1984 LOS ANGELES
THEN
FILMMAKER Woody Allen once observed that LA’s “only cultural advantage is that you can turn right on a red light”. In 1984, that’s how much of the venerable East Coast elite viewed the city. It wasn’t an entirely baseless characterisation but it ignored an important fact: like it or not, America’s Zeitgeist was moving West.
By 1984, the United States was increasingly defined by the culture of Los Angeles. That year, Hollywood local Ronald Reagan was re-elected, the blockbuster – including
Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom – made Hollywood richer than it had ever been and celebrity chefs like Wolfgang Puck turned fusion dishes such as smoked salmon pizza into the court cuisine of the new yuppie aristocracy.
As much as economics or culture, the LA of this period was shaped by demographics. During the Olympic year the city replaced Chicago as the second largest in the country, driven in part by an explosion in the Latino population. Simultaneously, a huge influx of Asian immigrants established new neighbourhoods and made Los Angeles an unofficial capital of the Pacific rim.
While 1984 was a year of economic prosperity for LA, it was also a time of urban decay. The city’s heart, Downtown, was in a state of seemingly terminal neglect, the bordering neighbourhoods descending into a more-than-decade-long guerilla war between violent gangs and a notoriously brutal LA police force. Fuelled by racial resentment and drugs, this conflict exploded in 1992 as the LA Riots – which immediately followed the acquittal of four white police officers tried for the brutal beating of African-American taxi driver Rodney King – destroyed large parts of the inner city.
NOW
Today, the LA of 1984 evokes the same hazy nostalgia of halfremembered credits from a forgotten TV show. In just over 30 years, the city has changed remarkably. Indeed, it’s no exaggeration to say that Los Angeles is in the midst of a renaissance.
Kickstarted in 1998 with the construction of the 20,000-seat Staples Center sports arena, the renewal of Downtown has come to symbolise LA’s revitalisation. Since the start of the millennium, many of the business district’s half-empty skyscrapers have been converted into residences or hotels. In turn, these have attracted chic bars, boutique coffee roasters and restaurants serving the Latin- and Asian-influenced cuisine that dominates the city’s innovative food scene.
Meanwhile, a museum boom has made Woody Allen’s disdainful observation seem a quaint relic of a time when New York could afford to feel self-congratulatory. These days LA is a world leader in contemporary art, a fact made clear by the 2015 opening of The Broad museum and new Hauser Wirth & Schimmel art gallery.
Mirroring the drop in crime, the environment, too, has improved significantly. In 1984, the first Smog Check Program – which requires vehicles to be emission-tested – was hailed a grand success because there were no stage-two smog alerts and “only” 94 stage-one alerts. By 2004 there were no alerts. Ocean pollution has followed a similar reverse trajectory and new public transport infrastructure is linking walkable neighbourhoods throughout the sprawl.
LA’s improved quality of life and status as a global cultural and financial centre have undoubtedly benefited the city. These factors have also spurred a property boom that has made it unaffordable for many of the young creatives who made it possible in the first place. Whether this causes the city to stagnate remains to be seen. Right now, however, LA feels very much like a city entering a new golden age.