City of Angels

Los Angeles. As someone born and raised in LA, I realize now how much I took it for granted. Cheap and authentic Mexican, Central American, East Asian, and Southeast Asian food on every street, mountains 10,000 feet high acting as an extension of my backyard, warm weather year-round, and the vast Pacific Ocean just a 45-minute drive away. I’ve also come to realize just how different Southern California is from the rest of the country; humidity, indoor schools, townhomes, and subway commutes were simply creations of Hollywood in my mind growing up, and the thought of not having In-N-Out or Disneyland nearby seemed preposterous. Even as I’ve grown older, LA has continued to be my benchmark for comparison, and few cities have come close in my opinion to the beauty and excitement it offers. For a long time, there was nowhere else that could even come close to how much I loved my city, and even now, I find myself always gravitating back to it. But as I’ve grown, I’ve also realized that LA is not perfect, and what I’ve come to realize the most is just how much the car and driving define the city. Urbanist discussions often tear LA to shreds, and not unfairly. Trying to get around the city without a car is harder than getting into Cornell, and six-lane freeways and four-lane local streets dominate its urban fabric. Couple that with inadequate and infrequent public transportation that mostly lacks accommodating infrastructure, and you get a city where even its traffic and smog are notorious; it’s no wonder LA has often been called a textbook example of North American planning mistakes. These shortcomings have become increasingly visible to me as I’ve developed my passion for urbanism and traveled elsewhere, and it frustrates me knowing that the city has untapped potential. For as much as I have grown to love driving, I would also love to be able to take a train to avoid traffic or simply enjoy a convenient bike ride to my destination, things unattainable for most in LA’s current reality. And yet, while it’s easy to feel disappointed with the current urban state of the city, I have nonetheless found hope. LA Metro continues to be one of the fastest-growing and expanding public transportation networks in the country, with extensive expansions and projects currently underway, and many initiatives have been undertaken to create more green spaces, build higher-density and mixed-use housing, and improve walkability across the city. These proactive efforts to me represent the spirit of LA and how the city never stays stagnant, constantly evolving and adapting to the different dynamics of the people who inhabit it and overcoming the issues it faces. All it takes is time. Seeing how LA has begun turning around its poor urbanism, much as how the city has begun gaining population again after a pandemic downturn, has reminded me that LA isn’t shaped by a single narrative, nor can it ever be considered down and out, and it’s exactly this spirit that LA possesses that has captivated me ever since I was young. Soon after developing my passion for urban planning and learning about the many flaws of LA’s planning, I began wondering about the real nature of the city’s public transportation; growing up, an LA Metro station was just a ten-minute walk from my house, and yet I had never taken it before. And so one day, I decided to change that. Taking LA Metro from Eastern LA County to Santa Monica pleasantly surprised me, and showed me that even for all its flaws, the system was capable of providing convenience, efficiency, and comfort. More broadly, the system reflects on the city itself. LA is a city of immense contrasts: beauty and negligence, diversity and homogeneity, and yet, for all the change that needs to happen, the city holds an undeniable and omnipresent energy of perseverance and wonder. There’s nowhere else I’d rather call home.