Having lived in New York (but only having visited LA), the difference in city design that is immediately salient to me is the presence/absence of the Subway.
New York City’s multitentacled subway system was a major disseminator – if not the principal transmission vehicle – of coronavirus infection during the initial takeoff of the massive epidemic that became evident throughout the city during March 2020. The near shutoff of subway ridership in Manhattan – down by over 90 percent at the end of March – correlates strongly with the substantial increase in the doubling time of new cases in this borough. Maps of subway station turnstile entries, superimposed upon zip code-level maps of reported coronavirus incidence, are strongly consistent with subway-facilitated disease propagation. Local train lines appear to have a higher propensity to transmit infection than express lines. Reciprocal seeding of infection appears to be the best explanation for the emergence of a single hotspot in Midtown West in Manhattan. Bus hubs may have served as secondary transmission routes out to the periphery of the city.
Having lived in New York (but only having visited LA), the difference in city design that is immediately salient to me is the presence/absence of the Subway.
According to MIT health economist Jeffrey Harris, the subways seeded the massive coronavirus epidemic in New York City: