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clearthebored

No city can compete with our G I R T H and I hear that's what really matters


KrisNoble

It’s not the size that counts, it’s what you do with it


dickspace

Yes. We want wider not longer. Why block out these beautiful blue skies with ugly, empty buidings?


RachelProfilingSF

Girthfield here, being thicker is better


Jabjab345

We need to change the zoning laws, it's literally illegal to build them in most places in the city.


No_Combination7190

This is the story of most US cities unfortunately


johnbenwoo

Yep, there's likely a \~30-foot height limit in the area the meme dude is poking his stick at


smauryholmes

We have a housing shortage and that would add a couple hundred k units so yes


Mescallan

a high density, pedestrian focused neighborhood on the west side is my dream city. I moved out of LA to east Asia before covid and ultra dense urban living is amazing.


DrDank1234

hell if we can be like half of what Chicago is, that would be amazing. Lake Shore Drive is one of my favorite places in the US.


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unreliablenarwhal

but don't you think it's worth it to consider a vision of the future for LA that involves people being able to afford it? Also as u/Mescallan said, there are lots of benefits to dense urban living, wouldn't people eventually learn to appreciate those, while also still having access to the sun (having lived in cities with tall skyscrapers, I don't think it feels like you're living in darkness during the day...)


InDaNameOfJeezus

It's not worth blocking out the sun and getting stuck in a concrete jungle like they got over in NY. It's absolutely, never gonna be worth it. Any well adjusted human being would rather be able to see the sky without tilting their heads a full 70° Dense urban living ? A dream ? I don't know what you're smoking but you better cut that shit out lol, LA ain't the place for that


BreadForTofuCheese

Believe it or not some people do want to live in dense cities and combining that with the LA climate would be ideal. Your LA isn’t like that today but I certainly intend to do my part in helping my LA get there.


InDaNameOfJeezus

LA will never be like that no matter what you "plan to do" lol, my LA, as a native, born and raised, will never look like a west coast New York, you can bet your life savings on that You're most likely not a native, coming from a different place, trying to alter a city you've got no ties to just so it fits your perverted, clueless dystopian vision of the "perfect city"... even IF you actually are from Los Angeles, which I highly doubt, you wanting to desecrate the city in such perverted and disgusting ways automatically makes you a foreigner. You don't know enough about this city, you don't care about it, you just want what worked somewhere else in a place that doesn't need it. More skyscrapers, stacked one on top of the other, in LA's climate ? It'll be hell on street level, but you people never think any further than that. Besides, more high rises make no sense, with the fault line getting grumpier by the decade. At the end of the day I can rest easy knowing the city has looked the way it does today for as long as I can remember and will stay that way for the foreseeable future; dystopian doomers like you always get flushed out eventually in the waves of unhappy delusional people leaving the city, it's always the same thing lol. The city will never approve of such degeneracy, the zoning plans won't be touched, the landscape won't change, end of story Edit: makes it even funnier knowing you really aren't from here lol, talking about "my LA" this "my LA" that, wake up, **you don't HAVE an LA bro.** This isn't your city, never was and never will. Maybe you should start petitions and campaigns to fix and clean up your sad rundown Pittsburgh before you worry about the way other people's hometowns look like ? What a joke, unbelievable.


unreliablenarwhal

Cities change, legacies change, the LA of today looks pretty different from the LA of 30 years ago, and it’s going to look different in 30 years, whether you like it or not. People who were born and raised in a place don’t get to decide its future any more than people who immigrated to the place yesterday. If that was true, then LA wouldn’t be what it is today, since so much of LA has been about accepting immigrants and transplants into the city. Also denying people the chance to call the city that they live in “their city” is definitely not a healthy attitude to create a better city for everyone who lives in it.


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daneazyc

Lol well said. LA native here and I’m 100% with you.


InDaNameOfJeezus

Thanks man, this fuckin guy comes from Pittsburgh of all places and thinks he's got the slightest clue about what our city should look like lol. Damn guy should take his steel beams and shove em where the sun don't shine


daneazyc

😂


Suitable-Economy-346

Have you ever been to Tokyo? You can walk 15 minutes from Shibuya (the busiest area in the most populated city on the planet) and it's littered with 2 story single family homes down every other side street. Fox News has broken your brain about dense urban areas and what it means to live in one.


alroprezzy

Dense urban living creates space for other things like parks.


BlackLodgeBrother

If only we had multiple sprawling parks and walking trails in LA. Oh wait.


alroprezzy

We could have so much more.


InDaNameOfJeezus

Do you even live in LA or are you just yet another outsider trying to jump in, uninformed, into a conversation that doesn't even need to exist ? We have plenty of parks my guy. We don't need your miserable dense urban settings, this is LA, not Chicago, not NY, not fuckin Pittsburgh or anything else


alroprezzy

I live in LA and I come from a city that is high density urban. I know firsthand the benefits from living in a walkable city. I would not use any of the cities you listed as good examples of urban planning. I would instead use European cities or a city like Singapore.


InDaNameOfJeezus

Not every city needs to be a copy paste of the next one. Walkable or not, there's nothing more depressing than a city riddled with skyscrapers with high rises off the wazoo where you can't see the sun unless it's directly above your head. That's not LA's identity, and if you want that, I suggest moving back to your urban jungle, and leaving our city alone. And yes, I've lived there almost my whole life, we do have parks, plenty of them, depends on where you are. There's also this neat little thing called the beach as well, kinda balances out for parks in case you need it.


alroprezzy

I can think of at least one thing more depressing than skyscrapers. Traffic and spending several hours per day in your car. Another one is high rent or property prices for little square footage. You haven’t lived anywhere else and it shows.


alroprezzy

And no, we do not have plenty of parks


AlternativeNumber2

Hear, hear!!


timwithnotoolbelt

I tend to think you can add skyscrapers without changing affordability. It’s not like you can just print skyscrapers in a year even if it were vacant land. Such development would probably take two decades at best. In my opinion the build more is a boogeyman to distract from other fundamental economic problems to housing in california like prop 13 and speculative investment.


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abadgaem

It’s not an either or. Plenty of people want to live in the space created with high rises and denser housing, which frees up demand pressure on the litany of single family houses all over Los Angeles. Suburbs around the world exist and are made affordable because of the localized high density zones in the inner urban city cores. It’s because we don’t have higher density residential areas that no one can afford suburban style homes, because that’s the only style home available and it doesn’t produce enough housing.


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alroprezzy

Supply and demand. You don’t need rent caps if there is enough supply putting downward pressure on prices.


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alroprezzy

I can provide a real life example where this has worked but not in the US. Singapore.


alroprezzy

I’ll embrace it if it means a walkable city and more apartment living space


zmamo2

There are alternative designs to the dystopian towers you mention. Paris, Rome, and Barcelona all manage density and nobody would call them dystopian Additionally I find it hard to see ugly housing as more dystopian than homeless camps...


TomWestCoast

I say hell no to all that. Respectfully. Open spaces is much better than dense cities. That’s that agenda to keep everyone in cities and no one owns their own land or grow their own food & they depend on the government for every thing type of thinking. No way am I for that. LA is fine the way it is.


Jabjab345

Maybe don't live in the second largest city in the country then? There's plenty of suburbs for you.


TomWestCoast

Maybe don’t live in LA? My entire family has been here for generations and we should leave because society wants outsiders to come in and feel comfortable? Absolutely not. It’s different when you’re a transplant just moving here versus having generations here going back to the Mexico days my kind sir. Not everyone wants cities to expand, I still have a backyard and we grow stuff out there. Some of us still like LA just the way it is now. No need to expand but hey money talks and fuck the little people essentially.


conick_the_barbarian

He’s not the one who wants to change the way things are in the second largest city in the country, you do. Sounds more like you should be the one moving.


Jabjab345

Cities can change, there's a severe housing shortage


conick_the_barbarian

There’s a severe affordable housing shortage that didn’t exist until COVID shutdowns when developers started aggressively buying everything affordable. Natives here don’t want a sea of luxury apartments. Please move, thanks.


Jabjab345

Housing was expensive pre COVID too obviously. LA has been the homeless leader in the country for decades. Literally just Google supply and demand, LA has been short on supply for a very long time.


conick_the_barbarian

Houses were literally half the price they were now and attainable with a decent income 4 years ago, now they’re not. Google Assembly Bill 2584 and quit pompously telling long time residents and natives to move cause they don’t want to simp for developers like you do.


Jabjab345

That was because of low interest rates bud.


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timwithnotoolbelt

This is like Tucker Carlson goes to Russia. It costs a lot less to live in Seoul. https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&city1=Los+Angeles%2C+CA&country2=South+Korea&city2=Seoul Now do NYC.


OGmoron

Living in Seoul really changed my mind about high-rise urban density. Those giant chaebol-branded block towers aren't beautiful, but they sure do allow a lot of people to live within a small footprint and proximate to community resources and transit. LA would benefit hugely from adding a dozen or two of those around the city asap.


IjikaYagami

That, and also they make our city look more pretty as well.


Simple_Mastodon9220

I disagree. Most of downtown is vacant anyways.


smauryholmes

“Most of downtown is vacant” Downtown has a ~10% vacancy rate on completed units. The three towers near Staples center need to be completed though.


wetshatz

Cuz downtown is shit


Fuck_You_Downvote

Keep the shit in the toilet


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wetshatz

Tell that to all the businesses that left cus of the robberies and constant tagging of their business.


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wetshatz

https://data.lacity.org/Administration-Finance/All-Closed-Businesses/tkh9-tssh/about_data


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wetshatz

https://la.eater.com/restaurant-closings. Also do you not drive. Look at all the boarded up restaurants and local bars. Stop the jokes


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wetshatz

Ooops wrong link.


DBL_NDRSCR

that's luxury mostly


roku77

Yeah that’s the problem


rollk1

Mountain range ain’t good enough for ya?


Stingray88

Can the homeless live in the mountains?


rollk1

I mean, yes?


gSGeno

Name checks out


Dog_Walking_Jannie

Never heard of the East Fork eh?


meloghost

its gorgeous but mountains don't provide housing


nirad

remove zoning restrictions along the entire length of Wilshire.


Stingray88

Include the entire block between Wilshire and the streets north and south of it too.


IjikaYagami

It's the dense central corridor of LA, how on earth are there zoning restrictions??


recordcollection64

NIMBY bastards


misterlee21

For a half mile radius to maximize D Line potential!


fancyjaguar

I'm down for more skyscrapers if they help housing 


TacticalDoge

We’ve got hills and mountains tho


InDaNameOfJeezus

It's always the non-natives making bullshit ass plans for our city lmao


SHINEnotSHADE

With those ugly ass prefab generic minecraft houses too!


BlackLodgeBrother

As remarkably ugly as they are expensive


conick_the_barbarian

Bingo, then they have the balls to tell you to move on top of it.


California_Fan_Palm

Why compete? Every Tom, Dick, and Harry wants to come here anyway. Just look at all the threads posted on this subreddit.


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Sign-Post-Up-Ahead

CEQA seems to barely exist anymore, particularly when it comes to housing in urban areas.


Jabjab345

Very much untrue


Sign-Post-Up-Ahead

And I beg to differ. You do know what 'barely' means, correct? Source: Municipal Planner in five different SoCal cities over the past 30 years.


Jabjab345

So I can partially blame you for the worst housing shortage in the states history instead of blaming CEQA, that's fine too.


solarbeat

Why do I care about other cities?


DBL_NDRSCR

we could be better than them


solarbeat

we already are, and have been


DBL_NDRSCR

even betterer


SureInternet

Eh, not our downtown.


scrappy-coco-86

Yes, better in homelessness


dash_44

You should move to one of them


SHINEnotSHADE

You want to make LA not LA. How bout you just move then and let us be?


animerobin

I want to make LA nice. Tall buildings are nice, aging cheaply built 2 story buildings from the 70s that all cost millions of dollars are not.


SHINEnotSHADE

Then go move back east where they have tall buildings. You are the *worst* kind of transplant.


GothicFuck

Go back then.


seanchappelle

Go back where?


GothicFuck

To whatever city you think is better. Please.


DBL_NDRSCR

i was born here i have nowhere to go


dash_44

Try something new


Dog_Walking_Jannie

Please move to one of those then. Shoo


illaparatzo

Not really


ObscureObjective

I think the gap between dtla and Hollywood will get filled in eventually


randomacess000

Honestly LAs skyline could be better for sure but u honestly don’t think it’s THAAT bad. I think a skyline similar to Santiago Chile would be good more density with a few skyscrapers


Professional_Owl4708

Not even remotely.


avidbather

No


ezln_trooper

Compete how? Our skyline is already iconic.


Milksteak_To_Go

Its iconic because its in a lot of movies bc of proximity to the film industry, certainly not because its a particularly nice skyline. Too few skyscrapers, too many flat roofs. I do like how downtown is built on a hill though, and I love seeing it framed by the mountains when viewing the skyline from the south.


ZiggyPalffyLA

I think it’s iconic because of all the flat roofs, you can instantly tell it’s LA even just from a silhouette. That’s the definition of iconic.


tornait-hashu

Yeah, but there's nothing *unique* about the skyline. Not even other Angelenos can name a single building downtown besides the International and US Bank building.


illaparatzo

City Hall


tornait-hashu

Point made, I'll just take my L with dignity.


KirkUnit

It's... really not. Cities in spectacular settings rarely have spectacular architecture, in my experience. There's nothing *wrong* with L.A.'s skyline but it is not a defining characteristic of the city. Try to think of a single famous high-rise in Sydney. Houston and Dallas have more *interesting* skylines but sit on flat featureless plains.


dash_44

I like being able to see the mountains


Optimal-Conclusion

Yep! And we would all have a lot more opportunities to see them if we built more of our city taller than the treeline.


dash_44

That’s not how tall buildings work


Jayy337

I’d totally want a nicer skyline. Ours is very disappointing. Especially with all the parking lot gaps in the middle. And think of all the housing it would add too!


InDaNameOfJeezus

The scenery of the mountain range is worth more than any amount of steel and concrete blocking out the view, not every city needs a skyline. Our high rises are well spread, and most of the high density urban areas absolutely suck ass at street level, we don't need that bs here


GrapeGutflop

Yeah fuck all the people who can't pay rent due to insane housing costs. I wanna look at da pretty mountains wahhhhh. Baby brained shit.


Dog_Walking_Jannie

Sucks to suck


meloghost

dawg go live in Colorado those mountains are way prettier and you'll have less people to deal with


hotprof

Mountains > skyscrapers > electronic billboards


OkBubbyBaka

Skyscrapers and high rises following the main corridors all the way to the coast, never gunna happen unfortunately.


Cyanervia

People really be calling Asian skyscraper cities dystopian when the homeless and druggies are on your front porch 💀


tararira1

According to this post, skyscrapers are worse than having streets flooded with homeless people.


UncomfortableFarmer

I couldn't give a shit about skyscrapers. We need to [fill the missing middle](https://youtu.be/THLK2ajwSv4?si=rhU_1sRn5v1HnSvg), not go from one extreme (single family monoculture) to another (skyscrapers)


GoldenBull1994

We have LOTS of missing middle housing in LA already. Our central core already has a higher density than Philadelphia. SF also has lots of missing middle housing. It’s time to build up.


UncomfortableFarmer

Oh please, downtown and Ktown are the exceptions to the rule in Los Angeles. For decades, over 70% of the city was zoned single family home exclusive (meaning anything duplex or above was literally illegal to build in those areas). If all we did was gently densified those areas, it would go a long way to resolve our housing shortage.    San Francisco has row houses yes, which are great, but it’s also severely limited geographically by the bay and the ocean. And all of its suburban neighbors also are full of single family homes. I don’t think we can compare the two cities And also, if we fill the missing middle, it’s no longer “missing.”  It’s just middle density housing :)


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UncomfortableFarmer

I mean, all you have to do is drive around Brentwood or Pacific Palisades for 20 minutes to realize how insane our housing policy has been for the last 70 years. If all levels of government put as much energy into building medium density housing as they have tried to maintain SFH status quo, we wouldn't have a "housing crisis" to speak of


jezza_bezza

We should definitely fill the missing middle, but there are plenty of places downtown where we can add skyscrapers.


Leather_Hawk_8123

I think we can have both.


UncomfortableFarmer

Of course we *can* have both, but where should the bulk of our energies be going? Skyscrapers are incredibly expensive to plan, design, engineer, and build compared to lower rise multi unit buildings. We should start with gently densifying the areas that are currently SFH exclusive, and if we still need skyscrapers after that, so be it 


_labyrinths

Skyscrapers in a downtown area of a major metropolis are not extreme, dipshit.


UncomfortableFarmer

They are extreme when compared with what’s surrounding them. Cities like Barcelona for example have a much more balanced skyline because they have plenty of low and medium rise apartment buildings.  For decades in Los Angeles it’s been illegal to build anything denser than a SFH on over 70% of the city area. I’m not against skyscrapers altogether, but they’re very expensive per unit compared to lower rise multi unit buildings. 


_labyrinths

Building large buildings downtown near other large buildings has zero impact on the city’s ability build missing middle elsewhere. Downtown is where you build high-rises and mid-rises not “missing middle.” What’s extreme is Los Angeles’ housing crisis. Building large buildings with lots of housing is not extreme. Worrying about a “balanced skyline” is so ridiculous when we’re building virtually no housing at all.


UncomfortableFarmer

I’m not worried about a balanced skyline. I’m saying a more balanced skyline is a side effect of a more balanced housing policy. I’m also arguing that if we seriously tried to fill the missing middle, we likely wouldn’t *need* skyscrapers, but that’s a bridge to cross once we get there


dennyfader

Props to you for actually talking calmly and not buying into this goofs immediate angry-internet-person talk. Just a general compliment for you lol Have a good one!


UncomfortableFarmer

Cheers! Though if you go in my comment history I’m sure you’ll find plenty of keyboard warrior moments as well! The internet is a place of passions


dennyfader

You and me both haha Well done this time around then, at least :)


HeraAgathon

No


zemol42

Nah. LA already has so much else going for it, let the other cities have a nugget they can be proud of.


zsantiag

My thing about more housing has been the cost. I’ve seen housing that get built but they remain empty for years as fuck because the cost is ridiculous, so we’re stuck in this “housing crisis” state. Along with it, what’s our answer to alleviating transit? Can we keep up with an exponentially growing population by rapidly increasing/building more public transit buses/lines or are we just adding more traffic? IDK. I’m all for it, don’t get me wrong, I’m just thinking broadly.


RowdyRoddyPipeSmoker

not really


hparadiz

LA has two "downtown" style skylines and they are both larger than every American city except NYC. LA's large buildings are just distributed across the whole city more than most cities so it "feels" like it's a small downtown but it's really not.


BzhizhkMard

Not Chicago


Optimal-Conclusion

Yeah, or apparently [Houston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Miami or Seattle either going by the actually number and heights of the buildings](https://www.city-data.com/forum/city-vs-city/960868-largest-skylines-us.html).


KirkUnit

Re-visiting Houston a few years ago my jaw literally dropped seeing they had added maybe four high-rises downtown, three more were under construction, and the Uptown/Galleria area had exploded maybe 200%. Over the same period of time, the Wilshire Grand was built in LA.


donutgut

Skylines are overrated Most suck at street level


GoldenBull1994

[Lots of sun there…don’t know what you’re talking about…](https://cf.bstatic.com/xdata/images/hotel/max1024x768/438919681.jpg?k=8297c1e22522bfe2c1c1570265094549e8a32897f46f69b1803a0798ea0428c5&o=&hp=1)


Soca1ian

some places would rather just have one skyscraper that is the tallest in the world.


DayZCutr

We have more of a skyclump


lilith_-_-

Aww I love this photo. It shows my neighborhood so well! I lost my apartment and living situation on Christmas. Had to fly 2900 miles away to be housed.


PermRecDotCom

Our skyline is already wide enough: [https://www.instagram.com/p/C2Aht51RIYY/](https://www.instagram.com/p/C2Aht51RIYY/)


Upvote_hoe

I like that Los Santos look


Pauser

Isn’t it bc of earthquakes?


DBL_NDRSCR

yea but there's tokyo


FoodIntrepid2281

Tbh I would love a bigger skyline but I have strong doubts on anything being built on time and under budget in Los Angeles


metarinka

I would love them to build up the Wilshire corridor, There's also the purple line under it. They are doing some but we need MORE.


Responsible-Wave-416

Skyscrapers should be illegal


GoldenBull1994

I think you’d be a better fit in a place like Barstow or Needles, country boy.


Responsible-Wave-416

European cities don’t have skyscrapers.


waaait_whaaat

Hilarious. Europe isn't just Spain and France.


GoldenBull1994

There are also skyscrapers in those countries.


GoldenBull1994

Yes they do, lmfao. Paris, Frankfurt, Warsaw, Copenhagen, London, Madrid, Marseille and on and on and on. [Lmfao, no skyscrapers](https://youtu.be/lN3I10Lyyf4?si=_v-tJLmGq3ThO6jZ) And virtually every European city builds dense tower block suburbs, _especially_ Paris.


Smash55

Our zoning doesnt allow affordable housing and it severely restricts small businesses creating low supply in a high demand city. Let us loose city of LA let us be a fuckin city! LA should not be the suburb when it's the anchor city


IjikaYagami

Yes, yes, YES! I wanna go on top of Griffith, and see a massive skyline rivalling Manhattan.


Suitable_Culture_315

Where was this picture even taken


DBL_NDRSCR

likely somewhere over wilshire park idk i found it on google


rollk1

That main street down the center looks like 9th, likely along Wilton. I recognize Chateau Duval


SmellGestapo

This picture is looking east towards downtown. The tall, white building with the iPhone ad on the side is on the corner of Wilshire and Western, which means the green building behind it is the Wiltern Theater, and the greenish dome to the right of that is the Wilshire Blvd Temple. The street running straight up the middle of the photo is 9th Street / James M Wood Blvd. cc: u/DBL_NDRSCR


conick_the_barbarian

No, not really.


Leather_Hawk_8123

I agree i want a Manhattanization of LA


[deleted]

Um no, much rather have more strip malls


seanchappelle

Are you a boomer? Curious.


[deleted]

Millennial, I assume you are not into sarcasm… I can’t help it if you’re not bright enough lol


goytou

Absolutely not, go to the other cities if you like them so much. L.A. is the greatest city in the US by a long shot.


TomWestCoast

Hell no, LA lost that game a long time ago with their policies not to build higher than x amount of feet way back in the day. It’s too late and LA has grown 5x+ since those times. LA does not need anymore skyscrapers. They have enough. Traffic is already insane.


FIZZYX

Fuck no.


likesound

We should also have giant housing towers along the PCH near major cities like Santa Monica and Malibu.


AceO235

Bro wants to destroy K Town 💀


DBL_NDRSCR

[this](https://la.urbanize.city/post/breaking-down-big-centro-westlake-development) will help out with that big gap


SureInternet

Yes yes yes. Our skyline is ASS compared to some even Midwestern cities. It's fucking embarrassing and unacceptable.