Extra, Extra: LA Has a Dense Urban Center

Dennis Romero discusses Krueger's findings, as reported in his master's thesis for the Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIST) program at USC this year. "Krueger mapped out the city according to the density of amenities including 'entertainment, full-service restaurants, hotels and motels, trendy hangouts, and high culture.' For a control, Krueger "tested his thesis on New York and Chicago to ensure that expected central density would result, which it did."

"The result is essentially a heat map of such density, says Krueger, "and it shows a contiguous urban core along that Krueger calls the 'The Wilshire/Santa Monica Corridor [PDF].'"

Krueger's thesis, "Delimiting the Postmodern Urban Center: An Analysis of Urban Amenity Clusters in Los Angeles," won the UNIGIS 2012 Academic Excellence Award and the North American Regional Science Council’s 2012 Graduate Student-Author Paper Competition.