Checks and Balance: California reality
Checks and Balance from The Economist
The Economist
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 10 June 2022
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Golden State, it is often said, is where the future happens first. Now Los Angeles, long a bastion of the left, is seriously contemplating choosing a billionaire former Republican as its next mayor. Voters are fed up with homelessness and crime and are threatening to follow San Francisco’s example and recall progressive public prosecutors who had promised to reimagine public safety. Is California revealing the limits of progressive politics?
The mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, reflects on his city’s progress and challenges as he leaves office. We head to the campaign trail to meet the candidates vying to replace him. And Fernando Guerra of Loyola Marymount University explains what California’s example means for the rest of the country.
John Prideaux hosts with Charlotte Howard and Aryn Braun.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Whether you're driving to work, cycling to a friend's place, |
| 0:03.2 | or on the way to your next holiday, |
| 0:05.0 | Amazon Music has your news-fix covered. |
| 0:07.9 | As an Amazon Prime member, |
| 0:09.5 | you have access to ad-free top podcasts. |
| 0:12.3 | To start listening, download the Amazon Music app |
| 0:15.1 | or visit amazon.co.uk-slash-on-the-go-news. |
| 0:18.7 | That's amazon.co.uk-slash-on-the-go-news |
| 0:22.0 | and listen to your favourite podcasts on the go. |
| 0:30.9 | In the middle of the sprawl and gridlock of Los Angeles, |
| 0:34.3 | sits what looks like an idyllic European town centre. |
| 0:38.2 | A fountain dances in the main square, |
| 0:40.7 | people sit in cafes to watch the joggers and dog walkers go by, |
| 0:44.3 | and an old-timey trolley carries visitors down the boulevard. |
| 0:48.0 | The street and its inhabitants are immaculate, |
| 0:50.5 | happy, healthy, wealthy, and clean. |
| 0:55.1 | This is the Grove shopping mall, |
| 0:57.1 | half a million square feet of prime retail space, |
| 0:59.6 | a love letter to Californian commercial prosperity. |
| 1:03.6 | Joan Didian, who dreamed of opening a shopping mall herself, |
| 1:06.9 | once described such places as toy garden cities |
| 1:10.4 | in which no one lives but everyone consumes, |
... |
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