Talk:Greater Los Angeles Area

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Contents 1 Opening comments 2 Requested move 2.1 Survey 2.1.1 Survey - in support of the move 2.1.2 Survey - in opposition to the move 2.2 Discussion 3 Sprawl

[edit] Opening comments

The map does not agree with the definition in the article. The definition only mentions Los Angeles and Orange Counties, the map also includes Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura. RickK 03:43, 30 Oct 2003 (UTC)

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I moved this page back to 'Greater Los Angeles Area'. It's not necessarily the best title, but I think the move to 'The Southland' was ill-advised. This term means nothing to anyone who's not a resident of the area in question; and in fact, I'm sure there's other places in the world that call themselves that.

I'm certainly open to a move to a better title, but I think 'The Southland' is NOT it. --Morven 10:50, 27 Dec 2003 (UTC)

"The Southland" (although highly artificial) is the term most often used by the Los Angeles-centric media (i.e. the 'Los Angeles Times' and local TV stations) to refer to any region that extends beyond Los Angeles County. That makes it a valid emic description of the region. And in that regard, it's no less valid (even if equally obscure outside the area) as a Chicagoland. JoelWest 21:27, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)

As long as I can remember, the this 5-county region has always been referred to as Greater Los Angeles. It is the Los Angeles metro area, so the title is appropriate. Dcmcgov 19:38, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

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By the way, what is the definition of 'Anchor Cities' ? --Morven 10:52, 27 Dec 2003 (UTC)

like an anchor store in the mall

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I'd like a source for the definition of "Greater Los Angeles Area." Most of the included areas are unpopulated mountains and desert. I'd only include the Southern parts of Orange and Los Angeles Counties. Mackerm 22:08, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The arbitary but definsible decision is to use counties as the units of analysis for the "Los Angeles Area." It's defensible because this is standard practice, as well as highly convenient. Unfortunaly two of the counties are absolutely enormous in size, and hence contain a lot land that is in no way shape or form part of anyone's definition of LA. However, because the area outside of LA is so sparsely populated, using counties shouldn't significantly exagerate population or other common urban measures. The urban areas in that region are basically all part of the LA area. Strider

The urban areas of the Inland Empire are also on the western edge of their counties... but I thought they were "greater LA" because they get reception of LA television and radio broadcasts.

Once again, it's totally ridiculous to include all of these counties in "Greater Los Angeles". It looks like somebody decided to apply a US Census category of the metropolitan area to an existing Wikipedia article. This is just wrong. I guess it's time to disambiguate. Mackerm 00:43, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)

What's wrong with using a US Census category? These are professional statisticians and demographers who've been studying this for decades. What makes the amateur authors of Wikipedia more qualified than the pros? JoelWest 21:27, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Do you have a definition of "Greater Los Angeles"? It looks like some amateur Wikipedia author has applied that term to a Census statistical area. Mackerm 07:41, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)

LA broadcast media market = greater LA?

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What is the total population in this area? -- Kaihsu 17:06, 2004 May 10 (UTC)

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The population/area numbers in this article are contradictory, or at least somewhat confusing. It says: the population of the Greater Los Angeles area is 17,545,623, and a total area of 87,972 km² (33,953 mi²)., but later it states a greater metropolitan area with a relatively high density of 7,070 people per square mile (2,730/km²). But 33,953 mi² * 7,070 people/mi² would be 240,047,710 people, or the other way round, 17,545,623 people/33,953 mi² would only be 516 people/mi². Can somebody check the numbers or specify more precisely which areas these number apply to? Luzian 09:02, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

The 7070 per sq. mile density is for the urbanized area which has a population of 11.79 million in an area of 1670 sq. miles (figures are rounded off values of 2000 census data). Polaron 02:49, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

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I have concerns about the overgeneralizing of how people from Orange County relate to Los Angeles. As a longtime and current resident of Orange County, I would argue that there is no consensus on this issue. I will reflect this lack of consensus in the "Identity" section. I also question the statement "most people outside of Los Angeles County do not go there and therefore do not assimilate with it." The statement is questionable in its truthfulness and borders on opinion. Furthermore, why single out Orange County? One could make the same statement about other neighboring counties, such as Riverside County. I would argue that the whole diatribe about Orange County should be removed.

The introduction to the article says, "It is often referred to simply as L.A., especially by the residents of Los Angeles County and by outsiders." This may be semantics and hermenutics, but this seems to say that 'A' and everyone who is not 'A', i.e. everyone, calls this region L.A. Who's left to call it otherwise?

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What about San Diego? It's close enough, why isn't it considered part of the "Greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area"?

What about 20 to 50 years from now, when most of the state will be connected by high speed mag lev rail? With L.A. only 20 minutes away from S.F., wouldn't you consider them to both be part of one community?

[edit] Requested move

It was requested that this article be renamed but there was no consensus for it be moved. --Stemonitis 14:51, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sprawl

Leaving aside for the moment problems with other sections of the article, the "Sprawl" section is particularly muddled. Some sentences are so oddly written that I can't figure out exactly what they intended to say, and so I can't figure out exactly what to put into a rewrite. Also, there are many claims about the area's statistical characteristics, but few actual statistics to back them up. For example, is that part of the Santa Monica Mountains within the municipal limits of the city really so vast and so sparsely populated that it alters the city's (let alone the region's) population density statistics in any significant way? It sure doesn't look that way on a map.

The section also comes close to flat-out contradicting itself. Is L.A. very dense or is it not? Much of this confusion could be cleared up with some authoritative citations. What exactly is the population density of the Los Angeles area relative to that of those eastern cities mentioned? (L.A.'s regional density is given in the last paragraph, but without the context.) Exactly how dense is that dense area just south of the Santa Monica Mountains? Is that area the most densely populated section in the region? How does that area compare in density to the most densely populated areas of other large cities? How much of the region approaches that density? Lots of questions. The generalized reference link to the census bureau page at the end of the article isn't any help, as that page itself is probably incomprehensible to the average person. Whyaduck 22:46, 24 February 2007 (UTC)