{"id":1034957,"date":"2026-08-31T13:38:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T13:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1034957\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T13:38:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T13:38:27","slug":"ten-years-ago-l-a-fell-in-love-with-itself-what-went-so-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1034957\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten years ago, L.A. fell in love with itself. What went so wrong?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you were forced to pick the moment the Los Angeles romance with itself reached a zenith \u2014 and before things all went so wrong \u2014 the sunny morning of April 25, 2017, might be a good choice.<\/p>\n

Eight acrobatic dancers in colorful outfits descended<\/a> from the top of City Hall on ropes and performed a dance number using the side of the Art Deco landmark as its stage. The performance was set to a song from the movie that made the city seem so sexy and desirable: \u201cLa La Land.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Bandaloop aerial dancers perform to the side of City Hall in downtown Los Angeles in 2017.<\/p>\n

(Rick Loomis \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Mayor Eric Gracetti swooned, and a collection of \u201cLa La Land\u201d fans cheered. One woman summed up the moment, telling a reporter<\/a>: \u201cI just love this city!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLa La Land\u201d came out 10 years ago<\/a>, with a premiere Aug. 31 at the Venice Film Festival. The romantic musical about making it in a hyper-beautified Hollywood was a big hit.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the biggest winner was Los Angeles itself.<\/p>\n

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Creating the perfect L.A.<\/p>\n

After enduring nearly two decades of movies that used the city as a symbol of destruction, madness, criminality and sleaze, finally L.A. got a depiction that even the grimmest doomscrollers could love.<\/p>\n

A movie where the hell of rush-hour traffic becomes a show-stopping dance number, where the neon lights never burn out, the antique street lamps are never tagged, and every hour looks like magic hour.<\/p>\n

David Wasco, the production designer known for much grittier L.A. fare, including \u201cCollateral\u201d and \u201cPulp Fiction,\u201d told The Times he wanted to create a \u201cheightened, dreamy movie world thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not \u2018Training Day,\u2019\u201d he joked.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cLa La Land\u201d arrived at a heady moment for the city, with urban experts waxing about its \u201crenaissance.\u201d It was an impressive time:<\/p>\n

Optimism in the air<\/p>\n

There was also much optimism about the idea of Los Angeles. There was the \u201cThird L.A.\u201d urban movement<\/a>, which envisioned a denser city built<\/a> around expanded mass transit <\/a>and the geographic center of gravity shifting from the Westside to the Eastside. Together, it could provide affordable housing and get people out of their cars. And L.A. voters seemed as if they were along for the ride. They defied the pundits and approved a massive tax measure <\/a>that would rapidly expand mass transit lines.<\/p>\n

A few months before \u201cLa La Land\u201d premiered, \u201cCity of Gold\u201d<\/a> hit theaters. It was a loving documentary that followed food critic Jonathan Gold around L.A. as he discovered great places to eat<\/a> and made you feel this city was the center of the culinary world. It was Gold, after all, who spoke of being part of \u201cL.A.\u2019s great brotherhood of taco eaters,<\/a> huddled around trucks late at night, balancing three ounces of highly spiced meat and drawing furtively from an icy bottle of imported Mexican Coke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who could hate that city?<\/p>\n

Yet even back then, there were signs the good times could not roll on forever. For all the talk of more and denser development, it could not come close to keeping up with demand. Coolness begot gentrification. Then came the pandemic, which took a brutal toll on places like downtown L.A. and Hollywood. Many of Gold\u2019s favorite eateries closed. Then fire consumed thousands of homes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the doomscrolling Los Angeles of 2026, it\u2019s hard to imagine a new movie celebrating the city\u2019s virtues would have much impact.<\/p>\n

Is it OK for L.A. to dream?<\/p>\n

Where are the people talking with hope about what Los Angeles could be? On paper, the next two years could be promising for the city. Wilshire Boulevard finally got its subway<\/a>, the long-delayed LAX People Mover <\/a>should open, the downtown skyline keeps expanding and, with hope, soon will be graffiti-free<\/a>. And the Olympics are almost here.<\/p>\n

Maybe aspiration is something we should seek from the candidates for mayor. The recent mayoral debate<\/a> was heavy on conflict, but what about their grander vision of what L.A. could be? <\/p>\n

Such dreaming might be a hard sell. But I\u2019d love to hear it.<\/p>\n

As Emma Stone sang in \u201cLa La Land:\u201d \u201cHere\u2019s to the ones who dream, foolish as they may seem.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

Top stories \"Beachgoers <\/a> <\/p>\n

Beachgoers frolic in the ocean at Zuma Beach in Malibu on Aug. 16.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

California\u2019s beaches are being eaten away<\/p>\n