Los Angeles knows how to weather a crisis — or two or three. Angelenos are tapping into that resilience, striving to build a city for everyone.
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When L.A. Times staffers started to assemble a Future of L.A. project last year, we wondered which topics might deserve a deep dive. Housing? Transportation? Entertainment and popular culture?
Is L.A. broken, as some say, or could it become a model of urban sustainability? Or something in between?
That’s a lot to bite off in a sprawling metropolis with millions of people and thousands of opinions about how we might navigate the next few decades.
Then Los Angeles was beset by fire, and The Times’ staff did what it does best, swarming to cover the biggest news story in the city’s history. The future would have to wait.
But not for long.
As Angelenos mourned their dead and sought recovery assistance and cleared the debris of what used to be their homes, it became increasingly clear that the fires left L.A. with an imperative: to pause and think. So we asked an array of experts and our readers and ourselves: What can we —should we — do in the next 25 or 30 or40 years to make our city a sustainable and equitable home for everyone?
In these pages you will hear from community leaders about their hopes for Los Angeles, and read about how we might build the housing we so desperately need. You’ll encounter a landscape architect who is helping to build “sponge cities” and look at whether they might be a solution for flooding problems in Southern California. You’ll learn about future possibilities for fire mitigation — and much more.
Times columnist Michael Hiltzik reminds us that Los Angeles and California are “the subject of unending curiosity for readers of history and current affairs. ... That has been true since the vision of a land of gold — El Dorado — drew the Spanish conquistadors to these shores.
“The world wishes to know what L.A. and California are, and where they are headed.”
So let’s imagine a future that works for all of us. It’s imperative.
— Alice Short
Crafting a blueprint for the 21st century
After the devastation of the fires, are we ready to imagine a new Los Angeles, a city that takes everyone into account?
L.A. is amazingly resilient — and nothing has proved this more than this year’s fires and immigration raids. We can — and will — survive whatever happens next.
We asked readers: How might you reconfigure the city so it is a sustainable home for everyone? Here are some of their answers
Truth, consequences and resolution
Is Southern California prepared to avoid a ‘Day Zero’ water crisis? A look at the solutions that could shape our water future.
We’ve always had fires and floods, but brilliant marketing and a lot of hubris allowed Los Angeles to be conjured into existence
L.A.’s water management system discards billions of gallons of rainwater that might be reused. Can ‘sponge cities’ help us?
We have a habit of setting lofty goals and making grand promises in Los Angeles and in California. But what’s a vision and what’s a hallucination?
For an eroding coastline reduced to broken concrete, responding to sea level rise has been a delicate exercise in compromise.
Recycling and composting get a lot of ink and attention when it comes to discussion about reducing waste. But reuse may be the unsung hero
Waste experts across Southern California believe we’ll figure out how to deal with trash by 2050 — by going back to basics and reducing and reusing what we buy.
Upping our housing game
How can we achieve more and better housing? Denser neighborhoods. Smaller homes, some modular or printed in 3-D. Properties co-owned. ADUs sold separately.
To solve its housing crisis Los Angeles must build. Here’s where:
Rethinking our relationship with fire
Here is a bit of wisdom that is too often lost in our conversations about urban fire: Sometimes, recovery is not rebuilding.
Can we really fortify our homes and our city against a fire storm? These experts offer some tips and some hope for the future.
How will we fight fires in the future? With smart fire trucks and smart nozzles, uniforms with intelligent fabrics, and pilot-less helicopters — and lots of AI
Palms are freeloader trees: They suck down water like camels, but give back barely enough leafiness to shade a Hula-Hoop.
Obsessed with L.A.
Filmmakers seem to take a special pleasure in depicting an apocalyptic future for Los Angeles — how come?
“Miracle Mile” takes place in a city in the throes of chaos as Angelenos flee the threat of a nuclear strike.
For decades, nonfiction writers have imagined the future of Los Angeles. Did they get anything right?
Celebrated writers Ivy Pochoda, Steph Cha and Jonathan Lethem imagine the future lives of Angelenos in these works of speculative fiction.
L.A. could become a solar-powered, biodiversity-rich metropolis, redefining urban sustainability — and a blueprint for the 21st century
About this story
Senior deputy design directors: Jim Cooke, Allison Hong
Times columnists and writers: Gustavo Arellano, Greg Braxton, Anita Chabria, Thomas Curwen, Liam Dillon, Jack Flemming, Michael Hiltzik, Kaitlyn Huamani, Ian James, Max Kim, Steve Lopez, Patt Morrison, Susanne Rust, Doug Smith, Hayley Smith, Rosanna Xia
Editor at large: Scott Kraft
Creative director: Amy King
Assistant managing editor: Ruthanne Salido
Executive director of photography: Kim Chapin
Photo editing: David Barreda, Kelvin Kuo
Times photographers: Jason Armond, Myung J. Chun, Gina Ferazzi, Christina House, Genaro Molina, Allen J. Schaben, Carlin Stiehl
Copy chief: Dave Bennett
Copy editors: David Bowman, Samantha Chung, Minh Dang, Rachel Dunn, Blake Hennon, June Hsu, Kevin Leung, Marina Levario, Gerard Lim, Hannah Ly, Laura Nott, Dwayne Rogers, Kevin Ueda
Illustrations: Derek Abella, Jim Cooke, Lorena Iñiguez Elebee
Cross Chancery typeface designed by Tiger Dingsun.
Data and graphics director: Hanna Sender
Data and graphics: Sean Greene, Lorena Iñiguez Elebee, Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee, Vanessa Martinez
Audience engagement: Defne Karabatur, Seth Liss
Digital production: Beto Alvarez, Hunter Clauss, Lora Victorio
Additional production: Alex Tatusian
Contributors: Corie Brown, Carlo Ratti, John Rossant
Short stories: Steph Cha, Jonathan Lethem, Ivy Pochoda
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