[jsjohnst]

Citation needed for the ~34k mi² estimate. Per Wikipedia it's <1/7 that number (and yet has 1/4 the population).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_metropolitan_are...

[chongli]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Los_Angeles_Area

[jsjohnst]

And the corresponding one for NYC:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_metropolitan_area