LosAngeles

The name means the City Of Angels, but it would be more appropriate to call it the City Of Smog (it has been hypothesized that the smog killed off the angels quite a while ago). There are two reasons why: first, Los Angeles residents love their cars, and second, Los Angeles could hardly have been designed to collect smog better. Los Angeles (both the city and the county) is HUGE, and there is very little public transportation. Meanwhile, all those cars exhaust various partial combustion products, which drift into the atmosphere and react with each other, catalyzed by the near-constant sunlight of southern California. Once created, the smog stays, because the entire area is more or less a large bowl. The result: constant smog, with the only relief coming from(infrequent for most of the year) rain.

• There's very little public transportation? Why have I never noticed this? Is it because I'm from Memphis? --SkyeBerghel
  • I'd call this erroneous. The public transit in LA County might not have the ridership of other major cities, but the public transit is still rather good. Foothill Transit, Santa Monica, and LACMTA have all won awards for their systems. --RichardGarfinkel

• I have heard that much of the pollution in the Western US is attributable to China [citation needed]. --BenKeller
  • I'd like to say that it's probably true, although you shouldn't rule out Mongolia, South Korea, and Russia.

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Actually, back in the PrimordialDays?, the smog in LA used to be much worse. Environmental legislation on the output of cars and factories has apparently made a big difference. So if you think it's bad now...

• This is true. When I was in elementary school, we used to have "red alert" smog days several times a year where we couldn't go outside to play. If we walked to the library we had to cover our mouths and noses with our shirts. That hardly ever happens these days! There are far fewer days when you can barely see the mountains from 5C distance, too. The way things are going, it could be whole decades before I develop lung cancer! -AmandaKlaus

Rumor has it that LA has made it back to #1 on the smog list.

• That had better be national, because I wouldn't believe LA has worse smog than some parts of Japan.
• Seconded: I don't think I've ever seen stars in Beijing.