Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992: Something Cooking Here Summary & Analysis

Smith interviews Otis Chandler, a director of the Times Mirror Company and former editor of the Los Angeles Times. Chandler remarks that there are few families that have had the ability to accumulate wealth generationally. The only examples he can think of are the Kennedys, the Rockefellers, and the Mellons of Pittsburgh. Most wealthy families let their wealth slip away as they become addicted to alcohol or other vices.

Chandler reiterates that he doesn’t want to sound hopeless. However, he maintains that if real change is going to happen, it has to be a long-term commitment: it can’t be a vague promise to implement policy for a couple years and hope society’s deep-seated problems will just go away. Chandler has confidence LA can be a safe city for everyone someday, so long as things don’t return to “business as usual,” and so long as change isn’t confined to lofty speeches. 

Chandler cautions that this situation has happened before. After the Watts riots, the city was absorbed in a fervent desire for change and social progress. And yet, in just two years, all that hope and energy was lost. He bemoans the separation between the federal and state governments and the country’s citizens. Chandler pauses before speculating that change will cost a lot of money and necessitate higher taxes. He anticipates the criticism he’ll hear from people who want that money allocated toward AIDs and health care and education, but he insists that rebuilding the city and enacting change is more important. He starts to say that “if our cities deteriorate into jungle land, which they are now…”  but he trails off before he can finish his thought.