Kotkin Responds To Los Angeles Mayor: LA Doesn't Want Density

Despite the conventional wisdom, L.A.'s multi-polarity â€" it has no one distinctive center â€" was created intentionally. In 1908, L.A. created the nation's first comprehensive urban zoning ordinance, encouraging the development of sub-centers, single-family homes and dispersed industrial development.

...The usual motivation â€" the quest for greed and power â€" motivated some of these developments. But many L.A. bureaucrats and developers also believed they were creating a superior urban environment. In 1923, the director of city planning proudly proclaimed that L.A. had avoided "the mistakes which have happened in the growth of metropolitan areas of the East."

...But do most Angelenos really want most of their city to look like Manhattan or to have the densities of Paris? When voters were last asked for their two cents â€" in 1986, when growth-limiting Proposition U won almost 70% of the vote â€" they opted both to cut commercial density in much of the city and protect residential neighborhoods from overdevelopment. And in a 2003 Public Policy Institute of California poll, 86% of California residents said they preferred to live in a single-family home."