Future of Cities launched last month with a large gathering at LACMA to discuss civic leadership and the future of Los Angeles. I was skeptical of what an initiative like this could really achieve, but I have to say, I was impressed by the breadth and depth of the topics and speakers. I think my favorite tweet of the night came from @cmonstah: “Part of what makes LA such a great place is we are so deliriously uncouth.” By all accounts it was an incredible and dynamic evening. I think Bojarsky and the event’s organizers proved that a broad swath of Angelenos are interested in civic engagement and ready to act. But how? What’s next?

Perhaps Joel Epstein captures the core of why we need this initiative: “Given our size and enduring economic inequality, we are indeed a city that needs to better marry vision, leadership and results to fulfill L.A.’s ambitions and achieve our potential.” [1]

As I ponder what role I might play in making LA a better place, I am dashing off to #SACRPH15 in DTLA for a walking tour of Bunker Hill. Perhaps this planning history conference will offer some answers. I’ll be there. Will you?

[1] Joel Epstein, “L.A. Can Be the Future of Cities.” 10/19/15

For more on Society for American City and Regional Planning History Conference, see: Conference for LA Urbanists

Published by Andrea Thabet, Ph.D.

Dr. Andrea Thabet is a historian specializing in Los Angeles, urban, and public history, with a focus on urban renewal policy and cultural policy in the United States. Dr. Thabet has worked as a Curatorial Assistant at the Skirball Cultural Center and Museum in Los Angeles as well as at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. She has taught college level courses in her areas of expertise, including a course on the U.S. Civil Rights Movement at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and America in the 1960s at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Thabet has consulted on a number of historic preservation projects, which include a successful Historic- Cultural Monument nomination for the Hawk House designed by Harwell Hamilton Harris (2019), and research and writing about Civic Center Branch Administrative Centers for Survey LA, a city-wide project conducted by L.A.’s Office of Historic Resources. Presently, she serves as Co-Coordinator for the L.A. History & Metro Studies Group, based at the Huntington Library. Dr. Thabet holds a Ph.D and an M.A. in U.S. History from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a B.A. in History with an Art History minor from Loyola Marymount University. She has presented her research at a number of academic conferences and public events. Dr. Thabet’s forthcoming article, “‘From Sagebrush to Symphony’: Negotiating the Hollywood Bowl and the Future of Los Angeles, 1918-1926,” appeared in the Pacific Historical Review in Fall 2020. Her published works on Los Angeles and urban history have appeared in both academic and popular journals, in both print and digital formats. In June 2020, Dr. Thabet was awarded a fellowship by Friends of Residential Treasures: Los Angeles (FORT:LA) for an interdisciplinary research collaboration with Jenna Snow, titled: “The House that Mary Built: The 1936 California House and Garden Exposition.” Dr. Thabet is currently working on a book manuscript based on her dissertation, "Culture as Urban Renewal: Remaking Public Space in Postwar Los Angeles."