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That is how people end up feeling when they first arrive here. Madison, WI is similar in many regards.
The edge between the two continuous cores only has 23 miles left and quickly being closed up as the cores are growing fast. The last decade it had grown by 135000 people! Several counties qualify as an msa for both and most assume the metro will be consolidated either 2013 or 2023.
Okay, thanks for the information. If you're talking about the CSA, then I understand where you're coming from. I've not much of a fan of CSAs these days...it kind of "stretches" metros' populations, if you get what I'm saying. I don't know if Lincoln would be too keen on being considered part of the Omaha area, but you could promote that to domestic and international businesses looking to relocate or start operations in the area. I will need to make a visit to Omaha soon, since it comes up on my shortlist for places to relocate to.
-Everyone in LA is a Mexican illegal immigrant and looks like a huge Mexican barrio (Protip: name ONE place in Mexico that physically looks like LA in terms of development...can't think of one, can you?)
I think that the suburbs in Mexican cities like Guadalajara look a lot like LA. I've seen pictures where I almost couldn't tell the difference.
I think that most of the negative impressions that people have of LA are at least partly true. It's just not everywhere like they stereotype. The main two stereotypes that I disagree with are:
That LA is the prototypical city for sprawl. That was probably true 4 decades ago, but since then LA has filled in immensely. So much so that LA is the densest metro in the US. You can't be the densest metro in the US and the prototype for sprawl at the same time. What LA is, is f'in huge! So we don't sprawl more than wherever you are, we're just a lot bigger.
That LA is dangerous. Again that was true 20 years ago, and in small areas true today, but overall LA is safer than most urban areas.
^^^ I went to Spokane for the first time just this past weekend and have to admit my surprise at how "ghetto" and pretty ugly the city was. Very industrial, dirty / gritty. The eastern suburbs were nice though.
I'd have to agree. Spokane isn't really "ghetto", but it's much more working class appearing than I thought that it would be. Quite a bit more and over a pretty large area.
I'd have to agree. Spokane isn't really "ghetto", but it's much more working class appearing than I thought that it would be. Quite a bit more and over a pretty large area.
I guess I could understand how someone might get that impression from driving through town along our one and only freeway (I-90), which runs East-West, but most of this city exists North-South and you don't really get a good feel at all for what Spokane really looks/feels like unless you explore it by road rather than interstate.
Spokane is definitely not a modernized city. It experienced it's last big population boom in the mid-70's and architecturally it's kind of an example of arrested development in that department. The most "modern" buildings in the city date from that period. However, there are many beautiful old neighborhoods in the South Hill, Browne's Addition, Audubon, and Peaceful Valley areas that are kept up very nicely. Manito Park in the South Hill was designed by the same people who designed Central Park in NYC, and is absolutely beautiful. One of the nicest parks I've ever seen. Unfortunately the older neighborhoods visible from I-90 are the more run-down ones, which are really much smaller areas than the ones I mentioned.
Also, a little further North there are some newer but also very nice areas like Shadle, Five Mile, and Garland. Hillyard on the East side and the area known as "Felony Flats" just Northwest of downtown both have potential, with many nice old homes, but they are overrun with meth-heads and two-bit lesser gangbangers, and the neighborhood suffers for it. In other words, Spokane is really no more/less "gritty" than most other small cities in America. And though it's definitely not the excitement mecca of the West, it still has much more to offer in the way of outdoor recreation than most other cities it's size.
I think that the suburbs in Mexican cities like Guadalajara look a lot like LA. I've seen pictures where I almost couldn't tell the difference.
Ehh, not really. Most Mexican cities have streets that are way narrower than what you find in the Los Angeles area, especially once you get down to the urban core. Keep in mind that cities like Guadalajara, Mexico City (especially), Monterrey, etc. are MUCH older in settlement patterns than Los Angeles, are are focused around the idea of having a town square. The LA area, especially OUTSIDE the immediate DTLA area, is mostly set up on a grid. Older Latin American cities aren't quite set up on the same type of grid that LA is. This has a lot to do with the way urban planning has developed in the past 50-100 years with the development of the automobile.
Newer Mexican cities, such as Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Hermosillo, etc. (basically places closer to the US border that were populated in the last 50-100 years) have more of a grid pattern going on as well, but still display the typical Latin American development pattern of being around a town square, having roundabouts, and having the bulk of the worse off people living in the hills, as opposed to here where the hills are populated by better off people. Again, differing attitudes, different urban planning patterns.
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I think that most of the negative impressions that people have of LA are at least partly true. It's just not everywhere like they stereotype. The main two stereotypes that I disagree with are:
That LA is the prototypical city for sprawl. That was probably true 4 decades ago, but since then LA has filled in immensely. So much so that LA is the densest metro in the US. You can't be the densest metro in the US and the prototype for sprawl at the same time. What LA is, is f'in huge! So we don't sprawl more than wherever you are, we're just a lot bigger.
That LA is dangerous. Again that was true 20 years ago, and in small areas true today, but overall LA is safer than most urban areas.
Agreed on both counts. To some extent, every stereotype is true, but it's not as predominating as people would really think it is. The sort of sprawl that goes on in SoCal is pretty dense sprawl, but still, it's sprawl. Much of that has to do with geography here in the West vs. the East.
The LA area really isn't that dangerous anymore, and I say this as someone who grew up in one of the seedier areas of the SFV. I love how people in Orange County complain how ghetto Santa Ana is, for example, despite the fact that it has a lower crime rate than Omaha, Nebraska.
I guess I could understand how someone might get that impression from driving through town along our one and only freeway (I-90), which runs East-West, but most of this city exists North-South and you don't really get a good feel at all for what Spokane really looks/feels like unless you explore it by road rather than interstate.
I stayed in Spokane for a week at a time on a couple of different occasions a few years ago and it was northeast of downtown that seemed worn to me.
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