how can you live in an urban city and yet be in a rural or suburban neighborhood?

[wburg]

Lots of Italian mountain towns are quite dense, even though they are built up the side of steep hills: the flatland was precious farmland, so they figured out ways to build on the less arable hillsides. San Francisco scoffed at the idea of redoing their street plan to follow their topography, and uses a "traditional" city grid even though much of the city is built on very hilly terrain.

[T. Damon]

I think L.A. is actually fairly unique among very large cities in that, because of its topography, has amazing rural feeling enclaves (albeit, mostly the wealthy West Side hills). Lots and houses that are mere minutes away from the strip and yet feel like you are in the woods of back East. Most other cities do have wealthy older enclaves that were built what was then considered far from town and still retain the larger lots and mature landscaping but the city has come to their edge and maybe even passed them by.

My little neighborhood, and particularly my lot and house have that feeling; I can walk to the center of downtown, take in a ball game or walk to the theatre or the bay, and yet my back yard borders an urban canyon at the edge of Balboa Park full of wildlife and an urban forest of trees. You can find a few lots like this in every city I think if you know where to look.

[Tashinamu8]

also me·gap·o·lis (mĭ-găp'ə-lĭs, mĕ-)
n.

• A very large city.
• A region made up of several large cities and their surrounding areas in sufficient proximity to be considered a single urban complex.

Los Angeles is a megalopolis. Northridge is another city in the San Fernando Valley that is, as anyone who has lived in LA says, "over the hill" in "The Valley". There is a mountainous geographic separation between the areas, but it is one large region receiving influence from each other and providing different areas of living and services. The freeways are all interconnected and connect the towns. Learn the peak flow of each and listen to the morning, afternoon, and evening traffic reports. Go see Steve Martin's film, LA Stories. Then take a deep breath and jump in.

Originally, like most cities LA was "the town" and there were outlying areas that grew up around it. These small satellite areas were separate towns usually based upon some function, agriculture, mining, movies, etc. Eventually they started growing and started to "press" up against each other's borders". Long Beach is part of the megalopolis at the coast with its history in oil production, but it is its own separate city. That being said, as each of these cities grew, they had districts within them, usually named by the land developer that created them. In an older section of LA, there is Los Felix, Hancock Park, Boyle Heights, etc. I guess they might be equivalent to eastern city burroughs, only the distance between them is physically greater than in the Eastern city models.

So, you will physically live outside LA city limits in one of the towns around CSUN , perhaps, Northridge or one of the towns in the San Fernando Valley (whose name is based on geography, not political jurisdiction) and go to school and perhaps on the weekends drive over the hill and get a great Mexican meal at El Tepeyac (known locally at Manuel's) in East LA. (The Soto exit off "the 5".) It is open 24/7 and most of the USC kids go there for the burrito platters. In fact, everybody does, from all walks of life and they are now an institution.

Enjoy! It is a great city with some danger zones, but that has become true of all major cities. You can't walk LA. It is so physically large, you must drive, unless you learn the areas and get on that Metrorail.

Be wise, be safe, and have a great experience.

Edited post: (because I forgot) The Japanese Americans have always had growing areas within the boundaries, which are dwindling today or non-existant. But, these were the rural areas, acreages of land, left open to development. So, you could live within the megalopolis and still be in a rural area. South Coast Plaza in Orange County (The Big OC) was one of these areas. (BTW, OC and LAC are different counties and OC is not part of LA - in fact, they philosophically are very different places and residents of both, generally dislike being considered part of the other guys turf.) The San Fernando Valley always had ranches which was rural - so there may be some acreage in that area left that has not developed but it is surrounded by high density.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by T. Damon

I think L.A. is actually fairly unique among very large cities in that, because of its topography, has amazing rural feeling enclaves (albeit, mostly the wealthy West Side hills). Lots and houses that are mere minutes away from the strip and yet feel like you are in the woods of back East. Most other cities do have wealthy older enclaves that were built what was then considered far from town and still retain the larger lots and mature landscaping but the city has come to their edge and maybe even passed them by.

actually a lot of sunbelt cities are like that, and they are not that expensive either