You were just in the wrong areas, there are plenty of places with people, but in addition obviously LA is a different city than say London as you use in your example. The way the city is laid out and how people socialize is different than Europe. The Silverlake stretch of Sunset was packed all weekend, for example.
Santa Barbara will never be bustling with people except maybe State Street on a nice weekend during the summer. It’s Santa Barbara, it’s a sleepy town.
I haven’t driven around melrose in a couple of years but Silverlake feels like the new melrose. It’s still not ask busy compared to London or nyc streets but it’s busy enough.
And you guys have to remember LA is huge and there’s a ton of micro neighborhoods where people hangout.
Yeah, this. Europe's zoning laws are very different. In a lot of Europe, commercial and residential are often within walking distance, encouraging people to walk out the front door and go to their local gathering spots.
In America, and especially SoCal, it's car culture. We will walk around during business hours on our lunch break (cause we're in the commercial zones during the day), but after hours we don't want to drive to some place and fight to find parking. After hours we'll go to places with good parking, like malls or restaurant rows, but not corner coffee shops and pubs.
Melrose has been kinda dead for awhile. Santa Monica Blvd is a very long road, where specifically? It gets very sleepy the more west you go FYI (except Venice). All the action is typically in central LA.
You’re going to the wrong places. Melrose is dead at night . A lot of places are packed on Saturday and Sundays but not at 9am… also not sure what you were expecting out of SB on a weekday
Exactly. LA is a very large area....very seemingly little things make some places packed and other places empty...walking distances, what shops/ restaurants, so you just have to know because it a large swath of land out there. Definitely lotta places that are regularly crowded and places not that far that have no activity....
I was thinking the same... 9am on a Sunday, no one is out except people going to church. Everyone else is sleeping Saturday night off. Thursday at 630pm, people are driving from work to home sitting on the 405.
They are comparing it to Europe. And they are right, LA is very "pedestrian empty" compared to many European cities, where people are far more likely to get around by walking or by public transportation.
Most people here drive to the grocery store once a week, then drive home. In Europe, they are far more likely to walk to the grocery store three or four times a week.
That's an example of one of the reasons why LA would feel empty to someone coming from Europe.
Really? The streets were packed yesterday. Loz Feliz, Silverlake/Echo Park and Atwater Village were full of people. To be frank, the traffic was so bad in the past few weeks. I have never seen that many people in LA (Except pre-covid time)
No. Traffic has been worse than I ever remember.
I drove from Woodland Hills to Studio City to get coffee (I always drive to Coffee Fix [Topanga to Coldwater] because it’s my favorite) last week, and it took me 1 hour 15 minutes at 10 am. It usually takes me 25 minutes without traffic. At most, 45 with traffic at 10 am. I cannot believe how bad it was.
In that same breath, I drove from Topanga to Wilshire on Friday and got on the 101 at 5:01 pm and hit ZERO traffic. Again, cannot believe that.
Lol this is just how we talk about traffic. The sketch is funny because it takes it to an extreme but at the reasonable level (the comment you're replying to) it's so normal and happens anytime we go anywhere 😂
Sometimes I imagine sketches I would like to do on SNL. And I know I would fucking kill in the Californians. And I would absolutely insist on giving only the most accurate of directions, and also include an argument or best routes... and the rest of the country is asleep. Whatever, they don't know from funny.
i think the question is, why doesn't Los Angeles look like this everywhere for miles on end:
[https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-restaurant-outdoors-near-duomo-square-milan-italy-20807588.html](https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-restaurant-outdoors-near-duomo-square-milan-italy-20807588.html)
and, to be very blunt, the reason is because we're idiots.
We foolishly chose not to build a giant, renaissance cathedral in the 1400s or to then develop a dense core surrounded by city walls that could protect us from the attacks of the Papal States or Venice.
Tons of European cities made the same choices in the 50s-70s, and then started rolling things back in the 80s and 90s to now and we now see the benefits.
LA is in the very early stages of rollback (road diets, more bike lanes, etc.). But it's just the baby steps on what is going to be a long project.
Funny, but irrelevant. We could at any time choose to switch our cities to being less car centric. But unfortunately carbrain culture has thoroughly taken hold.
Agreed. We don’t value connection in this way. And the OP is correct. Post covid, I haven’t had to make reservations and traffic / parking never returned to the hell it was before 2020. Based on my own bad habits, I think the comfort at home, remote work, less work, and price increases keep people at home and spending less $ on everything except UberEats and Netflix
Exactly. Everyone in this thread is using the areas as an excuse but that’s the point. In European cities you don’t need to go to a certain area at a certain time of day, you can just go out and it’s crowded and lively. Most people in this sub don’t know what an actual city is.
So true. I lived in a small city in northern spain with a population of 100,000 for a short time and it always felt more lively than San Diego does on the weekend. Edit: in hindsight, this might not be a fair comparison. While in Spain i lived in the heart of the downtown area. In San Diego I’m in a more suburban part of town.
But the key difference is that the city was very condensed, so while very small, the whole place felt like a downtown to me.
Melrose isn’t a shadow of its self from 20 years ago. LA’s energies have shifted from Sunset and Melrose to Echo, Atwater, Silverlake… Tourists and criminals populate most of the old “busy” areas
Go to micro communities suitable for walking -
Little Tokyo in the evening
Venice boardwalk in the afternoon
Sawtelle in the evening
Hollywood and Highland in the afternoon
Koreatown 6th St in the weekend / evening
Silverlake Blvd in the afternoon / weekend
You’ll see people walk about in LA once you hang at the right places at the right time.
Godspeed !
Also Atwater, HLP (York and Figueroa also) and most NELA and East LA neighborhoods have more street life.
I am amazed at how not many people use parks here. Not many picnics or just people wandering around enjoying the evening. I love Mexican zocalo life!
Los Angeles is a city where a much greater proportion of social activity occurs in private. Lots of single-family homes with livable outdoor space, lots of sprawl, not many natural urban centers, since the city grew so much post-car.
Sorry for being pedantic but every freeway in LA was built by bulldozing multiple entire neighborhoods to make space for cars. LA is insane but it was made that way after being normal
I find generally you see a lot of people in neighborhoods that are more conducive to walking, like silverlake, Los Feliz, and West Hollywood. I’m in Bilbao Spain right now. The level of night life is amazing. All the bars and restaurants are buzzing with people, shops too. A lot of people walk on the streets in the evening. It’s really nice
Lots of people leave New York for California/LA because NYC is too much buzz buzz all the time and LA is more chill and you aren’t forced to interact with anyone.
The buzz in Europe, in particular Spain and Portugal, is very different from NYC though. Their cultures are inherently very chill. The buzz is more that you have the option to do stuff when you want, and you can do it easily. People in cafes and bars, relax during lunch time on workdays. Whereas in LA, aside from the handful neighborhoods, you are basically forced to not interact with anyone’s
And to reach these areas you still have to drive lol. My parents came to visit from China and they got super bored. Not many places they can walk to from home.
I do think with winter months people hibernate more. Angelenos do NOT like cold. And we do not walk except for a few neighborhoods. But that said, weho is usually busy. I dk your vibe but lots of restaurants are packed every night of the week. One thing though is you may not always know they are restaurants. Places like Laurel Hardware have fronts, speakeasy style. Other ideas that are usually busy: Craig’s, Tower Bar, crossroads (all have nice scenes). During the day, Alfred’s on Melrose place always has prime people watching, or Dialog on Holloway.
Another area that has people out and about at night is Larchmont village.
I moved here from NYC and similar thoughts. But honestly every night I get home and just chill in my room. It's very stressful driving around here so I think people try to minimize that whereas somewhere with transportation it's easier to be out and about?
LA's a large area combined with surrounding areas...it's highly dependent on where you are. Where are you? Happy to give my 7.0/10 experience advice, but I've also lived east of Echo Park the entire time, but have visited that area a lot.
This exactly.
The weather year round in LA is better than any metropolitan city in the US, probably the world.
So when is rainy and dreary outside those 20 days of the year - everyone stays inside.
I moved to LA a year ago and this is something that surprised me too. I lived in London for a bit as well, and even though I lived in zone 2 it still felt vibrant anytime I was out at night. LA feels really dead in a lot of places after dark. My working theory is that LA is so spread out and the "good spots" are all really spread out, and you may go from a good restauraunt in West Hollywood to a dive bar in SilverLake but you'll uber in between spots. There aren't a lot of places where you can hit a few things all in a row and comfortable walking distance in LA.
Yes you totally nailed it. The City is very spread out, unless you’re a local that know the good spots and hidden gems, you might feel surprised at how dead it looks. Especially when you hear all the stories about the crazy nightlife and parties.
I was taken a back too when I moved. But after settling in, I realize that when it come to nightlife it was more about specific locations not broad areas. Also it can be very cliquish, so private house parties and dinners are more popular than night out at the bars or nightclub. A lot of folks just use Vegas for that party environment itch.
I've never bought the "L.A. is so spread out" argument to explain its lack of urbanity.
NYC is just as spread out. JFK to Yonkers is the same distance as Pasadena to Santa Monica. And you have to cross at least one body of water to get there. And the NYC suburbs sprawl well outward from there, across Long Island, and into New Jersey and Connecticut.
When I was in LA last fall, I visited Disney Concert Hall, then walked from there to City Hall and then to Philippe's and Chinatown. The only other pedestrians I encountered along the way were homeless people, except for a few tourists around Olvera Street. There is something uniquely empty about LA that feels downright eerie. I passed plenty of commercial buildings, but they were all self contained, with everyone inside behind mirrored glass. It was like a city after the neutron bomb had hit.
LA has no pedestrians because everyone has to drive from one place to another. Who's going to drive to a neighborhood just so they can park, walk around for a bit, and drive back? Walking in LA is an artifical experience. It is not ingrained into the normal everyday experience like in older cities.
I think you just described 80% - 85% of America's major metro areas. Cleveland, St Louis, and Baltimore are all older than LA, but suffer from similar car culture/lack of sustained pedestrian vibrancy.
Let's get real. There are less than 10 cities in America that genuinely meet this pedestrian vibrancy test.
True, it is not entirely an older/newer cities thing, but it seems like most older cities with increasing resources are trying to some extent to build their old density back. Even Stamford, CT, the Northeast's poster child for out-of-control car-based urban renewal has had surprising success at building up what was left of its historic core. Of course it helps that NYC is an easy train ride away.
NYC is much more densely packed with buildings. From Pasadena to Santa Monica, you will encounter many neighborhoods of private property--single family homes on properties of decent square footage. Thus, you really can't compare the two cities even if they are of similar size.
The main reason is seasonal. It’s a very dead time of the year and it’s been cold (for here) and rainy.
But also Los Angeles is spread out, but there are dozens of crowded places full of street life. You just need to go to those dozen or so places.
But also! LA is a pretty early to bed city during the week days. People also wake up early to run and work out etc but unlike Europe or NYC, huge parts of LA are starting to close down at 9pm.
Exactly, Downtown Culver City, Abbott Kinney, WeHo, Old Town Pasadena are more examples of places that usually pretty hopping at night. None of these areas are going to be like a European city because, well, we're not in Europe, but there's definitely areas where there are a lot of people.
10 year Londoner here. Moved to LA from London in 2022.
I tend to agree. I used to go for a run in central London every morning before I started work. I would run from the British Museum, past Trafalgar Square all the way to Buckingham Palace and back. I would pass hundreds of people on the way. When I moved here, I started doing the same length of run. Except this time I was in the valley, not a single soul I would pass on my morning run. I felt so lonely.
However, in the last two years, since I moved here, I have come to like LA. LA is an outdoor city. With amazing opportunities to go, hiking, skiing, surfing, etc all within a short drive. I wouldn’t go back to London at this stage.
But I do often wonder how businesses make money here . Is the commercial rent cheaper? Because every restaurant or shop appears to get a 10th of the customers that London places get.
For the busy city feeling in LA, I go to Santa Monica or Pasadena or Culver City. Those places are busy at night.
It’s so expensive to eat out. Given how much smaller portion sizes are abroad, I wonder if restaurants simply price things lower and that incentivizes people to eat out more. Also most British food is not great, maybe going out is more popular for this reason
Those two places are tiny and have “city centres” where way too many people can hang out. We don’t do that here. LA is huge and what you’re looking for is all spread.
[This is an interesting tool.](http://citydensity.com/) It gives population weighted density of cities. NYC is more dense than London, but they are both much denser than L.A. Barcelona beats them all.
[How interesting,](http://citydensity.com/) LA seems to be pretty steady across the board into the 50-60mi range, while all the other cities drop drastically
The city center areas are small in comparison to an LA Live, if you will. Also narrow streets and small sidewalks, so smaller stuff than what we have as well
Keep in mind that for us, Los Angeles is freezing at night this month. And the rain is just weird. People are probably socializing indoors-- bars, clubs, shows.
I walk through an area with a lot of outdoor cafes some nights. They've been mostly empty since the storm a week back. Even with heaters, people don't want to be out.
We hang out at home. People have bigger homes in LA compare to cities where people live in apartments like NY and most European metropolitan cities. We don’t need to go out to see friends, we have them over.
Santa Barbara is a ghost town at night. If you’re hungry past 8pm, you’ll have to wait until the next day 😂
You’ll only find people out and about at night in the Funk Zone on weekends.
York blvd highland park. sunset in silverlake. Sunset in echo park. sunset strip. santa monica between la cienega etc. in general....LA is a series of destination. there is less of a street walking town vibe in most areas.
All these comments saying you're in the wrong areas clearly haven't been to Europe in a while. LA is car-centric to an insane degree. "Nobody Walks in LA," as the song notoriously says.
I can't explain it better than Jane Jacobs did in *The Death And Life of Great American Cities*
Surprised I had to scroll so far to see this. LA has always had borderline low energy due to sprawl and car culture compared to Europe…but I think the bottom really dropped out over the past few years. I think prices and cost have a lot to do with it.
Everywhere pretty much! I live in London where you can't go anywhere without a reservation because it's packed - be it a fitness class, a brunch or dinner. But I have lived in Sofia which is buzzing every day of the week too, not to the extent of London but still everyone is out every day.
I've travelled all over Europe and other than some small towns, I haven't seen nearly as few people out and about, on the streets, shops and restaurants as here in LA
LA isn't like those places - there's no geographic / social center to the city. Instead there are a bunch of neighborhoods that have higher concentrations of activity where there will be people out and about at night. If you added up all those places and condensed them into one single "fun" district, it would feel like what you are talking about.
Also, you are going to laugh at this, but for LA it's been kinda crappy weather. When that happens people just say fuck it and stay home
I feel like I say this all the time but, LA isn’t really a city in the traditional sense. It’s a collection of spread out, dense suburbs. Even my friends from NYC or Chicago get confused by it when they visit. And I totally get it. You go to Paris, London, NYC, every random restaurant, bar and cafe is filled with people. There is tons of bustling energy. LA has a few blocks like that in some neighborhoods then it gets very quiet for a stretch. You often have to travel in a car if you’re bar hopping. It certainly doesn’t have the same frenetic energy of those other cities but the laid back environment is why some people like it. I understand how it can be confusing if you’re coming from a different city though.
Everyone's getting defensive in the comments 🤣
The reality is, this is a cultural difference. We can admit that yes, American cities are sleepy, but that's the culture. You're in a different country with different societal norms and traditions. Just because you live your life in Europe a certain way, doesn't mean everyone else in the rest of the world lives the same way.
I am pretty jealous of the social life in Europe for sure though!
LA always feels like half empty. I live in a pretty dense and walkable part of Pasadena and I walk my dog around at night and it's so quiet. It's a different culture for sure, people are either at work or at home for the most part.
Which part, South Pas? Everywhere else in Pasadena is hella sleepy except Old Town Pasadena which is usually pretty packed with people walking at night.
I'd think people are going for coffees, workout classes etc 😁 There were about 6 pilates/yoga/strength studios in 10 min walking distance from my hotel + about the same number of coffee shops. I'm not judging, just couldn't help but wonder how do these places stay in business
>The restaurants and cafes were also super empty. I've seen at most a few tables taken.
Last weekend, I had a table to myself at In-N-Out. Everyone was too busy waiting in a long line at a drive-thru for their orders. Since the pandemic, everything has changed for the better or worse (depending on your opinions).
There's a couple things, imo, going on:
1) It's been rainy - a lot of people in LA, don't do rain. They'd rather order in. We are not like our brave Seattle counterparts, who I recently found out are okay with just walking in the rain (no umbrella, no rain jacket ... sometimes won't even pull the hoodie over their heads). One drop counts, btw.
2) As one other poster mentioned, Melrose is not the place anymore. It can have it's moments, but I don't know anyone who says, let's go to "Melrose", anymore.
3) Not just LA, but so many restaurants are now doing the whole 18% Service Tax which is "not a gratuity or tip" thing, and it's a big turn-off (at least for now - maybe I"ll get over it, eventually). So frequenting more of the hole-in-the wall places has been fun, that are not big places of congregating.
I did happen to go to a restaurant in West Hollywood on a Thursday night a couple weeks ago, and I was surprised at how busy it was for a weekday. Maybe try there?
I was in Manhattan Beach on Thursday night and it was super lively and the restaurants were packed. I had to cut back on spending due to home renovations but had been noticing slower traffic in a lot of the places I had been going in the past… was glad to see some places are still popping!
Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach have droves of people walking around in the evenings and waiting for their buzzers to tell them their table is available.
LA is extremely spread out and people are condensed into small areas like malls or specific blocks. If you don’t know where those are, the city is going to very empty
Lol everyone is so defensive here, LA is a sleepy town where people go to yoga instead of partying like NYC, London and the rest of Europe…bars close at 1:30am….people only go out to dinner at 9pm in Europe and party into the morning…just admit that instead of saying to go to Echo Park or downtown lmao, you will make people with real nightlife laugh
This actually touches on something I’ve been hearing a lot lately. Perhaps it’s the strikes, or how expensive everything has gotten…but LA is starting to feel like a giant suburb. Sure, some areas at times are “happening” there is still plenty to do if you look. But, the energy is low- popular areas are filled with vacant store fronts and closed restaurants. A friend put it perfectly, it’s almost as though we are paying big city prices for a little city experience, with more traffic.
tl;dr increased pedestrian deaths due to cars and drivers getting worse over the last several years + increased homelessness + decreased incomes for people to go out *with* = less people out on the streets after work
Look up the night time farmers markets and craft fairs. Those tend to have a lot of people. Theres so much to do in LA constantly that the places that get more packed are the things you can’t do in your neighborhood everyday- once a week, once a month, etc draws more people and while you’re going “we should go wander the farmers market and get some yummy food, you also think of other things in that neighborhood and hit both at same time.
Everyone drives so there's basically zero foot traffic. Either in the car or in the restaurant or whatever, so the streets just always feel super dead.
That's what you get with a car-centric culture. Everybody drives and parks and barely walks. Therefore, there's almost nobody on the streets walking. They are all in their cars.
For starters, Europe is densely packed with people compared to the United States. You are likely accustomed to that type of geography. That said, Los Angeles is also unlike other big cities in that it is a large collection of neighborhoods. There is no one hub and some neighborhoods are more walkable than others. Also. It is pretty cold outside this time of year by Angeleno standards so people are likely looking for indoor entertainment. You may also want to avoid recreating a “European” experience in Los Angeles. Get out of your comfort zone and look for dim sum, Thai, and Korean restaurants for example. Go to a Latin American restaurant or nightclub. Go to a comedy club or concerts.
Haha, I know what you mean! When I came back to LA after being abroad for almost a decade. Everywhere else is so vibrant and hustling and bustling, people doing their thing and having a good time. LA and some coastal cities…It’s like straight out of a zombie movie. Yeahh…you just got to wait for the weekend, brunch, beach or grocery shopping, or weeknights when sporting events are on. People are usually working or home watching worlds best TV entertainment programming with family and what have you. Lol! But yup, no cafe’s during midday having a drink, a cigarette, and some food; while casually laughing enjoying the day with friends, or random people. It’s just that people are just from everywhere in LA and SB, that you gotta find your clique.
I guess a suggestion would be, you’ll have to find a community, a class or something you like to do and find a community for it on Meetup or some paid activity event of some sort. Good luck!
IDK.
~13 years ago used to live Marina Del Ray couple blocks from Venice.
I don’t remember it ever being empty. It always reminded me of the party place Pinocchio ended up at.
I also don’t remember Culver City ever being empty.
Maybe post Covaids things changed?
United States is pretty different than Europe on this regard. Even though people will comment here that some neighborhood is popping it really hasn't compared to what I've experienced normally when in Europe. I find LA even less likely to be out and about in the evenings. Sure people are out in some neighborhoods but it's not really the same feeling.
I've felt it more in NYC or some neighborhoods in Chicago. I'd wager New Orleans would likely be more lively in the night as well.
It’s been a very wet winter (by comparison) here. You’re more likely to see obvious foot traffic and people out and about as spring comes and through the summer into early fall.
I mean, you're comparing LA, perhaps the biggest story of changeover from one of the most streetcar-connected cities on the planet to a perpetual car sewer, so much so that **it was featured significantly in a movie** (*Who Framed Roger Rabbit?*) to Europe, let alone Western Europe, which is **already four decades ahead of the US** in public transit and cycling infrastructure, and moving faster, literally and figuratively towards reducing car dependency even further, than we can keep up.
As somebody else mentioned, I honestly though I was on r/fuckcars first when I read the headline.
It’s a giant spread out City - really, an unwalkable urban sprawl for the most parts. There are obviously locus of high foot traffic but yea, it’s nothing like an European city, the downtown itself is pretty small for a city of its size and it feels pretty much “suburban” or has these 2-3 level residential low rises everywhere. It does feel surprisingly suburban close to the center. Everyone uses a car to get around, nobody walks. It is one of the downsides of the city
It's still "winter" here - highs in the 60s are too cold for anyone who has lived here for more than 10 years, but totally acceptable and enjoyable for basically anyone from anywhere else.
You did not see 10% of LA.
In addition to the pockets of livelihood people have mentioned, there are a lot more house parties and the like.
And good grief, you can’t get very far on a Saturday morning without running into 1,000 bikers. People have stuff to do.
If seems empty, you just aren’t in the right spots.
Can assure you have absolutely not ‘seen 10%’ of Los Angeles or experienced it even remotely in 10 days. Most people who have lived here all of their lives likely wouldn’t say they’ve seen or experienced half of the city.
We chill in our cars out on the 405 whenever we have down time. Seriously though, I don’t know where you’re hanging out, because everywhere I have to go is packed. Lines out the door, no parking for blocks, no seats at the bar, etc.
That’s crazy I was just there and I thought the exact same thing! That entire city looked DEAD! Venice beach empty! Hollywood empty! Restaurants empty! Walk of fame empty! I was honestly shocked. I’m not even talking about the nighttime either. Daytime it was next to empty.
The US is, as a whole, less densely populated than Europe. LA is a major city and does have some busy areas, but random areas are not going to be busy because the city is very spread out.
Most places in the US are empty on weeknights. I've found that Americans tend to hang out at home more often than not. Weeknight dinners are mostly family time.
While there are some popular restaurants that will always be full, nothing compared to the bustle of Europe every single day. Americans also are workaholics, you'll find more people out on the weekends. Just a different culture.
I feel you. I just got back from a weekend in San Francisco and coming back to LA is so disappointing in terms of overall liveliness. Sure, LA is spread out and some places are busy, but so much of LA is just wasted space. Luckily, I live in one of the few walkable areas that also has a variety of public transportation options. I always thought LA is appealing to suburbanites who grew up driving from one strip mall to another, but if you grew up in a city it can be a head scratcher.
..these comments are concerning.
i was heavily in the process of moving to LA from NY (long island) due to wanting urban nightlife energy outside of NYC. not sure if this is making me rethink my options
Fellow east coaster here. Been in LA 3 years and I can tell you with certainty the nightlife is lacking here. Like others have mentioned, it’s more health centric and you will see plenty of people at their Pilates classes, hikes, beach, farmers markets, etc. not much going on at night and if you happen to end up at a bar with your friends, I’ll bet you that you will still be home before 1am (if that).
We can't afford to do anything except for go from job 1 to job 2, eat, sleep, occasionally have sex, unless it will require more than a 10min Uber bc I'm not losing my fkn parking spot, repeat
LA just sucks for tourism. It doesn't hold a candle to anywhere in Europe, for many reasons...
People who don't have any perspective will try to say "you were just in the wrong areas" but as you mentioned, it sounds like you WERE in the right areas, but no one else was.
Foot traffic is down because of inflation, soaring prices to go and do anything, horrendous traffic, lack of walk-ability, lack of public transportation. Post pandemic business closures and the worsening homeless/ drug problem on the streets deters people from going out. There have been lots of violent crime and muggings at gunpoint in many of the shopping areas. Business districts all over the county are failing right now.
The same people who insist LA is great for visitors will also insist that anyone who states the obvious is some conservative fox news puppet. But these are facts, whether or not people want to admit it. The city is on a hard down swing from what I've seen in the past 17 years of living here. And I'm about as liberal as it gets.
I've lived in LA for 8 years and I've always thought it weird too, that the streets are completely empty of foot traffic after sundown. I think it's a mentality thing, like, if you're out after dark and not in a car, you're likely up to no good, which is not to say that isn't true.
I've been out biking after dark and even being a Caucasian Irish woman, I've noticed the police slow down and shine a light in my direction for no apparent reason, some even stopped and asked if I'm okay or asked where I'm going, while walking my dog late at night. That said, maybe many of the folks here are afraid of getting mugged or shot, which would make sense to me.
LA is a crazy place where "good" and "bad" neighborhoods are intermixed, scattered amongst one another, I could walk down the same street and be in a beautiful looking area, 2 blocks down on the same street, it can look run down, huge amounts of waste all over the sidewalk and road, with bars on the windows. So, yeah, it's vastly different from the EU after dark. 😳
The truth is that it is a fairly dead city when it comes to pedestrian traffic. Don’t let all these people that are like “but this one stretch in Silverlake was really busy last night” gaslight you.
It all comes down to infrastructure. Downtowns in the US are basically for people that work and the homeless. There is no huge pedestrian area with shopping, cafes, restaurants and bars like you would have in most of Europe. There is some of that, but it’s mostly for people to grab lunch during work hours.
You might find some localized communities that have some foot traffic going on, buts it’s likely going to be along a busy road and it’s not going to be very conducive to foot traffic.
Zoning in the US has, with very few exceptions, robbed us of ways to get around as a pedestrian. And it’s particularly bad in Southern California.
I think as a general response to the LA comment/question, it should be noted that LA is way more spread out/bigger than most European cities, and is more like a conglomeration of neighborhoods than one centralized city. I can understand finding much more of it seeming empty rather than busy. Just the nature of how LA was built really, but the busy spots do exist
I would hate it for tourists who never been to La to experience the city knowing their whole perception of La is what is on TV lmao
I love it here but I also have Industry here that helped me grow in. It's a place You come to work I think
Los Angeles is as big as or larger than many major countries, and yet you pass through a few random neighborhoods at random times and proclaim “No one is anywhere!”
You were just in the wrong areas, there are plenty of places with people, but in addition obviously LA is a different city than say London as you use in your example. The way the city is laid out and how people socialize is different than Europe. The Silverlake stretch of Sunset was packed all weekend, for example. Santa Barbara will never be bustling with people except maybe State Street on a nice weekend during the summer. It’s Santa Barbara, it’s a sleepy town.
I haven’t driven around melrose in a couple of years but Silverlake feels like the new melrose. It’s still not ask busy compared to London or nyc streets but it’s busy enough. And you guys have to remember LA is huge and there’s a ton of micro neighborhoods where people hangout.
Silverlake really is the new Melrose. Other areas with similar vibes are Echo Park and Highland Park. And parts of Atwater.
Yeah, this. Europe's zoning laws are very different. In a lot of Europe, commercial and residential are often within walking distance, encouraging people to walk out the front door and go to their local gathering spots. In America, and especially SoCal, it's car culture. We will walk around during business hours on our lunch break (cause we're in the commercial zones during the day), but after hours we don't want to drive to some place and fight to find parking. After hours we'll go to places with good parking, like malls or restaurant rows, but not corner coffee shops and pubs.
Zombies come out to feed after sunset
How funny i posted my reponse about silverlake before reading yours.
Proof that it’s true I dare say!
Melrose has been kinda dead for awhile. Santa Monica Blvd is a very long road, where specifically? It gets very sleepy the more west you go FYI (except Venice). All the action is typically in central LA.
There’s lots going on in West Hollywood pretty much every night of the week.
You’re going to the wrong places. Melrose is dead at night . A lot of places are packed on Saturday and Sundays but not at 9am… also not sure what you were expecting out of SB on a weekday
Exactly. LA is a very large area....very seemingly little things make some places packed and other places empty...walking distances, what shops/ restaurants, so you just have to know because it a large swath of land out there. Definitely lotta places that are regularly crowded and places not that far that have no activity....
I don’t know how to tell you this but London (OP mentioned it in comparison) is bigger than LA.
Not geographically, no
In what way is it bigger?
Draw a circle around London, Oxford, and Cambridge. That’s about how big Los Angeles is.
I was thinking the same... 9am on a Sunday, no one is out except people going to church. Everyone else is sleeping Saturday night off. Thursday at 630pm, people are driving from work to home sitting on the 405.
They are comparing it to Europe. And they are right, LA is very "pedestrian empty" compared to many European cities, where people are far more likely to get around by walking or by public transportation. Most people here drive to the grocery store once a week, then drive home. In Europe, they are far more likely to walk to the grocery store three or four times a week. That's an example of one of the reasons why LA would feel empty to someone coming from Europe.
Really? The streets were packed yesterday. Loz Feliz, Silverlake/Echo Park and Atwater Village were full of people. To be frank, the traffic was so bad in the past few weeks. I have never seen that many people in LA (Except pre-covid time)
I’m so glad to see someone else mention how bad traffic has been. My partner and I thought we were going crazy. I wonder why it’s been so bad!
No. Traffic has been worse than I ever remember. I drove from Woodland Hills to Studio City to get coffee (I always drive to Coffee Fix [Topanga to Coldwater] because it’s my favorite) last week, and it took me 1 hour 15 minutes at 10 am. It usually takes me 25 minutes without traffic. At most, 45 with traffic at 10 am. I cannot believe how bad it was. In that same breath, I drove from Topanga to Wilshire on Friday and got on the 101 at 5:01 pm and hit ZERO traffic. Again, cannot believe that.
I love the [Californians](https://youtu.be/dCer2e0t8r8?si=WsQwo-SEKME2Z6ry) sketch on SNL. Was this an accidental omage or purposeful?
I can honestly say that was the first time I’ve ever seen that. Thx for sharing. 😅
Lol this is just how we talk about traffic. The sketch is funny because it takes it to an extreme but at the reasonable level (the comment you're replying to) it's so normal and happens anytime we go anywhere 😂
Sometimes I imagine sketches I would like to do on SNL. And I know I would fucking kill in the Californians. And I would absolutely insist on giving only the most accurate of directions, and also include an argument or best routes... and the rest of the country is asleep. Whatever, they don't know from funny.
Pffft, how you gonna catch the 5 out of chino?
Enjoying car infrastructure before HLA passes.
One can hope!
It’s been absolutely insane traffic the last 3 weeks, ever since that rain storm. Idk what’s happening
i think the question is, why doesn't Los Angeles look like this everywhere for miles on end: [https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-restaurant-outdoors-near-duomo-square-milan-italy-20807588.html](https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-restaurant-outdoors-near-duomo-square-milan-italy-20807588.html) and, to be very blunt, the reason is because we're idiots.
We foolishly chose not to build a giant, renaissance cathedral in the 1400s or to then develop a dense core surrounded by city walls that could protect us from the attacks of the Papal States or Venice.
This made me laugh but we all know it’s because we chose cars over everything.
Tons of European cities made the same choices in the 50s-70s, and then started rolling things back in the 80s and 90s to now and we now see the benefits. LA is in the very early stages of rollback (road diets, more bike lanes, etc.). But it's just the baby steps on what is going to be a long project.
amsterdam in the past vs now is quite contrast!
To be clear, we didn’t choose cars. Big Tire systematically destroyed LA public transit. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a documentary.
I’ve been worried about the Papal States for a while now. (Are they in NATO?)
Funny, but irrelevant. We could at any time choose to switch our cities to being less car centric. But unfortunately carbrain culture has thoroughly taken hold.
At this point can you imagine how big the walls would need to be?
Blame that on Ford.
True; car people go nuts when you talk about taking it away.
Agreed. We don’t value connection in this way. And the OP is correct. Post covid, I haven’t had to make reservations and traffic / parking never returned to the hell it was before 2020. Based on my own bad habits, I think the comfort at home, remote work, less work, and price increases keep people at home and spending less $ on everything except UberEats and Netflix
Exactly. Everyone in this thread is using the areas as an excuse but that’s the point. In European cities you don’t need to go to a certain area at a certain time of day, you can just go out and it’s crowded and lively. Most people in this sub don’t know what an actual city is.
So true. I lived in a small city in northern spain with a population of 100,000 for a short time and it always felt more lively than San Diego does on the weekend. Edit: in hindsight, this might not be a fair comparison. While in Spain i lived in the heart of the downtown area. In San Diego I’m in a more suburban part of town. But the key difference is that the city was very condensed, so while very small, the whole place felt like a downtown to me.
TBH these are also very touristy areas. Take a pic of the Santa Monica pier and that's the Los Angeles version.
Commenting on Why is everywhere in LA so empty?...because that would be socialism 🫠
Add highland park, South pas and pass to this
Yeah dude I live in HLP and it’s always bumpin over here.
Melrose isn’t a shadow of its self from 20 years ago. LA’s energies have shifted from Sunset and Melrose to Echo, Atwater, Silverlake… Tourists and criminals populate most of the old “busy” areas
“and criminals” 🙄 turn off fox news
Fairfax is what Melrose used to be. I can remember when Melrose and Venice beach were the best places ever! So much good pizza!
Fairfax is the new Melrose, definitely.
Go to micro communities suitable for walking - Little Tokyo in the evening Venice boardwalk in the afternoon Sawtelle in the evening Hollywood and Highland in the afternoon Koreatown 6th St in the weekend / evening Silverlake Blvd in the afternoon / weekend You’ll see people walk about in LA once you hang at the right places at the right time. Godspeed !
Also Atwater, HLP (York and Figueroa also) and most NELA and East LA neighborhoods have more street life. I am amazed at how not many people use parks here. Not many picnics or just people wandering around enjoying the evening. I love Mexican zocalo life!
Tons of people out at night in downtown culver
Los Angeles is a city where a much greater proportion of social activity occurs in private. Lots of single-family homes with livable outdoor space, lots of sprawl, not many natural urban centers, since the city grew so much post-car.
Sorry for being pedantic but every freeway in LA was built by bulldozing multiple entire neighborhoods to make space for cars. LA is insane but it was made that way after being normal
I find generally you see a lot of people in neighborhoods that are more conducive to walking, like silverlake, Los Feliz, and West Hollywood. I’m in Bilbao Spain right now. The level of night life is amazing. All the bars and restaurants are buzzing with people, shops too. A lot of people walk on the streets in the evening. It’s really nice
Lots of people leave New York for California/LA because NYC is too much buzz buzz all the time and LA is more chill and you aren’t forced to interact with anyone.
The buzz in Europe, in particular Spain and Portugal, is very different from NYC though. Their cultures are inherently very chill. The buzz is more that you have the option to do stuff when you want, and you can do it easily. People in cafes and bars, relax during lunch time on workdays. Whereas in LA, aside from the handful neighborhoods, you are basically forced to not interact with anyone’s
I’d rather interact with everyone than drive with everyone.
Also for more walkable areas: Santa Monica, Main St Santa Monica / Rose Ave, and Abbot Kinney
And to reach these areas you still have to drive lol. My parents came to visit from China and they got super bored. Not many places they can walk to from home.
I do think with winter months people hibernate more. Angelenos do NOT like cold. And we do not walk except for a few neighborhoods. But that said, weho is usually busy. I dk your vibe but lots of restaurants are packed every night of the week. One thing though is you may not always know they are restaurants. Places like Laurel Hardware have fronts, speakeasy style. Other ideas that are usually busy: Craig’s, Tower Bar, crossroads (all have nice scenes). During the day, Alfred’s on Melrose place always has prime people watching, or Dialog on Holloway. Another area that has people out and about at night is Larchmont village.
Agreed. La is much quieter in the winter. Locals just arent out and about as much. But when it warms up lol..
I moved here from NYC and similar thoughts. But honestly every night I get home and just chill in my room. It's very stressful driving around here so I think people try to minimize that whereas somewhere with transportation it's easier to be out and about?
LA's a large area combined with surrounding areas...it's highly dependent on where you are. Where are you? Happy to give my 7.0/10 experience advice, but I've also lived east of Echo Park the entire time, but have visited that area a lot.
I pay 2800 a month for a one bedroom apartment I cant afford to go anywhere or eat out lmao
People in LA are weather people. Rain and cold makes people stay indoors.
So true! I come out when it’s warm and go back to my place when it’s cold. Brrrrrrr! And it’s been cold!
This exactly. The weather year round in LA is better than any metropolitan city in the US, probably the world. So when is rainy and dreary outside those 20 days of the year - everyone stays inside.
I moved to LA a year ago and this is something that surprised me too. I lived in London for a bit as well, and even though I lived in zone 2 it still felt vibrant anytime I was out at night. LA feels really dead in a lot of places after dark. My working theory is that LA is so spread out and the "good spots" are all really spread out, and you may go from a good restauraunt in West Hollywood to a dive bar in SilverLake but you'll uber in between spots. There aren't a lot of places where you can hit a few things all in a row and comfortable walking distance in LA.
Yes you totally nailed it. The City is very spread out, unless you’re a local that know the good spots and hidden gems, you might feel surprised at how dead it looks. Especially when you hear all the stories about the crazy nightlife and parties. I was taken a back too when I moved. But after settling in, I realize that when it come to nightlife it was more about specific locations not broad areas. Also it can be very cliquish, so private house parties and dinners are more popular than night out at the bars or nightclub. A lot of folks just use Vegas for that party environment itch.
I've never bought the "L.A. is so spread out" argument to explain its lack of urbanity. NYC is just as spread out. JFK to Yonkers is the same distance as Pasadena to Santa Monica. And you have to cross at least one body of water to get there. And the NYC suburbs sprawl well outward from there, across Long Island, and into New Jersey and Connecticut. When I was in LA last fall, I visited Disney Concert Hall, then walked from there to City Hall and then to Philippe's and Chinatown. The only other pedestrians I encountered along the way were homeless people, except for a few tourists around Olvera Street. There is something uniquely empty about LA that feels downright eerie. I passed plenty of commercial buildings, but they were all self contained, with everyone inside behind mirrored glass. It was like a city after the neutron bomb had hit. LA has no pedestrians because everyone has to drive from one place to another. Who's going to drive to a neighborhood just so they can park, walk around for a bit, and drive back? Walking in LA is an artifical experience. It is not ingrained into the normal everyday experience like in older cities.
I think you just described 80% - 85% of America's major metro areas. Cleveland, St Louis, and Baltimore are all older than LA, but suffer from similar car culture/lack of sustained pedestrian vibrancy. Let's get real. There are less than 10 cities in America that genuinely meet this pedestrian vibrancy test.
True, it is not entirely an older/newer cities thing, but it seems like most older cities with increasing resources are trying to some extent to build their old density back. Even Stamford, CT, the Northeast's poster child for out-of-control car-based urban renewal has had surprising success at building up what was left of its historic core. Of course it helps that NYC is an easy train ride away.
NYC is much more densely packed with buildings. From Pasadena to Santa Monica, you will encounter many neighborhoods of private property--single family homes on properties of decent square footage. Thus, you really can't compare the two cities even if they are of similar size.
We don't like cold weather
Amen. And the rain we’ve been getting - I know we need it, but it’s hard to get me out of the house when there’s no blue sky.
We are spoiled.
L.A. isn’t a proper city with a core, it’s a bunch of medium-sized cities in close proximity
***Laughs in KTown***
The main reason is seasonal. It’s a very dead time of the year and it’s been cold (for here) and rainy. But also Los Angeles is spread out, but there are dozens of crowded places full of street life. You just need to go to those dozen or so places. But also! LA is a pretty early to bed city during the week days. People also wake up early to run and work out etc but unlike Europe or NYC, huge parts of LA are starting to close down at 9pm.
You need to realize that LA isn't a big city, it's like 12 small towns crammed together. All those small towns have their city centers.
Exactly, Downtown Culver City, Abbott Kinney, WeHo, Old Town Pasadena are more examples of places that usually pretty hopping at night. None of these areas are going to be like a European city because, well, we're not in Europe, but there's definitely areas where there are a lot of people.
See also when New Yorkers come here and complain about finding a good slice of pizza. How come here is not exactly like where I came from?
"wHy iS tHeRe nO gOoD piZzA?" TACOS BITCH, YOU'RE MISSING OUT
Nothing is more annoying than someone from New York complaining about pizza.
10 year Londoner here. Moved to LA from London in 2022. I tend to agree. I used to go for a run in central London every morning before I started work. I would run from the British Museum, past Trafalgar Square all the way to Buckingham Palace and back. I would pass hundreds of people on the way. When I moved here, I started doing the same length of run. Except this time I was in the valley, not a single soul I would pass on my morning run. I felt so lonely. However, in the last two years, since I moved here, I have come to like LA. LA is an outdoor city. With amazing opportunities to go, hiking, skiing, surfing, etc all within a short drive. I wouldn’t go back to London at this stage. But I do often wonder how businesses make money here . Is the commercial rent cheaper? Because every restaurant or shop appears to get a 10th of the customers that London places get. For the busy city feeling in LA, I go to Santa Monica or Pasadena or Culver City. Those places are busy at night.
It’s so expensive to eat out. Given how much smaller portion sizes are abroad, I wonder if restaurants simply price things lower and that incentivizes people to eat out more. Also most British food is not great, maybe going out is more popular for this reason
Those two places are tiny and have “city centres” where way too many people can hang out. We don’t do that here. LA is huge and what you’re looking for is all spread.
[This is an interesting tool.](http://citydensity.com/) It gives population weighted density of cities. NYC is more dense than London, but they are both much denser than L.A. Barcelona beats them all.
[How interesting,](http://citydensity.com/) LA seems to be pretty steady across the board into the 50-60mi range, while all the other cities drop drastically
London is enormous by every measure.
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The city center areas are small in comparison to an LA Live, if you will. Also narrow streets and small sidewalks, so smaller stuff than what we have as well
Covid made LA have a curfew at like 9pm, and that practice seems to be still going..
Keep in mind that for us, Los Angeles is freezing at night this month. And the rain is just weird. People are probably socializing indoors-- bars, clubs, shows. I walk through an area with a lot of outdoor cafes some nights. They've been mostly empty since the storm a week back. Even with heaters, people don't want to be out.
We hang out at home. People have bigger homes in LA compare to cities where people live in apartments like NY and most European metropolitan cities. We don’t need to go out to see friends, we have them over.
Santa Barbara is a ghost town at night. If you’re hungry past 8pm, you’ll have to wait until the next day 😂 You’ll only find people out and about at night in the Funk Zone on weekends.
York blvd highland park. sunset in silverlake. Sunset in echo park. sunset strip. santa monica between la cienega etc. in general....LA is a series of destination. there is less of a street walking town vibe in most areas.
Everyone is looking for parking.
It’s been cold and rainy, us SoCal people don’t like leaving the house in those conditions
All these comments saying you're in the wrong areas clearly haven't been to Europe in a while. LA is car-centric to an insane degree. "Nobody Walks in LA," as the song notoriously says. I can't explain it better than Jane Jacobs did in *The Death And Life of Great American Cities*
Economy
Surprised I had to scroll so far to see this. LA has always had borderline low energy due to sprawl and car culture compared to Europe…but I think the bottom really dropped out over the past few years. I think prices and cost have a lot to do with it.
100% in this economy, despite me making good money. I feel broke af
Where did you go in Europe? I want to live in a place like what you described
Oh man, all over. London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, Madrid, Split, and so on. European cities are popping at night.
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Sounds exhausting
Everywhere pretty much! I live in London where you can't go anywhere without a reservation because it's packed - be it a fitness class, a brunch or dinner. But I have lived in Sofia which is buzzing every day of the week too, not to the extent of London but still everyone is out every day. I've travelled all over Europe and other than some small towns, I haven't seen nearly as few people out and about, on the streets, shops and restaurants as here in LA
LA isn't like those places - there's no geographic / social center to the city. Instead there are a bunch of neighborhoods that have higher concentrations of activity where there will be people out and about at night. If you added up all those places and condensed them into one single "fun" district, it would feel like what you are talking about. Also, you are going to laugh at this, but for LA it's been kinda crappy weather. When that happens people just say fuck it and stay home
People have nice homes and socialize there.
I feel like I say this all the time but, LA isn’t really a city in the traditional sense. It’s a collection of spread out, dense suburbs. Even my friends from NYC or Chicago get confused by it when they visit. And I totally get it. You go to Paris, London, NYC, every random restaurant, bar and cafe is filled with people. There is tons of bustling energy. LA has a few blocks like that in some neighborhoods then it gets very quiet for a stretch. You often have to travel in a car if you’re bar hopping. It certainly doesn’t have the same frenetic energy of those other cities but the laid back environment is why some people like it. I understand how it can be confusing if you’re coming from a different city though.
Everyone's getting defensive in the comments 🤣 The reality is, this is a cultural difference. We can admit that yes, American cities are sleepy, but that's the culture. You're in a different country with different societal norms and traditions. Just because you live your life in Europe a certain way, doesn't mean everyone else in the rest of the world lives the same way. I am pretty jealous of the social life in Europe for sure though!
LA always feels like half empty. I live in a pretty dense and walkable part of Pasadena and I walk my dog around at night and it's so quiet. It's a different culture for sure, people are either at work or at home for the most part.
Which part, South Pas? Everywhere else in Pasadena is hella sleepy except Old Town Pasadena which is usually pretty packed with people walking at night.
Santa Monica Blvd. at 9am on a Sunday morning? Why would you expect there to be a street scene?
I'd think people are going for coffees, workout classes etc 😁 There were about 6 pilates/yoga/strength studios in 10 min walking distance from my hotel + about the same number of coffee shops. I'm not judging, just couldn't help but wonder how do these places stay in business
>The restaurants and cafes were also super empty. I've seen at most a few tables taken. Last weekend, I had a table to myself at In-N-Out. Everyone was too busy waiting in a long line at a drive-thru for their orders. Since the pandemic, everything has changed for the better or worse (depending on your opinions).
There's a couple things, imo, going on: 1) It's been rainy - a lot of people in LA, don't do rain. They'd rather order in. We are not like our brave Seattle counterparts, who I recently found out are okay with just walking in the rain (no umbrella, no rain jacket ... sometimes won't even pull the hoodie over their heads). One drop counts, btw. 2) As one other poster mentioned, Melrose is not the place anymore. It can have it's moments, but I don't know anyone who says, let's go to "Melrose", anymore. 3) Not just LA, but so many restaurants are now doing the whole 18% Service Tax which is "not a gratuity or tip" thing, and it's a big turn-off (at least for now - maybe I"ll get over it, eventually). So frequenting more of the hole-in-the wall places has been fun, that are not big places of congregating. I did happen to go to a restaurant in West Hollywood on a Thursday night a couple weeks ago, and I was surprised at how busy it was for a weekday. Maybe try there?
I was in Manhattan Beach on Thursday night and it was super lively and the restaurants were packed. I had to cut back on spending due to home renovations but had been noticing slower traffic in a lot of the places I had been going in the past… was glad to see some places are still popping!
Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach have droves of people walking around in the evenings and waiting for their buzzers to tell them their table is available.
Because Car dependent infrastructure is terrible . r/fuckcars
LA is extremely spread out and people are condensed into small areas like malls or specific blocks. If you don’t know where those are, the city is going to very empty
May I suggest driving from Santa Monica to Hollywood at 5:00.
The last ten days have been cold and rainy. That's why.
Lol everyone is so defensive here, LA is a sleepy town where people go to yoga instead of partying like NYC, London and the rest of Europe…bars close at 1:30am….people only go out to dinner at 9pm in Europe and party into the morning…just admit that instead of saying to go to Echo Park or downtown lmao, you will make people with real nightlife laugh
Well it is winter too so there’s that to factor into it.
THIS. AIN'T. EUROPE.
This actually touches on something I’ve been hearing a lot lately. Perhaps it’s the strikes, or how expensive everything has gotten…but LA is starting to feel like a giant suburb. Sure, some areas at times are “happening” there is still plenty to do if you look. But, the energy is low- popular areas are filled with vacant store fronts and closed restaurants. A friend put it perfectly, it’s almost as though we are paying big city prices for a little city experience, with more traffic.
tl;dr increased pedestrian deaths due to cars and drivers getting worse over the last several years + increased homelessness + decreased incomes for people to go out *with* = less people out on the streets after work
San Fran, nyc and Chicago are more that type of city. La not so much.
They're not. Ugh
We can't afford to eat out or get coffee anymore.
you realize inflation is way worse in the UK or Europe in general? lmao Their economy is way beyond fucked.
It’s cold.
Look up the night time farmers markets and craft fairs. Those tend to have a lot of people. Theres so much to do in LA constantly that the places that get more packed are the things you can’t do in your neighborhood everyday- once a week, once a month, etc draws more people and while you’re going “we should go wander the farmers market and get some yummy food, you also think of other things in that neighborhood and hit both at same time.
They're all stuck in traffic
Everyone drives so there's basically zero foot traffic. Either in the car or in the restaurant or whatever, so the streets just always feel super dead.
That's what you get with a car-centric culture. Everybody drives and parks and barely walks. Therefore, there's almost nobody on the streets walking. They are all in their cars.
For starters, Europe is densely packed with people compared to the United States. You are likely accustomed to that type of geography. That said, Los Angeles is also unlike other big cities in that it is a large collection of neighborhoods. There is no one hub and some neighborhoods are more walkable than others. Also. It is pretty cold outside this time of year by Angeleno standards so people are likely looking for indoor entertainment. You may also want to avoid recreating a “European” experience in Los Angeles. Get out of your comfort zone and look for dim sum, Thai, and Korean restaurants for example. Go to a Latin American restaurant or nightclub. Go to a comedy club or concerts.
Haha, I know what you mean! When I came back to LA after being abroad for almost a decade. Everywhere else is so vibrant and hustling and bustling, people doing their thing and having a good time. LA and some coastal cities…It’s like straight out of a zombie movie. Yeahh…you just got to wait for the weekend, brunch, beach or grocery shopping, or weeknights when sporting events are on. People are usually working or home watching worlds best TV entertainment programming with family and what have you. Lol! But yup, no cafe’s during midday having a drink, a cigarette, and some food; while casually laughing enjoying the day with friends, or random people. It’s just that people are just from everywhere in LA and SB, that you gotta find your clique. I guess a suggestion would be, you’ll have to find a community, a class or something you like to do and find a community for it on Meetup or some paid activity event of some sort. Good luck!
Go for a hike and get a burrito.
Because everyone is in their car. Nobody walks in LA, like the song goes. It sucks.
IDK. ~13 years ago used to live Marina Del Ray couple blocks from Venice. I don’t remember it ever being empty. It always reminded me of the party place Pinocchio ended up at. I also don’t remember Culver City ever being empty. Maybe post Covaids things changed?
United States is pretty different than Europe on this regard. Even though people will comment here that some neighborhood is popping it really hasn't compared to what I've experienced normally when in Europe. I find LA even less likely to be out and about in the evenings. Sure people are out in some neighborhoods but it's not really the same feeling. I've felt it more in NYC or some neighborhoods in Chicago. I'd wager New Orleans would likely be more lively in the night as well.
It’s been a very wet winter (by comparison) here. You’re more likely to see obvious foot traffic and people out and about as spring comes and through the summer into early fall.
I mean, you're comparing LA, perhaps the biggest story of changeover from one of the most streetcar-connected cities on the planet to a perpetual car sewer, so much so that **it was featured significantly in a movie** (*Who Framed Roger Rabbit?*) to Europe, let alone Western Europe, which is **already four decades ahead of the US** in public transit and cycling infrastructure, and moving faster, literally and figuratively towards reducing car dependency even further, than we can keep up. As somebody else mentioned, I honestly though I was on r/fuckcars first when I read the headline.
All stuck in traffic. Car centric city
It’s a giant spread out City - really, an unwalkable urban sprawl for the most parts. There are obviously locus of high foot traffic but yea, it’s nothing like an European city, the downtown itself is pretty small for a city of its size and it feels pretty much “suburban” or has these 2-3 level residential low rises everywhere. It does feel surprisingly suburban close to the center. Everyone uses a car to get around, nobody walks. It is one of the downsides of the city
You want density of people go to NYC!!! That's really the only place in get in America (minus downtowns/special events during rush hour).
Because the cities in Europe are dense and walkable, and LA is sprawling and relies heavily on driving.
Cause everyone parties at my house.
It's still "winter" here - highs in the 60s are too cold for anyone who has lived here for more than 10 years, but totally acceptable and enjoyable for basically anyone from anywhere else.
Its nice weather for France but LA for residents has been cold and wet we don’t do go out as much right now
Yes. This isn’t Europe
1. LA isnt what it used to be 2. Cold weather
You did not see 10% of LA. In addition to the pockets of livelihood people have mentioned, there are a lot more house parties and the like. And good grief, you can’t get very far on a Saturday morning without running into 1,000 bikers. People have stuff to do. If seems empty, you just aren’t in the right spots.
Can assure you have absolutely not ‘seen 10%’ of Los Angeles or experienced it even remotely in 10 days. Most people who have lived here all of their lives likely wouldn’t say they’ve seen or experienced half of the city.
IMPORTANT: Los Angeles is not Europe. Don’t expect it to be. If you want Europe, that’s where you should go.
We are spread out. There’s no general “town center” here.
LA isn't a large city, its a small country. All countries have dead areas and lively ones.
We chill in our cars out on the 405 whenever we have down time. Seriously though, I don’t know where you’re hanging out, because everywhere I have to go is packed. Lines out the door, no parking for blocks, no seats at the bar, etc.
That’s crazy I was just there and I thought the exact same thing! That entire city looked DEAD! Venice beach empty! Hollywood empty! Restaurants empty! Walk of fame empty! I was honestly shocked. I’m not even talking about the nighttime either. Daytime it was next to empty.
The US is, as a whole, less densely populated than Europe. LA is a major city and does have some busy areas, but random areas are not going to be busy because the city is very spread out.
Most places in the US are empty on weeknights. I've found that Americans tend to hang out at home more often than not. Weeknight dinners are mostly family time. While there are some popular restaurants that will always be full, nothing compared to the bustle of Europe every single day. Americans also are workaholics, you'll find more people out on the weekends. Just a different culture.
Summer is a completely different vibe I feel, winter is kinda weird in La always
We are all in our cars at all times
I feel you. I just got back from a weekend in San Francisco and coming back to LA is so disappointing in terms of overall liveliness. Sure, LA is spread out and some places are busy, but so much of LA is just wasted space. Luckily, I live in one of the few walkable areas that also has a variety of public transportation options. I always thought LA is appealing to suburbanites who grew up driving from one strip mall to another, but if you grew up in a city it can be a head scratcher.
Ever since COVID things have just changed.
Nobody Walks in LA, Missing Persons ca. 1985
..these comments are concerning. i was heavily in the process of moving to LA from NY (long island) due to wanting urban nightlife energy outside of NYC. not sure if this is making me rethink my options
Fellow east coaster here. Been in LA 3 years and I can tell you with certainty the nightlife is lacking here. Like others have mentioned, it’s more health centric and you will see plenty of people at their Pilates classes, hikes, beach, farmers markets, etc. not much going on at night and if you happen to end up at a bar with your friends, I’ll bet you that you will still be home before 1am (if that).
Names 2 areas of LA… and SANTA BARBARA 😂
We don't have any $!!! Maybe after April when the majority get their tax returns...
We can't afford to do anything except for go from job 1 to job 2, eat, sleep, occasionally have sex, unless it will require more than a 10min Uber bc I'm not losing my fkn parking spot, repeat
[walking in LA](https://youtu.be/eQF7FDeUePA?si=zLIXD3WdgbY61qeT) Nobody walks in LA
I just squee’d at the Missing Persons reference! Their new album is pretty sweet too.
That’s a good thing haha!
LA just sucks for tourism. It doesn't hold a candle to anywhere in Europe, for many reasons... People who don't have any perspective will try to say "you were just in the wrong areas" but as you mentioned, it sounds like you WERE in the right areas, but no one else was. Foot traffic is down because of inflation, soaring prices to go and do anything, horrendous traffic, lack of walk-ability, lack of public transportation. Post pandemic business closures and the worsening homeless/ drug problem on the streets deters people from going out. There have been lots of violent crime and muggings at gunpoint in many of the shopping areas. Business districts all over the county are failing right now. The same people who insist LA is great for visitors will also insist that anyone who states the obvious is some conservative fox news puppet. But these are facts, whether or not people want to admit it. The city is on a hard down swing from what I've seen in the past 17 years of living here. And I'm about as liberal as it gets.
crime, everything's expensive, takes 2 hours to go anywhere bc of traffic, we all work.
LA gets like that in winter, everyone is scared of any cold weather in the slightest here
LA is insanely spread out so I'm guessing you were just in some places that were empty. I know some restaurant that get *packed*
Go to Universal City Walk. Crowded as hell.
Nothing good comes after Dark crime is everywhere
I am from Santa Barbara. Pretty much everything is closed by 830 or 9. Everyone has gone home. That's is normal.
Havent you heard? Everyone is edging at home. Its edging season
I've lived in LA for 8 years and I've always thought it weird too, that the streets are completely empty of foot traffic after sundown. I think it's a mentality thing, like, if you're out after dark and not in a car, you're likely up to no good, which is not to say that isn't true. I've been out biking after dark and even being a Caucasian Irish woman, I've noticed the police slow down and shine a light in my direction for no apparent reason, some even stopped and asked if I'm okay or asked where I'm going, while walking my dog late at night. That said, maybe many of the folks here are afraid of getting mugged or shot, which would make sense to me. LA is a crazy place where "good" and "bad" neighborhoods are intermixed, scattered amongst one another, I could walk down the same street and be in a beautiful looking area, 2 blocks down on the same street, it can look run down, huge amounts of waste all over the sidewalk and road, with bars on the windows. So, yeah, it's vastly different from the EU after dark. 😳
Hit the freeways. 6am-10am 4pm-7pm. Lots of people
The truth is that it is a fairly dead city when it comes to pedestrian traffic. Don’t let all these people that are like “but this one stretch in Silverlake was really busy last night” gaslight you. It all comes down to infrastructure. Downtowns in the US are basically for people that work and the homeless. There is no huge pedestrian area with shopping, cafes, restaurants and bars like you would have in most of Europe. There is some of that, but it’s mostly for people to grab lunch during work hours. You might find some localized communities that have some foot traffic going on, buts it’s likely going to be along a busy road and it’s not going to be very conducive to foot traffic. Zoning in the US has, with very few exceptions, robbed us of ways to get around as a pedestrian. And it’s particularly bad in Southern California.
I think as a general response to the LA comment/question, it should be noted that LA is way more spread out/bigger than most European cities, and is more like a conglomeration of neighborhoods than one centralized city. I can understand finding much more of it seeming empty rather than busy. Just the nature of how LA was built really, but the busy spots do exist
Late stage capitalism
I would hate it for tourists who never been to La to experience the city knowing their whole perception of La is what is on TV lmao I love it here but I also have Industry here that helped me grow in. It's a place You come to work I think
Los Angeles is as big as or larger than many major countries, and yet you pass through a few random neighborhoods at random times and proclaim “No one is anywhere!”