I thought LA was in a valley? That's why the smog is bad, right?
The downtown area of L.A. itself is not in a valley, although surrounding parts of the city are in a valley, the San Fernando Valley to the north-west being the largest true valley with the Santa Monica Mountains to the South and the Angeles Forest to the north, there is also the San Gabriel Valley just to the north-east. While smog can be trapped by those surrounding mountain ranges north of L.A., the city is mostly coastal and a decent ocean-breeze will blow the smog out to sea. Prior to environmental laws being better established, smog in L.A. was much, much worse, mostly due to industry from the southern part of the city. Los Angeles is very large and spread out geographically, unlike N.Y. or Chicago. Also, L.A. will always have some smog, as native Americans made note of 'smog' hundreds of years ago, due to dust & fires rather than industrialization. L.A. was developed from desert. Unless there is wind, those mountain ranges will trap the particulates which make up the smog, so those views from high above can appear less than clean, ... on the other hand, following a rainstorm, snow or a good wind, those same views are rather spectacular.
