[contextly_auto_sidebar id="krjjjXo4RZIvrWEAQUieiD1G6Y9vbRUb"] IT'S all just a matter of opinion, isn't it? Nobody can agree on aesthetics, right? The Anglo-Swiss writer Alain de Botton demolishes these myths and others in a video on "How to Make an Attractive City." Slate has a fascinating story on the topic, and breaks out the writer's six criteria for urban beauty. By the part that … [Read more...]
Where Does the Creative Class Go After Brooklyn and Berlin?
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="yn9axOyZHqiOw8ewg8ssVPhGCVhfNenL"] RECENTLY we've been hearing that artists and writers are being priced out of Brooklyn, and the search for "the new Berlin" -- an affordable city for creatives -- is on. (Krakow? Vilnius?) And is Portland getting better, or worse? A number of stories have tackled the issue from different angles. (It all reminds me of the Talking … [Read more...]
“An Arts District without artists?”
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="sm1yCVkC5n9okJnqnTpzTSDYpQTHApRe"] WE'VE heard this before, but it's always painful when it happens: The visual artists who have helped tame downtown Los Angeles and given it a hip sheen are now being forced out by gentrification and rising rents. The process is just starting, but it seems destined to pick up speed quite soon. A new story in the Los Angeles Times … [Read more...]
The Invasion of San Francisco, and Intellectual Property
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="HKpgUBHFGiXW1ahrZaq596c8kILm1OXt"] FEW scribes write more eloquently than Rebecca Solnit about sense of place, especially San Francisco's. She’s got a very fine piece in the London Review of Books today about the way the tech boom is remaking the Bay Area. Cities and the arts have a long and fruitful relationship, so this has serious consequences for the creative … [Read more...]
Week in Review: The Life and Death of Cities, More on NEA
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="PafOG3MPyZj6bmDJpEFc7L4n3rZYgP8V"] ONE of the topics that's fascinated me for decades, as I've moved from Baltimore to New London, Conn., to Los Angeles -- and in visits to Mexico City, Berkeley, Manchester, and Rome -- is how cities work, and how they stop working. No one has the entire answer to this, but one thing we can all pretty well conclude by now is that … [Read more...]
Modern Architecture in LA
WHEN people think about LA urbanism, they still invoke the same old cliches -- Woody Allen's line about the only "cultural advantage" being a right turn on red, the notorious "sprawl," and so on. They recite Getrude Stein's line about "no there there" (applied originally to another California city) as if the early town fathers just sort of forgot that part.So it was refreshing to hear from two … [Read more...]
California Vs. The Great Plains
The writer and urbanist Joel Kotkin has a fascinating piece in a recent Newsweek called "The Great Great Plains," which looks at the way cities like Fargo and Bismarck -- as well as most of Texas -- are booming while much of the rest of the country languishes in a dead economy.It got us here at the Misread City wondering: What are Omaha and Dallas doing right that Los Angeles and other West Coast … [Read more...]
Eric Owen Moss Vs. Los Angeles
For decades now, eric owen moss has been one of the most innovative, influential and feared architects in the southland. he's designed striking postmodern buildings in culver city and environs, taken the helm at SCI-Arc, and become what colleague thom mayne calls "a gladiator" in his appearances at various panels and reviews.HERE is my LAT piece on moss and his latest work. the story comes from … [Read more...]
Eagle Rock and Bourgeois Bohemia Imperiled
ON a crisp winter day, with snow glinting on the san gabriel mountains, air cleansed by a recent rain, and mighty oak trees looming over the quiet streets above colorado blvd, eagle rock can seem like the kind of place '60s bands used to write songs about. but these days, people aren't singing -- or if they are, it's in a bittersweet key.over the last few years northeast LA has become a kind of … [Read more...]