Would a "Ringbahn" Help Solve LA's Centrality Problems?
I traveled abroad for the first time this past summer and there were many things that stood out to me from a city planning perspective. Perhaps the most stark contrast between European cities and Los Angeles, however, is that LA is severely lacking in centrality . Although LA isn’t the huge, sprawling region that it is often characterized to be, the Los Angeles metro area is extremely decentralized. There are many major hubs of jobs and cultural activity - Downtown, Santa Monica, The Valley, Westwood, Century City, just to name a few. From a planning perspective, this is a major problem because it is hard to devote transportation resources so many areas. Metro map with future rail alignments. Los Angeles has largely responded to this problem by focusing its efforts on the Downtown core and having its mass transit system branch out to Hollywood, Santa Monica, and other major hubs. Thus, a person who lives or works Downtown has pretty good reso...