Still true?

What is striking about Los Angeles after a period away from it is how well it works. The famous freeways work, the supermarkets work (a visit to, say, the Pacific Palisades Gelson’s, where the aisles are wide and the shelves full and checkout is fast and free of attitude, elevates grocery shopping to a form of zazen), the beaches work. The 1984 Olympics were not supposed to work, but they did (daily warnings of gridlock and urban misery gave way during the first week to a county-wide block party, with pink and aquamarine flags fluttering over empty streets, and with parking spaces available, for once, even in Westwood)—not only worked but turned a profit, of almost two hundred and twenty-three million dollars, about which there was no scandal.

Saint Joan talking about LA in the August 28, 1988 New Yorker. Will the 2028 Olympics work out the same? I hope so.

My own observation is Los Angeles works less well in 2024 than it did when I arrived in 2004. Maybe that’s the sweetening filter of nostalgia for youth. There are more people living in tents now than there were then. That seems bad. A dreadful indicator. Does the tent-living increase correlate with housing price increase? Haven’t put the graph together but I’d guess yes.

The economists might tell us demand for housing is growing faster than supply, causing prices to go up. The supply (of housing) is hard to make go up. You need to build.

LA used to be a leader in experimental affordable housing projects:

source.