We ♥ L. A.

We knew there was something that set Los Angeles apart from other major cities besides the fact that wilderness (natural, not cultural) is often a mere hike away. Tim Rutten, in the Incredible Shrinking Newspaper™©, adds other factoids.

Putting aside for the moment the simple historical fact that our natural disasters -- earthquakes, floods and droughts, as well as fires -- predate development, there is another way to look at this. Alone among the world's great cities, Los Angeles does not exist at the confluence of great rivers, on the shore of a fine natural harbor or astride some important traditional trade route. It never was the historical seat of some great power.

It exists because it has a magnificent climate and a fascinatingly beautiful natural setting, and because a bunch of ruthless, steely-eyed guys with their avarice on overdrive realized that they could get rich selling good weather and open space, if they willed a city into being. They succeeded beyond even their counting-house fantasies; the result was Los Angeles, which is unique among the world's great cities in that -- until the construction of Disney Hall and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels -- it lacked a single inarguably distinguished public building but possessed the world's finest store of fine domestic architecture.

Ah, that explains it. There's no actual reason for the City of The Angels (Haw-haw!!) to be here. We could quibble w/ that last clause, but we won't be bothering today. (Ok, just one: "Store of fine domestic architecture?" What is this, a wine cellar? And have we done well "storing" all that architecture?)