Is Los Angeles Becoming the Set for Blade Runner?

photo credit: theleetgeeks

I’ve just checked out of my room at the LAX Airport hotel after a pleasant few days in the ever expanding metropolis of Los Angeles. Pretty sure that the surrealistic cityscape that was presented us in the movie Blade Runner is going to happen here in the near future.

I suppose the reason I’m saying that has to do a lot with the highways of the area. In Phoenix we have a lot of very new double, triple and I think there’s actually a spot in the Valley of the Sun that has 4 different levels of over/under passes going on.

Other than the few dense traffic regions in Arizona, everything is spread low, and extends far. When approaching LAX from San Diego earlier this week, I got a real eyeful. At certain points while flying up the coast you get to see how development has butted right up against the edge of the various mountains that protect and encapsulate the greater L.A and Orange County area.

My first flight into Los Angeles was as an 11 year old kid who was coming to visit his father and brother, for the first time. Yeah. Weird. I know. Our parents had divorced while I was in my second year, so I never really knew these people or the Left Coast where they resided.

But the one thing that struck me about flying into LAX was seeing all of the streets, buildings, the civilization that existed out here. It was amazing and overwhelming for a kid on his first ever plane ride. And a solo one at that! Pretty sure that was the best I’d ever been treated on a plane, but that’s a story for another post.

During the approach this time there was one thing that caught my eye. Off in the distance to the east you could actually see where the home developers were starting to carve out those bounding mountains I’d first observed protecting the area.

Now you could clearly see the excavations and massive terracing that was prepping those areas for yet more homes for more people to be able to live in the California sunshine.

While I’m not sure how high up on those hillsides they can build it was observing this that made me think on the Blade Runner future of Los Angeles. They are going to have to start building up if growth is to continue. I wonder how that will affect life here? How will the future affect all of our visits to the area.

Would love to hear if you have any thoughts on the concept, be it here in L.A. or your favorite travel destination. Be good to yourself!

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Related posts:

1. Observing the Changes of the Cityscape

Tags: Blade Runner, LAX airport hotel, Los Angeles