Hot or Not?
An interactive poll in the Autry Museum's "Life, Liberty, and Los Angeles" asks "Has L.A. lived up to your expectations?" The vote recently stood at 5180 to 2937. That's 63.8 percent yes, or +27.6 percent above water. On the one hand, that's more positive than recent news coverage might lead you to expect. On the other hand, the Autry poll samples a self-selected group that has chosen to be in L.A. rather than somewhere else. Both the Autry's and the Huntington's semiquincentennial shows defy Trumpian whitewashing of history. Visitors taking the Autry poll have just been exposed to material on gunslinger lawlessness in 19th century Los Angeles (nicknamed the City of Demons, irony intended); the Chinese Massacre of 1871, which set a record (since exceeded) for a mass lynching; the 1931 raids on Mexican Americans, intended to send them back to Mexico so that native Americans (not that kind) could get jobs; the Zoot Suit riots; insurance redlining...
