LA is a misleading because it does not have a proper downtown. LA downtown is effectively a block from Skidrow (US's worst drug addled neighborhood), which means most people never want to be seen anywhere near downtown LA. The next most downtowny/dense areas of LA are West Hollywood, Century City and Santa Monica. All 3 of which are very close to Beverly Hills.
To be honest, LA is such a nightmare of urban design, that no one issue can justify the complete and utter disaster that it is.
North-Brookline is 1 block from the densest neighborhood in Boston (BU, Fenway), but is lined with single family homes because of NIMBY housing policy. It is a dense suburb, but it has no business being a suburb 1 block from 2 of the country's biggest schools (BU,NEU), 1 block from the sports mecca of the nation (Fenway) and 1 block from the center of medical research in the entire world (Longwood).
Brookline gets to conveniently push its homeless out to Mass-n-cass and Packard's corner. They get to enforce increasingly ridiculous parking laws despite people needing to cross Brookline to get to other parts of Boston. They get all the benefits of the MBTA (B-Line, C-line), but refuse to make their own neighborhoods transit friendly [1]. They get access to cheaper-labor because the labor can make the commute from the more working class parts of Boston. When their ""cheap"" nannies have to access subsidized social services, it comes out the coffers of the city of Boston.
Now, I will admit that the city of Boston is pretty badly run, when compared to the neighboring Cambridge, Brookline, Newton & Somerville. But, that's besides my main point.
My hot-take is that cities should have some level of default jurisdiction over their entire metro area. Land-use around public transportation, pass-through rights for new-transit, etc.
To be honest, LA is such a nightmare of urban design, that no one issue can justify the complete and utter disaster that it is.
North-Brookline is 1 block from the densest neighborhood in Boston (BU, Fenway), but is lined with single family homes because of NIMBY housing policy. It is a dense suburb, but it has no business being a suburb 1 block from 2 of the country's biggest schools (BU,NEU), 1 block from the sports mecca of the nation (Fenway) and 1 block from the center of medical research in the entire world (Longwood).
Brookline gets to conveniently push its homeless out to Mass-n-cass and Packard's corner. They get to enforce increasingly ridiculous parking laws despite people needing to cross Brookline to get to other parts of Boston. They get all the benefits of the MBTA (B-Line, C-line), but refuse to make their own neighborhoods transit friendly [1]. They get access to cheaper-labor because the labor can make the commute from the more working class parts of Boston. When their ""cheap"" nannies have to access subsidized social services, it comes out the coffers of the city of Boston.
Now, I will admit that the city of Boston is pretty badly run, when compared to the neighboring Cambridge, Brookline, Newton & Somerville. But, that's besides my main point.
[1] https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/05/17/opinion/brookline-hou...
My hot-take is that cities should have some level of default jurisdiction over their entire metro area. Land-use around public transportation, pass-through rights for new-transit, etc.