Editing Greater Los Angeles (section)

===Urban form===
[[File:South-Los-Angeles-110-and-105-freeways-Aerial-view-from-north-August-2014.jpg|thumb|right|Many areas are completely filled with houses, buildings, roads, and freeways as observed in [[Vermont Vista, Los Angeles|Vermont Vista]], a Los Angeles neighborhood.]]
Los Angeles has long been famous for its [[urban sprawl|sprawl]], but this has to do more with its status in history as the "poster child" of large cities that grew up with suburban-style patterns of development, rather than how it ranks in sprawl among American metro areas today, now that suburban and [[exurban]]-style development is present across the country.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Berube |first1=Alan |title=Finding Exurbia: America's Fast-Growing Communities at the Metropolitan Fringe |date=2006 |publisher=Brookings Institution |url=https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/20061017_exurbia.pdf |access-date=June 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204165955/https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/20061017_exurbia.pdf |archive-date=February 4, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Los Angeles–Orange County metro area was the ''most'' densely populated "urbanized area" (as defined by the [[United States Census Bureau]]) in the United States in 2000, with {{convert|7068|PD/sqmi|PD/km2|0|sp=us}}.<ref>American Factfinder, United States Census Bureau, Table: "GCT-PH1-R. Population, Housing Units, Area, and Density (geographies ranked by total population): 2000" from Data Set: "Census 2000 Summary File 1 (SF 1) 100-Percent Data", accessed October 10, 2007 at: [http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=y&-state=gct&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-_box_head_nbr=GCT-PH1-R&-mt_name=&-_caller=geoselect&-geo_id=&-format=US-12S&-_lang=en] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080219044227/http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=y&-state=gct&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-_box_head_nbr=GCT-PH1-R&-mt_name=&-_caller=geoselect&-geo_id=&-format=US-12S&-_lang=en|date=February 19, 2008}} See also: [[List of United States urban areas]]</ref> For comparison, the [[New York metropolitan area|"New York–Newark" Urbanized Area]] had a population density of {{convert|5309|/sqmi|/km2|0|sp=us}}.

Los Angeles' reputation for sprawl is due to the fact that the city grew from relative obscurity to one of the country's ten largest cities (i.e. 10th largest city in 1920), at a time when suburban patterns of growth first became possible due to electric streetcars and automobiles. The city was also the first large American city where, in the 1920s, major clusters of regional employment, shopping, and culture were already being built outside the traditional downtown areas – in [[edge cities]] such as [[Mid-Wilshire]], [[Miracle Mile, Los Angeles|Miracle Mile]] and [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]]. This pattern of growth continued ever outward, more so when the freeway system was built starting in the 1950s; thus Greater Los Angeles was the earliest large American metropolitan area with a [[decentralization|decentralized]] structure. Its major commercial, financial, and cultural institutions are geographically dispersed rather than being concentrated in a single downtown or central area. Also, the [[population density]] of [[Los Angeles]] proper is low (approximately 8,300 people per square mile) when compared to some other large American cities such as New York City (27,500), [[San Francisco]] (17,000), [[Boston]] (13,300), and [[Chicago]] (11,800).<ref>Haughton, Graham, and Colin Hunter, ''Sustainable Cities'', London: Routledge, 2003: 81.</ref> Densities are particularly high within a 5-mile radius of downtown, where some neighborhoods exceed 20,000 people per square mile.<ref>{{cite web |title=Population Density |url=https://maps.latimes.com/neighborhoods/population/density/neighborhood/list/ |website=Los Angeles Times |access-date=March 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191103211925/http://maps.latimes.com/neighborhoods/population/density/neighborhood/list/ |archive-date=November 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> What gives the entire Los Angeles metro region a high density is the fact that many of the city's suburbs and satellite cities have high density rates.<ref>Bruegmann, Robert. ''Sprawl: A Compact History''. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2005: 65.</ref> Within its urbanized areas, Los Angeles is noted for having small lot sizes and low-rise buildings. Buildings in the area are low when compared to other large cities, mainly due to zoning regulations. Los Angeles became a major city just as the [[Pacific Electric Railway]] spread population to smaller cities much as interurbans did in East Coast cities. In the first decades of the twentieth century, the area was marked by a network of fairly dense but separate cities linked by rail. The ascendance of the [[automobile]] helped fill in the gaps between these commuter towns with lower-density settlements.<ref>{{cite book|last=Abu-Lughod|first=Janet L.|title=New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America's Global Cities|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|location=Minneapolis|year=1999|isbn=978-0-8166-3336-4}}</ref>

Starting in the early twentieth century, there was a large growth in population on the western edges of the city moving to the [[San Fernando Valley]] and out into the [[Conejo Valley]] in eastern [[Ventura County]]. Many working-class whites [[White flight|migrated]] to this area during the 1960s and 1970s out of East and Central Los Angeles.<ref>Gutierrez, David. ''The Columbia History of Latinos in the United States''. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003: 94.</ref> As a result, there was a large growth in population into the Conejo Valley and into Ventura County through the [[U.S. Route 101 in California|US 101]] corridor. Making the US 101 a full freeway in the 1960s and expansions that followed helped make [[commuting]] to Los Angeles easier and opened the way for development westward. Development in Ventura County and along the US 101 corridor remains controversial, with open-space advocates battling those who feel business development is necessary to economic growth.<ref>Curtiss, Aaron. "Bitter Land-Use Fights Seen For 101 Corridor Development." ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' November 20, 1993: B1.</ref> Although the area still has abundant amount of open space and land, almost all of it was put aside and mandated never to be developed as part of the master plan of each city. Because of this, the area which was once a relatively inexpensive area to buy real estate, saw rising real estate prices well into the 2000s.<ref>Olsen, Andy. "Local Home Prices Soar in May." ''Los Angeles Times'' June 23, 2003: B3.</ref> Median home prices in the Conejo Valley for instance, ranged from $700,000 to $2.2 million in 2003.<ref>Griggs, Gregory. "Local Homes Get Even Pricier." ''Los Angeles Times'' August 21, 2003: B1.</ref> According to [[Forbes]], "it's nearly impossible" to find reasonably priced real estate in California, and the prices will continue to increase.<ref name = forbes>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/05/28/playing-the-surge-in-california-real-estate/|title=Playing The Surge in California Real Estate|last=Gerber|first=Ross|date=May 28, 2014|magazine=Forbes|access-date=July 14, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715010513/http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/05/28/playing-the-surge-in-california-real-estate/|archive-date=July 15, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Los Angeles area continues to grow, principally on the periphery where new, cheaper, undeveloped areas are being sought.<ref name="Halle">{{cite book|last=Hale|first=David|title=New York and Los Angeles: Politics, Society, and Culture: A Comparative View|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|year=2003|pages=[https://archive.org/details/newyorklosangele0000unse/page/181 181–183, 185]|isbn=978-0-226-31369-6|url=https://archive.org/details/newyorklosangele0000unse/page/181}}</ref> As such, in these areas, populations as well as housing prices exploded, although the housing bubble popped late in the decade of the 2000s. Riverside and San Bernardino counties, which contain large swaths of desert, attracted most of the population increase between 2000 and 2006. Growth continues not only outside the existing [[urbanization|urbanized]] area but also adjacent to existing development in the central areas.<ref name="Soja">{{cite book|last=Soja|first=Edward W.|title=Postmodern Geographies:The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory|publisher=Verso|location=London|year=1999|edition=5th|pages=[https://archive.org/details/postmoderngeogra0000soja/page/224 224–233]|chapter=Taking Los Angeles Apart|isbn=978-0-86091-936-0|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/postmoderngeogra0000soja/page/224}}</ref> As in virtually all US core cities, there is now vigorous residential development in the downtown area with both new buildings and renovation of former office buildings. The ''Los Angeles Downtown News'' keeps a list of ongoing development projects, updated every quarter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ladowntownnews.com/development/|title=Development|website=Los Angeles Downtown News – The Voice of Downtown Los Angeles|access-date=June 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190630075411/http://www.ladowntownnews.com/development/|archive-date=June 30, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Over the course of the 21st century, [[Droughts in California|droughts]] and [[List of California wildfires|wildfires]] have increased in frequency and the region's [[water security]] has become a development issue.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Boxall |first1=Bettina |last2=St. John |first2=Paige |date=November 10, 2018 |title=California's most destructive wildfire should not have come as a surprise |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-camp-fire-science-20181110-story.html |access-date=November 11, 2018 |archive-date=November 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181111011829/http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-camp-fire-science-20181110-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Downtown Los Angeles-02.jpg|thumb|[[Downtown Los Angeles]]]]