Los Angeles is “[S]uch an outlier it appears to be almost a data error,” according to an article on Slate. Obviously, we agree with that description on so many levels, but in this case, they are speaking to one data point in particular: In an analysis of how American cities have grown since 1960, we are the only one to see significant increases in population density in the city’s urban core.
Census data of just about every city other than LA shows that the way people moved around since 1960 followed a pretty similar trend—land that was once rural or agricultural was paved over into suburbs. Among the top 100 U.S. cities, the average expansion from this type of development was 48 percent. To fill those shiny new areas, people fled from the old, downtown neighborhoods. As populations increased overall, the new residents continued to flock to these newly-created neighborhoods, which grew denser and denser, but the inner-cities never really filled back in at the same rate.
In a few places—Miami, San Jose, San Francisco and Seattle—recent years have shown a change in patterns, with people making moves back to old downtown zones. No city, however, matches Los Angeles and Long Beach, where there are now more than a million additional people in the urban core neighborhoods.
The mid-century vision of LA was one of low-density, freeway-connected sprawl, with a Downtown that was already losing its hold as the city center. While other cities spread out, LA went in, up and closer together. As Slate explains, LA's unusual pattern in development has led to city officials working on one of the most ambitious transportation and urban infrastructure overhauls going on anywhere, while also seeing local activists trying to fight any additional development in the city which they feel is already packed enough.