Is L.A. More Crowded Than New York?

In "L.A. the King of Sprawl, Not at All," Robert Bruegmann reports that Los Angeles is one of the densest areas in the country. His article reinforces the notion that L.A. is already a very dense place, but is it true?

1 minute read

September 20, 2006, 1:00 PM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


Three UCLA students investigate the issue, and find:

"While it is true that the urbanized area of Los Angeles has a higher population density than the urbanized area of Los Angeles, our analysis shows that the City of Los Angeles is much less dense than the City of New York. The analysis presented here aids in dismantling the perception that Los Angeles’ density exceeds that of New York and should be the reason for limiting development in the City of Los Angeles. It is disingenuous to compare density figures by "urbanized area," as doing so lacks the necessary apples-toapples comparison quality. Instead, we argue that discussions about density should focus on more reasonably defined urban areas, such as proper city limit boundaries as presented in this paper.

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Wednesday, September 20, 2006 in Livable Places

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