Originally Posted by
dhuey
And there's the problem. L.A. is nothing like any other city. Indeed, it is a city in only the most technical sense. It is rather an amalgamation of a large number of cities, bedroom communities and towns, all spread across an enormous region. Downtown L.A. is not the center of this region; there is no center.
Actually, every since other cities began slicing themselves into discrete chunks with freeways in the 1960s, the L.A.-style metropolitan area has become the norm in the U.S. Places like Atlanta, Houston, and even the Twin Cities have sprawled far faster than their populations have grown. From about 1965 to just recently, most cities thought of urban design in terms of keeping automobile traffic flowing smoothly.
And what you say about L.A. is also true of Tokyo, even more so, in fact. The Chiba-Tokyo-Kawasaki-Yokohama megalopolis goes on forever, having swallowed up literally hundreds of towns and villages.
But despite a rudimentary freeway system and increasing evidence of adopting the strip mall model of suburban "design," the emphasis has been on building new train lines. Every time I go back, there seems to be either a new train or a new subway, and suburban communities that don't have train lines actually beg for them.
When the oil crunch comes--and it will come, probably sooner than you want to believe--Japan and other Asian countries will be ready, and the average American city will not.
Go ahead, car potatoes. Live in your dream world inspired by TV ads.