[LordWanker]

I came across a thread at the SkyscraperPage.com forum, called Noirish Los Angeles.

It's been going for over 2 years and has over 220 pages filled with old pictures of Los Angeles. It started out with pics that the OP thought had a noirish quality, but quickly expanded to pretty much any old pics of L.A., from the 1860s up to about the early 1970s. It's a skyscraper forum so it leans toward the architectural with hundreds of pics of old buildings (still existing and not), but there are also aerials, lots of street shots, maps, screen caps from noir films, old postcards, rooftop panoramas, and crime scene photos ranging from fender-benders to murder.

The posters have done some fantastic collaborative internet sleuthing to figure out locations of old pics, and then use Google Street View or go out 'into the field' themselves to get new pics for then-and-now comparisons. In other words, a variation/relocation to the beloved Toronto Then and Now thread.

Cheers

 

[Hipster Duck]

I've seen these before, and they are mesmerizing. LA is a fascinating, underrated city and I personally find it more interesting than Chicago (I'm probably alone on this). One of the best urban experiences of my life was when I spent 9 hours walking across the city all the way from the market, up Melrose, through Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Echo Park and into downtown and Boyle Heights. Never a dull moment, and despite the criticism that it could be a suburban "anyplace", there was never a time that I felt I could have been in any other city.

 

[ShonTron]

It certainly has its own feel, much like Chicago. I enjoy San Francisco, but would prefer spending more time in LA (I've been to both).

LA - the city itself, along with Santa Monica and West Hollywood (and yes, Beverly Hills) indeed has its own feel. I'd say the same about Chicago, but except University Park and Oak Park, there's not much outside the core that interests me anymore. The north side neighbourhoods are disappointing for a city that size.