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If LA has a city that’s closest to it, it’s San Diego maybe. Houston and DFW on surface may have some similarities but there are so many differences.
Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth are more alike than different but as years pass and the metro areas mature, they start to become a bit more different from each other. Like was just previously said, DFW is embracing its prairie location and building alliance with the plains city or those nearby like Kansas City. DFW isn’t in the Midwest nor is it In the plains, but it does have connections to the Great Plains Midwest. Houston is embracing its Gulf Coast location and its like a blue collar city that could be in Florida. Don’t know how many times I’ve heard that Houston reminds people or Tampa or even Orlando to a smaller extent as Orlando is filled with lakes and such. Over the years, you see the Gulf Coast start to unite and have an alliance more. It will be fun to see how these two develop even more.
This was definitely interesting feedback by the owner of a business (First Foundation, Inc.) who recently relocated their HQ from Greater LA to Dallas.
I first thought of this thread when I read his comment. Perception isn't necessarily reality, but given that DFW seems to be the favored destination in Texas for LA expats by a decent margin, his perception may not be unpopular.
"...Chief executive Scott F. Kavanaugh said in a statement Monday the Dallas-Fort Worth area reminds him of the Southern California of 30 years ago, where the company got its start..."
LA is definitely majority blue collar. The media portrays it otherwise and the professional marketeers promote the city as being “celebrity oriented.” It is celebrity oriented, but 99% of the people are just normal, hard working people who have nothing to do with Hollywood. Most of LA isn’t glamorous as portrayed on TV, many parts are somewhat gritty, although there are some very glamorous neighborhoods.
The appeal to tourists are the amenities in LA/Southern California: Hollywood, the beaches, Universal Studios, Disneyland, etc.
I lived in Southern California for 20+ years and know it well. I’m not knocking the place, just supporting your opinion and also dispelling myths supported by the media.
Quote:
Originally Posted by garyjohnyang
LA is a largely blue collar city, though. There are far more people living in areas like South LA or East LA than there are in Beverly Hills or Brentwood. I think this gets lost on some people because of the way LA is portrayed in the media.
The media did a good job fooling people about LA. It’s definitely largely blue collar. Many people struggle there, sadly. The media portrays LA as some type of paradise. Parts of it are, but most parts are definitely not.
Once people actually live there, the truth comes out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Foamposite
I find it hilarious that people think LA (a Hispanic majority city with huge swaths of working class neighborhoods) isn't "blue collar".
Both Dallas and Houston are more like each other than Los Angeles. LA is far denser and has a far more unique environment (mountains, valleys, and coastal plain next to the Ocean for one thing. It also boomed much earlier (1920s-1960s) than DFW and Houston did, and to me, Houston shares more similarities to Tampa, Orlando, or Baton Rouge while DFW shares more similarities to Wichita, OKC, or Kansas City...Los Angeles has obviously influenced the two cities to a degree (lots of cultural and human exchange between California and Texas over the years, developers often have projects in those three cities, and the auto-oriented sunbelt vibe of each). But DFW and Houston are a lot more alike...
...that being said, I’ll give this to Houston. Both are coastal cities with huge ports, but LA seems to embrace its Pacific location for recreation while Houston embraces the Gulf/Galveston Bay as a working coast...Los Angeles has a large blue-collar and working class culture to it like Houston does, and Oil and Gas once was a significant part of the economy in Los Angeles, many years before O&G consolidated in Houston. There are huge pockets of wealth and significant white-collar economies in both cities, but they have similar working-class vibes in the local’s attitudes and outlook compared to Dallas, which tends to be a bit more buttoned up and formal. Also, LA was a huge manufacturing center as well...Both cities are very diverse, and their diversity seems to have been a part of the fabric of these cities for a longer amount of time than DFW...Biggest difference to me is that Houston has a Southern vibe to it while LA is very much the West Coast and moves faster.
LA shares a lot of similarities with DFW too (well, vice-versa). LA was one of the first cities to enact zoning laws and despite its many issues with overcrowding, dirtiness, and homelessness, it appears to be a lot more pristine and organized than Houston, which is infamous for not having zoning laws. DFW has a similar feel in terms of how the cities are organized and zoned. DFW has a lot of incorporated megaburbs and boomburbs like LA, while Houston seems to follow the eastern model of more unincorporated areas with fewer major incorporated cities although lots of metro Houston has planned communities like many parts of Southern California does. Los Angeles, while having a large downtown is far more polycentric like DFW. There are multiple employment centers throughout the LA Basin, the San Fernando Valley, South Bay (aerospace) and Orange County (especially Irvine). DFW has multiple employment centers such as DT Dallas, DT Fort Worth, Plano/Frisco, the 635 Corridor, etc. Like LA, many of the Dallas/FW suburbs are a lot more self-contained...you don’t necessarily have to go to Downtown to have a good time. Houston has multiple employment centers too, but most of them are concentrated inside and along 610 (Downtown, Greenway Plaza, Uptown/Galleria, Texas Medical Center, Port of Houston). The only significant employment corridors outside of those areas are The Woodlands and maybe parts of Galveston/Texas City and the various refineries to the east of the city. Houston has a much more defined centralized core than LA and DFW do.
To me, Los Angeles’ sister city in terms of layout and feel is Detroit, believe it or not. They both boomed as manufacturing centers during the mid-20th century, Downtowns were not focal points compared to other places, high rates of home ownership during their boom/peak times, both freeway oriented cities, plus the manufacturing plants in Detroit were all throughout the metro area like Los Angeles. Also, Los Angeles was the center of automobile manufacturing for the West Coast well into the 1980s. Their streetscapes looked pretty similar, including the retail corridors, the grid patterns, and the wide roads designed to carry lots of traffic. It’s just that Los Angeles had the benign weather and mountainous terrain nearby that differentiated it. Detroit and Los Angeles were actually pretty similar in size up until the 1950s. Both cities took drastically different directions after that, but I can tell they both share similarities due to the times they simultaneously boomed starting in the 1920s. Older parts of LA remind me of the Midwest and Great Plains cities, just with palm trees instead.
I lived in Los Angeles for many years plus spent a lot of time in both DFW and Houston.
Old but since someone revived it I’ll comment.
I agree with most of this. And I’ll add one thing. On top of everything you mentioned, there’s surface level activity that reminds parts of Houston to parts of LA. Pleasure Pier to Santa Monica Pier. River Oaks Shopping Center to Beverly Hills. Palm trees. Freeway systems. Etc. DFW has its things in some ways that remind you as well, but obviously there’s just a lot more in Houston that do as compared to DFW.
Since people are bringing up white and blue collar so much, there’s something I want to point. Even in your most blue collar working class cities (someone mentioned Detroit), the white collar is the place that runs the economy. I bring this up because people are using it as way of what runs them. Supposing Detroit is the most blue collar major city in the USA, even Detroit’s economic activity and wealth is ran and controlled in its white collar areas.
Both are too flat, not enough scenery. LA doesn’t have a city that feels similar to it in this country.
I think you would have to combine several cities in the U.S. to get something that was somewhat similar to LA. I've thought for a while that a combination of Miami, Phoenix and Denver would give you city that was somewhat like LA.
Houston, although completely flat, has big skyline, very busy freeways, endless sprawl, and access to water with large ports.
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