Abstract
Given the recurrent debates about the relative merits of New York or Los Angeles in modelling an urban future in the US, David Halle and Andrew Beveridge’s edited volume, New York and Los Angeles: The Uncertain Future, is a timely publication.
There are 19 chapters, five of them wholly or partly authored by the editors Halle and Beveridge, which cover demographic, political, economic, social, cultural, environmental and planning issues. The book follows an earlier volume edited by Halle in 2003, New York & Los Angeles: Politics, Society and Culture: A Comparative View. The editors promise an interdisciplinary approach by experts in various fields and note that this is the first book to use the 2010 census and will be coordinated with Beveridge’s Social Explorer to offer online tools for comparing cities and metropolitan regions.
For such a large, ambitious and often unruly book – over 500 pages, not counting the bibliography – the readers are owed more in the way of a synthesis of major trends and issues. In lieu of a serious attempt to pull this trove of information together, we have an introductory chapter that somewhat tediously summarises the various chapters, gives short shift to central questions in the urban literature such as urban decline/urban resurgence, and concludes rather enigmatically that the future of the two cities is ‘hugely uncertain, more so than it has been for decades’. In making this claim Halle and Beveridge draw upon Gladstone and Fainstein’s closing caveat in Chapter 3 – that both cities’ depend on global industries which may not require the physical proximity that Sassen (2000) has argued is a requisite – and thus upon Global Cities theory, a theoretical approach which is discussed only in the Gladstone and Fainstein chapter and otherwise not central to this empirically focused collection.
Yet, discussing demographic change in Chapter 2, Beveridge and Beveridge underline dramatic converging trends that ‘upend conventional stereotypes’ and ‘are a real harbinger of a changing pattern of settlement in the two largest regions of the US and in other regions too’. For example: Hispanic and Asian populations have grown; African-Americans have declined; there is an increase in non-Hispanic whites in the downtowns; and suburbs are becoming increasingly diverse.
The sense of disjunction between findings and conclusion seems to reflect the real uncertainty: what question(s) are the editors posing in this volume? Are they asking about global city status as measured by dominance in international trade, finance, media or other industrial sectors, etc.? Are they asking for an appraisal of fiscal health after the Great Recession of 2008? Several chapters seem oriented to this issue. Or are the editors interested in answering traditional questions raised by urban theorists about two cities typically seen as classically different, regarding relative centralisation or decentralisation, class, race and ethnic divisions, social control and governance, economic and cultural vitality, etc. If the latter, than we find a number of authors, including Beveridge and Beveridge in their demographic analysis, making statements that allow us to piece together a more precise picture of our two major cities at this point in time, pointing us in the direction promised in the introductory chapter, i.e. to promote ‘new thinking and interpretation over a range of key topics’.
Gladstone and Fainstein (Chapter 3) assess New York City (NYC) and Los Angeles (LA) in terms of Global Cities theory, outlining differences in their key industries, their industrial structures and resultant inequality. They find that NYC and LA are the most unequal of the 15 largest US cities. Although there are differences in timing and degree, both cities show a declining middle-class and income polarisation, fuelled in part by large numbers of poor immigrants, but primarily by extreme differences of wealth. Although they reject ‘dual city’ for a more nuanced image, one wishes for a more detailed explanation of why this is useful or necessary. Similarly, although they raise questions about the continued economic prominence of LA and NYC and emphasise ‘political leadership and economic innovation’, one wishes for more connection of the dots.
Writing on policing and crime (Chapter 8) Fagan and Macdonald note a ‘50 year arc’ in both cities with similar trends and timing, suggesting that policing had only a ‘modest effect’ on crime and that explanations need to take into account the changing structural context of the urban environment, namely immigration, gentrification, housing, etc. Here, too, the authors underline major trends and a degree of convergence between LA and NYC. Wrigley, who compares the two biggest school systems in the US, in Chapter 9, notes that despite different political paths (mayoral control achieved in NYC but not in LA) and political cultures, the two school systems are not in a different place. National forces directing school reform along the lines of market logic have led both to failure.
Some of the most interesting, finer-grained, comparative insights have to do with political culture and governance. For example, Ellen and O’Flaherty (Chapter 10) argue that housing conditions are not that different in NYC and LA. What differs are policies resulting from NYC’s focus on ‘externalities’ in the housing market. They argue that NYC policymakers use housing policy for economic development goals such as restructuring neighbourhoods and attracting workers and industries, not just to house needy families. Mollenkopf and Sonenshein, in Chapter 5, underline the import of historical legacy for the evolution of differing liberal traditions. NYC’s near bankruptcy in 1975 led to a focus on fiscally conservative leaders, whereas LA’s experience with Watts and the riots following the Rodney King verdict led to a preference for more liberal style of leadership. Discussing international trade, Doig, Erie and Mackenzie (Chapter 4) provide a clear and interesting analysis of the structural advantages and disadvantages of the respective agencies that regulate the ports in the two cities. On immigrant settlement, Foner and Waldinger (Chapter 12) note points of convergence, such as LA having moved towards being more immigrant friendly. Looking at the non-profit sector in Chapter 19, Anheier, Lam and Howard outline historical and institutional differences that account for the relative underdevelopment of this sector in LA.
The organisational structure of comparison across key issue areas tends to fall apart in the later sections of the book. The overviews of planning and environment in Part Five deal singularly with LA or NYC. Given the many experts in these areas, it is unclear why we do not have comparative overviews. The cultural section, Part Six, is weak and arbitrarily deals with movies and architecture. One would have hoped for more in-depth analysis of the prominent cultural sectors of these two cultural meccas. Finally, the volume could have used more vigorous editing on overly descriptive chapters as well as the elimination of duplicate or repetitious material, i.e. several authors recapitulate, at great length, the story of the financial crisis in 2008 as well as NYC’s near bankruptcy in 1975.
This book presents some interesting and provocative comparative insights into LA and NYC as of 2010. It would have benefited from a stronger, more coherent analysis of the factors which lead to divergence and convergence, as well as the future prospects of the two cities.