Woo Hoo! The Washington Post does a whole story on the Los Angeles phenomena known as overcrowding. While for those of us living here the story doesn't really offer anything new, it may help disabuse East Coasters of their belief that Los Angeles is a low-density, sprawling mess. No, in fact, we're a high-density, sprawling mess.
The urbanized area in and around Los Angeles has become the most densely populated place in the continental United States, according to the Census Bureau. Its density is 25 percent higher than that of New York, twice that of Washington and four times that of Atlanta, as measured by residents per square mile of urban land. The Post picks up on the trend of garage conversions in immigrant communities such as Maywood, infill development in older neighborhoods, and the move toward planned density in communities such as Irvine. We're left with the overall impression that the housing crunch isn't going to stop anytime soon. As we're seeing in Downtown LA, homes are going to start moving skyward as more people try to cram into a tighter space. Or maybe underground, with the mole people.
· Out West, a Paradox: Densely Packed Sprawl [Washington Post]