Synopses & Reviews
This book provides in-depth comparative studies of the two largest cities and metropolitan areas in the United States: New York City and Los Angeles. The chapters, written by leading experts and based upon the most current information available from the Census and other sources, discuss and explicitly compare politics, economic prospects and the financial crisis, and a host of social issues. Reform movements in education, ethnic politics, budget stringency, strategies to deal with crime, the development and political context of infrastructure, rising inequality, immigration and immigrant communities, the segregation of the poor and minorities and the new segregation of the economic elite, environmental impacts and attempts to deal with them, the image of both cities and regions in the movies, architectural trends, and the differential impact and response to the financial crisis, including foreclosure patterns, are all examined in this volume.
This comparative framework reveals that old paradigms such as urban "decline" or "resurgence" are inadequate for grasping the new challenges and complexities facing America's two major global cities. Each is responding in sometimes similar and different ways to the challenges brought on by two events that defined the last decade: the attack of 9/11 and its aftermath, and the continuing effects of the financial crisis. How all of these events, institutions, and trends play out in the New York and Los Angeles regions is important not only for the two cities, but also as a harbinger for other U.S. cities, the entire nation, and cities worldwide. New York and Los Angeles provides an essential guide for understanding the many forces that determine the future of our cities.
Review
"Big Apple. Big Orange. The similarities and dissimilarities, functions and dysfunctions, of New York and Los Angeles subsume and define the promise and uncertainties of the American urban future. With a fresh perspective, at once informed and questioning, confident and troubled, urbanists examine the achievements and challenges faced by the two dominant metro-regions of the nation. Who had it right, Woody Allen or the Terminator?"-Kevin Starr, University of Southern California
About the Author
David Halle is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also an adjunct professor at the City University of New York's Graduate Center and the author of
America's Working Man: Work, Home, and Politics among Blue-Collar Property Owners and
Inside Culture: Art and Class in the American HomeAndrew A. Beveridge is Professor of Sociology at Queens College and the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction New York and Los Angeles: The Uncertain Future
David Halle and Andrew A. Beveridge
PART I: Overview
Chapter 2. The Big Picture: Demographic and Other Changes
Andrew Beveridge and Sydney Beveridge
Chapter 3. The New York and Los Angeles Economies from Boom to Crisis
David L. Gladstone and Susan S. Fainstein
Chapter 4. America's Leading International Trade Centers and their Entrepreneurial Agencies: Challenges and Strategies in the New York and Los Angeles Regions
Jameson W. Doig, Steven P. Erie and Scott A. MacKenzie
PART II: Politics and Economics
Chapter 5. New York City and Los Angeles: Government and Political Influence
John Mollenkopf and Raphael J. Sonenshein
Chapter 6. Financial and Economic Crisis and the Politics of Ongoing Dramas
David Halle and Andrew Beveridge
Chapter 7. New York City and Los Angeles: Taxes, Budgets and Managing the Financial Crisis
George Sweeting and Andrea Dinneen
PART III: Social and Urban Problems
Chapter 8. Policing, Crime and Legitimacy in New York and Los Angeles: The Social and Political Contexts of Two Historic Crime Declines
Jeffrey Fagan and John MacDonald
Chapter 9. LA and New York Schools: Reform, Organization, and Disorganization
Julia Wrigley
Chapter 10. How New York and Los Angeles Housing Policies Are Different-and Maybe Why
Ingrid Gould Ellen and Brendan O'Flaherty
Chapter 11. Residential Diversity and Division: Separation and Segregation among Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Affluent, and Poor.
Andrew Beveridge, David Halle, Eddie Telles, and Beth DuFault
PART IV: Immigration and Ethnic Communities
Chapter 12. New York and Los Angeles as Immigrant Destinations: Contrasts and Convergence
Nancy Foner and Roger Waldinger
Chapter 13. The Transformation of Chinese America: New York v. Los Angeles
Min Zhou, Margaret M. Chin and Rebecca Kim
PART V: Planning and Environmentalism
Chapter 14. Planning L.A.: The Changing Politics of Neighborhood and Downtown Development
Andrew Deener, Steven P. Erie, Vladimir Kogan, and Forrest Stuart
Chapter 15. Environmental and Social Justice Movements and Policy Change in Los Angeles: Is an Inside-Outside Game Possible?
Martha Matsuoka and Robert Gottlieb
Chapter 16. A Land Ethic for the City of Water
Kristen Van Hooreweghe, Steve Lang, and William Kornblum
PART VI: Culture
Chapter 17. In LA, You Know Where Architecture's At
Rick Bell
Chapter 18. New York, LA and Chicago as Depicted in Hit Movies.
David Halle, Eric Vanstrom, Jan Reiff and Ted Nitschke
Chapter 19. Nonprofit Organizations in New York City and Los Angeles: A Comparison
Helmut K Anheier, David Howard, and Marcus Lam