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Comment by beachstartup | Hacker News Reader

making LA sound terrible is an entire cottage industry and this is a prime example of some top notch product.

the truth is a lot more boring. LA is a great major city to live/work in but an exceptionally shitty place to visit, unless you stay with knowledgeable locals.

in that way, it's the opposite of SF and NY, tough places to live in but mind-blowing next-level kind of awesome places to visit.

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Not to mention that the things to do in LA are so spread out. If you try to visit the city with the intention of visiting as many destinations as possible, you'll be spending more time in the car getting to these places then you will actually being at these places.

by next year with the opening of the expo line, public transit will surpass that of the bay area, and within the next 15 years will be in the same league as new york. a lot of money is being spent on it.

blue is being extended next year, then purple:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Rail_%28Los_Angeles_Count...

I doubt that. You need high density living spaces along with public transportation to get New York. LA is huge suburban sprawl that's too widespread. No rail network can cover that huge area.

Maybe if they took that diagram and put the entire thing in Santa Monica, you can probably make Santa Monica like NYC.

http://www.laweekly.com/news/los-angeles-beats-new-york-in-u...

Sure, if you're considering all the suburbs/metro area surrounding NYC. If you're really looking at the city, then it's 26k people/square mile, not 5000. Kind of a huge difference.

i was talking about public transit coverage, i have no idea what you're referring to when you say "to get New York". LA is not new york. that's the whole point of LA. they built it on the west coast to get away from the east coast.

>i was talking about public transit coverage, i have no idea what you're referring to when you say "to get New York"

I am also talking about public transit coverage. I meant to get to NYC levels of public transportation and convenience LA needs to be more dense.

> that's the whole point of LA. they built it on the west coast to get away from the east coast.

Other way around. They built NYC because LA was too far west, the traffic was too shitty, and they wanted more variety in the weather.

So true. I listen to the itineraries of people I know who visited. "Had brunch in WeHo, then went out to Malibu to the ocean, then to this sushi place that someone recommended in Van Nuys, and then back to the Santa Monica to see the sunset." And then followed up with, "It was nice, but the traffic was terrible." It hurts.

This was my sentiment exactly...I ended up making some friends in LA over the past 1.5 years and have been visiting enough to the point where I got to know the areas pretty well (mostly in the South Bay..El Segundo, Hermosa, Redondo..less so Santa Monica, Venice). Decided to turn down a school in New York for one in LA because of those reasons you mentioned. I guess I have such a mystical view of NYC and SF because everytime I visit I have such a great time. In a weird way, I think I picked LA because my experience thus far has been more real than NYC or SF.

yes, south bay LA is very nice and quite liveable.

Im born and raised in LA and now live here again, I found this article to be pro-LA in a way that ive almost never seen written. To your point once you "get" LA it's the most interesting diverse city that has ever existed, but like any great love it takes a little patience, a little trial by fire and ends with a huge reward.

This article made me so happy I almost teared up because I sometimes forget how engaged and comforting this city is.

The LA Tourism industry sounds ripe for disruption!

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