Economist.com Cities Guide: Los Angeles Briefing - February 2006

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Holing out

At least one of Antonio Villaraigosa’s campaign promises has been kept, to the pleasant surprise of the city's hard-pressed motorists. As 2005 ended, the ever-energetic Los Angeles mayor was seen steamrolling tar into a pothole on Huston Street in North Hollywood. He boasted before TV cameras that it was the 80,173rd pothole filled in a 14-week campaign to eliminate tire-shredding gaps in the city's roads—at an estimated cost of $450,000. This well exceeds his campaign pledge to fill 35,000 holes.

Mr Villaraigosa, who is as omnipresent as his predecessor, Jim Hahn, was invisible, has entered 2006 with sky-high approval ratings. The challenge, of course, is to keep them there. This is why the mayor, a life-long Democrat, is cosying up to California’s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, in an effort to get state money to refurbish the city's worn-out infrastructure.

Getting better

You might think LA has a well-deserved reputation for crime and violence. Where else are freeway shootings commonplace? Almost every day there are incidents of drive-by shootings and violence in gang-ridden south LA (crime is significantly lower on the affluent west side of the city).

Yet LA’s infamy may be a trifle exaggerated: according to figures released by the Los Angeles Police Department, murders in 2005 were down by 6% on 2004 figures, shootings by 6%, rapes by 16% and aggravated assaults by 40%. This means that Bill Bratton, the police chief, can rightly praise an under-staffed, over-worked police force that has helped reduce violent crime by 27%. On the other hand, these reduced figures might still alarm the law-abiding: in 2005 LA endured 487 murders, 928 reported rapes, 13,453 robberies and 15,502 aggravated assaults.

No place like home

Though the wealthy denizens of the film industry tend to hog the city's spotlight, a report by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority has prompted Mr Villaraigosa to declare LA “the capital of homelessness” in America. The Authority’s figures are depressing, despite being slightly below previous estimates: on any given day last year 82,291 residents of LA County were homeless, including 48,103 living within the city limits (half of them downtown). Although many have speculated that the city is a magnet for the nation’s homeless, owing to its warm climate and tacit acceptance of the problem, the report found that 78% of the homeless were actually from LA County, 24% of whom became homeless after losing a job.

One answer to the problem is to create cheaper housing. The mayor is now supporting a $1 billion bond measure to develop more affordable housing citywide. Money from the new voter-approved Mental Health Services Act, which places a 1% tax on earnings above $1m, should help provide housing and other services for the thousands of homeless who are mentally ill. Meanwhile, the Homeless Services Authority and an anti-homelessness group called Bring LA Home should release a comprehensive plan in March that is intended (with what looks like naive optimism) to end local homelessness in ten years.

A bit of a turn-off

One of the familiar symbols of Los Angeles Airport (LAX) is the cluster of around 30 pylons at the Century Boulevard approach to the airport. Installed five years ago in time for the Democratic Convention as a kind of “electronic Stonehenge”, they are meant to change colour constantly. Instead, they are either not changing colours or simply staying unlit. On January 3rd Los Angeles World Airports, which runs the airport, decided that the image of LAX was suffering (Century Boulevard is lined with international hotels), and so switched off the lights.
Fortunately, the darkness is only temporary: over the next few months a $1.8m repair programme will not only bring the system up to date but also make it more efficient, saving up to 75% a year in energy costs.

Becoming hip again

Hollywood Boulevard, long avoided by discriminating Angelenos as a shoddy, downmarket tourist trap, could get a make-over. This is partly owing to the “Holly Trolley”, a bus service (complete with booming hip-hop on the sound system) that for just $1 a night will shuttle young ravers on a circuit of Hollywood’s clubland between 8pm and 4am. This is part of a plan by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to lure business to its own patch of nightlife, with clubs such as Level 3 and Mood. The aim is to overtake the better-known Sunset Strip, just a couple of miles to the west, with its proven hotspots such as the House of Blues and the Viper Room.

Catch if you can

February 2006

Masters of American Comics

Until March 12th 2006

The cartoon strip is not unique to America—think, for example, of French bandes dessinées or Japanese manga. But it is surely America’s cartoon strips, from Dick Tracy to Doonesbury, that dominate the medium. For a fascinating survey, visit the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) or the Armand Hammer Museum of Art in Westwood. The two museums are together hosting an exhibition featuring the work of 15 cartoonists, including George Herriman (“Krazy Kat”), Chester Gould (“Dick Tracy”), Charles Schulz (“Peanuts”) and that genius of subversive 1960s cartooning, Robert Crumb (“Fritz the Cat”). The show has some 900 drawings, page-proofs and Sunday paper editions.

Given the success of this exhibition, the museums should consider giving some attention to political cartoons. Traditionally a strength of American newspapers, they are now under threat as newspaper chains lay off their cartoonists in order to cut costs.

MOCA, 250 South Grand Ave, Los Angeles. Tel: +1 (213) 626-6222. Open: Mon, Fri 11am-5pm; Thurs 11am-8pm; weekends 11am-6pm (closed Tues, Wed). Entry: $8. See the website.

Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles. Tel: +1 (310) 443-7000. Open: Tues-Sun, 11am-7pm (Thurs till 9pm, Sun till 5pm). Entry: $5. See the website.

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