Megacity: Los Angeles

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The growth of LA

  • By 2007 more than 3.2 billion people were lving in towns and cities
  • In MEDC's as a whole 90% of people were living in urban areas, Megacities, which have a population of over 10 million people 
  • It is the fastest growing city in the US
  • The discovery of oil in the area and the company Ford based there means it has a rich revenue 
  • The development of Hollywood

But can it be sustainable?

  • PLAN (Prigressive LA Network) proposes an agenda for a sustainable city:
  • Improve public transport and new rapid bus lines 
  • Promote green energy
  • Clean up brownfeild sites and increase urban parks 
  • Promote walkable and bike-able neighbourhoods
  • Provide community benefits such as childcare and affordable housing
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Problems that LA faces

  • LA is experiencing a "Donut city" where a economic hole in the downtown area (near the centre)
  • Car, tyre, steel and aircraft factors closed due to competion from overseas and rapidly changing technology
  • Aircraft sites needed to move as testing required more land, which was not avaiable in the centre of LA
  • Modern high-tech companies and aerospace manufactoring industries needed larger sites 
  • The moving of many companies left many people unemployed leading to derelication and poverty, this is why the economy is weaker in the centre

Why have the suburbans sprawled?

Urban Push

  • Business men looking for greenfield sites (which aren't avaliable in urban areas)
  • Congestion (high population = loads of cars)
  • Declining jobs because companies are relocating
  • Poor schools (more working class so a drop in educational performance)

Suburban Pull 

  • Safer neighbourhoods (as unemplyment can lead to crime and there's no unemployment here in the suburb's)
  • Larger shopping malls (so greater accessablitity) 
  • Cheaper lan and larger properties
  • Better schools and services (les unemloyment and more middle-class that stress the importance of school achievement)

Background factors

  • Cheap fuel
  • Increase in services
  • High average incomes (more middle-class people)
  • Investment in transportation 
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Other problems

  • Housing shortages (caused by high rates of migration)
  • Urban tension (between all the different ethical enclaves and migrants)
  • Waste (50,000 tonnes of waste every day)
  • Massive energy use (just over 10 million people living there)
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