Recommended Reading, Part II

I'm in the midst of reading a book called "New York & Los Angeles," edited by David Halle. As the title suggests, the book compares and contrasts the two cities, with the idea that "New York and Los Angeles are the two American cities with the strongest claims to global city status" (Gladstone and Fainstein, p. 79).

As a sidenote, I once read that Houston might become the most important city in America, due to the rising importance of oil. But now that Halliburton is relocating to the Middle East...

Anyway, this section from the book was enlightening to me:

Unlike the economies of paradigmatic American industrial metropolises such as Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburgh, which were based on "Fordist," mass production industries churning out automobilies, steel, machinery, and domestic appliances, the economy of Los Angeles is composed of "enormously diverse, flexible production sectors, including financial and business services, high-technology industries, and various craft, fashion and cultural product industries ranging from clothing and jewelry to motion pictures and music recording" (Halle, p. 14).

"Flexible" is the key word here, the one connected to my job search difficulties. A lot of work here is contract and thus based on connections. As a newcomer, that's a problem. For a former city employee, it's confusing.

Another interesting bit:

New York and Los Angeles are the premier cities/ metropolitan areas for immigration in America, in a close race with each other to rank first in terms of their numbers of immigrants (Sabagh and Bozorgmehr, p. 99).

Someone wrote into my blog that I was writing only about "white" Los Angeles, but I explained that I must have been giving a "vanilla" impression because I was trying not to divulge too many details about the people I was meeting here. In actuality, I have been hanging out with several East Asians, Asians, and Latinos (both foreign and American born) as well as African Americans. I have also been steeped in Jewish culture here. My acquaintances may tend to be professionals (regardless of ethnic background), but just going to the grocery store or the gym here is a true experience in "cultural diversity."