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This is a perceptive comment that hits the salient points. One thing I'd add is that the public spaces and monumental architecture of LA are indeed lacking compared to tourist destinations like London. To top it off, the OP has deliberately chosen to walk some of the widest, most commercial streets in the city -- that is his particular interest. Other walkers concentrate on stairways in the hilly neighborhoods, or the architecture of downtown. I think it was Christopher Hawthorne, the excellent architecture critic of the LA Times, who said that some of the defining spaces in the city are the residential architecture, and the back yards. (The comment above already covered the larger outdoor spaces, like the beaches, the mountains, and Griffith Park.) If you rent a car and get stuck in traffic driving on the 405, you will miss all of that, which is a pity. But that's ok, I get to live here, and read in my back yard, barefoot, eating oranges from my trees, in January. |