The city at stake : secession, reform, and battle for Los Angeles / with a new afterword by the author, Raphael J. Sonenshein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sonenshein, Raphael.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Secession--California--Los Angeles County.

Secession.

Secession--California--Los Angeles.

Los Angeles (Calif.)--Politics and government.

Los Angeles (Calif.).

Los Angeles County (Calif.)--Politics and government.

Los Angeles County (Calif.).

Los Angeles (Calif.)--Charters.

Los Angeles (Calif.)--Race relations.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (343 p.)

Edition:

With a New afterword by the author

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey ; Oxfordshire, England : Princeton University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The City at Stake tells the dramatic story of how the nation's second-largest city completed a major reform of its government in the face of a deeply threatening movement for secession by the San Fernando Valley. How did Los Angeles, a diverse city with an image of unstructured politics and fragmented government, find a way to unify itself around a controversial set of reforms? Los Angeles government nearly collapsed in political bickering over charter reform, which generated the remarkable phenomenon of two competing charter reform commissions. Out of this nearly impossible tangle, reformers managed to knit a new city charter that greatly expanded institutions for citizen participation and addressed long-standing weaknesses in the role of the mayor. The new charter, pursued by a Republican mayor, won its greatest support from liberal whites who had long favored reform measures. Written by an urban scholar who played a key role in the charter reform process, the book offers both a theoretical perspective on the process of institutional reform in an age of diversity, and a firsthand, inside-the-box look at how major reform works. The new afterword by the author analyzes the 2005 election of Los Angeles's first modern Latino mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, a milestone in the development of urban reform coalitions in an age of immigration and ethnic diversity.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Maps

Tables

Preface: REFORM UNDER THE GUN

Acknowledgments

PART ONE. The Dynamics of Urban Reform

PART TWO. The Roots of Los Angeles Charter Reform

PART THREE. The Battle over the Charter

PART FOUR. The Unified Charter

PART FIVE. The Battle over Secession

PART SIX. The Future of Urban Reform

Appendices

Bibliography

Afterword: Reform, Diversity, and the 2005 Election of Antonio Villaraigosa

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691115900

0691115907

9781400849642

1400849640

OCLC:

880236710