Walking South LA - Chris Arnade Walks the World

Hollywood looms over Los Angeles, eclipsing almost everything else. It’s the resplendent thing that shines bright, defining LA as a city of well to do beautiful people posing for cameras. A place where out of touch elites concoct fantasies for the rest of the world. That, however, is one very small part of LA. Go almost anywhere south of I-10 and you find neighborhood after neighborhood of factories, warehouses, and truck depots. Of steel presses, rail-yards, and logistical networks. Of “We’re Hiring!” signs. LA is a manufacturing town, not only of fantasies, but of real things. Like aircraft parts, specialized windows, “forged ground engaging tools”1, sliding glass doors, and many other of the mundane things necessary for our comfortable lives. It’s so manufactur-y that it can now claim, according to those who worry about these things, the title of US’s largest manufacturing center. Move over Rust Belt, LA is now the industrial heartland of the US!2 All the manufacturing and industry

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• Mandy Xu