The Soloist Chases an L.A. That Isn't There

I saw The Soloist in a packed Santa Monica theater, and I left the movie oddly depressed. The movie, set in contemporary times, is an anachronism.

It's about a city I never see, Los Angeles, and a newspaper that is disappearing before our very eyes, the L.A. Times. Steve Lopez, the central character played by Robert Downey Jr., is a columnist I rarely read, since I no longer get the paper in print. And Disney Hall, the shiny, Frank Gehry gadget that gets a close-up in the movie, is a place I have yet to visit for a concert.

You can tell me I should get out more, and maybe I should. I'll respond that every time I've faced down the 10 Freeway at rush hour ahead of a concert, the freeway wins.

As we lose our local newspaper, we lose our sense of connectedness. We lose a daily reminder of the diversity of life that is part of Los Angeles, and that moves us to reach beyond the confines our individual experiences.

The movie depressed me because it reminded me of the good that conscientious newspapering can do. How just a few years ago, 800 words -- the right 800 words -- could reach an entire city and move people to action -- a mayor, a city council, a police chief or a principal cellist of the local philharmonic. In the case of Nathaniel Ayers Jr., as the movie tells it, Lopez's column led to a cello, and lessons and a room off the hard streets of L.A.'s skid row.

The movie foreshadows the ongoing fragmentation of the already fragmented city of Angels. Newspapers have always been one of the identifying principles of this city. What was Los Angeles? Whatever the L.A. Times covered.

But the L.A. Times doesn't cover the whole city anymore. And it hasn't been read by the city (whatever that means) for years; its penetration is notoriously low.

And so, the skid row populated by junkies and mentally-disturbed social rejects is not one that has occasion to slide across my radar. Neither do the downtown public schools of L.A.U.S.D. which have inadequate textbooks, inadequate teachers -- if I believe the reports I hear on NPR.

It's increasingly difficult to feel part of this city. Between the Valley, and downtown, and the beach communities and Hollywood, between Koreatown and the West Side and the Persian flavor of Beverly Hills, it is vast and alien and hard to call my own.

Once upon a time it fell to the local newspaper to remind me that I was part of an urban landscape, the second largest in the nation. But it started to lose me several years back when they killed the weekly neighborhood sections that told me about what was happening in my local school district and city council meeting. What was the score of the high school basketball playoffs, and why Bob Scheer was furious at somebody.

I don't know how to get that feeling back. But Steve Lopez, I hope you hang on as long as you can.

Comments

[SILVANUS]

The world was over long ago, hon.

[ThinkinAboutIt]

What, are you new? Los Angeles has always been a fragmented community. While I won't suggest you "get out more" I will say that if you did, you'd recognize the particular neighborhoods that were the backdrop for Mr. Lopez's superior series of articles. It's your title that irks me: ...'Chases an L.A. That Isn't There.' If a tree falls in the city and you don't see it, it's still there.

[Tremonius]

Very apt, I think. I can remember when a friend's mom broke up a game we were playing one summer night so she could be home in time for the Sixty Four Thousand Dollar Question. I thought it peculiar that a local activity could be suspended by somebody far far away over a little black/white box, but that was only the beginning of the age of teevee.

When you lift up your eyes to the hills, from which cometh your help, that's the start. I think that's in the Bible somewhere, or else it's from a description of the voices heard by schizophrenics.

[monkeynumber9]

"And it hasn't been read by the city (whatever that means) for years; its penetration is notoriously low."

While it's true that circulation is down saying that penetration is low is incorrect. The Sunday edition of the LA Times reaches more people in Los Angeles than any other single media source. Not Fox news, not KROQ, not NBC, not KCRW, not LA Weekly, not Los Angeles Magazine, no one gets out to more people in the LA DMA than the LA Times.

Yes, less people read today but it's still powerful.

[PunKinPai]

Please forgive my quibble, but this is a pet peeve and it's becoming rampant: ....FEWER people. Unless you're measuring them by weight, that is.

[NABNYC]

There is a tipping point. Once reached, a city may hover, shakey but still functioning, yet eventually doomed to slip over the other side, to fall, to fail, to descend into the apocalyptic urban nightmare. Think Detroit, Newark. Los Angeles has been at the tipping point for a long time, but recently has tipped over. The deterioration will likely accelerate during these economic hard times.

Los Angeles losts its working-class manufacturing employment base, but kept the former-employees of those industries. There has never been an intelligent urban planning system in place, nor reasonable coordination among neighboring communities, and those who can (Beverly Hills) defect, set up their own separate bunker amidst the failing chaos. Unimaginable wealth surrounded by unbelievable poverty.

Los Angeles is a magnet for the poor illegal immigrants from Mexico who can blend in, hide, find day-labor work and communities of other Spanish-speaking immigrants. Many areas of the city could be Mexico. The social services are overwhelmed, more cars on the road, schools are overburdened, local gangs fight for turf like Bush fought to control other countries, equally brutal and irrational, with deadly consequences.

Sal si puedes (Get out if you can).

[CMLA]

You can kiss our suntaned asses...Jerk.

[grn1]

"Jonah Goldberg is one of the most prominent young conservative journalists on the scene today. His column, syndicated by Tribune Media Services, offers shrewd analysis on a wide range of subjects, from political philosophy and economic trends to popular culture, with an entertaining writing style that speaks to a whole new generation. " BIO
Unfortunately for the people of Los Angeles either this generation hasn't been born yet, the propaganda efforts are not worth paying for, or the consolidated news orgs. have left readers ?????

[neoprimordial]

What about the free papers? Don't they cover a lot of ground in the communities?

[Chernynkaya]

Yes, they do. If it weren't for The Weekly in L.A. we would never hear about the corrupt city council members, the venality of Villaraigosa or any kind of investigative journalism, and I'm grateful for that. But a big city like Los Angeles needs much more than the free papers can produce.

[EllenD]

Not only the lack of investigative journalism but media payoff and toadying lost the L.A. Times for me - and I used to be an enthusiast. When they admitted they had a tape of Obama giving a speech that they thought reflected badly on him and they suppressed it, then they lost me. The new L.A. times is just another bought-and-paid-for media company. I'm looking for individual courage in news in telling the truth, let the chips fall where they may, and there's no newspaper like that left. Maybe The Weekly - but that's only local, not national.