I don't really get what you're trying to say here,,, there are plenty of 'blue' areas in red states and 'red' areas ni blue states. You sound like the Kamala campaign in this video tbh. EVERYWHERE needs to build dense housing, not just currently democrat leaning states.

The recent laws passed in CA letting SFH increase density and pushing for municipalities to increase density might be the first step any of the major blue states take towards addressing the housing issue. Hopefully these laws and others will actually impact housing costs in CA and help the broader Democratic party in becoming more YIMBY (for their own sake and for the country). Great video btw. 👍

While I agree that Blue States need more affordable housing, wouldn't this continued migration turn the Red States blue?

The LA Metro light rail system is getting better and is ACCEPTABLE, but the subway "lines" are a JOKE. The purple line is a joke.

They're building something similar in The Woodlands, Texas north of Houston. The canal waterway has been very popular, and there's been talks for water taxis

Thank you for this amazing story about Carolyn I was searching to know what happend there I love walking there and I feel so sad when I see all these closed stores and shops along the canal I hope all these open again and see more people and business more in this beautiful area

Great video!

So, nothing in your report about the tens of thousands of illegals putting presssure both on the job market as well as housing. Add that to insane regulations that add cost and time to any housiing project. Sprawl hasn't broken LA, it's corrupt, criminal Democrats...

Largest city in the state that is the 5th largest economy in the world. Bigger economy than the United Kingdom and just shy of Japan. "ruined". 😂

We need Barcelona style super blocks. ‼️

I take LA Metro only when it is absolutely convenient and goes exactly where I need to go. This is almost never. More importantly, there are too many crazy people on train - homeless, drug addicts, screaming people, people that smell like piss. Los Angeles is not Zurich, Switzerland and it will never be. I'll stick to my car and deal with the traffic.

THANK YOU for explaining this so concisely, and thank you for pointing out that the same strains that California is facing is part of a larger trend that isn’t isolated to that state.

I have been to LA recently. This city is dystopian . It does not have people on the street despite of a few millions of inhabitants declared....The core problem is the zoning code . It is an absolut lunacy to build these sprawls : places where you cannot even walk for the grocery, you always have to drive for the smallest thing.... Not only LA - most of the cities in USA are like this. They call themselves a "community" Nothing can be further from the truth : people living in these cities (sparwls) do not even see each other, they DO NOT COMMUNICATE. I live in Mexico City. Despite of all the problems (constant water crises, earthquakes, corruption) this Country and in particular CDMX have, the way all here is built makes much more sense for any practical, financial and fiscal reason

Good video, but who not highlight the new change in zoning that zones for 5 million residents now in LA city ?

LA is not broken. It's going through a transition that's been happening for many years but was put on hold during the 3-4 of the Covid pandemic. Only recently has the momentum started again. As with any transformational transition, there will be growing pains and even setbacks. However, LA's renaissance will continue to take shape, and the possibilities are very exciting. This idea that sprawl is always a bad thing and density is always a good thing couldn't be farther from the truth. Sprawl is not necessarily a bad thing. LA will NEVER be NYC or Tokyo, and it shouldn't try to be either. LA has always been different, and solutions to its problems will also be different. Very dense cities like NYC and Tokyo still have terrible traffic and are very expensive to live in even though dwellings there are much smaller on average than LA. Being denser doesn't mean issues of affordability and traffic go away. This video is way too generic and simplistic.

A lot of land in the LA basin was developed over 60 years ago. Standards & expectations were fairly modest back then. A lot of older metro LA nowadays is like being stuck with a late-model car whose tires, sheet metal & upholstery can't be easily replaced. Even when still brand-new, various neighborhoods like Compton, Van Nuys or Hawthorne left much to be desired. Santa Barbara, as another example, sprawls in a low-density way, So does Beverly Hills or Westlake Village. Cities like London or Paris also aren't highrise jungles like a NYC. But such areas are considered generally attractive.

if L.A. ever decided to densify like all cities should do, and they recycled all the structures they'd need to destroy, they could make so much money in construction it would cost far less than one would think, as recycling is an industry and would empoly countless people.

LA definitely need urgent infrastructure maintenance.....Homeless people in LA, are from the Republican Midwest states....none of the homeless are natives to LA o California. And most of the people leaving California are those who are victims of forest fires that destroy their homes. These people move out of California, but eventually come back.

This is an excellent documentary, but I want to add one thing to your mention of Dallas. As terrible as the DFW sprawl is, the metroplex is also building almost as many new apartments each year as NYC, making it second in the nation in total new apartments by a hair, and number one by far among metro areas for number of new apartments per capita. As a result, residents of older properties are paying less rent than last year. Blue cities in Red states are learning from California's mistakes; California's cities don't even seem to want to learn from their own mistakes, and that's a tragedy.

Really interesting about the population it was zoned for going in the wrong direction. I'd like to see the population every U.S. city is zoned for. It would shed a lot of light

The Los Angeles Metropolitan Area truly is massive. Nothing but an endless sea of sprawl as far as the eye can see …

A lot of the homeless folks are not from LA, much less from California. I heard people speaking with midwestern accents in Eagle Rock.

Looking forward to your Hot Docs entry. You are legendary.

Excellent micro-doc. Your work is supreme. Cars are a scourge. I used to live at Grand/ Pico at E on Grand. Now I'm dead.

Great video! Many of these concepts are not LA specific.

Buck broken

make more transit videos vlog the new people mover when it opens please

This is the most spot-on video about LA I've ever watched. Couldn't have said any of it better myself. 2:39 "What so much of America likes to point out as a failure of blue state politics, is fundamentally just a failure of housing policy." Beautifully said and so true. It's such a shame too because California makes progressive ideas look bad to people in other states. They visit and see what a train-wreck Los Angeles is, so they assume it's due to the Democratic controlled state and cities. But they don't understand that the way things are now are the result of policies created 50+ years ago, like suburbanization, redlining, CEQA, Prop 13. You can't undo 100 years of horrible land-use policies overnight. You even brought Texas into this. Again, you're EXACTLY correct. It's funny because in Texas they say "don't California my Texas" but the irony is that they are making Texas more like California all by themselves. Doubling down on freeways and suburbia, NIMBYsim. In 20 years Texas cities will look just like LA and they'll have no one to blame but themselves. LA needs to strive to be Tokyo. It's building transit but it's not densifying the way it needs to. Still 75% of the land is reserved for single-family houses only. A ridiculous relic from redlining that we simply can't allow to exist any longer. LA is realizing that it can't afford to maintain the public infrastructure over its expansive low density sprawl. Our city is broke and it's obvious why.

I swear, who do I have to pay to give me a ride on the APT 😭 that 1993-1996 period was when I went to work with my mom a lot as I was receiving medical treatment, and I wanted to ride it so bad. Then I started school and never went with her to work again. If I was Musk rich, I’d take this place on as a pet project. I’ve always adored this area and I hope it eventually realizes it’s full potential.

Thank you for pissing me off this morning 😂 I now have a vendetta against Waxman

Las Colinas ain’t dead bruh, I live over there now…and it’s growing rapidly

Because LA has the crappiest political leaders.

Nah. Not Buses ain’t it and more. /

Finish the subway Los Angeles, set politics aside. At least it's going to extend to Westwood by 2027. However it's still possible to fund another section to Santa Monica to finally finish the subway project, westbound. For the East extension go to the arts District and ends in Long Beach Airport. It may take 25 years to finally have a complete subway station ( unless it's accelerated or unfortunately delayed).

Irving, not Dallas

Thankfully, things are starting to change in the US. Every ~40 years America seems to undergo some major ideology shift. 1980 was a little over 40 years ago. Mindsets have changed a lot. Hopefully a new age of urban rail, light rail, and regional rail will usher in an America where people get around differently.

make a video on trinity groves in dallas

I worked at 125 E John Carp frwy on 12th floor from 2004-2009, had some EPIC times at what used to be called Texas Bar and Grill. Tucker (nights) and Billy (days) best bartenders ever. Nice to see all of the apartment buildings lining lake Carolyn now. That area is really popping now!!

You can always depend on politicians to get stuck on stupid at the most inconvenient time. WHY didn't they connect to LAX? 😮

Amazing job on the video 👏🏾

Henry Waxman stopped any rail project since the 80s

Very good summary of the Issues.

The problem with Pacific Electric Railway was that A) It was slow. Too slow. Top speed for those trains were 25mph. And B) The timetables were nowhere near that of today's Metro Rail. To put it in perspective, check out the timetables for MetroLink. Trains were nowhere as frequent and remember, the population was a fraction of what it is today!

I've been skating there for about 3 years now. I've always wondered what the purpose of it was. The canal is weirdly dead it's more of a walk through than doing something. The only thing is a sports bar that is never packed, real estate place that just open, urban design office, and a place to do quinceanera. other spots around Las Colinas are busiest. Also the place come off as its kept cleaned but a lot of trash in the water and in hiding areas as well forgot to mention the chemical smell in summertime from the water.

I have a little disagrement with you in regards to BART when you show your footage. BART while it recived some federal funding, modt funding for the construction came from the three original counties that compromise the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa) and local toll payers. So no, the federal government did not contribute the vast funding for what it became BART. No sure of the other system system though.

LA missed the boat on rapid transit. When the Blue Line was opened in 1990, it should have included a third track for express trains. Business commuters from Long Beach and OC didn't need to stop at most cities in the middle of the line. Jump ahead 30+ years and today most people I know refuse to take Metro for safety concerns. On my recent rides I have witnessed a variety of drug use, riders urinating on the trains or sleeping in their feces, illicit sales conducted, riders jumping on the trains carrying stolen goods (bunches of clothing still on the hangers), people screaming due to psychosis, and in one instance, a fire crackers was exploded in my car. Many of the stations don't have gates, offering free ridership for many. What's the story behind the DC Metro? It runs thorugh DC, Virginia and Maryland, and is clean, safe, efficient, and still expanding. How do we get a system like that in Los Angeles?

Waxman. He gave that money to Israel

LA sucks anyway. What a s--t whole

What You Left Out - WHY the Westside didn't want an extension down Wilshire Blvd (Miracle Mile)-- because the construction techniques at the time were A MESS . . . When they were building the Red Line under Wilshire Boulevard (in the DOWNTOWN) area in the early 90s, it was so disruptive, with the road being torn up over the subway, that many local businesses could not survive. I went down to that area once, and it was chaos. No one would want to shop there. The Miracle Mile didn't want that chaos . . . Newer construction techniques are less disruptive.

There is NO direct line from LA Union Station to LAX. Even the Green Line stops short, where you have to get off and then walk a bit to catch a PeopleMover that takes you to the airport. The original plan was to have ther Green Line go all the way to LAX, but the Taxi Lobby group killed it (paid off politicians). F the taxi lobby, hope they all go out of business because of mass transit, Lyft, and Uber. Goes double for the political scum. BTW - I go to Union Station and catch the FlyAway bus to LAX.