- Author
- Posted by rustywasm, with replies from many commenters
- Published
- 7 September 2026
- Kind
- Hacker News discussion thread about a map visualization
- Original
- news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49601655
- Subject
- History and places
- Themes
- What lasts, Art through code
What it is
The poster, rustywasm, shares a web map of buildings in the City of Los Angeles. The map plays the city filling in from 1880 to 2026. The opening comment lists the data sources and the software used. Most replies are from other commenters.
What it says
- The poster says the map covers 1,129,558 City of LA buildings.
- The poster reports that the 1950s, not the 1920s, is the biggest decade still standing.
- The poster reports that downtown's 150-foot height limit shows as a hard ceiling until 1957.
- Commenters note the map shows only surviving buildings, and the poster agrees.
- Commenters say the dark map and city-limits cutoff leave neighboring areas looking empty.
- One commenter says LA zoning capacity fell from roughly 10 million to 4 million.
- A long side thread argues over whether Prop 13 locks owners into their homes.
What evidence it gives
The poster describes the data join and the tools. The poster calls it a fun project with no commercial relevance. Commenters mostly give personal experience and opinion. A few link articles, videos or Wikipedia pages. Some give figures without sources, such as the zoning and water numbers. Another commenter calls the zoning figure a theoretical napkin number.
Interests and limits
The thread is a set of informal comments, so most claims are unchecked opinion. The linked map itself was not viewed, only the thread text. The poster says the map shows surviving buildings, not the city as it was. The poster later says LA County data was added, which this page cannot confirm.