One issue is that "Los Angeles" in the popular mind is far larger than the literal city. A lot of the actual city, like Downtown and K-town are extremely dense

One issue is that "Los Angeles" in the popular mind is far larger than the literal city. A lot of the actual city, like Downtown and K-town are extremely dense and are quite walkable as well as covered well by public transit. It's just that a lot of the outlying areas and suburbs aren't.