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I'm glad that in San Diego to describe some kind of development as "Los Angeles-like" is the ultimate put down. May Camp Pendleton continue to protect us from this Strip Mauled mentality!
Glad to see the basics of good urban design are becoming ingrained into the minds of a new generation... if you are actually young enough to be considered a part of a new generation.
People talk about trying to gussy up strip malls to make them more palatable, but in the end, only a tear down will do the job.
Strip malls and six pack apartment buildings... the pinnacle of bad urban design.
Uhhhh nothing against San Diego at all but it has a ton of strip malls too (and perhaps a higher proportion). I mean, the cities are practically duplicates of each other, just LA is a more dense version.
LA still has a lot of street-facing retail, it just also has a lot of strip malls.
The LA strip malls are, FWIW, often different than what you find in other, less dense areas; they're often packed in pretty tight, the parking lots are not necessarily all that big, and they're not surrounded by the large swaths of grass that you find in, say, a strip mall in the suburbs of the Twin Cities (which are an entirely different beast.). LA, or at least parts of LA, also seem to have a lot of two-story malls. It's not uncommon to find strip malls on the same block as older, street-facing retail. I don't know the answer, but I think munchitup's explanation -- filling in vacant lots or replacing condemned buildings -- makes the most sense.
I also agree that the forces of change are upon LA. I really miss living in that city, and that feeling gets even stronger when I read about all the activity going on there these days. Innovative public transportation projects, biking improvements, lots of attention towards pedestrians, etc. Sometimes I think the cities that have good reputations have a tendency to coast on their laurels.
Toronto's core has a few of small strip malls similar to those of LA, so probably LA's strip malls are different because of where they were built, in an area that was otherwise relatively urban and also because it was probably more difficult to get together large amounts of land for big parking lots and a big strip mall.
Strip malls are here to stay - the nastiest ones are in LA because within the city they are generally two stories high - doubling the ugliness of them..
Developers try to make newer ones nicer by mimicking "Town Square" developments... but basically since the "streetscape" includes a view of hundreds of cars baking in the usually tree-less parking lot it sort of doesn't work....
I'm sure the reason that one looks like garbage is because it's a strip mall.. or wait, no it's not. And neither of those so ugly places is making any attempt at trying to pretend to be a city center, because *drum roll* they aren't!
To repeat what invincible said, I'm struggling to find the big deal in this. If you don't like it, don't shop there. Simple. They look perfectly fine to me, but then I'm more of a rural person than a concrete jungle person. I also don't make a habit of going to the city center of San Francisco and complain because I can't find free parking, there's too many people, the buildings are too tall and close together. If they're not yuppie enough for you, don't shop at them. Not everyplace is trying to be Santana Row or Park Slopes.
I've often thought they should make some of the empty/vacant spaces in strip malls into artist's studios or music rehearsal places. Sure would liven them up !
Strip malls are here to stay - the nastiest ones are in LA because within the city they are generally two stories high - doubling the ugliness of them..
Developers try to make newer ones nicer by mimicking "Town Square" developments... but basically since the "streetscape" includes a view of hundreds of cars baking in the usually tree-less parking lot it sort of doesn't work....
sadly true. I'd like to see them all bulldozed to the ground but there's far too many of them. there's no way you can get rid of them because there's millions of them everywhere. they're like a permanent urban plague devouring land and resources wherever they go. the nature of the built environment, 90% sprawl, ensures they aren't going anywhere. they have spread like a malignant cancer everywhere across the landscape. and there's no cure for cancer. if I were an executive in the automotive or oil industry, I would probably be very pleased about that.
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I'd like to see them all bulldozed to the ground but there's far too many of them. there's no way you can get rid of them because there's millions of them everywhere. they're like a permanent urban plague devouring land and resources wherever they go. the nature of the built environment, 90% sprawl, ensures they aren't going anywhere. they have spread like a malignant cancer everywhere across the landscape. and there's no cure for cancer. if I were an executive in the automotive or oil industry, I would probably be very pleased about that. 
