Korea, Not China, Should Be Our Model For Urban Development

Here in Los Angeles, the subway along Wilshire Boulevard, one of the densest streets in America, ends 13 miles from the Pacific Ocean.  The Long Beach (or 710) Freeway and the 210 Freeway, two of the busiest trucking routes in America, are connected by surface streets, even though they are only 4.5 miles apart.  Both of these projects have been discussed for decades. The " Subway to the Sea" may finally happen, but even now, it will only go as far as Westwood, and it was delayed because of tantrums from Beverly Hills.  It is still not clear what will happen with the 710-210 gap.

The contrast between LA and another great city, Seoul, is remarkable.  I have been going to Seoul for about 20 years now, and I just brought a group of USC students there for a comparative international development class.  Back in 1992, when I first visited Seoul, it was an emerging city of considerable promise, but also with considerable poverty.  It has since become one of the world's rich cities.

But when I first visited Seoul, the infrastructure was pretty awful.  The roads were jammed, and the subway system was limited.  Since then, however, Seoul has built bridges, tunnels and the longest subway system in the world.  Even though it is an incredibly dense city, it is fairly easy and pleasant to get around.  At the same time, it also has the best internet infrastructure in the world.

Why?  Because while Korea is democratic, it doesn't let one small geography, such as a neighborhood, hold up the economic development of the country.  We in metropolitan Los Angeles are the exact opposite--if a neighborhood doesn't want something, it is nearly impossible for that thing to happen.  My student David Doerken put it will in a paper he wrote for the class:

Between California’s excruciatingly long environmental review process, its politically powerful neighborhood opposition groups, and its extensive automobile-oriented land use patters, public transportation projects specifically, and real estate development more generally, in Los Angeles take far longer and face far more opposition that elsewhere.  While Hong Kong and Seoul’s political system may have been heavy-handed in pursuing their respective public transportation agendas, both cities have succeeded in implementing highly functional rail systems, each with incredibly high ridership.