By Gregory Han
The second annual CityLab — a two-day summit on the principles and policies defining the cities of the future — took place in Los Angeles earlier this week (Sept. 28–30) with a giddy enthusiasm for urbanism that could mistakenly bely the serious intentions of its global roster of civic leaders, urbanism visionaries, city planners, and some of Angeleno’s creative finest in attendance.
Founded by Bloomberg Philanthropies and hosted by The Atlantic and the Aspen Institute this year’s summit included attendees LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, LA restaurateur Roy Choi, LACMA’s Executive Director Michael Govan, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, LA developer Rick Caruso, and former New York Mayor and CityLab founder, Michael R. Bloomberg. As Garcetti put it, CityLab is “kind of like prom… for Mayors.”
One of the most controversial claims that came from the summit purports that many of the cities of tomorrow will look more and more like Los Angeles than any other on the planet. Mayor Garcetti explained his city is a cultural and geographic nexus “which would have to be built tomorrow if it didn’t already exist today… [It’s a city] only just now entering its teenage years.” LA became both stage and a case study about the success stories of urbanism, while revealing its most daunting shortcomings (in LA’s case, public transportation, public transportation, and public transportation, in that order), a big picture conversation starter with the goal of cross-pollinating solutions globally.
On Monday night the party and conversation moved to renovated and rechristened The Theatre at Ace Hotel for “CityLab: Making L.A.” Art arbiters mingled with mayors, trolley-car loving developer magnates shared the room with 20-something hip-hop entrepreneurs-cum-reality-TV-stars, a native son Korean taco truck celebrity chef rubbed marinade-stained elbows with Malibu sun-bleached fashionistas. For a $50 admission fee, attendees were invited to sit in to hear what speakers thought about living, governing, and dreaming in Los Angeles. (For $100 extra, guests were whisked up to the mezzanine level for a “Taste of L.A.,” enjoying a menu represented by Alma Restaurant, Carmela Ice Cream, Golden Road Brewing, and Greenbar Craft Distillery, before the program.)
Los Angeles is currently a city buzzing with an energy of revitalization, stoked by the migratory smoke of creatives wafting increasingly over from the glowing embers of unaffordable sister cities like New York and San Francisco; rebounding economically and experiencing the lowest crime levels since 1949. Still, the extreme socio-economic stratification afflicting other great American cultural capitals exists more or less to a certain degree in LA neighborhoods, with growing gentrification, unaffordable housing, battles for public green spaces, and the intrinsic challenges of a city only now “growing up, not growing out” threatening LA’s coming out party.
One could surmise after listening to the impassioned calls to action made at CityLab: where LA goes, the rest of the world goes…but it’s clear we’re not yet quite sure where we’re all going yet, for there’s no GPS signal to navigate our intended destination as either a city or a nation. “CityLab: Making L.A.” didn’t answer many questions, as much as spotlight a wide range of them. But then again as Kogi’s Roy Choi (pictured above) concluded the evening with The Atlantic’s Steve Clemons, “Sometimes it’s important not to try to solve the whole equation, but to focus and appreciate the moment.”
