>visiting my friend in Chinatown is either a 10-15 minute drive, or a 40-50 minute bus ride + walk You're describing a 4 mile journey. A comparable journey in

>visiting my friend in Chinatown is either a 10-15 minute drive, or a 40-50 minute bus ride + walk You're describing a 4 mile journey. A comparable journey in NYC is SoHo to Central Park. At best, that's a 30 minute commute in NYC on transit. Probably similar in a car. In LA it's a drive no matter what. NYC distances just feel longer because they pass more stuff (which to be fair is an argument for NYC).