Simply plotting their apartments or stuff for sale on a map would make a big difference in ease of use. A YC company, Padmapper, does this for you, but why doesn't CL see this as utterly necessary? Searching for something, be it an oak table or a house rental, is exasperating. Realtor.com, a site that's totally behind, got on the mapping thing more than a year ago. Amazing that CL hasn't done the same.
I dunno, it's pretty effective to narrow one's search by the part of town you're looking in, for example, in L.A. you can break it down by Central L.A., SF Valley, SG Valley, etc. and then search by city name. Click the map link to see where the exact location is. It's really not that hard. Found my current jewel of a home that way.
