Detroit -The New Los Angeles?

[jw101]

A new organization called D:NLA [[Detroit: New Los Angeles) has a new website that compares 5 different areas of Los Angeles to Detroit- and actually, they're pretty dead on. Venice Beach with Metropark Beach, Birmingham with Beverly Hills, and more. Check it out http://www.detnewla.weebly.com and make some comments. I, for one, love the concept because I love both cities. What do you think?

[mtburb]

Never seen that site before. The similarities are indeed striking.

I'd like to contribute two of my own:

[FormerEastsider]

Current Temps: Detroit 19.......Los Angeles 63...

[FlyingJ]

Current Temps: Detroit 19.......Los Angeles 63...

It's silly. Venice is nothing like Metropark. Irvine, South Orange County is more like Troy/Auburn Hills...I'm not sure what their point is-other than revive the Famous Detroiters' Sunset Strip Coney joint? http://www.grubstreet.com/2013/05/ga...coney-dog.html

[Cincinnati_Kid]

That'll be the day, when Detroit becomes the New Los Angeles. I see no similarities.

[mikeg19]

I've always heard LA was a shithole and to basically be avoided in favor of a lot of other better areas in Cali.

[stasu1213]

Gratiot 7 mile rd is the new Watts

[FormerEastsider]

Gratiot 7 mile rd is the new Watts

Have you been to Watts lately?

[enio]

Gratiot 7 mile rd is the new Watts

A more accurate statement would be that Dearborn, Royal Oak, and Farmington Hills are the new Watts. Guess which area has the most expensive housing.

[Bham1982]

A more accurate statement would be that Dearborn, Royal Oak, and Farmington Hills are the new Watts. Guess which area has the most expensive housing.

Watts is a poor Mexican and African American slum. Why would it be similar to Dearborn, Royal Oak, or Farmington Hills?

[Detroitdave]

Watts is a poor Mexican and African American slum. Why would it be similar to Dearborn, Royal Oak, or Farmington Hills?

?????? Have you ever been to Watts ? Watts may be the less expensive area in LA, but poor slum it's no where near , if the going rate for a "slum" is in the high $200,000.
LA's "slums" are more expensive than some of THE BEST area's in the metro Detroit area.
So those poor mexican and african americans can afford almost anything in some of metro Detroit most desirable areas and they have better shopping in the Baldwin Hills area than most of the Detroit metro area , so in essence they could come here and buy almost anything in Dearborn, Royal Oak, and Farmington Hills ?
Granted you get much more for you money in the Detroit metro area and better schools

[enio]

Housing in Watts is more expensive than the Michigan communities I mentioned. It is no longer overwhelmingly black, but a majority Hispanic. I doubt whether it would be possible to duplicate the riots following the Rodney King verdict because of the demographic change over the past 15 years.

More amenities than before - new or renovated schools, real mass transit, parks, shopping. Watts strip malls might have wrought iron fences, and require a token to exit the gated, guarded lot but most are occupied and busy, unlike their Detroit peers.

More crime than some other parts of Los Angeles, bars on the windows like Mexico City, but far more traffic and people on the streets than almost anywhere in Detroit Metro. An area improving, not a long, slow decline like most Detroit neighborhoods.

[Bham1982]

Couldn't you make the same broad comparisons between any two U.S. metros?

Jones Beach is Metropark Beach?

Greenwich, CT is Birmingham?

Etc. etc.

[dtowncitylover]

This is quite silly and a stretch.

How many times is Venice Beach closed for e. coli problems?

Anyone who calls Main St. in Royal Oak "flaming hot" is obviously a tool.

And while Birmingham is indeed upscale, it pales in comparison to Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive.

And Los Angeles is a sprawling metropolis of 3 million people in the city, 10 million in the suburbs, with diverse neighborhoods and the hub of west coast culture.

The only thing we have in common is our car culture.

[nain rouge]

Actually, Detroit is a lot like Minneapolis and Milwaukee, except it completely trashed itself in an attempt to be like LA, Miami, and Dallas. Because Detroit mistakenly believed its only disadvantage relative to those metros is that it wasn't suburban and exurban enough.

Pretty much everyone is in denial that exurban developments in icy, geographically boring Michigan don't have the same appeal as places like the Hollywood Hills. When you're shoveling snow and skidding on ice for months as you stare at immense parking lots and plots of grass with "FOR SALE BY THE MAFIA - ZONED RESIDENTIAL " signs, well, it just isn't as glamorous.

[MSUguy]

So someone found few random spots that look similar in the two cities. The premise behind is the site is rather silly

[Hermod]

Without regard to any physical similarities of buidlings and street scenes, Detroit metro and LA metro are thousands of miles apart on attitude and outlook.

[mtburb]

Just realized that there's a Southgate in metropolitan Los Angeles too-and in regards to the commercial and residential strips there, even looks oddly like our Southgate.

[jw101]

Just realized that there's a Southgate in metropolitan Los Angeles too-and in regards to the commercial and residential strips there, even looks oddly like our Southgate.

Really? I never knew that. Overall, it's a pretty interesting idea... I was thinking that the Sunset Strip would probably be... Woodward? Maybe even Livernois? And Malibu would have to be Gross Pointe- easily! Silver Lake, LA would probably be West Bloomfield.... just cool.

[FlyingJ]

Really? I never knew that. Overall, it's a pretty interesting idea... I was thinking that the Sunset Strip would probably be... Woodward? Maybe even Livernois? And Malibu would have to be Gross Pointe- easily! Silver Lake, LA would probably be West Bloomfield.... just cool.

Southgate, CA? Yeah, even had GM's most productive factory, but most people know it as a Bloods stronghold & good ol' Pete Ellis Dodge [[he sold out to form autobytel.com) who Kimball High's own Frazer Smith[[morning man on WRIF's LA affiliate) would oft claim on his show how hard they 'partied' over the past weekend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Ezn8eLfm8

it should be noted nearby Willow Run, CA[[now part of the LBC) WAS named by Henry Ford for his factory in The D

[313WX]

If anything, Detroit was the original LA...

[ABetterDetroit]

Having lived in LA the biggest difference is that the people aren't fighting with each other pointing fingers and blaming other communities for their problems. LA is always in flux, changing, evolving.

[iheartthed]

Having lived in LA the biggest difference is that the people aren't fighting with each other pointing fingers and blaming other communities for their problems. LA is always in flux, changing, evolving.

Another big difference is the massive amount of foreign immigration into the LA area, with the foreign born population in the city of Los Angeles itself being over one third its total population.

To put it another way, if you removed all of Los Angeles's foreign born population then Chicago would still be the nation's second largest city...

[Detroitdave]

I've lived in both cities and , born in Detroit, moved to LA when I was 13, back every summer and holiday to Detroit ,ect . I've lived in LA from 1987-2010 ,now back in since 2011. Both cities have major sprawl.
but LA is 3 times as big and 3 times as dense.
That's about where it ends. The only city that comes close to LA in regional shopping is NYC.
In LA shopping is a sport and every area of the city has major shopping unlike Detroit that has little to none.
However Detroit is developing very well in the hip department , I just hope it doesn't get self centered and spoiled like LA can be LOL

[313WX]

I've lived in both cities and , born in Detroit, moved to LA when I was 13, back every summer and holiday to Detroit ,ect . I've lived in LA from 1987-2010 ,now back in since 2011. Both cities have major sprawl.
but LA is 3 times as big and 3 times as dense.
That's about where it ends. The only city that comes close to LA in regional shopping is NYC.
In LA shopping is a sport and every area has part of the city has major shopping unlike Detroit that has little to none.
However Detroit is developing very well in the hip department , I just hope it doesn't get self centered and spoiled like LA can be LOL

As stated above, Detroit from the 1960s to 1980s was like a smaller LA.

Every part of the city [[Detroit) had major shopping during that time like LA [[besides Woodward Avenue, the New Center Area and Washington Blvd., there was the Avenue of Fashion, 7 Mile/Gratiot, Grand River/Greenfield, etc.).

Also, like LA, Detroit was also very car-centric and sprawly at that time while still having a vibrant/crowded urban core. In fact, before LA, Detroit had the most extensive freeway system of any major city...