Economist.com Cities Guide: Los Angeles Briefing - May 2005

News this month

Final stretch

Things don't look good for James Hahn, Los Angeles's mayor, who is struggling to hold onto his job in the May 17th election. The Democratic Party in both LA County and the San Fernando Valley has decided to back his opponent, Antonio Villaraigosa, who has also picked up the endorsement of Magic Johnson, a prominent former basketball star. Now a successful businessman, Mr Johnson is a hero among LA’s blacks, a powerful voting block that could well determine the election outcome. Mr Hahn looks likely to be the first incumbent mayor since 1973 to be voted out of office (and the first in over 70 years after a single term).

Mr Hahn's mood was hardly helped by a Los Angeles Times poll released on April 13th, which found that Mr Villaraigosa, bidding to be the city’s first Latino mayor in over a century, has a commanding lead in almost every voting bloc. In response, Mr Hahn is hitting back with the same message that discredited his opponent four years ago—namely that Mr Villaraigosa wrote to the White House asking for clemency for a convicted drug dealer in 1996.

Dearly departed

Johnnie Cochran, a black lawyer most famous for his successful defence of O.J. Simpson, received a funeral befitting a Hollywood movie star on April 6th. Countless notable African-Americans gathered at the service in South Los Angeles, including: Sean “P. Diddy” Combs; the Reverend Al Sharpton; the Reverend Jesse Jackson; Quincy Jones; Mr Simpson; Stevie Wonder; Patti LaBelle; Spike Lee; Magic Johnson; and Berry Gordy, among others.

Perhaps the most notable mourner was Michael Jackson, who was taking advantage of a day off from his child-molestation trial in Santa Maria, 125 miles north of LA. Perhaps Cochran could have helped him out. Mr Sharpton seems to think so; at one point in his eulogy, he looked at Mr Simpson, who was charged with a double murder a decade ago, and declared: “With all due respect to you, Brother Simpson, when we heard about the acquittal, we weren't clapping for O.J., we were clapping for Johnnie.”

Papers, please

Illegal immigration is a sensitive subject in LA, home to many thousands of poor Latinos who made the tricky journey from Mexico to pursue the American dream. Ever since 1979, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has pursued a so-called “sanctuary” policy, preferring not to inquire into anyone’s immigration status during criminal investigations. The logic seems sensible enough: not only are the police wary of scaring away Latino witnesses who might be illegal residents, but also a crackdown would hurt the local economy and overcrowd police prison cells.

But William Bratton, the LAPD chief, wants to modify the sanctuary policy. He says his officers should be able to check the immigration status of any criminal suspected of being a formerly deported felon. The reason for this change of heart is that LA’s gangs are becoming ever more murderous, especially since the arrival of the extraordinarily brutal Mara Salvatrucha gang from El Salvador. Some estimate there are around 30,000 illegal immigrants in LA County with criminal records, who slipped back into the country after being deported.

Road rage

After four highway-shooting deaths and a spate of near-misses since March 12th, Southern California’s commuters are beginning to feel nervous. No one has been arrested and the police admit to having few clues. Could this be a re-run of 1987, when five people were shot dead on LA’s freeways? In early May, a California Highway Patrol (CHP) official sought to play down the fears: “To be quite truthful and frank with everyone, this is not that highly unusual. This is just a fact of life in the cities of America.”

Amazingly, he is right. Though the CHP has not kept records of highway shootings since 2002, the Los Angeles Police Department has. It notes that up until April 30th this year there were ten freeway shootings, compared with 12 in the same period last year. The death toll is minuscule relative to the Los Angeles total; last year there were more than 500 killings (this year’s count has so far reached 167). Indeed, what really seems to worry the police is that media attention to the freeway killings may prompt copy-cat shootings. A CHP spokesman noted that there had been little publicity in December when at least 35 vehicles had their windows shot out on the freeways of San Bernardino County—“and ultimately the problem just went away.”

Not a pretty picture

Two of the city’s top art museums are in need of new directors. The most recent opening is for president of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), following the sudden announcement that Andrea Rich intends to step down in November, after ten years in the job. Her replacement will oversee not only the nation’s largest art museum west of Chicago, but also its comprehensive revamp. Renzo Piano, a renowned architect, has secured a contract to unify the somewhat dislocated campus and add a new contemporary art museum named for its benefactor, Eli Broad. Many have praised Ms Rich’s leadership, saying she helped raise the profile and revive the finances of the LACMA. But she has admitted that friction with certain board members had become a serious problem.

The Getty Centre is also looking to fill a top job—that of museum director, which has been open since the abrupt October departure of Deborah Gribbon after 20 years of work. Her move is widely thought to be the result of a difference of opinion with Barry Munitz, president of the J. Paul Getty Trust, over the role of the Getty museum. Ms Gribbon apparently hoped to promote its position as a collector; Mr Munitz, however, was more interested in the trust’s philanthropy and education. Perhaps the most important qualification for both jobs is the ability to get on with Mr Broad. A builder of two Fortune 500 companies, he is the real power on the LACMA board and is also a friend and mentor of Mr Munitz.

What a dream

After a three-year legal battle with the California Coastal Commission, David Geffen, a successful record producer and Dreamworks partner, has finally agreed to grant public access to the beach in front of his Malibu home. He has even handed over a gate key to local activists, to the delight of the commission.

Mr Geffen’s desire for privacy was hardly unique: there are more than 100 other wealthy beachfront homeowners, from Santa Barbara down to Laguna Beach, blocking the public’s access to sand and sea. Mr Geffen, who made a legal promise in 1983 to open a pathway to the beach in return for permits to build his property, has not only abandoned his suit against the commission but will also pay the legal costs of both the state and the Access for All non-profit group, a sum that adds up to a hefty $300,000.

Catch if you can

May 2005

Renzo Piano

Until October 2nd 2005

Los Angeles, unlike New York, is not exactly a showcase for architecture. Still, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is mounting an exhibition devoted to the working methods of Renzo Piano, one of the world’s finest living architects (he was involved in designing and updating the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and the De Menil Collection in Houston, among others). There is a self-promoting logic to this show: Mr Piano has been hired to re-vamp the chaotic 20-acre, six-building LACMA campus. The exhibition is nicely arranged as the architect’s working studio, complete with models, drawings, photographs and so on, and it includes a preview of the architect's plans for LACMA.

LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036. Tel: +1 (323) 857-6000. Open daily except Wed noon-8pm (Fri noon-9pm; Sat-Sun 11am-8pm). Entry $9. For further details, see the museum's website.

More from the Los Angeles cultural calendar