Los Angeles

The ‘Eat the Mouth That Feeds You’ Mixtape

To borrow from our millennial friends, it is very on brand for the Tropics of Meta crew—composed mainly of Gen X Nirvana-loving kids who eat hot Cheetos and drink cold beer—to drop new books in a global pandemic.

Housing, Homeless, and Freeways: Kicking Off SACRPH 2015 with a History of L.A. Social Justice

When you look up the word “plenary,” the dictionary provides the following definition: “(of a meeting) to be […]

The Valley Paradox: Gentlemen Farming and Immigrant Labor in the Creation of San Fernando Valley

Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown” remains perhaps the quintessential neo-noir. Set in the 1930s, the movie depicts Los Angeles and […]

From Bus Riders Union to Bus Rapid Transit: Race, Class, and Transit Infrastructure in Los Angeles

In episode four of the much maligned season two of True Detective, writer Nic Pizzolatto made an odd […]

Who Were the Monte Boys?

“Law And Order Monte Boys Style” is the title of a chapter in one of the more recent […]

The Light Rail Conundrum from Los Angeles to Atlanta: LRT in the 21st Century

In a recent study examining the efficacy of light rail (LRT) and modern bus rapid transit (BRT), University […]

Educating Compton: Race, Taxes, and Schools in Southern California’s Most Notorious Suburb

[For more on Compton and its complex demographic change see an earlier ToM piece, “Compton as the Bellwether […]

The Gonzo Vision of Lana Del Rey

I do not know for a fact that Lizzy Grant, the canny songwriter behind Lana Del Rey, secretly […]