For those of you counting, the city of Los Angeles covers 503 square miles and Los Angeles County is 4,752 square miles big. See? HUGE. It’s the second most populous city in the US – a little less than half that of New York City.
The map just totally blows me away!
In addition, LA has 75 miles of coastline. Almost 4 million people. About 36% of residents were born outside of our country.
When I was working, Los Angeles was a nightmare. I even shared an apartment and a car lease with the President of the company, because one of us was in LA so often. And it seems like, no matter where you are, everything is an hour away!!
So, you New Yorkers complain about having to go from Central Park West to Chelsea??
Maybe Jerry Jeff Walker was right about LA Freeway?
A co-worker showed me how to get from downtown LA to LAX in less than 30 minutes, at rush hour!!!
I have relatives in Newport Beach, Monterey Park, Long Beach, and Foothill Ranch. I imagine it would take most of a day to drive to each location for a quick visit.
So, just for the record, I hate driving in LA, or anywhere in Southern California. It is often a 6 hour drive from home to San Diego. I drove last summer to my friends’ place in Westlake Village (Ventura County). A three hour trip generally becomes four or more, due to traffic, road closures, and getting lost!
Some cities are easy to drive: Seattle, Denver, Phoenix/Scottsdale, Vegas, Washington, DC, even Chicago and Boston.
LA is home to one of the best flea markets in the U.S. Hunt for treasure at the Rose Bowl Flea Market, a massive flea market that takes over Pasadena’s Rose Bowl Stadium once a month. Here, you’ll find vintage clothing and furniture, records, boho hippie wares, and more. An almost 50-year-old market, it’s the best in town—you might even spot a celeb or two among shoppers. Weave amongst the 2,500 stalls and seek your fortune, then bargain to buy it. Food stalls and drink carts will nourish you along your journey, and hopefully, you’ll walk away with something one-of-a-kind—at the very least, you’ll have a great suntan.
Of course, you can always walk across the city. There are endless places to hike across the city, but if you’re looking for the hike, you know, one where you’ll see the Hollywood sign, check out the Hollyridge Trail, the Brush Canyon Trail, or the Mount Hollywood Trail to get incredible angles and even above and behind the 45-foot-high HOLLYWOOD letters to view everything from the ocean to the mountains with sparkling Downtown smack in the middle. It all starts in Griffith Park, where you can look through the incredible public telescopes at the Griffith Observatory, the crown jewel of Griffith Park.
One huge problem Los Angeles has is their water supply. They steal most of it from the Colorado River in Arizona, or from us in Northern California. Maybe it is time to split the state in two??
golfkat Travel Blog 
Since when are DC and Boston easy to drive? DC has a longer average commute time than Los Angeles; I once had it take more than 2 hours to get from near McLean to Rockville (without traffic, that’s 30 minutes). Parking in town is virtually impossible. Unlike LA, there are no dispersed centers of employment, everyone is going to the same place at the same time. And the DC government can’t really do much more to address it because the Organic Act that allowed DC home rule also barred anything that could be construed as a “commuter tax” – so no congestion zones, no bridge tolls, etc. that most cities use to help mitigate congestion.
Boston…is the rare city I do not drive into, 1) because while Massachusetts drivers aren’t always as bad as their reputation might suggest, Boston drivers specifically are highly unpredictable. Storrow Drive is also a nightmare, but it’s more the unpredictability of others on the road and the old-style, narrow streets that make it difficult.
I agree about ones like Phoenix, and Vegas (although the road on the south side of town gets confusing with its 4-designation concurrency).
It’s also worth noting, that the Colorado River is also in California. The state line runs down the middle. So, even as someone who lives in Arizona, I can’t say that the water is taken “from the river in Arizona” because I live just upstream from the CAP & Colorado Aqueduct pump houses (for central Arizona and Southern California respectively) and the California intakes are in California water (granted, also federal water, but not Arizona water) on the California side. California has the most senior water rights, so legally it’s far from “stolen.” But the CRC does need to be renegotiated on all sides.
Excellent points. Thank you for insight and facts.
You make excellent points, I stand corrected. Thank you for clarification and insights. I just figured if the roads are clogged there, most people would take public transportation, which is far more developed than out west.