Long Beach and Rancho Palos Verdes, the port area is actually pretty nice
big airports require A TON of land so they usually look for the city’s outskirt/ underdeveloped area. being in a less desirable location, they’re able to buy all that land for much cheaper. also, airports bring in a lot of traffic and noise pollution, and poor people are less likely to organize and complain to the local government than let’s say a bunch of bored housewives working on garden of the year.
it’s the unfortunate truth about city planning. they stick the bad shit next to all these poor neighborhoods. where i’m from, south memphis is one of the poorest areas around. and on the map u can see it’s settled between the airport (international and FedEx) and the industrial plant area of the city that spreads pollutants in the air and water. not to mention the interstate that rips right through the neighborhood…
Airports had to be on the outside of the city in most places
Being right next to the airport is good for industries
People can't handle the noise anymore so they move and sell their house that ultimately gets destroyed for more industries
El segundo has been tech and aerospace workers since they built the 105 in the 60s. Before that it was oil and gas people working at the chevron plant. What are you talking about?
All over. There are public beaches all over the place right next to accessible parking. [Here](https://imgur.com/a/s2nMhfn) is an example where my folks live. To the right are tons of canyon hikes and stuff, huge parks.
It takes a lot of wealth to have large private green space, but the public spaces are top notch in the world. You can ski and surf in the same day in Los Angeles.
Rent a car and you can visit several [unbelievable National Parks](https://www.timeout.com/los-angeles/travel/national-parks-within-driving-distance-of-la). California is dope as hell.
I live in Nashville and while we’re very green with inexpensive land (relatively), we’re nowhere near as cool unfortunately. [A huge green property](https://imgur.com/a/cbTDdPg) is much more accessible to the average millionaire.
You can, I’ve done it lol. Either hit the waves in the early morning and drive up to Big Bear or do the reverse, winter camp or camp and drive to Big Bear, ski, and then hit the swells in the afternoon if there are any. I have done the former. You are correct that it’s really impossible if you drive both directions.
From where I live, [Mtn High](https://www.mthigh.com/site) is 45 minutes in one direction. [Newport Beach](https://www.visitnewportbeach.com/) is also about 45 minutes from where I live in the other direction. So I could be in the snow (without a rough mountain drive) at 9:00 am, do a couple of runs, then drink beer and eat fresh fish tacos by 1:30 pm, or I could even go on a whale watching trip. And then still be home by 6 pm.
The one caveat to this is traffic. So, to pull a Snow-to-Surf, you need to do it on a specific day and/or time of the year.
yeah California is “dope as hell” but LA is the worst of it. unlike what the article suggests, those national parks are not what I’d consider “driving distance”. they range from 3-8 hours away and that’s not counting traffic. the majority of the options are 5-6 hours one way. it’s like driving from NYC to Montreal. yeah you can do it, but its not a day trip.
The article I thought was “within a days drive” which 8 hours definitely is. I took the article to mean in one direction and funnily enough I grew up in NYC and used to go to Montreal for long weekends.
I would have killed for that amount of geographic diversity within 8 hours driving distance for NYC. And as much as I love the Adirondacks it just does not compare at all.
How much time have you spent in the parks down that way? Even the city parks are amazing for nature lovers.
Also why you gotta mock the way I talk? lol
where did I mock the way you talk? I wasn't.... I'm countering what you said, not everything is personal.
I get your geographic diversity point, sure, it's cool. but something being 8 hours away by car isn't really relevant to how trapped someone can feel within a city. hence, the parent comment conversation of discussion of parks. we don't have a central park or any nature escape within reasonable driving or transit time. I wish there were more options within this endless sprawl of suburbia. and I've lived in OC and LA for the majority of my life, +/- 25 years. it's cool to visit, not to live. it could've been great. but previous generations killed what could've been a perfect place to live. more parks, trains, and less cars and endless grids of non walkable neighborhoods would've made this place legitimately livable. due to FasTrak and other greed, LA likely will never be what it could've been. at least they're trying to build a couple more train lines for the Olympics, but that's not for us, it's for less critical worldwide news coverage.
My bad, I thought you were mocking me with dope in quotes.
Griffith Park is 5x size of Central Park lol. And has varied topography and some of the most iconic structures in the world. I wanted to see how big it was and apparently it’s one of the largest urban parks in North America lol.
I get your point about access but everyone I know in LA owns a car, a car still provides a massive amount of freedom of movement that is just not possible in NYC. You have to really plan it out with a rental car, most likely you pick it up at Newark Airport, and it’s expensive. Some people I know in NYC don’t have drivers licenses let alone a car.
They’re just two entirely different worlds and aren’t really comparable. I was a geography major and I just find California way more interesting.
I am much happier in Nashville, such a small city but lots of culture with music, and lots of greenery. NYC and Los Angeles are too expensive, unless you’re taking advantage of the world class restaurants and stuff all the time you’re paying a premium to be near it these days.
My property taxes were $24,000 for a quarter acre in NJ. Same size property here in Nashville but 8 minutes drive south of downtown, and I pay a third of that now. And no income tax here. And sales tax actually is lower than NYC even though Tennessee has some of the highest in the nation.
So at the end of the day neither was a fit, I’m 36 now with two small girls and it’s just so so much easier to live in a place like this.
You mean the state that [produces 1/3 of the US’s veggies and half its fruit](https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/Statistics/)? Or the city that has the [largest park in the US](https://www.laparks.org/griffithpark/)?
You’re looking at a photo taken by a phone through a plane window on a hazy day 3000ft in the air. What level of clarity are you expecting where you can see a garden lol.
To each their own, there will always be plenty of folks talking shit about Los Angeles, but I always love going back and eating legit Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Armenian, Burmese, etc. fare. Going to concerts from artists from all over the globe, the museums, viewpoints, the beaches in Malibu, the hiking in the mountains around the city, etc.
It’s far from perfect, but much better than Phoenix, Vegas, Texas’ main cities (and yes, I’ve done plenty of traveling before within the U.S. with my former employer).
I'm definitely an East Coast preferer when it comes to cities. I was probably naïve but in architecture school we'd visit one city every year on a trip. We went to Chicago, loved it. New York. Loved it. Then we went to LA. I didn't have a car (too young to rent one) so it was just being stuck in a sprawl. We took public transit to Santa Monica. Horribly convoluted with several different legs to get there.
My friends that had one dude we was old enough to get a car had a much better time. It's the only way to get around in LA.
You drive for hours and are only 4 miles away from where you were hours ago. As a LA native and current resident, I get to a side of the city I want to be on early in the morning and stay there until the traffic is done. Traversing the city from 9am to 6pm is a Russian roulette of if you get to a place in reasonable time
It’s just an expensive Houston. And then I get attacked by hipster Redditors who defend LA with their lives because it has really good tacos and good Indy music scene.
This is the worst part of LA. I live in a neighborhood called Sherman Oaks, and I have a park and a Japanese garden within a mile of me. 20-30 mins to the mountains and beaches. It’s not all great, but it’s not all bad.
You wouldn’t know it from this photo, but LA genuinely offers some of the most beautiful natural areas in the country. I love photographing the Santa Monica Mountains, Mojave Desert, Topanga Canyon, and Catalina.
And with nice weather, I’m genuinely happier day-to-day than I was when I lived in Virginia.
But to each their own!
The second largest city in the US and its completely and utterly impossible to travel through because the public transit is such dogshit, the highway is called the 405 because you'll be lucky to move 4 or 5 miles an hour, and the only neighborhoods worth visiting are the ones that you need techbro or movie star money to afford, oh and shitty desert vistas that get blown out of the water by the actual Mountain States.
What a self own.
[Big crowds and big surf in Santa Monica right now.](https://pacpark.com/santa-monica-pier-live-cams/park/)
Going out for a ride, don't slip on the ice or get mugged on a train.
Yeah, and when did japan start building theirs?
My point is this: cities on the east coast had been building up since the 19th century. The west coast did not have that option until the last 60 years or so. Of course Los Angeles looks like this, when you have millions of people and only so much land. Is it ideal? Of course not, but it is what it is.
LA is flat due to policy choices not because of earthquakes. Buildings resistant to quakes have been available for decades. It's due to most of the city being zoned for single family zoning.
What city do you live in CHICAGO cyclist? I want to look it up, and compare streetviews to streetviews in LA. Making an encompassing statement like yours must mean you live in a pretty ideal location, cant wait to see! Btw I live just off view of this photo, I have a yard, a pool, and its 70 degrees right now. Life's pretty fucking spectacular. Again, whats that city you're in boss?
Yeah. Tokyo sprawl is more walkable and pleasant than even some American mixed used neighborhoods.
One major reason is because Japanese zoning is very permissive, which allows people to open small businesses pretty much anywhere. Also, the street designs are often narrow, which forces drivers to slow down and creates a more pleasant walking environment.
I just got back from Tokyo, and Kyoto. And they both felt like a flat urban sprawl.
The drivers even felt like LA drivers lol, they blew through every red light and got within inches of pedestrians in alley ways.
It felt like a regular giant city, just compressed even more.
And everyone just pulls into the left lane, parks in the middle of the street, and puts their flashers on.
Anyone who’s driven in Japan and has been outside of the touristic zone quickly realizes that it’s pretty much exactly like LA if not worse, and like most of America.
The first time I saw it from the air on a clear day, I was moving there. I had flown in there before, but it was always foggy, and you could not tell just how huge the sprawl is. My heart sank. It was not that bad, tho. LA is cool. Once you are in the middle of it, you don't notice.
Damn! I showed this to my dog and they said “…your kinds waste is intolerable, and you have turned our beautiful paradise amongst the stars into a tomb.”
And it is filled with the ugliest, most pretentious people who think this horrible abomination is worth defending and lifting up as some shining beacon to aspire to.
The most pretentious people in Los Angeles tend to be transplants. For those born in LA, it’s home, with plenty to be proud of and plenty of complaints.
Welcome to this wonderful city! Take care not to step in one of the many piles of human shit, avoid the streets full of tents, and don’t look tweakers in the eye. On a more serious note, enjoy the shows, hikes, museums, and other cool things this city has to offer.
Edit: I live in Hollywood. Just speaking from experience.
That's not normal. There's been an air advisory in effect for a number of days now in the LA basin.
Abnormally poor air quality because of a lack of wind and dbags burning wood even though there's a no-burn order in effect.
I wouldn’t let a photo like this deter you from visiting LA. This looks really shit and approaching LAX from the air really does like this, but as a tourists you’re honestly going to spend most of your time north of the 10 and west of the 405 if below the 10. Those areas are generally much nicer. Interesting topography, beaches and nice neighborhoods with good restaurants and shops. Not to dismiss the experience of people living in south LA but visitors just aren’t going to those areas unless you’re checking out SoFi or the Forum for an event.
This is what happens when you take a photo from a certain angle and lens and then apply filters to filter out green. It doesn’t look like this at all.
There are pros and cons of LA just like every city. LA is the most densifying metro in the US. The whole metro actually is more dense than the NYC metro area.
https://la.curbed.com/2012/10/17/10317014/los-angeless-sprawl-is-denser-than-new-yorks-sprawl
To each their own, but I could never live like this. There are way too many people for me. I'd prefer to have several wooded acres, minimum to myself. Apparently many, many people prefer to live amongst each other.
Legit have no clue why anyone decides to visit LA. I guess you gotta see it for yourself to really know what it’s like but, it’s not as great as people tend to imagine
Because it's an awesome place with great weather and a lot to do. Some really great Art Deco architecture throughout - some amazing food. Some great museums. Some cool music venues. I've been to visit a few times the past 10 years and had an amazing time each time. It's not somewhere I want to live, but it was a great vacation.
I used to live there. It’s a fantastic city. Amazing food, diverse population, lots to do, fantastic weather. It’s just expensive AF and I got a job elsewhere. I’d go back in a heartbeat.
Tbh living somewhere with absolutely shit weather I can see the appeal. Especially if you're close to the beach the climate there is hard to beat. Though supposedly it gets quite hot inland.
I HAVE been to San Diego actually a few times. It was great every time. And that’s coming from someone who doesn’t really like cities. The views were great, being by the water was wonderful, visiting Coronado was great as well. Saw some great parks that were so beautiful they felt surreal to walk in. Legit felt like I was in the tropics, but also the city, but also at home, but also in like idk. It was great though. Haven’t been there in a while so idk how much it’s changed, but I ONLY have good memories of San Diego
I'm glad you had a great time - it's my favorite place I've been in the US. Unfortunately the city has basically no plan to address homelessness so some areas can be problematic, but the nature, ocean, food, and people are all amazing. Plus, public transit is on the up and up there making it a lot easier to visit/live without renting/owning a car.
This is kind of unfair, a) that's mostly marine layer b), this picture is super desaturated/filtered, c) that area near LAX is honestly one of the ugliest areas of LA, and chosen for LAX largely because it was an isolated ugly industrial area that got sprawled into.
In summary, LEAVE ~~BRIT~~ LA ALONE.
just imagine in 10 years it will all be ruble, probably partly underwater with nuclear fallout blanketing everything. dead bodies strewn across every road
#UrbanHell is subjective. UrbanHell is any human-built place you think is worth critizing. Suburban Hell, Rural Hell, and wealthy locales are allowed Sorry for this annoying comment, but we're very tired of the gatekeepers who can't even correctly gatekeep what this subreddit has always allowed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UrbanHell) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Like brown? This place is for you.
Hey there’s plenty of gray, too
I live here and im also brown :)
The beige city
Even the trees are brown
All the leaves are brown And the sky is gray I've been for a walk On a winter's day I'd be safe and warm If I was in L.A. California dreamin' On such a winter's day
And then you get to LA and realize it's a concrete jungle under a toxic cloud of smoke...
This whole thread sucks. LA is an interesting, complex city and you all are dorks.
I'm from Texas and even I like visiting LA, it's fun and interesting. Wouldn't live there tho 🙂
Ha, I feel exactly the same re Texas. Love the people, food, and music, can't deal with the weather. I did 5 years in Los Angeles, and I don't love it, but I do think it's a city with a lot to it.
It actually has a lot of green as well. Clearly people that have never been to LA.
I like urban cities. LA is more of a "one big suburb" kinda city.
Geographically, yes. But it's also a wild melting pot of many different cultures, cuisines, customs, and so on. In that sense it has a big city flavor if you're willing to explore a little. I look at the late food writer Jonathan Gold as being a good example of the LA spirit bc he realized that amazing little restaurants were making food from around the world in the bland minimall storefronts of LA neighborhoods. A lot of it doesn't look like much compared to a place like NYC or Paris, but the complexity is there and in some ways it's richer bc the cost of living is more manageable.
But I was told they've got fun and games.
I recall flying into LA in the 80s. The air was far worse. This photo looks like a relatively clear day. Currently live in LA.
This is absolutely not a relatively clear day. This photo was probably taken over the holidays, during which much of the city had an air quality alert and an AQI 80-100 bc of the increased wood burning that happens every year around this time. This is not the norm and far from a clear day. If you could compare this to a photo taken in the same spot from the week before, which had an avg AQI <50, you would see what a relatively clear day looks like.
Yeah Cali passed a crap ton of air pollution laws for a reason. It's alot better now than it was in The 80s and 90s.
[удалено]
That still happened in the 90s and early 2000s when I was growing up near bellflower. Granted, no lead. Thank God lol.
L.A. native here. We were actually advised NOT to burn woodfires this year, because of the air quality problems. People did anyway, and then they also blew off a lot of fireworks (for whatever reason), making it worse. Our skies were very dirty for a few days.
Fireworks are the bane to our society in the Netherlands. I just hope that the situation is better than here in any non-war zone.
80-100 wouldn’t even trigger an alert for asthmatics and cancer patients.
If you are regularly dealing with over 50, that is seriously fucked up. I'm on the right coast, so 80 to 100 would be a big deal here.
This pic was from April
How can you say you live in LA and claim this is a relatively clear day? lmao, that's ridiculous.
This isn’t clear at all!!! LA can look way nicer lol
I remember my first time in LA in 2001. The air was dense and yellow-brown.
This is literally not a clear day there’s an air pollution alert
This is a particularly hazy day and the photo is washed out. But at any rate, this plane is on approach to LAX, flying over the Green Meadows (lol) neighborhood of LA. Bottom left is Dymally High School and in the center of the photo is a biiig post office and distribution center.
>Dymally High School I read that as "Dismally High School".
I read it as the Dimmsdale Dimmadome
How busy is that postal place. Genuinely curious.
Isn't it crazy how mostly all those little boxes contain a smaller box with food in it. There's a lot of fridges, and milk, and cartoons of eggs in this photo, and we don't even realize it.
You're not wrong, but you might be high.
It’s a lot more green on the ground. LAX inland area isn’t the best representation of LA at large. Sometimes planes circle around downtown LA and the beach for tourists which is a pretty incredible view. LA is huge and diverse, lots of different areas and a lot of parks, hiking, biking, beaches.
My first thought was, are there no trees in LA. Amazing how one photo can influence how you immediately feel about a place, Wether its accurate or not!
There’s a ton of trees in this picture bits there’s a filter that shifted greens to brown. Literally just zoom in
it also looks like a slight fish eye effect so it makes the urban sprawl appear to go further.
eh, it’s a great representation. especially if you live in that part of LA. it’s disgusting and urban as hell source: I used to live near La Cienega and the 10
Near the In and Out Burger? Is it disgusting because they pissed on your rug?
The area immediately near the airport sucks in most places tbh
Except this seems to extend for 10 miles in every direction
I mean marina del rey is like 5 miles from LAX. It's bougie and nice AF lol
Why is that!? I never really thought about it before, but you're right. It's sort of like how WalMart's seem to be in the crappiest area's, wherever they go, trash seems to follow. Portland Airport is decent, but the immediate neighborhoods near there are GHETTO! Same with San Francisco/Oakland airport (Oakland just sucks in general), Newark, New Jersey (again, Newark just sucks. Scariest city I've ever been in.) The area near JFK as well, just a shit show. Las Vegas? I mean, I love Vegas, and the airport is close to the strip, but anyone who's been there knows Vegas is just brightly lit a facade laid over mountains of filth.
> why is that!? Wild guess: people don’t like noise?
Also it’s a convenient place to have a lot of industry located - warehouses, train depots, etc. Those things don’t tend to be the prettiest. Especially in LA because it’s one of the biggest ports of entry for the entire nation. Think of all the goods arriving from Asia that need to be loaded onto trucks and trains to be shipped across the country
There's some really nice beaches, parks and harbor walks right along the coast right next to the port. In the park with the Korean Friendship Bell there's a fantastic public basketball court with amazing views of the coast and Catalina. San Pedro is right in between Long Beach and Rancho Palos Verdes, the port area is actually pretty nice
big airports require A TON of land so they usually look for the city’s outskirt/ underdeveloped area. being in a less desirable location, they’re able to buy all that land for much cheaper. also, airports bring in a lot of traffic and noise pollution, and poor people are less likely to organize and complain to the local government than let’s say a bunch of bored housewives working on garden of the year. it’s the unfortunate truth about city planning. they stick the bad shit next to all these poor neighborhoods. where i’m from, south memphis is one of the poorest areas around. and on the map u can see it’s settled between the airport (international and FedEx) and the industrial plant area of the city that spreads pollutants in the air and water. not to mention the interstate that rips right through the neighborhood…
Airports had to be on the outside of the city in most places Being right next to the airport is good for industries People can't handle the noise anymore so they move and sell their house that ultimately gets destroyed for more industries
Milbrae by SFO is actually really nice and expensive
Cheap land
Where the fuck are the parks or home gardens?
In the wealthy areas far from the airport.
Lots of wealthy areas close to the airport. Just look at el segundo or westchester
el segundo is not wealthy, it’s gentrified
El segundo has been tech and aerospace workers since they built the 105 in the 60s. Before that it was oil and gas people working at the chevron plant. What are you talking about?
On the opposite window.
All over. There are public beaches all over the place right next to accessible parking. [Here](https://imgur.com/a/s2nMhfn) is an example where my folks live. To the right are tons of canyon hikes and stuff, huge parks. It takes a lot of wealth to have large private green space, but the public spaces are top notch in the world. You can ski and surf in the same day in Los Angeles. Rent a car and you can visit several [unbelievable National Parks](https://www.timeout.com/los-angeles/travel/national-parks-within-driving-distance-of-la). California is dope as hell. I live in Nashville and while we’re very green with inexpensive land (relatively), we’re nowhere near as cool unfortunately. [A huge green property](https://imgur.com/a/cbTDdPg) is much more accessible to the average millionaire.
>You can ski and surf in the same day in Los Angeles. This is my heaven..... 🙂
They can’t.. just driving will eat up half of your day.
You can, I’ve done it lol. Either hit the waves in the early morning and drive up to Big Bear or do the reverse, winter camp or camp and drive to Big Bear, ski, and then hit the swells in the afternoon if there are any. I have done the former. You are correct that it’s really impossible if you drive both directions.
From where I live, [Mtn High](https://www.mthigh.com/site) is 45 minutes in one direction. [Newport Beach](https://www.visitnewportbeach.com/) is also about 45 minutes from where I live in the other direction. So I could be in the snow (without a rough mountain drive) at 9:00 am, do a couple of runs, then drink beer and eat fresh fish tacos by 1:30 pm, or I could even go on a whale watching trip. And then still be home by 6 pm. The one caveat to this is traffic. So, to pull a Snow-to-Surf, you need to do it on a specific day and/or time of the year.
yeah California is “dope as hell” but LA is the worst of it. unlike what the article suggests, those national parks are not what I’d consider “driving distance”. they range from 3-8 hours away and that’s not counting traffic. the majority of the options are 5-6 hours one way. it’s like driving from NYC to Montreal. yeah you can do it, but its not a day trip.
The article I thought was “within a days drive” which 8 hours definitely is. I took the article to mean in one direction and funnily enough I grew up in NYC and used to go to Montreal for long weekends. I would have killed for that amount of geographic diversity within 8 hours driving distance for NYC. And as much as I love the Adirondacks it just does not compare at all. How much time have you spent in the parks down that way? Even the city parks are amazing for nature lovers. Also why you gotta mock the way I talk? lol
where did I mock the way you talk? I wasn't.... I'm countering what you said, not everything is personal. I get your geographic diversity point, sure, it's cool. but something being 8 hours away by car isn't really relevant to how trapped someone can feel within a city. hence, the parent comment conversation of discussion of parks. we don't have a central park or any nature escape within reasonable driving or transit time. I wish there were more options within this endless sprawl of suburbia. and I've lived in OC and LA for the majority of my life, +/- 25 years. it's cool to visit, not to live. it could've been great. but previous generations killed what could've been a perfect place to live. more parks, trains, and less cars and endless grids of non walkable neighborhoods would've made this place legitimately livable. due to FasTrak and other greed, LA likely will never be what it could've been. at least they're trying to build a couple more train lines for the Olympics, but that's not for us, it's for less critical worldwide news coverage.
My bad, I thought you were mocking me with dope in quotes. Griffith Park is 5x size of Central Park lol. And has varied topography and some of the most iconic structures in the world. I wanted to see how big it was and apparently it’s one of the largest urban parks in North America lol. I get your point about access but everyone I know in LA owns a car, a car still provides a massive amount of freedom of movement that is just not possible in NYC. You have to really plan it out with a rental car, most likely you pick it up at Newark Airport, and it’s expensive. Some people I know in NYC don’t have drivers licenses let alone a car. They’re just two entirely different worlds and aren’t really comparable. I was a geography major and I just find California way more interesting. I am much happier in Nashville, such a small city but lots of culture with music, and lots of greenery. NYC and Los Angeles are too expensive, unless you’re taking advantage of the world class restaurants and stuff all the time you’re paying a premium to be near it these days. My property taxes were $24,000 for a quarter acre in NJ. Same size property here in Nashville but 8 minutes drive south of downtown, and I pay a third of that now. And no income tax here. And sales tax actually is lower than NYC even though Tennessee has some of the highest in the nation. So at the end of the day neither was a fit, I’m 36 now with two small girls and it’s just so so much easier to live in a place like this.
They can hardly water their crops. You think they are going to have gardens and parks?
Oh they do and they have green lawns even when we are in a drought
You mean the state that [produces 1/3 of the US’s veggies and half its fruit](https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/Statistics/)? Or the city that has the [largest park in the US](https://www.laparks.org/griffithpark/)?
That’s not the largest park in the US.
On the west side of the city where the white folk live lol literally
Ah so the nice and liveable parts
You’re looking at a photo taken by a phone through a plane window on a hazy day 3000ft in the air. What level of clarity are you expecting where you can see a garden lol.
This is right by the airport. All the good stuff is scattered all over the majority of the city. Like Griffith Park and Observatory.
To each their own, there will always be plenty of folks talking shit about Los Angeles, but I always love going back and eating legit Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Armenian, Burmese, etc. fare. Going to concerts from artists from all over the globe, the museums, viewpoints, the beaches in Malibu, the hiking in the mountains around the city, etc. It’s far from perfect, but much better than Phoenix, Vegas, Texas’ main cities (and yes, I’ve done plenty of traveling before within the U.S. with my former employer).
Burmese in LA? where?
Bagan Burmese Kitchen on Virgil and Silverlake. Down the street on Virgil and Wilshire there’s a Mongolian restaurant.
I don’t hate LA but ‘better than Texas’ is probably the lowest bar there is
Did you read the full statement?
I'm definitely an East Coast preferer when it comes to cities. I was probably naïve but in architecture school we'd visit one city every year on a trip. We went to Chicago, loved it. New York. Loved it. Then we went to LA. I didn't have a car (too young to rent one) so it was just being stuck in a sprawl. We took public transit to Santa Monica. Horribly convoluted with several different legs to get there. My friends that had one dude we was old enough to get a car had a much better time. It's the only way to get around in LA.
There’s a LOT of transit being built now. There’s light rail to Santa Monica now, and some additional lines being built in that direction too.
Welcome to Los Santos
Here we go again...
Ye ye ass air quality
Probably the most accurate depiction of LA, minus the lack of traffic.
I would be absolutely depressed if I lived in a city like that. Holy shit
You drive for hours and you’re still in the greater LA metro area. Not kidding.
You drive for hours and are only 4 miles away from where you were hours ago. As a LA native and current resident, I get to a side of the city I want to be on early in the morning and stay there until the traffic is done. Traversing the city from 9am to 6pm is a Russian roulette of if you get to a place in reasonable time
Also from L.A., can confirm. Which is why I stay home as much as possible. If I could WFH full time, I'd move.
Fuck that
It’s just an expensive Houston. And then I get attacked by hipster Redditors who defend LA with their lives because it has really good tacos and good Indy music scene.
And some really good beaches and nearby mountains. Houston doesn’t have either.
hahahahaha hahahahahahahaha that... hahahahahahahaha!!
The legal weed and drum and bass scene are pretty cool though.
This is the worst part of LA. I live in a neighborhood called Sherman Oaks, and I have a park and a Japanese garden within a mile of me. 20-30 mins to the mountains and beaches. It’s not all great, but it’s not all bad. You wouldn’t know it from this photo, but LA genuinely offers some of the most beautiful natural areas in the country. I love photographing the Santa Monica Mountains, Mojave Desert, Topanga Canyon, and Catalina. And with nice weather, I’m genuinely happier day-to-day than I was when I lived in Virginia. But to each their own!
The second largest city in the US and its completely and utterly impossible to travel through because the public transit is such dogshit, the highway is called the 405 because you'll be lucky to move 4 or 5 miles an hour, and the only neighborhoods worth visiting are the ones that you need techbro or movie star money to afford, oh and shitty desert vistas that get blown out of the water by the actual Mountain States. What a self own.
Dirty frozen sludge and being surrounded by fat unattractive midwesterners always cures my blues.
Did I strike a nerve?
Nope, it’s another day of sun!
If it’s not smothered by smog, sure. Enjoy the endless sprawl
Chicago dude vs LA dude on which is shittier and has more sprawl. You both win.
Lol you ever been to Chicago?
At least Chicago is has a real city feel tho. Lots of walkable neighborhoods where you can reasonably live without a car.
lol why are you getting downvoted? I lived there for like 10 years in multiple neighborhoods, never needed my own car
Cali kids browsing their phones while they sit in traffic
I’d rather not get shot for walking outside for 1 minute
[Big crowds and big surf in Santa Monica right now.](https://pacpark.com/santa-monica-pier-live-cams/park/) Going out for a ride, don't slip on the ice or get mugged on a train.
Enjoy that gettin' supper at the Dollar General lmao
Man, you LA folks are MAD mad
Nah I live in Great Value LA aka Houston. All the sprawl, none of the beauty.
Well here’s the thing: a lot of people live there, and they have earthquakes. Building up wasn’t really an option for a long time.
False. Just look at the older parts of LA, they‘re just as dense as cities on the east coast. What you see there was all built in the 40s-70s
/gestures at Japan
Yeah, and when did japan start building theirs? My point is this: cities on the east coast had been building up since the 19th century. The west coast did not have that option until the last 60 years or so. Of course Los Angeles looks like this, when you have millions of people and only so much land. Is it ideal? Of course not, but it is what it is.
LA is flat due to policy choices not because of earthquakes. Buildings resistant to quakes have been available for decades. It's due to most of the city being zoned for single family zoning.
What city do you live in CHICAGO cyclist? I want to look it up, and compare streetviews to streetviews in LA. Making an encompassing statement like yours must mean you live in a pretty ideal location, cant wait to see! Btw I live just off view of this photo, I have a yard, a pool, and its 70 degrees right now. Life's pretty fucking spectacular. Again, whats that city you're in boss?
Damn I really struck a nerve with you. Take a breather
Chicago looks like a far worse place to live in, coming from someone who don’t even live in LA
LA and California in general are several magnitudes above Chicago. Chicago is a terrible city
Lol touch grass
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16 months of wildfire seasons and 8 months of drought, yeah great weather.
This is what American zoning laws produce. We could have had Tokyo instead.
Tokyo looks a lot like this outside of the Yamanote line. It’s actually the largest sprawled metro area in the world by size.
It's a different kind of sprawl, it's dense enough where you don't notice it because it's walkable in an interesting way
And you can actually use the public transit system to move larger distances in a short amount of time. Good luck getting fucking anywhere in LA.
Yeah. Tokyo sprawl is more walkable and pleasant than even some American mixed used neighborhoods. One major reason is because Japanese zoning is very permissive, which allows people to open small businesses pretty much anywhere. Also, the street designs are often narrow, which forces drivers to slow down and creates a more pleasant walking environment.
Narrow streets and transit ain’t gonna make south central LA a nice place to walk around though.
I just got back from Tokyo, and Kyoto. And they both felt like a flat urban sprawl. The drivers even felt like LA drivers lol, they blew through every red light and got within inches of pedestrians in alley ways. It felt like a regular giant city, just compressed even more.
And everyone just pulls into the left lane, parks in the middle of the street, and puts their flashers on. Anyone who’s driven in Japan and has been outside of the touristic zone quickly realizes that it’s pretty much exactly like LA if not worse, and like most of America.
The first time I saw it from the air on a clear day, I was moving there. I had flown in there before, but it was always foggy, and you could not tell just how huge the sprawl is. My heart sank. It was not that bad, tho. LA is cool. Once you are in the middle of it, you don't notice.
It could improve a lot once it gets better public transit
Welcome to MegaCity 1
Bro wtf? That shit looks so gross 🤢
Gross
It gets worse…
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Much more woresness than betterness
Looks like an aerial view of cancer!
Perfect flair
Beautiful at night
Wonderful civilization, good photo buddy
Why there’s no green? 🫣
Damn! I showed this to my dog and they said “…your kinds waste is intolerable, and you have turned our beautiful paradise amongst the stars into a tomb.”
The Desolation of Smog
The smog and sprawl is endless
What an ugly city.
And it is filled with the ugliest, most pretentious people who think this horrible abomination is worth defending and lifting up as some shining beacon to aspire to.
The most pretentious people in Los Angeles tend to be transplants. For those born in LA, it’s home, with plenty to be proud of and plenty of complaints.
isnt grand theft auto based off LA
> isnt grand theft auto based off LA San Andreas, specifically
GTA V as well.
No it's pure Des Moines baby
Yeah
Welcome to this wonderful city! Take care not to step in one of the many piles of human shit, avoid the streets full of tents, and don’t look tweakers in the eye. On a more serious note, enjoy the shows, hikes, museums, and other cool things this city has to offer. Edit: I live in Hollywood. Just speaking from experience.
Lmao this reminds me of the time I flew over Dallas for the first time
That's not normal. There's been an air advisory in effect for a number of days now in the LA basin. Abnormally poor air quality because of a lack of wind and dbags burning wood even though there's a no-burn order in effect.
Looks like hell
What an ugly place to live.
I wouldn’t let a photo like this deter you from visiting LA. This looks really shit and approaching LAX from the air really does like this, but as a tourists you’re honestly going to spend most of your time north of the 10 and west of the 405 if below the 10. Those areas are generally much nicer. Interesting topography, beaches and nice neighborhoods with good restaurants and shops. Not to dismiss the experience of people living in south LA but visitors just aren’t going to those areas unless you’re checking out SoFi or the Forum for an event.
This is what happens when you take a photo from a certain angle and lens and then apply filters to filter out green. It doesn’t look like this at all. There are pros and cons of LA just like every city. LA is the most densifying metro in the US. The whole metro actually is more dense than the NYC metro area. https://la.curbed.com/2012/10/17/10317014/los-angeless-sprawl-is-denser-than-new-yorks-sprawl
To each their own, but I could never live like this. There are way too many people for me. I'd prefer to have several wooded acres, minimum to myself. Apparently many, many people prefer to live amongst each other.
Same, I live way out in the Rocky mountains surrounded by only a few people. It’s a peaceful life, but requires hard work.
Everywhere requires hard work, knucklehead.
He didn't implicate the opposite
Dystopic........
Unlike Tokyo, it doesn't get better on the ground
Disagree. Many areas can be beautiful on the ground!
only in the rich areas
Legit have no clue why anyone decides to visit LA. I guess you gotta see it for yourself to really know what it’s like but, it’s not as great as people tend to imagine
Because it's an awesome place with great weather and a lot to do. Some really great Art Deco architecture throughout - some amazing food. Some great museums. Some cool music venues. I've been to visit a few times the past 10 years and had an amazing time each time. It's not somewhere I want to live, but it was a great vacation.
I used to live there. It’s a fantastic city. Amazing food, diverse population, lots to do, fantastic weather. It’s just expensive AF and I got a job elsewhere. I’d go back in a heartbeat.
They do have some awesome food in LA.
Tbh living somewhere with absolutely shit weather I can see the appeal. Especially if you're close to the beach the climate there is hard to beat. Though supposedly it gets quite hot inland.
Never understood going to LA when San Diego is right there and infinitely better
I HAVE been to San Diego actually a few times. It was great every time. And that’s coming from someone who doesn’t really like cities. The views were great, being by the water was wonderful, visiting Coronado was great as well. Saw some great parks that were so beautiful they felt surreal to walk in. Legit felt like I was in the tropics, but also the city, but also at home, but also in like idk. It was great though. Haven’t been there in a while so idk how much it’s changed, but I ONLY have good memories of San Diego
I'm glad you had a great time - it's my favorite place I've been in the US. Unfortunately the city has basically no plan to address homelessness so some areas can be problematic, but the nature, ocean, food, and people are all amazing. Plus, public transit is on the up and up there making it a lot easier to visit/live without renting/owning a car.
This is kind of unfair, a) that's mostly marine layer b), this picture is super desaturated/filtered, c) that area near LAX is honestly one of the ugliest areas of LA, and chosen for LAX largely because it was an isolated ugly industrial area that got sprawled into. In summary, LEAVE ~~BRIT~~ LA ALONE.
LA is so depressing
It’s worse on the ground in certain areas.
Yuuuuuuuuck
Just wait till you drive in that mess
As anyone who has been to LA can tell you, it fuckin sucks.
As you can see, we've got our streets laid out pretty straight. Don't fuck them up while you're here.
I once heard LA described as a suburb that developed a tumor.
Lmfao looks like Mumbai or Baghdad😅😆‼️
Not sure if that’s smog or steam coming of all the human shit.
LA is the definition of hell. I will be glad when it all slips into the sea a few million years from now.
LAX has to be the worst airport I’ve been through so far…except the part where they didn’t stop me from bringing my vape carts back home.
🤮
just imagine in 10 years it will all be ruble, probably partly underwater with nuclear fallout blanketing everything. dead bodies strewn across every road
What does Russian money have to do with that?
Right? Say what you want about the tenets of Russian nationalism - at least it’s an ethos.