Technically LA is the most dense metro area in the country. Places like NYC are obviously more dense in the core but the further you get away from the core the density drops of rapidly, but because LA needs water the homes never get too spread out and you get a consistent sprawl.
LA only gets a reputation for "sprawl" because it gets directly compared to NYC, and to a lesser extent SF and Chicago. Detroit is far more sprawling than LA, was built at basically the same time as LA with even more single family homes and sprawl, and Detroit, which has worse public transportation that a college town, always gets credit for being a "rust belt pre-car city" whereas LA gets lumped in with Phoenix and Houston unfairly.
Technically LA is the most dense metro area in the country. Places like NYC are obviously more dense in the core but the further you get away from the core the density drops of rapidly, but because LA needs water the homes never get too spread out and you get a consistent sprawl.
LA only gets a reputation for "sprawl" because it gets directly compared to NYC, and to a lesser extent SF and Chicago. Detroit is far more sprawling than LA, was built at basically the same time as LA with even more single family homes and sprawl, and Detroit, which has worse public transportation that a college town, always gets credit for being a "rust belt pre-car city" whereas LA gets lumped in with Phoenix and Houston unfairly.