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

News this month

The honeymoon is over

On May 18th Antonio Villaraigosa, LA's mayor-elect, received a stark reminder of the challenges ahead. Shortly before he was scheduled to visit Taft High School in Woodland Hills, a brawl broke out on campus. School officials were quick to deny that this was yet another example of the violence between black and Latino students that has recently afflicted several LA schools. Mr Villaraigosa said he would try to increase police patrols around the city's schools.

In theory, Mr Villaraigosa, the city’s first Latino mayor in more than 130 years, is well placed to calm the troubled racial waters: he won a sizeable majority of Latino votes and almost half of black votes. He also had the right words in his victory speech for America’s most diverse city: “It doesn't matter whether you grew up on the Eastside or the Westside...We are all Angelenos, and we all have a difference to make.”

Fire alert

Los Angeles is within a few drops of having its wettest year on record: just under one inch of rain is needed by June 30th, the official end of the rainy season. Yet the fear now is not of mudslides (though part of Laguna Beach suffered a terrible one in late May) but of brush fires.

After several fires broke out in mid-May in communities stretching from Burbank to Rancho Palos Verdes and San Dimas, LA County firemen are on alert for a worse than normal brush-fire season. Ironically, it is the heavy rains of the past winter that have led to the present problems: the extra rain meant more growth for the chaparral and other brush that provide fuel for the fires. “In the summer season, when the humidity drops and the wind picks up, it's going to be a huge season,” says one fire officer. All of which means that householders had better pay attention to official warnings instructing them to clear any brush around their homes.

Dirty hospitals

Try not to visit a hospital in LA: you may catch a “hospital-acquired infection”—ie, an illness you didn’t have when you arrived. According to figures released by the LA County Department of Health Services, there were 18 outbreaks of such infections in the first four months of this year, affecting some 196 patients. This is a much faster rate than last year, when a total of 31 outbreaks affected 275 patients. In 2003 there were just eight outbreaks, affecting 94 patients.

The remedy for many infections (such as drug-resistant staphylococcal) is prevention rather than cure, which essentially means more hand-washing by doctors and nurses. The big question is which hospitals are the ones to avoid; alas, officialdom refuses to say.

Taking off

Los Angeles International Airport or LAX, the world’s fifth-busiest airport, is getting busier by the day. It has also become one of the world’s most tempting targets for terrorists. The solution proposed by James Hahn, the outgoing mayor, is an $11 billion plan to expand facilities, link the airport to LA’s rudimentary subway system and provide a new, off-site check-in centre for passengers and their baggage.

The project has been controversial from the start, with opponents citing increased road congestion, noise and safety concerns. But on May 20th, just three days after Mr Hahn’s defeat, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave its long-awaited approval, declaring that the project would “strengthen LAX as a commercial international gateway and improve safety at the airport.” The FAA's decision is an untimely embarrassment for Mr Villaraigosa, a staunch opponent of Mr Hahn's plan. He had argued for expanding airport capacity in the region by using airports in Burbank, Ontario and Long Beach. One thing is certain: nothing will happen quickly, given the opposition of the communities adjacent to LAX.

Can the “Big One” be far away?

LA’s last significant earthquake was in 1994. Centred at Northridge, some 20 miles north-west of downtown, it killed more than 50 people, injured over 9,000 and caused $44 billion in damage. Now comes news from seismologists at UCLA and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that LA is being gradually squeezed—at a rate of one-fifth of an inch each year—between two geological fault lines.

Using GPS and other seismological gizmos, the scientists predict an earthquake somewhere between a southern line beginning in downtown LA and a northern line bounded by the San Gabriel Mountains. That would put at risk both the San Fernando Valley and Pasadena. At least that implies an equal-opportunity: much of the Valley is relatively poor, in contrast to the mansions of Pasadena. As for the impact on life and property, computer models from the Southern California Earthquake Centre and the Federal Emergency Management Agency suggest that a 7.5 magnitude quake could cause a quarter of a trillion dollars in damage and kill up to 18,000 people. On the other hand, the same models say the toll could be as low as $82 billion (a relative bargain) and 3,000 deaths.

Catch if you can

June 2005

Per Kirkeby and Tony Berlant

Until June 18th 2005

LA Louver, just a few steps from the Venice’s Muscle Beach, is one of the city's better galleries (it spotted David Hockney years ago, and still represents him). Exhibitions here are always worth paying attention to. The latest features the work of two very different artists: Per Kirkeby and Tony Berlant.

Of the two, the Danish Mr Kirkeby is the better known; his paintings already hang in the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Tate in London and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. But it is the LA-based Mr Berlant who seizes the interest in this show. His floral theme (pictured here), with each flower a collage of different sheets of metal, nailed to each other with myriad studs, perfectly captures the light of Southern California. By contrast, Mr Kirkeby’s landscapes are very northern European: the only thing Californian they resemble is last winter’s mud-slides.

LA Louver, 45 North Venice Boulevard, Venice, CA 90291. Tel +1 (310) 822-4955. Open Tues-Sat 10am-6pm. The gallery's website publishes further details.

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