LA Photothread | Page 2

interchange42 · May 10, 2007

ShonTrons: you really saw quite a bit in a relatively short time! I gotta get back there to see the Getty...

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doady · May 11, 2007

Great photos. I have a lot of relatives in LA so I've been there a few times.

ShonTron · May 12, 2007

Ganjavih: Yeah, I am very glad I checked out Downtown LA. I enjoyed myself there. I had lunch at the Market there at a Lebanonese Shawarma place that was about as good as the one on Gerrard. I chatted with the owner for a bit - his brother is here in Toronto in medicine of all things.

You notice that the buildings are run-down, but full of activity, almost what you'd expect to see in a developing county, complete with most speech in Spanish. The sidewalks were almost overflowing with pedestrians, certainly not what comes to mind about LA. The city of LA itself (except perhaps the San Fernando valley part) isn't quite as sparse as people may think, but most of the surrounding areas are. A surprising amount of density along Wilshire, which is why I think it makes sense for some sort of rail-based transit.

allabootmatt · May 13, 2007

isn't the LAMTA's next plan to extend the subway down Wilshire to the ocean? I don't see why it wouldn't work...density in that corridor is comparable to Bloor St...

Hipster Duck · May 17, 2007

Wendell Cox once called Toronto the "LA of the North". He was trying to be a contrarian to planning books that tell you that Toronto=good, LA=bad, but, indirectly, he's right: Toronto and LA are practically cousins.

If the Jeopardy answer was "this city, which first developed along intricate interurban rail lines exploded in the middle of the 20th century and is known for its enormous freeways", the question "What is Toronto?" or "What is LA?" would be equally valid.

Anything north of Bloor street probably has its LA equivalent: Bathurst and Eglinton is like Fairfax, Yonge and Lawrence is like Melrose, NYCC is like Century City. A lot of LA had about the same street presence as the Yonge/Eglinton/Mt. Pleasant corridor and that's nothing to sneeze at.

I'd still rather live in Toronto but LA gets better every year more quickly than Toronto does.

ShonTron · May 17, 2007

The next plan is the under construction Expo Line, which will eventually go to Santa Monica along a route that roughly parallels the Santa Monica Freeway, but more specifically, an abandoned rail corridor parallel to Exposition Blvd, which was another former Pacific Electric line.

Wilshire certainly deserves something. On a Saturday evening (around 9PM), a articulated 720 Rapid bus passed us at Westwood with doors closed.

As Toronto is the second or third fastest growing Metro in the US and Canada (behind Las Vegas and Pheonix, two sprawlholes), it is certainly like LA in its mass and era of rapid growth. The mistake is that we rested on our laurels for too long, then elected two incompetant, then one destructive provincial governments and ambivalent federal governments.

I've gotta finish my post on transportation in California.

Hipster Duck · May 18, 2007

You're right, but LA has the most focused transit development plan of any North American city I know and, unlike Toronto, I get a sense that when they plan something it's a matter of 'when it's going to get built' rather than 'if'.

Wilshire certainly deserves something. On a Saturday evening (around 9PM), a articulated 720 Rapid bus passed us at Westwood with doors closed.

I would argue for nothing less than a subway along Wilshire. It's like Yonge street circa 1954; it's quite obviously the central spine of the city and a lot of high-intensity development could take place.

As Toronto is the second or third fastest growing Metro in the US and Canada (behind Las Vegas and Pheonix, two sprawlholes), it is certainly like LA in its mass and era of rapid growth.

What I meant is that Toronto and LA have a similar built form, history, and transportation network. Places like Scarborough, Mississauga and LA are the only suburban areas in all of North America where you could see hordes of working class people of mixed ethnicity waiting to catch a bus, for example.

vicente · Feb 9, 2008

LA reminded me a lot of Toronto. Consider that they both grew up during the streetcar age, and both had extensive streetcar networks, the difference of course being that LA went from having the biggest streetcar network to ZERO streetcars, while Toronto still has them in its downtown. LA also has the avenues of low-rise retail surrounded by tracts of detached housing in the side streets. In terms of urban form, Toronto is more like LA than it is to, say, Montreal, Chicago, or Boston.

Tewder · Feb 9, 2008

That's an interesting perspective. I don't think I've ever heard Toronto described as being like L.A.

JasonParis · Feb 9, 2008

Our core isn't very L.A.-like, but otherwise I think the similarities are quite apparent.

Mustapha · Mar 3, 2008

Thanks for ther pics.

LA is really vast isn't it? I like hanging around the Santa Monica area. Kinda like the 'Beaches' of Toronto, but not villag-ey like our Beaches. SMonica feel like a city of its own.

SMonica has a Third Street Promenade, a-permanently-closed-to-cars street. I quite like it.