How does LA manage the largest metro on earth?

[AlwaysByChance]

Originally Posted by adr3naline

Yeah you didn't read the thread before posting. OP followed up beneath yours, admitting he/she just likes to compare LA to Chicago being that it's his hometown and he knows it well.

Thanks for backing me up! I'm just curious, maybe you can answer.. Why does south California have such massive counties? Some of the counties are just unbelievable in size. The CSA of LA includes some counties that are sparsely populated in some areas. Why not chop-up those huge counties and give LA a more fair share in actual populated places? It would still be the largest CSA in the nation, but have only the populated areas.

[adr3naline]

Originally Posted by AlwaysByChance

Thanks for backing me up! I'm just curious, maybe you can answer.. Why does south California have such massive counties? Some of the counties are just unbelievable in size. The CSA of LA includes some counties that are sparsely populated in some areas. Why not chop-up those huge counties and give LA a more fair share in actual populated places? It would still be the largest CSA in the nation, but have only the populated areas.

No idea, personally. But the idea of segmenting CA is one we revisit often.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Californias

[Western Urbanite]

Originally Posted by AlwaysByChance

Thanks for backing me up! I'm just curious, maybe you can answer.. Why does south California have such massive counties? Some of the counties are just unbelievable in size. The CSA of LA includes some counties that are sparsely populated in some areas. Why not chop-up those huge counties and give LA a more fair share in actual populated places? It would still be the largest CSA in the nation, but have only the populated areas.

I support this. However, the counties are so big because when they were created, Southern California was incredibly sparsely populated, so they gave them massive sizes to have enough people.

[Californiaguy2007]

In my opinion L.A is still able to function is because of it's many network of freeways and surface streets,and also many commuters use the bus and the metro,but also their is still so much more open land out there for The Greater L.A to expand stretching from the Beaches,The Valleys,The Mountains and The Deserts,so in other words their is a lot of breathing room.

I really don't know why some of the counties in Southern CA are that large in area,but I do know that L.A is finally building upwards which is a good thing.

[DabOnEm]

Originally Posted by AlwaysByChance

You're right, 4,850 square miles (12,561 km2) is the MSA of LA. That's less than half the size of Chicagoland. I guess it all comes down to your definition of Greater LA. A lot of the CSA is uninhabited.

I think you might be talking about urban areas. Not all of the population centers around LA are included in its urban area. Urban areas can have really different make ups than MSAs or CSAs.

[Western Urbanite]

Originally Posted by thebrainmachine

In terms of urbanized land, Greater Los Angeles is nowhere near the largest metro on Earth. It isn't even the largest in America - - NY tri-state area, Chicagoland and Greater Atlanta are all larger.

Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Philadelphia, and Boston all take up more room as well.

[WizardOfRadical]

I have been to Chicago many times and have extended family there. Many of whom work for CPD.


People in Chicago think about SoCal, because they are blown away at how fast it passed them up.

To get LA, you have to understand it is 5 cities rolled into one. South Central, Central LA, West LA, East LA, and the Valley.

If you want a car free urban life, you just have to live in Central LA.

[AlwaysByChance]

Originally Posted by Western Urbanite

Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Philadelphia, and Boston all take up more room as well.

It was ignorant of me to declare LA as the largest metro area on earth. Going by most factors, it's not even close. I was just going by the US governments CSA, which isn't fair to LA, because the Southern California counties are so large. Now that I think of it, it gets me angry that LA isn't treated fairly.

I'm sure LA is massive and a great city. Sorry if I offended anyone, I just wanted to blab-on about not needing a car in Chicago. I was ignorant, the CSA is stupid. And, California seriously needs to chop up those counties in my opinion.

[Western Urbanite]

Originally Posted by AlwaysByChance

It was ignorant of me to declare LA as the largest metro area on earth. Going by most factors, it's not even close. I was just going by the US governments CSA, which isn't fair to LA, because the Southern California counties are so large. Now that I think of it, it gets me angry that LA isn't treated fairly.

I'm sure LA is massive and a great city. Sorry if I offended anyone, I just wanted to blab-on about not needing a car in Chicago. I was ignorant, the CSA is stupid. And, California seriously needs to chop up those counties in my opinion.

No problem.

[iNviNciBL3]

Originally Posted by adr3naline

Yeah you didn't read the thread before posting. OP followed up beneath yours, admitting he/she just likes to compare LA to Chicago being that it's his hometown and he knows it well.

What other city is he supposed to compare it to? his hometown is probably the city he knows about the most so it only makes sense to compare the two.