5 ms·

Where do you live in the US? It sounds like California, specifically the concrete desert of LA.

by joey-bob 8y ago

scarejunba 8y ago
Sounds like practically anywhere in the country to be honest.
- joey-bob 8y ago
  The only place where I've lived that didn't have yards, parks within walking distance, and could be considered overcrowded was in California. I briefly visited Dallas once, and I could see that as being similar.
  - bluGill 8y ago
    There are parts of any city (including California cities) that are walkable. There are parts of any city that are not walkable (this includes Europe). In some areas the walkable area is pretty large, and others it is tiny.
clairity 8y ago
do you live in LA and know this firsthand or are you repeating a cliché? i live in LA and walk often. it's great. the weather is awesome (60's and sunny today, in the middle of winter), i have dozens of good restaurants and cafes within walking distance, as is most of my shopping needs. parks, theaters, museums, bars, and other entertainment can be easily reached by walking. LA is a big city so not everything is right there, but everything i need day-to-day is.
- joey-bob 8y ago
  I lived in San Diego, and would visit friends in LA somewhat frequently. My interpretation is based off of my experiences in the northern slice of the area, San Bernardino to Venice Beach. Also I had to drive through LA to go anywhere, which might have colored my experience a bit.
  - dima55 8y ago
    Your interpretation is based on a slice that's 80 miles long, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you don't have a good sense of even that slice. LA is fantastic. There's plenty of suburbia to be sure, but living there is a choice some people make. Others make a different choice.
    - joey-bob 8y ago
      I suppose you are correct. Similar to the original comment, who was shocked coming from a European perspective to US, I was a bit shocked coming from an East Coast perspective, and have made too broad a generalization. What areas would you suggest I visit in the future?
      - dima55 8y ago
        Depends on what you want to see; the city is incredibly diverse. The denser, more urban areas are the ones developed before the car was the dominant form of transportation. Downtown, Macarthur park, koreatown, hollywood, etc are very dense. Some parts of the westside are too. The trains generally go through the denser areas. Much of it is gritty, but the architecture is cool, there's lots of fantastic food everywhere, and it's generally interesting. Go explore :)
  - clairity 8y ago
    gotcha. san diego is probably the only place with better weather, if that's possible, and seemingly with more intermingled trees (a good portion of LA's trees are in the hills dividing the valleys and basins). venice is super-walkable, and i'd guess it's better to live in the venice/santa monica bubble without a car than with, because getting out of the westside is awful by car for large parts of the day. within the bubble you can walk, bike, run, skate or scooter to just about anything you need. but outside of LA proper, it's true that san bernardino, the inland empire, and the san fernando and san gabriel valleys generally are car-oriented, and it's unwieldy to live in those areas without a car (although there are pocket exceptions, particularly in the valleys).
- chrisseaton 8y ago
  > i live in LA and walk often. it's great. Doesn't LA have literally the most polluted air in the country? Doesn't sound great for walking.
  - ctrl-j 8y ago
    Its not like there are black clouds of smoke hanging in the air or anything... Your average person is more likely to have allergies and asthma, but it's not like breathing the air hurts or your skin burns or anything...
  - gnopgnip 8y ago
    It isn't great, but it is not any worse than other large cities since the 90s. You can see the current and forecasted cities with the worst air quality here. https://airnow.gov/ https://airnow.gov/
  - clairity 8y ago
    nearly - 4th according to the american lung association annual study (via cbs): https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/air-pollution-worst-us-cities-2018/15/ https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/air-pollution-worst-us-citi... (fairbanks is #1) but it's the worst for ozone, where it's 80's reputation for smog comes from. to be fair, LA's air quality is far better than the 74 major cities in chinaa: https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-la-smog-stats-20140910-story.html https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-la-smog-stats... which is where a significant portion of the air polution comes from (enough to go from good to bad): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution_in_the_United_States#International_pollution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution_in_the_United_St...
  - biztos 8y ago
    I visited Santa Monica (basically LA unless you live in LA) several times and walked almost everywhere, only taking a Lyft when I really wanted to go across town (the Blue Bus comes eventually, but it isn't fast). Air quality was fine and there was a 4-mile beach to walk on if you wanted to really Walk. I know people who live in Downtown LA and don't own cars. I get the impression there are several parts of LA you can live in without regularly driving, and still have a very normal lifestyle. Not sure about the air quality downtown but my friends didn't complain about it.
- zjaffee 8y ago
  Sounds like you live in downtown, as that's the only neighborhood that fits all of those things within walking distance. The majority of people who live in LA, live somewhere nestled into the bigger sprawl that is the region. While there are plenty of neighborhoods that have walkable aspects, the city is by no means walkable (even with transit) to huge portions of the city.
  - seanmcdirmid 8y ago
    Actually, it sounds like he/she doesn’t live downtown. I had all that when I was living in Westwood, which is far far far aaay from downtown, but I could have had that in belverly hills, or Culver City, or even (but just barely) Brentwood.
    - zjaffee 8y ago
      What museum is walkable from westwood?
      - clairity 8y ago
        the hammer (it's free now too): https://hammer.ucla.edu/ https://hammer.ucla.edu/
      - seanmcdirmid 8y ago
        That is kind of a weird question to ask when Westeood is right next to UCLA. So besides the hammer, there are a bunch of smaller galleries on campus, including one with meteorites. There is also a giant robot art gallery in sawtelle japan town, which I think is walkable, definitely bikeable.
        zjaffee 8y ago
        I was overlooking the hammer, I was too caught up on the miracle mile, downtown and expo center museums.
  - clairity 8y ago

Where do you live in the US? It sounds like California, specifically the concrete desert of LA.

scarejunba 8y ago

Sounds like practically anywhere in the country to be honest.

joey-bob 8y ago
The only place where I've lived that didn't have yards, parks within walking distance, and could be considered overcrowded was in California. I briefly visited Dallas once, and I could see that as being similar.
- bluGill 8y ago
  There are parts of any city (including California cities) that are walkable. There are parts of any city that are not walkable (this includes Europe). In some areas the walkable area is pretty large, and others it is tiny.

clairity 8y ago

do you live in LA and know this firsthand or are you repeating a cliché? i live in LA and walk often. it's great. the weather is awesome (60's and sunny today, in the middle of winter), i have dozens of good restaurants and cafes within walking distance, as is most of my shopping needs. parks, theaters, museums, bars, and other entertainment can be easily reached by walking. LA is a big city so not everything is right there, but everything i need day-to-day is.

joey-bob 8y ago
I lived in San Diego, and would visit friends in LA somewhat frequently. My interpretation is based off of my experiences in the northern slice of the area, San Bernardino to Venice Beach. Also I had to drive through LA to go anywhere, which might have colored my experience a bit.
- dima55 8y ago
  Your interpretation is based on a slice that's 80 miles long, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you don't have a good sense of even that slice. LA is fantastic. There's plenty of suburbia to be sure, but living there is a choice some people make. Others make a different choice.
  - joey-bob 8y ago
    I suppose you are correct. Similar to the original comment, who was shocked coming from a European perspective to US, I was a bit shocked coming from an East Coast perspective, and have made too broad a generalization. What areas would you suggest I visit in the future?
    - dima55 8y ago
      Depends on what you want to see; the city is incredibly diverse. The denser, more urban areas are the ones developed before the car was the dominant form of transportation. Downtown, Macarthur park, koreatown, hollywood, etc are very dense. Some parts of the westside are too. The trains generally go through the denser areas. Much of it is gritty, but the architecture is cool, there's lots of fantastic food everywhere, and it's generally interesting. Go explore :)
- clairity 8y ago
  gotcha. san diego is probably the only place with better weather, if that's possible, and seemingly with more intermingled trees (a good portion of LA's trees are in the hills dividing the valleys and basins). venice is super-walkable, and i'd guess it's better to live in the venice/santa monica bubble without a car than with, because getting out of the westside is awful by car for large parts of the day. within the bubble you can walk, bike, run, skate or scooter to just about anything you need. but outside of LA proper, it's true that san bernardino, the inland empire, and the san fernando and san gabriel valleys generally are car-oriented, and it's unwieldy to live in those areas without a car (although there are pocket exceptions, particularly in the valleys).
chrisseaton 8y ago
> i live in LA and walk often. it's great. Doesn't LA have literally the most polluted air in the country? Doesn't sound great for walking.
- ctrl-j 8y ago
  Its not like there are black clouds of smoke hanging in the air or anything... Your average person is more likely to have allergies and asthma, but it's not like breathing the air hurts or your skin burns or anything...
- gnopgnip 8y ago
  It isn't great, but it is not any worse than other large cities since the 90s. You can see the current and forecasted cities with the worst air quality here. https://airnow.gov/ https://airnow.gov/
- clairity 8y ago
  nearly - 4th according to the american lung association annual study (via cbs): https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/air-pollution-worst-us-cities-2018/15/ https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/air-pollution-worst-us-citi... (fairbanks is #1) but it's the worst for ozone, where it's 80's reputation for smog comes from. to be fair, LA's air quality is far better than the 74 major cities in chinaa: https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-la-smog-stats-20140910-story.html https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-la-smog-stats... which is where a significant portion of the air polution comes from (enough to go from good to bad): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution_in_the_United_States#International_pollution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution_in_the_United_St...
- biztos 8y ago
  I visited Santa Monica (basically LA unless you live in LA) several times and walked almost everywhere, only taking a Lyft when I really wanted to go across town (the Blue Bus comes eventually, but it isn't fast). Air quality was fine and there was a 4-mile beach to walk on if you wanted to really Walk. I know people who live in Downtown LA and don't own cars. I get the impression there are several parts of LA you can live in without regularly driving, and still have a very normal lifestyle. Not sure about the air quality downtown but my friends didn't complain about it.
zjaffee 8y ago
Sounds like you live in downtown, as that's the only neighborhood that fits all of those things within walking distance. The majority of people who live in LA, live somewhere nestled into the bigger sprawl that is the region. While there are plenty of neighborhoods that have walkable aspects, the city is by no means walkable (even with transit) to huge portions of the city.
- seanmcdirmid 8y ago
  Actually, it sounds like he/she doesn’t live downtown. I had all that when I was living in Westwood, which is far far far aaay from downtown, but I could have had that in belverly hills, or Culver City, or even (but just barely) Brentwood.
  - zjaffee 8y ago
    What museum is walkable from westwood?
    - clairity 8y ago
      the hammer (it's free now too): https://hammer.ucla.edu/ https://hammer.ucla.edu/
    - seanmcdirmid 8y ago
      That is kind of a weird question to ask when Westeood is right next to UCLA. So besides the hammer, there are a bunch of smaller galleries on campus, including one with meteorites. There is also a giant robot art gallery in sawtelle japan town, which I think is walkable, definitely bikeable.
      - zjaffee 8y ago
        I was overlooking the hammer, I was too caught up on the miracle mile, downtown and expo center museums.
- clairity 8y ago