Shame on los angeles. (San Diego, San Jose: sales, 2013, crime rate)

[stillkit]

Ok. In the first place, I'd recommend I-15 to I-80. Once you cross the GW Bridge, you'll feel much better.

Secondly, are you talking about Los Angeles and New York City proper, or the whole urban area?

Originally Posted by blksophisticado

LAX

our airport is a crying shame. Compared to JFK its a dismal failure. its way too small. The terminals are outdated. Runways are too close. No trains. and it takes forever to get in and out of.

Where would you recommend they put another one? In your neighborhood?

If a traveler doesn't like flying into LAX, he's always free to use John Wayne, Burbank, Ontario or Long Beach. In New York, the only other options are LaGuardia and Newark. God knows THOSE airports aren't crowded and run down!

In any case, LAX is older than JFK by about 20 years, so what do you expect?

MASS TRANSIT
ridiculous. when I was in new york, I realized for once what great freedom it is not to have to sit on the 405 at 1pm on a sunday stuck in traffic. We need subways POINT BLANK. those who want to keep your cars GREAT. i love mine too I cant lie, but it is nice to have the freedom to use mass transit and get to where you are going QUICKER. which is the whole point. L.A. MASS TRANSIT IS A JOKE BECAUSE IT DOESNT GET YOU THERE QUICKER and it doesn't connect the places that need to be connected.

A couple of things come to mind right here.

In the first place, NYC began building it's mass transit system before the civil war, when a good bit of Long Island, Staten Island, the Bronx and even some of Manhattan were still rural areas. LA got a late start on that and now has to contend with property ownership and land value issues which could drag out new construction for years and years and literally cost billions of dollars. How badly do you want subways?

Additionally, most of NYC sits on a bed of pure granite several hundred feet deep and unaffected by active fault lines. Los Angeles isn't so lucky and any underground transit system runs the risk of caving in during an earthquake. NO tunnel can be made perfectly earthquake proof, so are you willing to take the risk of being buried alive everytime you ride the subway? If so, have at it. I think I'll stay above ground.

As for the freeways, you do know, of course, that roughly half the people in New York do not even own a car, don't you? The city grew up around mass transit and that's what they use. In fact, car ownership is discouraged by such things as towing practices and street cleaning activities which require you to move your car a couple of times a week. Owning one in NYC is a major and very expensive headache.

In spite of that, though, the freeways in the greater Los Angeles area have .0419 lane-miles per 1000 population, only SLIGHTLY better than NYC. In other words, even though half the people in NYC don't own cars, their freeway system handles just about as much traffic as does the one in LA, so how can you complain about sitting in Los Angeles traffic, yet say nothing about New York? Ever been on the Cross Bronx when it's backed up from the GW tollbooth to Connecticut? Of the Brooklyn-Queens during rush hour?

ie
subway line connecting, China Town, Downtown, Mid Wilshire, Century City. West L.A. and Santa Monica. imagine how that subway line would relieve traffic.

If there were the ridership to support such a line, they'd be planning for it.

PEOPLE
New York has a cultural diversity unparalleled. And with all that diversity people still understand that they need to speak english. They're also a lot more real and straight forward.

The Los Angeles school system has to deal with more than TWO HUNDRED different home languages. How's that for diversity? And, I assume you know nothing of New York history or you'd know that for a good bit of it's history, the city had whole neighborhoods where the common language was Yiddish or Gaelic or Spanish or whatever. Over the years, the offspring of those immigrants improved their lot and moved to the suburbs. Los Angeles got a late start on the influx of immigrants too, with most coming from Latin America, so give them a generation or two and those ethnic enclaves will disappear, just as they've mostly done in NY.

As for New Yorker's being more real and straightforward? LOL Down here in Texas, we call that a "Yankee Attitude," and it's an acquired taste.

DOWNTOWN.
still waiting for us to build one. GOD i want to see Los Angeles with a real downtown. I was so happy to see that new hotel go up. KEEP BUILDING PLEASE.

Yes, keep building up and up and up. That way, Los Angeles might finally make it to an urban paradise like parts of New York, where the population density runs to several thousand people per BLOCK. Heck, who wouldn't want to live in a sardine can?

FREEWAY LIGHTING
I asked this question on a previous thread. Why are the freeways here so dark. I FIND it amazing that so many people dont know what I'm talking about. Maybe they've never been out of Socal. But in Major cities throughout the U.S. once you see that sign that says ________CITY LIMITS the freeways are lit continously. pole after pole from beginning til the end. Not just in the exit ramps upon approaching the streets. 101 in San fernando Valley is pitch black through most parts.

Just within the limits of Los Angeles County, there are 527 miles of freeway. That's not including the Inland Empire, Orange County or Ventura. Just LA County. To light just that portion of the LA freeway system would require thousands upon thousands of light poles, which have to be maintained and fed electricity. Guess who would pay for that? If you don't think your taxes are high enough already, go ahead and push for that to be done.

The rest of us will use our headlights.

HOLLYWOOD.
THE place that so many people flock to from around the world to me is like a major disappointment. When my partner recently visited from New York I took him there and he was like, IS THAT IT? In seven years of living here I've been there like 3 times. West Hollywood, West L.A. Beverly Hills are nice areas but the rest of our city is falling apart. L.A. is just looking a little run down. what can we do to make it better?

And NYC isn't run down? Merciful heavens! Where do you hang out in the city?

So Hollywood is a disappointment. So is Greenwich Village, so what's your point?

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Chava61

NYC subway trains are crowded but aren't smelly.

You're right; I should have written that the other rider's armpit that is two inches from your nose is smelly, not the steel, glass, and electrical cabling which the comprise the subway cars themselves.

(Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this image under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.)

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Charles

A lot of what you wrote is true but just because NYC is different, doesn't make it better. Some people would rather be stuck in traffic in their own personal space than on a crowded smelly subway for example.

Also, the suggestion to add subways is a great idea. Do you happen to have a few billion dollars laying around for them? Also, the overwhelming majority of the US has more in common with LA's car culture than it does with NYC public transit culture. This doesn't mean car culture is a good thing, but subways are probably better suited for high density cities like NY than for spread out cities like LA.

LAX sucks, can't argue there.

Skyscrapers aren't built because (City-Data posters and other) people like tall buildings; they're built because the economics of land value and building costs support them. Also, seismic technology limited the size and height of buildings for many years.

Did you have actual metrics which suggest foreigners in NYC speak English at a higher rate than in LA?

Right on Chrales is all areas. I am not a strong Ca supporter as most know, but one persons opinion is just that, an opinion. both cities have very special things to offer and are great for visiting. to say one is a better place to live than another is a matter of opinion.

Nita

[Fontucky]

"real and straightforward" = annoying and pushy

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Fontucky

"real and straightforward" = annoying and pushy

You can add "belittling" too, especially when talking to people who used to live in new york.

"You cowol dese howot dowogs? Dems ain't nuttin. You should taste da howot dowogs back in nu yu-ork."

"You cowol dis a play? You should see a play back in nu yu-ork."

[Fontucky]

"Youse cowol dis pizzer? Youse should taste da pizzer bayak in New Yoak."

[nmnita]

Actually visiting NYC a few times we have found the people pretty friendly even though they can be pushy, the ones we had trouble with were the foreigners visiting NYC, they were really rude!!!!

that being said, yes, after New Yorkers leave NY they can be pretty obvoxious (spelling)

Nita

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

I think that both places are amazing places to visit and live in. I can't see comparing the two though. How do you compare them? They are very differant cities built in differant time frames.

[Mach50]

You can only compare NYC to Hong Kong, London, Paris and Tokyo. Nothing in the US can compare to NYC.

[matt345]

Originally Posted by stillkit

Additionally, most of NYC sits on a bed of pure granite several hundred feet deep and unaffected by active fault lines. Los Angeles isn't so lucky and any underground transit system runs the risk of caving in during an earthquake. NO tunnel can be made perfectly earthquake proof, so are you willing to take the risk of being buried alive everytime you ride the subway? If so, have at it. I think I'll stay above ground.

Yeah, in an earthquake I'd rather be stuck in rush hour traffic under or on top of one of those massive concrete interchanges. Those things never collapse in an earthquake and underground subways are always the first to go. Just look at Loma Prieta 1989....oh wait. Most of the people who died in Loma Prieta were above ground, in their "safe" cars, on a "safe" freeway. Nothing happened to those riding BART and that subway system became the Bay Area's life line after the earthquake with the closure of the Bay Bridge. Tokyo is also positioned in an active fault zone, yet it hasn't stopped them from buildings one of the most extensive systems in the world.

Originally Posted by stillkit

If there were the ridership to support such a line, they'd be planning for it.

There is ridership to support this line (has been for decades) and they are planning for it.