This paper will compare and contrast the development of the metropolitan areas of New York City with the development of the urban areas in Los Angeles County. The first part of this paper will describe the development of land use in New York. The second part of this paper will discuss the development of land use in Los Angeles. The paper will also explore urban planning in both cities and compare the problems which resulted from a lack of urban planning.
In the decade between 1880 and 1890, New York City became a highly industrialized center. Even before the last turn of the century, the railroad companies and the growing number of East Coast mills who shipped things in and out of the city helped New York City turn into one of the first American "company towns."1 But the industrial revolution also brought with it pollution, disease, despair and slums. And, since New York City was one of the first large cities to be developed in America, many of its city planners learned by trial and error. Later, urban planners in places like Washington and Indianapolis had the benefit of being able to study the mistakes made in cities like New York.2 However, by the time that urban planners started working on long range development plans for New York in the early 1900s, much of New York City had already developed spontaneously according to the functional demands of the moment.
Then, in the 1920s, regional planning commissions sprang up in America from coast to coast.3 The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission was one such urban planning advisory authority; it was established in 1923 for the purpose of commenting on regional needs for highways, water conservation, sanitation, zoning, and parks.4 Similarly, New York City had experimented with the formation of a regional planning body in the early decades of the twentieth century. With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, major Manhattan business interests tried to improve...