Three City Builders Name Los Angeles' Key Assets and Flaws

Three Los Angeles city builders have taken up the mantle, each distilling their experience—from the public to private sector—for the benefit of newcomers and seasoned veterans. 

Their observations range from the micro-specific to the broad and sweeping:

Linda Griego emphasizes the importance of retaining Los Angeles' manufacturing jobs, noting that the region produces "handles for knives, components for aerospace, fences, frames, and metal plating" as well as foods, from "corn tortillas to Chinese noodles to desserts that are sold to Costco." These employment opportunities, she argues, are at the core of LA's success.

Janet Marie Smith, from her vantage point at the Los Angeles Dodgers, comments on the location of its stadium within the city's urban center, as well as noting the team's role in expanding the demographics of baseball fans—reflecting LA's Latino heritage.

Finally, Dan Rosenfeld combines known tropes of Los Angeles to encapsulate the metropolis in a single concept: 

"If Los Angeles must be distilled into just one word or theme, I would say it is mobility. It is the dream of “upward” economic mobility; the personal mobility to reinvent one’s self; and the physical mobility of a convertible Camaro—manufactured in LA—surfboard dangling over the rear, zooming down the freeway, radio blaring, under the palm trees. Los Angles is the apotheosis of mobility."

Taken together, these three visions of Los Angeles can be instructive to land-use experts—both where they differ and where they converge.