Happy 10th Birthday, Zócalo, Unlikely Child of Passion. How did a happy loner become the host of L.A.’s public square? Publisher and founding director Gregory Rodriguez tells us the story of how Zócalo got started.
Thanks, UCLA, For Jackie and Rachel Robinson. Before Jackie Robinson’s fame with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he had a short yet significant stint at UCLA , writes NPR’s Weekend Edition host Scott Simon. It was also on UCLA’s campus that he met the future Mrs. Jackie Robinson.
L.A. Only Looks Ugly. “Los Angeles is a city of architects but not a city of architecture—not public architecture, anyway,” writes Greg Goldin, curator at the A+D Architecture and Design Museum >Los Angeles. Still, while the public architecture is mediocre, the city is also remarkably dynamic in adapting its structures to new uses. Goldin writes, “Without this percolating, mutable, and, yes, frustrating form, Los Angeles would be a city with less visual clutter—and a far duller place.”
Face It, People: Kamala Harris Is Hot. Last week when President Obama called Kamala Harris our “best-looking attorney general,” he was deemed a sexist by pundits and called Harris to apologize. But in California politics, being good-looking is most of the job, argues California Editor Joe Mathews.
Michael Cieply in the Green Room. Before participating in a panel on infotainment and the future of journalism, Michael Cieply, Hollywood correspondent for The New York Times, reveals what’s on his nightstand, the best movie he ever made, and the theme song to his life.
The Powers That Don’t Be. Last Monday night at The RAND Corporation, former Foreign Policy editor-in-chief and World Bank executive director Moisés Naím explained why power is decaying and why it’s easier to get, harder to use, and easier to lose.
Next week …
A professor explains why he let his students cheat on an exam.
On Monday, billionaire Mort Mandel visits Zócalo to discuss what sort of leadership could get our institutions not only working again, but working well.
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