25 years ago in reason
"The simple truth is that there is a drastic housing shortage-a shortage deliberately created by the increasingly severe obstacles to growth imposed by all levels of government. The panoply of zoning restrictions, environmental reviews, building fees (exceeding $20,000 per home on the average in many places), and other planning regulations has come to act as a hidden tax on homebuyers and as a penalty for prosperity."
-Steven Hayward, "The Growth Brokers"
"Many ignore the power of the real L.A. because it violates their conventional view, which remains that of 'Tinseltown.' Los Angeles-based reporters for eastern media, for instance, are often hounded into churning out fluff pieces about the entertainment industry and the usual array of 'California nut' stories. The idea that Los Angeles should be covered as a major, perhaps the major, economic center of the continent is regarded as too absurd to even consider."
-Joel Kotkin, "Miracle By Default: Why the City of Angels Works"
-August/September 1989