Excerpt: "As the share of people calling LA 'new' or 'young' has declined, so has the share of people who write off Los Angeles as fake, false, phony, culture-less, vapid, hopeless, worthless, etc."
Postcard, Circa early 1940s. Source
---
One hundred years ago today, William Mulholland stood on a dusty hill in Sylmar and unleashed the floodwaters of growth onto Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Acqueduct opening ceremony, Nov. 5th, 1913. Source: LA Public Library DWP Photo Collection
In 1913, a little more than 650,000 people called the Southland home, and the burgeoning agricultural metropolis was already exhibiting the marks of a region defined by infrastructure: Pacific Electric's expanding red car network had promoted the dispersal of population centers across the basins and valleys, and a recently-completed breakwater in San Pedro Bay had created a shipping hub out of a region with no natural harbor.
Pacific Electric Network Map, circa 1914. Source
But it was the sweet sierra snowmelt, brought 200 miles by pipe and trench to the semiarid flood plain that allowed LA to quadruple its population in two decades and to introduce itself as the world's next great city.
Postcard, Circa early 1940s. Source
By mid-century, Los Angeles had cemented its status as the prototypical urban region of the 20th Century: characterized by infrastructure, speculation, novelty and imagination on a vast and booming scale.
Aerial View of the Four-Level Interchange, Downtown LA, 1959. Source: LA Public Library Photo Collection
---
As we commemorate the centennial of the
birth of modern Los Angeles, words like "new" and “young” no longer seem to apply to a city that embodied these term for most of its existence. The century
of LA’s rise now seems like a long-distant era, one structured around quaint notions
like "decades" and "movements.”
It would be odd to call LA
"historic,” and New Yorkers or Bostonians can still be forgiven for
visiting and remarking that "everything is so new here," but even
they would admit that LA is no Atlanta, Phoenix, or Charlotte.
And indeed, over the past decade or so
there has been a significant shift in the way people describe and discuss Los
Angeles. As the share of people calling LA “new” or “young” has declined, so
has the share of people who write off Los Angeles as fake, false, phony,
culture-less, vapid, hopeless, worthless, etc. Likewise, there has been a rise in the share of
those who appreciate this city’s unique qualities and potential. Some have
noted this process as the “maturing” or “coming of age” of Los Angeles.
This trend should be cause for both
celebration and caution.
It's a very good thing that people,
most importantly Angelenos themselves, are starting to take Los Angeles
seriously. There’s a lot of work to be done to address LA’s failings, from
education to parkland to transportation infrastructure; and thankfully, more
and more Angelenos have been energized by the promise of LA’s potential and are
hard at work making change.
At the same time, as a growing number
of people begin to appreciate what it is that makes Los Angeles special, we start
to risk losing it altogether.
We know this because we’ve seen it
happen – in places like San Francisco, New York City, Washington DC, and
Portland.
We’ve watched as places with unique local
cultures and histories have undergone evolutions that render them largely
indistinguishable from other global urban lifestyle centers. And unlike boom
eras, with their loud promoters and boosters, these transition periods can
often go unnoticed until it is too late.
In Los Angeles, we have an opportunity
to avoid the mistakes of the recent past. Today’s Los Angeles is still a great
global American city that, for the most part, retains its historic uniqueness (a
lot of this has to do with LA’s decentralization which has kept any potential poisons
diffuse and away from the heart).
While we know that it is foolish to
believe that Los Angeles can avoid gentrification, commodification, late
globalization, and/or any other -ations, we believe it is less foolish to try
and influence how Los Angeles endures
these pressures.
We believe that we have an obligation
to try and ensure that Los Angeles, and the world, does not lose sight of what
it is that makes LA unique.
We believe that we have an even
stronger obligation because Los Angeles is not simply distinguishable. Los
Angeles is a place unlike any other.
Los Angeles is exceptional.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment