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Southern Californians and west coast people in general tend to be blinded by their isolation from the bulk of the United States/Canada.
Hahaha blinded? More like BLESSED.
Thank heavens for the Mississippi River, the Plains, the Rocky Mountains, Deserts, the Sierra Nevada and Coastal Range for providing a massive buffer zone.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RaymondChandlerLives
The quiet suburbs of DC look nothing like L.A.'s. That's just .
Outside of California, no city resembles Los Angeles. We're talking about a legit megacity here. It could swallow all these cities (minus NYC) alive.
Miami resembles some of the gateway cities (or Long Beach), but that's as close as it gets.
Digging up an old one here...
While I agree with this and you certainly have your points, in an abstract way of thinking, out of the major metropolises of the East Coast (Boston, Philly, NY, DC, Miami). I think the DMV region as a whole does potentially have the most overall similarities to LA MSA/CSA. Although aesthetically Miami would be considered most similar to the eye.
In another thread a poster I believe it was manitopiaa or murderisrock, one of them, made reference to the "lived experience" in Los Angeles vs NYC not being much different in terms of amenities or diversity etc. Well I think the same is true in this thread, especially looking at the metro area. I'll preface this by saying none of these cities care to either be compared to one another by choice, this is just making some basic observations.
Nodes- The LA metro and DC metro areas both are very nodal, they both have numerous significant sized cities, towns, entertainment venues, or business districts well outside of the downtown or immediate urban core. In the DC metro area a good number of those places are connected by rail transit (I know that LA is doing a lot with it's rail currently also). Both regions have various pockets of areas where you can literally live there and never travel to central LA or DC and be perfectly fine. Heck DC only makes up 61 sq mi of a 5,500 sq mi region.
Diversity- Both the metropolitan area of Los Angeles and Washington DC have similar levels of diversity and in some cases see immigrants from the same countries/continent (ie Central America, Asia).
Wealth- Orange County, Fairfax County, Loudoun, Inland Empire, Mo County etc goes without saying. (although the IE is more diverse than it is wealthy)
Suburban malls/town centers- When I think of suburban malls in a major metro area, I think of these two places first LA and the DC region...Miami probably comes to mind as well as other malls in Florida. A Westfield mall in Valencia, CA feels no different walking through than a Westfield mall in suburban Maryland, 0 difference.
Traffic/Mega commute- These two often are paired 1 and 2 with traffic in and out of town, the DC area on it's worst days is easily a rival to LA traffic wise. Although overall I still say that LA is king due to size. Both of these areas are mega cities now as DC by CSA is approaching 10 million.
Modern- Again, these two metro areas I think of ahead of most others when I just think of modern up to date infrastructure, development, and youthful population.
Fit population- LA is well known to have a lot of in shape people, lots of gyms, Venice beach etc etc, but one of the biggest misunderstood or under represented things about the DC area is how many young, fit people who eat right and work out regularly are here. I have no stats in front of me, but I'm positive it's in the top tier of U.S. metro areas with regards to fitness, I'm sure Miami is too.
Spacing with density- Both of these areas spread out and sprawl pretty far, yet both cities and metro areas have good density, LA's region still significantly bigger, but DC's region is pretty big. DC metro area feels compact in some ways, but in some ways it feels pretty deep, it's kind of weird. Also in terms of aesthetics, you may not notice DC's development in the same manner as LA's from the freeway but it's there. There is consistent development along I-95 from central Virginia to practically Delaware.
Growth- These two regions grow more than the typical other regions on the EC other than Miami.
Now if this were nationally speaking, I would say LA has to compare to Houston or Dallas more than it would any metro on the East Coast. But if we're only comparing those Eastern metros, I think the way DC has spread out and grown over the last 20 years, is in some form it's own "LA type" or "lite". It can be considered at least an EC version of it (as a metropolis), or at least can be compared to some extent. The lived experience in one vs the other is very similar outside of the obvious things like beaches/weather/climate or immediate cultural background differences.
Last edited by the resident09; 03-28-2019 at 08:43 AM..
It has a similar layout in regards to it not being such a centralized city, where you have clusters of centers, like Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Brickell, Miami Beach, etc.
It's not like most other cities on the East Coast where they are centralized in the downtown/core areas and everything spreads out from there.
Also, add in the Palm Trees, "luxurious" life, and media/entertainment (for latin America) that happens in Miami.
In all honestly, I am not saying that Miami and LA are two cities that are just a like, but when compared to the rest of the US, at least in urban environment they are the most similar, Miami is just on a smaller and less developed scale.
While I agree with this and you certainly have your points, in an abstract way of thinking, out of the major metropolises of the East Coast (Boston, Philly, NY, DC, Miami). I think the DMV region as a whole does potentially have the most overall similarities to LA MSA/CSA. Although aesthetically Miami would be considered most similar to the eye.
In another thread a poster I believe it was manitopiaa or murderisrock, one of them, made reference to the "lived experience" in Los Angeles vs NYC not being much different in terms of amenities or diversity etc. Well I think the same is true in this thread, especially looking at the metro area. I'll preface this by saying none of these cities care to either be compared to one another by choice, this is just making some basic observations.
Nodes- The LA metro and DC metro areas both are very nodal, they both have numerous significant sized cities, towns, entertainment venues, or business districts well outside of the downtown or immediate urban core. In the DC metro area a good number of those places are connected by rail transit (I know that LA is doing a lot with it's rail currently also). Both regions have various pockets of areas where you can literally live there and never travel to central LA or DC and be perfectly fine. Heck DC only makes up 61 sq mi of a 5,500 sq mi region.
Diversity- Both the metropolitan area of Los Angeles and Washington DC have similar levels of diversity and in some cases see immigrants from the same countries/continent (ie Central America, Asia).
Wealth- Orange County, Fairfax County, Loudoun, Inland Empire, Mo County etc goes without saying. (although the IE is more diverse than it is wealthy)
Suburban malls/town centers- When I think of suburban malls in a major metro area, I think of these two places first LA and the DC region...Miami probably comes to mind as well as other malls in Florida. A Westfield mall in Valencia, CA feels no different walking through than a Westfield mall in suburban Maryland, 0 difference.
Traffic/Mega commute- These two often are paired 1 and 2 with traffic in and out of town, the DC area on it's worst days is easily a rival to LA traffic wise. Although overall I still say that LA is king due to size. Both of these areas are mega cities now as DC by CSA is approaching 10 million.
Modern- Again, these two metro areas I think of ahead of most others when I just think of modern up to date infrastructure, development, and youthful population.
Fit population- LA is well known to have a lot of in shape people, lots of gyms, Venice beach etc etc, but one of the biggest misunderstood or under represented things about the DC area is how many young, fit people who eat right and work out regularly are here. I have no stats in front of me, but I'm positive it's in the top tier of U.S. metro areas with regards to fitness, I'm sure Miami is too.
Spacing with density- Both of these areas spread out and sprawl pretty far, yet both cities and metro areas have good density, LA's region still significantly bigger, but DC's region is pretty big. DC metro area feels compact in some ways, but in some ways it feels pretty deep, it's kind of weird. Also in terms of aesthetics, you may not notice DC's development in the same manner as LA's from the freeway but it's there. There is consistent development along I-95 from central Virginia to practically Delaware.
Growth- These two regions grow more than the typical other regions on the EC other than Miami.
Now if this were nationally speaking, I would say LA has to compare to Houston or Dallas more than it would any metro on the East Coast. But if we're only comparing those Eastern metros, I think the way DC has spread out and grown over the last 20 years, is in some form it's own "LA type" or "lite". It can be considered at least an EC version of it (as a metropolis), or at least can be compared to some extent. The lived experience in one vs the other is very similar outside of the obvious things like beaches/weather/climate or immediate cultural background differences.
Out of all the metros along the Northeast corridor, DC definitely has a more sunbeltish growth pattern and areas of development. I’ve also noticed that a lot of West Coast companies that want to enter East Coast markets typically start in the DC area and make their way up north...Nordstrom opened their first East Coast location in Tyson’s back in the 1980s, and I’ve noticed quite a few west coast restaurants like The Habit and Peet’s Coffee that have a few locations here. Another thing DC and LA has in common are the numerous Defense Contractors. Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics used to be headquartered in LA, and now call Northern Virginia home. The cities don’t look anything alike, but they’re spiritually similar in some aspects. Even the connections between Hollywood and Politics are pretty intertwined. There’s a lot of movement between Southern California and the DMV as well. Physically and built environment defintely goes to Miami.
LA - IMO- is just nothing like DC. They both have nodal areas, but DC has.... DC. And it’s nodal areas are insanely more pedestrian friendly.
I’d say Atlanta is more similar to LA. But LA feels more glamorous, more special, hundreds of great local places scattered around. Of course it has beaches and palm trees but also, it’s a major international destination with a huge population.
I love LA for what it is. But after this forum, I was under the impression it was more pedestrian friendly, or less auto-oriented, than made out to be from some of the posts I’ve read. Love LA. But this is a super, super auto-oriented city and even the “nodes” I went to were strips and it felt like the pedestrian experience fell off a cliff straying from the Main Street. (Again. I would love to live in LA because it’s amazing the way it is.) and that’s just my experience. Maybe I somehow missed the pedestrian oasis’s. Even with that said, LA would be a top relo destination for me. Even over NY and other more urban areas. The weather, people, beaches, Palm trees and glitz is appealing.
DC has great pedestrian infrastructure all around IMO.
Superficially, LA is most similar to the metro areas of Orlando, Jacksonville, Charlotte & especially Atlanta (if any at at all) on the East Coast. The cities of the north east have little in common with LA compared to the above mentioned car centric spread out metros.
LA is most similar to other sprawling desert metros like San Diego, Las Vegas & Phoenix.
Although not in a desert climate, the Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth metros resemble LA in many ways. These three cities have massive city limits, sustained medium/low suburban density over a large sprawling metro, a massive highway infrastructure, and the extreme summer heat discourages walking. All three cities experienced most of their population growth after 1950.
Probably Washington DC. Most of that metro area dates from the 20th century unlike other Northeast cities which are much older. Also the DC area has very few ethnic whites just regular whites like California and also has a lot of Hispanics though not Mexicans. The liberal politics is quite similar too. And the DC area kind of liberalism is more like the California nanny state, overregulation kind of liberalism than the live and live kind of liberalism you see in New Orleans or Austin.
Also the layout of DC is also similar to Los Angeles in that it really does consist of many suburban centers with downtown Washington actually having less office space than Tysons Corner, Roslyn or Bethesda and most commutes are suburb to suburb vs a classic suburb to city commute like Baltimore or Philadelphia.
If y'all even consider the Carolinas and Georgia to be "East Coast" (many don't) then the Southern culture is too different from California.
Miami is another example though Hispanics don't dominate LA the extent they run Miami. LA still feels like an American city with many Hispanic immigrants. Miami feels like a foreign, Latin American city located in the USA. You can still get by in LA and get a job in LA speaking only English and while many Mexican immigrants do refuse to learn English its not to the extent of Miami Cubans.
LA - IMO- is just nothing like DC. They both have nodal areas, but DC has.... DC. And it’s nodal areas are insanely more pedestrian friendly.
I’d say Atlanta is more similar to LA. But LA feels more glamorous, more special, hundreds of great local places scattered around. Of course it has beaches and palm trees but also, it’s a major international destination with a huge population.
I love LA for what it is. But after this forum, I was under the impression it was more pedestrian friendly, or less auto-oriented, than made out to be from some of the posts I’ve read. Love LA. But this is a super, super auto-oriented city and even the “nodes” I went to were strips and it felt like the pedestrian experience fell off a cliff straying from the Main Street. (Again. I would love to live in LA because it’s amazing the way it is.) and that’s just my experience. Maybe I somehow missed the pedestrian oasis’s. Even with that said, LA would be a top relo destination for me. Even over NY and other more urban areas. The weather, people, beaches, Palm trees and glitz is appealing.
DC has great pedestrian infrastructure all around IMO.
We've been down this road several times over the years on here. There is only a handful (meaning, count on one hand) of US cities more urban than Los Angeles. DC isn't one of them...
As far as "pedestrian oasis", I don't know, man. There are plenty of walkable areas and plenty of unwalkable areas. If you were looking for somewhere to live a car free lifestyle in LA with all the perks of that walkable life of choice, it wouldn't be difficult to find in Central LA at all, and even in many parts of South LA...
We've been down this road several times over the years on here. There is only a handful (meaning, count on one hand) of US cities more urban than Los Angeles. DC isn't one of them...
As far as "pedestrian oasis", I don't know, man. There are plenty of walkable areas and plenty of unwalkable areas. If you were looking for somewhere to live a car free lifestyle in LA with all the perks of that walkable life of choice, it wouldn't be difficult to find in Central LA at all, and even in many parts of South LA...
Ok, but my opinion of having just visited LA and living in DC, LA seems much, much more suburban. In my opinion, it felt much more auto-oriented than DC. And I realize you could live a car free lifestyle enjoyably in LA. I can’t really think of cities you couldn’t?
And I was a little surprised by how auto-oriented it was because people on city data have insisted that was not true. The DC nodes, for the most part border DC. Have great ped. Infrastructure and great metro access, etc. in LA, lots of parts where hard to cross the street. Sidewalks randomly ended (but that was in some of the beach areas like Laguna.) Also, in LA, I feel like people are generally going to visit places that are spread far apart. People are traveling between Reston to go visit College Park. At most, people might go to Tyson’s (and have the silver line there) that’s not right there at the district.
I went to LA without a car and quickly realized that was just not going to happen. Visiting the LA area without a car, you would definitely miss out on a lot. DC, not sure you’re going to miss much without a car.
All just my opinion.
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