Sprawl a Concern With Los Angeles Building and Construction

The City of Los Angeles has a long-term reputationdeceiving in part because the region includes mostly
for sprawl, however, this reputation is undeserved. Asuninhabited areas.
of the 2000 Census, the Los Angeles, Long Beach,The residential density of the central area was more
Santa Ana urbanized area had a residential density ofthan 13,500 per square mile in 2000. Within its urbanized
over 7,000 people per square mile, covering 1,600areas, Los Angeles is noted for modest lot sizes, small
square miles, rendering it the most densely-populatedvacancy rates, and general lack of large exurban
such area in the US. In comparison, the New York,spreads. In inner areas, it is not uncommon for
Newark urbanized area boasted a population densityindividuals to share rooms or rent rooms to strangers.
of over 5,300 persons per square mile, covering 3,300However, buildings tend to be of very low height when
square miles.compared to other very large cities in part because of
The widespread misconception of Los Angeles as astrict earthquake building codes which escalate costs.
sprawling city might originate in the area's decentralizedLos Angeles was established as a major city just as
structure. Instead of being concentrated in a singlethe Pacific Railway dispersed the population to lesser
downtown area, the region's major cultural, commercial,cities. During the first decades of the twentieth century,
residential, political and industrial locations are dispersedthe area was formed into a network of fairly dense
over an intricate, intra-connected network. Although thebut separate locales linked by rail. The emergence of
overall density of the city of Los Angeles is smallthe automobile assisted in filling the spaces between
compared to similar-sized American cities, this figure isthese commuter cities with smaller-density settlements.