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Comment by fjabre | Hacker News Reader

I actually find it a benefit that you can have a house with a yard in the middle of LA.

Compare that to New York where people are stacked up on top of each other like ants.

For the cost of a studio apartment in Manhattan one could rent a free standing house in Los Angeles and with year round beautiful weather.

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>For the cost of a studio apartment in Manhattan one could rent a free standing house in Los Angeles and with year round beautiful weather.

Shhh. This is why Silverlake is full of New Yorkers now. If anyone asks, its terrible here.

It blows my mind that Silverlake is attractive to former New Yorkers in the way that it is. It's far less walkable than the nearby neighborhoods that are just as trendy from Los Feliz to Highland Park.

But then you have no choice but to get everywhere by car. It's an awful life for some people.

Not true. Many of these neighborhoods are extremely walkable. I used to live in one called West Hollywood

You mean people without a car? Because the freedom of having a car and being able to go literally anywhere relatively quickly is pretty great. I've lived in both LA and NYC for a number of years. In both places you can easily live 10 minutes from where you work, or an hour away. Where you live/work is up to you.

relatively quickly

I don't know what Los Angeles you live in.

Every workplace in LA has housing within a 20 minute rush hour commute. If you don't want to live close by that's on you. When I do drive places other than work it's not during rush hour so the traffic isn't that bad.

NYC isn't any different and often even if you live close by the commute can still easily be 40 minutes between walking to stations, waiting for trains, and changing trains.

Personally I'd rather be stuck in my car than stuck in a train.

Personally I'd rather be stuck in my car than stuck in a train.

Agree to disagree.

LA has the worst traffic in the nation. They responded to traffic problems by just building more and harder, and it just made the problem worse. Which is why they're starting to turn around and embrace multi-modal development.

Cars are nice for some things, but they don't scale well. The bigger the city, the worse cars work.

Ive lived in NY and LA. I definitely had worse traffic problems in NYC than LA.

Ive never seen my GPS do the sort of gymnastics it did when driving to Long Island during rush hour.

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-us-cities-with-the-wo...

Of course, NYC is #2, so not much better. But at least there you have a viable option besides driving.

The point is that in NYC you have other transit options. In LA you (realistically) dont.

Living carless in LA is getting better every year. Keep in mind the massive amounts of bike lanes being built, and perfect cycling weather year round. Along with the Metro and rideshare, it's pretty feasible to not have a car.

> Keep in mind the massive amounts of bike lanes being built

Weather I'll give you, how many miles of bike lanes are really being built though? What's the ratio between bike lane miles vs car lane miles in the city? What percentage of the bike lanes are protected vs unprotected? Are there any protected intersections?

I don't dispute that LA is taking biking more seriously, but it'll be a loooooong time before biking is even a second class citizen like walking in LA.

My next door neighbor commutes from South Orange County to DTLA and back every day via train. It's not fast, but he's been doing it 5 days a week for the last 3 years and doesn't ever complain about it when we're chatting.

He means with a car. I would be very averse to buying a house somewhere that required me to drive everywhere.

Not having a car is freedom. I’m 35 and have never driven and hopefully never will. Can’t imagine having another expense and hassle to deal with.

I have a nice bicycle, live near work, and can get to the beach or mountains fairly easily by either bike or mass transit.

Pick any 2 points in LA and compare the time between driving and public transit.

Thinking of all the places I travel to around here like the desert, mountains, Vegas, beaches, etc.. I can't imagine not having a car.

Believe it or not there’s a world outside of LA.

I lived without a car for 4 years in Chicago and it was bliss. If I really needed one, I had a car rental place nearby. I took public transportation everywhere. I walked everywhere. I didn't have to worry about where I parked or getting towed or broken into.

I live in LA now and I miss that sense of freedom every day.

Sitting in miles of traffic for hours a day then worrying about parking is just not a life I'd want to live.

I thought this, but it really only holds true if you work in a different neighborhood you live (likely tho it is)

I've spent some time in Marina del Ray and Long Beach, and they're walkable cities in their own right if you ignore the rest of LA (my preferred strategy)

And isolated away from the LA sprawl Long Beach and Marina/Venice/SM are sizable cities unto themselves. It's a common misconception. Yes LA is not walkable but many cities inside of it are and are some of the most walkable places I've visited in the US.

Marina Del Rey and Venice are actually just neighborhoods of the city of LA. Santa Monica and Long Beach are their own cities.

MDR isn't a neighborhood in LA either, it's technically an unincorporated part of LA county.

When I lived there I thought it was too damn hot at least half of the year, and I was in Santa Monica. It was a bloodbath for cyclists and pedestrians, too.

Yes but you were in Santa Monica one of the most touristed places in California. South bay sounds more your speed.

Hot by your standards maybe and also has been hotter in recent years but generally speaking most people find Southern California to have the best climate in the US and also in the world.

I like the passion for your hometown, but saying "most people find Southern California to have the best climate in the US and also in the world" may be overstating the case a bit. I'm sure I'm not the only person who prefers living in a wetter, more temperate climate.

I have yet to meet someone who likes humidity, which is what really matters in my opinion. I would also assume most people like sunny weather, so anywhere with low humidity, sunshine, and mild invariable weather is probably high up on most people's list, that I've met at least.

West coast of the US in general feels nicer to most people I've met. What is more temperate than socal? Maybe Cape Town and Nairobi, but it would be tough for me to come up with many places.

I'm using "temperate climate" here to mean one with four distinct seasons, rather than one that is hot or cold all year. I also don't really like dry weather (thirsty and sore eyes all the time) and am not that big on sunshine (besides getting hot I get sunburn very easily). Basically my ideal day is New England autumn, maybe with a light drizzle. I guess I could see myself liking the PNW but Socal is not for me.

The nice thing about subjective things like "best climate in the world" is that you don't have to be wrong for me to disagree. But there are lots of people who don't like the socal climate - It's not like air conditioners are a rarity.

Also, remember that at least some of the people in socal are there because they wanted to socal climate, so there's some selection bias.

I lived in San Diego too, and thought it was too hot there, and also very hostile to cycling (a big deal to me). The climate mattered for that too since I was always sweaty when I got where I was going.

But I'm glad you like it!

Yea maybe 6 years ago, but today this is no longer true. Speaking as someone who rents a free-standing house in LA, and has looked at what renting in New York would cost. LA is no longer cheaper, as a good portion of New Yorkers have migrated in pursuit of this exact ideal.

You certainly will get more space for the money in LA at least.

While LA rents have increased dramatically the last several years it does not rival cost of living in NYC from my experience.

I haven't looked recently, but at least a couple years ago salaries in LA were terrible compared to the COL.

LA is considered the least affordable city in the country (incomes are much lower than they are in NYC), but in nominal terms it's still true that you get more in LA than NYC.

Sure, I am a suburbanite and I understand the appeal of that. But I felt like it was a bad mix in that you still had city-like problems, but nevertheless had to drive everywhere in awful traffic. Maybe it'd be different if I were living there rather than visiting.

Depends on where you were living. Some neighborhoods are very walkable. LA like any major city has good and bad spots all over.

I would call a city walkable if you can get around the city or at least the "major" parts of it without driving, not if there are isolated pockets you can walk around in.

And I would as some neighborhoods in LA are the size of smaller and midsize cities elsewhere. I grew up in Boston which is extremely walkable, yet LA has several walkable cities close to the size of Boston within its city limits.

You can get around LA without driving. Public transportation exists here. The bus network is actually quite good (coverage-wise) if a bit slow due to traffic.

As for walking, you could walk from downtown to Hollywood, Pasadena, or Santa Monica if you're willing to walk that far (9, 10, and 14 miles, respectively).

Besides practicality I also felt like it wouldn't be a great idea to walk around downtown at night.

To you argument:

When choosing in between huge, unaffordable house, and a luxury apartment. Are really sure you will chose the former?

they said the price was the same

Yes, when that's the case, will you?

Of course I'd rather live in a house than an apartment if the price is the same.

Of course - the whole point of talking about zoning in LA is that many people believe you're getting an unfair advantage over people who have to rent because you have the money to afford a house. Most people do not.

> Compare that to New York where people are stacked up on top of each other like ants.

What a ridiculous thing to say.

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