Los Angeles has three giant state forest parks and mountains surrounding it. It does have a green belt! Also, no way Toronto and LA are the most dense. NYC and many other cities are more dense. GTA and LA are sprawl. Also in LA, while it is expensive for a home because of the massive immigration into California (which is higher than Canada), you can easily buy a detached home in its suburbs in the 200's and 300's. There are no options for Ontarians like that. It's basically like being held hostage.