Trixie Stork HTS Term 2 2022-2023 23 March 2022 George Jepson The Suburban Sprawl of Los Angeles: A Study on the Failure of Ideals What elements define the success of a city? While historically cities have grown from geographical advantages and natural resources, the U.S. expansion in the 1800s abruptly ended when reaching the West Coast, blurring reality and growth. This led to a diverse mix of cultures and beliefs at the edge of civilization founding Los Angeles. But unlike most cities situated along rivers which supply food, water, and fertile land, in Los Angeles, a city built in the desert, natural resources are sparse. Lacking the constraints of previous examples, the city spread further and further into the desert, and at a politically charged time, it became a testing ground for big businesses, architecture, and economy, leading to ideals that struggled to overcome the systematic corruption present. And despite efforts made to construct a new, modern city, it ultimately failed, as it is now a dangerous and congested city struggling with gentrification. Despite the potential of Los Angeles and its nuance as a city defined by the automobile and modern architecture, the political corruption of its development and realization ultimately solidified its failure as a modern utopia. In the late nineteenth century, Los Angeles was a town of no more than five thousand with an area of 28 square miles,1 but by the turn of the century, the city had grown with over one hundred thousand inhabitants. Laborers poured in from the east, hoping for better wages and living conditions, under the promise that the developing railway systems, port, and factories would transform the city into a metropolis. Deep in the San Fernando Valley, the Pueblo of Los Angeles – a small Spanish plaza from the eighteenth city2 – survived along the Los Angeles river, sustaining itself on the few natural resources available. But as Manifest Destiny reached the West Coast in the 1850s, the area once controlled by Mexico was quickly commandeered by U.S. troops and the city began to grow. And as it grew, so did the need for water. The unpredictable weather – draughts and severe flash flooding3 – had deterred early settlers, but the new inhabitants were not leaving. By the late nineteenth century, they had begun building the Los Angeles Aqueduct,4 addressing the need for water, but also allowing the city to spread unchecked. The once small town in the valley was now overrun with laborers in search of jobs from its founders who promoted the construction of a massive port, railways, and factories to rival any other American cities. This resulted in the rise of racial and organized crime by 1870,5 with the increase in population, density, and lack of government control. Incidents such as the 1
Davis, Mike, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, 3. Banham, Reyner, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, 26. 3 Yerkes, R.F.,“Geology of the Los Angeles Basin California - an Introduction,” 16. 4 Davis, Mike, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, 4. 5 Hernández, Kelly, “Hobos in Heaven: Race, Incarceration, and the Rise of Los Angeles, 1880–1910,” 413. 2
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