Seventy Years of Los Angeles, Then and Now | The New Yorker 

Outstanding synch with two ladies at 1:10

I don't get why nearly all the old buildings that look have character have been bulldozed and replaced by buildings that are incredibly boring and ugly

Am I the only person who think old 1940's LA looks so much nicer than it does now!

2:18 did these two dudes really wave at the camera on the same street? Thats absolutely fascinating

LA looks like it used to be more colourful, despite the lack of colour from the film

I'm struck by how LA in the past resembles San Francisco, with the Victorians, bay windows, decorative street lights, hills and views; not to mention the street cars. LA took a wrong turn after the 1940s.

I love how everything in L.A got bulldozed and turned into a parking garage lol

In Germany WW II had destroyed our old cities and we are still sad about it. And in America they do it voluntarily?Downtown L.A. looks really beautiful in the 1940s !

This is terrific. My mom was a messenger girl in the early 40's around Bunker Hill, so this gives me an idea of what she saw. Thank you.

I honestly think i prefer the older L.A more. I like cities that kept their older buildings, they end up looking so much more important and classier. Like NY, or SF, or Boston etc.

the right one has color in it yet it's still more depressing

So sad that there is practically nothing left of 40's L.A....

Lanterns, houses and cars all were prettier 70 yrs ago...What happened to people's longing for beauty?

alot of nice old buildsing are gone. like GONE

Continue just outside the city limits and the area was still very agricultural. My grandparents grew walnuts and lemons a few miles southeast of downtown. There are now cheap strip malls, stack-n-pack housing, and nothing left that even resembles a working rural community.

I think I like the 1940's cars, buildings, and everything else over what has replaced it. Looks better, calmer, and more civilized than now.

They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.

Sure looked a lot nicer back then.

Berlin, though bombed to ash in WW2 still kept more character than LA that was torn down by real estate sharks and speculants to an ugly cold and depressing concrete landscape.

This video reminds me, a few years ago the house I grew up in went on sale and had an open house. I decided to go just to take a look. I had not been in the house in over 40 years. Everything had changed. Of course the carpeting was different. The bathrooms and kitchen were remodeled and unrecognizable. The bedrooms had new doors, windows and paint and so were also unrecognizable. I told my sister that I could be standing anywhere in that house and if I did not know I was in our old house, I wouldn't have guessed that was were I was.

I live in Los Angeles and this video is the most beautiful thing I've seen in a while. Simply stunning. Thank you.

It had way more character in the 40s.

Biggest difference I saw is that there was a bunch more people walking then there is now. Looked more alive and safer.

It looks more homely back then more cozy and serene.

The blandness of today's architecture is staggering. It's like a prison - high, blank walls, sharp angles, etc. Simply awful.

L.A Noire anyone?

2:19 That's a pretty cool coincidence. You should have pulled over and told that man someone else flagged down a taxi in that same location 70 years ago.

when they were scouting locations for "LA Confidential" they had quite a hard time looking for good places to film since a lot of the buildings that existed in LA in the 40s aren't there any more

Fantastic! I had seen the original version years ago on RU-vid, but never this comparison. Well done! (L.A. looked a heck of a lot nicer back then than now.)

Left screen - guy yelling "Jesus Cole, do you even know how to DRIVE" while Det. Phelps drives into pedestrians Right screen - Trevor, Franklin and Michael driving into pedestrians

L.A. Noire VS Grand Theft Auto V (PS4) 2019

America in the 50s/60s looked really classy. Now it just looks depressing even with coloured video

Aside from the vintage cars, LA in the 40's looks much like San Francisco still does today.

is there any irony to be found in a video about Los Angeles made by The New Yorker?

It’s amazing how the camera man is still alive and filming

2:31 pretty much only building that still stands after 70 years.

What a beautiful city Los Angeles was back then. It was full of character. There isn't enough money that could pursued me to live there now. What a shame.

The destruction of the Bunker Hill neighborhood in my opinion was one of the worst decisions the city made.

its just amazing how residential space becomes business etc. however you can still see a lot of these old looking homes around fairfax blvd/rampart blvd.

Notice there were a lot more apartment buildings and those old long term hotel type buildings, I.e., way more housing for people, as downtown had evolved that way. Those people have been kicked out to make way for developer glam.

Clearly LA was more inviting back then, it had a lot of character, a way better vibe!!

looks so claustrophobic today with the buildings and trees vs back then

It's like a massive bomb has hit the place and it's all just been rebuilt.

SOUL VS SOULLESS

The old cars looks so much better than the ones we have right now.

all these beautiful victorian homes torn down for concrete blocks

1940s Los Angeles is so beautiful compared to now. The character that every building had. I love it.

This is wonderful. The sound track is perfect - the bass, so good.

Except for a few seconds, it was a lot better back then esp the architecture.

Hmm, Los Angeles had interesting architecture once upon a time...until the 1960s.

Love this!! There's been so much change in 70 years, that it literally looks like two different streets, side by side

1940’s LA looked way better. It’s crazy how they tore down so many beautiful structures and replaced them with ugly no character having buildings.

It is interesting how the language evolved. "auto laundry" for car wash and "mutual garage" (at 15 cents!) for public parking.

It seems that not one building survived the "developers" It was once a beautiful city, LA was unique. Now it looks like any big city anywhere in the world

...love seeing "before/after" pictures of landmarks, landscapes, cityscapes, etc... ...and this is moving pictures! ...very cool & great production! ...really enjoyed this! ...please do more!

Its cool to note that Los Angeles had a lot of Victorian apartment blocks in it's city center and mirrored San Fransisco. The Villa style apartments were further out. The iconic terraces were in the hills

I lived there back then in the 40's up until the 1980's Yea Im old. It was a beautiful city. Now its crap.

Wow, what a difference. That's really sad to see. IMO, LA is much worse off now. Its always been a 'car town', built around the automobile, but you can clearly see that the human scale and simple walk-ability was at least considered in the 1940s. Modern LA looks hostile to pedestrians. So many wasted, nowhere spaces and blank facades. Generally just divorced from the street.

Can't wait for the next video in 70 years when people are gonna complain about how they miss 2010s LA.

As a native Angeleno, I used to mourn the loss of the few "old" buildings we still had as they were torn down in the 80s and 90s. Then I realized in a such a dynamic place as Southern California, change is constant and it's best to embrace it, so I do now. It's just how it is when you live in such a powerful economic area that is such a draw to so many people -- it's just change all the time so you might as well make peace with it instead of constantly mourning the past.

Looks like LA lost it's soul.

No wonder Americans admire European architecrure... cause we dont let greedy business men tear down old buildings!!!

Cities in Europe were bombed during WW2 and after rebuilding, most of them became beautiful again. As far as I know, no bombs hit LA. So... WTF happened?

I saw the original long ago and thought how cool it would be to do a comparison. This was a remarkable job with some details that make it even better. Someone did a great job.

Literally nothing is the same. Only a handful of old buildings survive

So much Character back then. Todays buildings/ homes are boring.

Man, so many buildings back then that don't exist anymore, and so many buildings today that didn't exist yet. This is so fascinating, but also sad, even a bit eerie, at the same time.

1:10 two girls passing in both images was so cool. If it was intended then nicely done producer!

Amazing, i feel nostalgia even if I'm not from there...crazy video.

Cars were art then. Now they're rounded metal bubbles.

Everything looks wayyyyy cooler back then. Now it’s just large buildings for all the people there 😭

I just want to write to the man who made this film that you did an incredible job making it. An EXCELLENT job.

I found the old LA to be more attractive than the new one. The new one is so much more impersonal and inauthentic.

It's interesting that someone actually recorded this back in the day. As if they knew one day this would be compared to modern times

1:11 that transition was so smooth

LA was so much more urban and nice back then. It's a whole new city today, not exactly for the best.

LA was way cooler in the '40s

tear down old houses and put big corps in their place. bumping up house prices. ohhhhh the american dream

Unforgettable & Knowledgeable.

Watching this makes my heart hurt for some reason

Tell me again how great modern society is other than modern medicine and air conditioning? The 40s look far more interesting to me.

It was nicer back then. Today, just concreate

Insane synchro. Loved this editing.

Out with the Old, In with the New. That's Life

LA sure looks claustrophobic now, especially at 3:37.

Looked better before

2:19 the guy walking waves. guy 70 years before also waves in the exact same spot. Time traveler.

I love the modernization, it gives the city new life with the gorgeous sky scrapers and buildings we have, you get some beautiful old style building, with some newer skyscrapers with beautiful leds too

As an European I find it sad that american people destroyed their old building... they were beautiful! even today many people buy a house, destroy it and rebuilt.... Here, old house have more value than modern house. I remember I was in the US for holidays and saw an old house. It told my american friends "look at this beautifull house!" and they looked weird at me like it was the ugliest and poorest house of the city! they said "it's old" like it was a bad thing....

Thanks for a GREAT video.I really liked the old version of LA.

What a beautiful city it was. A touch of Old Hollywood glamour and architecture. I definitely can see Bette Davis or Douglas Fairbanks filming some scenes on those streets.

I Traced the route for anyone interested: 0:12-0:56 - W. 2nd St & Olive, Traveling Northwest 0:57 - Left turn onto S. Grand Ave., Traveling Southwest 0:58-1:17 - 200 Block of S. Grand Ave. 1:18 - Crossing W. 3rd St. 1:19-1:39 - 300 Block of S. Grand Ave. 1:40 - Crossing W. 4th St. 1:41-2:04 - 400 Block of S. Grand Ave. 2:05 - Stopping at W. 5th St. =JUMP CUT= (RESET/CAMERA REPOSITIONED) 2:06-2:26 - W. 2nd St & Olive, Traveling Northwest 2:27 - Left turn onto S. Grand Ave., Traveling Southwest 2:28-2:49 - 200 Block of S. Grand Ave. 2:50 - Crossing W. 3rd St. 2:51-3:12 - 300 Block of S. Grand Ave. 3:13 - Crossing W. 4th St. 3:14-3:41 - 400 Block of S. Grand Ave. 3:42 - Right turn onto W. 5th Street, Traveling Northwest 3:42-3:55 Biltmore Hotel visible, Southeast (Still Standing) 3:55-4:09 Los Angeles Public Library (Still Standing) 4:10 - Right turn onto Flower Street, Traveling Northeast =JUMP CUT= (CAMERA REPOSITIONED) 4:15-4:33 - 400 Block of Flower St. 4:34 - Crossing W. 4th St. 4:35-4:53 - 300 Block of Flower St. 4:54 - Crossing W. 3rd St. 4:55-5:10 - 200 Block of Flower St. 5:11 - Crossing W. 2nd St 5:12-5:30 - 100 Block of Flower St. 5:31 - Stopped at W. 1st Street 5:40 - Right turn onto W. 1st Street, Traveling Southeast 5:41-6:01 - 700 Block of W. 1st Street 6:02 - Crossing S. Hope St. 6:03-6:07 - 600 Block of W. 1st Street 6:08 - Crossing S. Grand Ave. =END=

People ruin everything! So much nicer in the 1940s!

2:30 finally something that stayed the same!

We came across the original film only last night and commented that there's probably still quite a lot standing, especially those lovely detached homes. And then we watched this! Illusion shattered in glass and concrete.

Thank you so much.you took me real back to the future.

I wish they drove down Broadway, where a lot of the original buildings and theaters are still in place.

In the 1940s people were complaining just like the commenters here.

I think its cool how the cars following the camera and the two girls crossing the street were in sync

Missing on the right are the occasional palm trees that added something 'California' to the older streets of the left video, which would have been called film at that time.