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Leisure activities, including place‐based food experiences, have become central to defining urban identities and branding places. Mobile and affluent urbanites' search for authentic and cosmopolitan experiences is increasingly guided by corporate digital media such as apps and websites that direct them to previously ignored working‐class, ethnic and immigrant neighborhoods, which are being discursively and materially reconfigured to meet their needs, in turn causing the displacement of long‐time residents. We examine the relationship between food and gentrification through the lens of digital media, suggesting that they play an important role in shaping urban experiences and cities. Specifically, we investigate narratives produced by popular digital food media, not least websites and apps providing restaurant ratings and reviews, and their relationship to ongoing patterns of gentrification in Buenos Aires, Los Angeles and Paris. Using mixed methods that combine census data with 'hybrid fieldwork' in online and offline foodscapes, we identify some spatial patterns and key characteristics of food‐driven gentrification, highlighting the aestheticization of everyday life and its significance in encouraging and legitimizing planetary gentrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to safe and affordable financial services is essential to the economic well‐being of individual households and entire urban neighborhoods. However, prior research raises concerns about spatial inequities in the distribution of brick‐and‐mortar financial services offerings—either mainstream financial institutions or alternative 'fringe' financial service providers—and the resulting implications for financial inclusion and social justice. This study uses a novel method to identify fringe financial ecologies that captures the recent tandem processes of abandonment by mainstream financial institutions and the proliferation of alternative financial service providers. We explore how fringe financial ecologies potentially overlap existing inequalities of race, class and subprime mortgage lending in two US metropolitan areas, Los Angeles, California, and Miami, Florida. Our results raise concerns that communities of color, low‐income neighborhoods and otherwise vulnerable segments of the population are disproportionately at risk of both financial exclusion and predatory targeting. We find that fringe financial ecologies are associated with a high prevalence of subprime mortgage lending. The results advance an understanding of financial ecologies that raises awareness about place‐based financial exclusion as a form of systemic racism in the broader context of the national reckoning with racial justice in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in retail seafood sales increased dramatically with the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The diversity of species, types of products, product forms, and packaging of the seafood sold at retail, combined with diverse consumer preferences across the United States, requires detailed data and analysis to provide guidance and understanding of emerging trends. Weekly, store‐based, Nielsen Scantrack data for the period of September 2016 through August 2021 were used to compare trends in US retail (supermarket) seafood sales across the 5‐year study period, in continental regions, cities, and species categories sold. Results showed continuous increases in retail seafood sales over the study period at an average annual growth rate of 8.1%, much of which was fueled by the 21% increase in total sales (19.5% increase in quantity sold) the first year after the onset of the pandemic. The South Atlantic region was found to have the greatest total sales and sales per capita among regions. New York City had the greatest total seafood sales, followed by Los Angeles and Philadelphia. The top five most important species categories in terms of sales were, in declining order, shrimp, salmon, tuna, crab, and tilapia, although regional variability became apparent from the fourth‐ranked species. The most important package sizes were 454‐ and 907‐g packs. Frozen and refrigerated categories dominated sales (70% in 2021), with little growth in entrées and a decline in market share of shelf‐stable seafood products in 2021. Retail supermarket seafood sales increased dramatically following the onset of the pandemic, with especially notable percentage increases in lobster (77%) and crab sales (70%) and the lowest percentage increases in tuna (1%) and tilapia (13%). Given that US per capita seafood consumption did not show a corresponding increase over the study period, study results likely indicate a shift to greater relative consumption at home and not an overall increase in US seafood sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019, Los Angeles, California's City Hall was reported to be infested with rats. LA's pest control contractor later drew a link between this rat problem and nearby encampments of unhoused residents. I use these connected cases of homelessness and rat control in Los Angeles to investigate the spatial and symbolic logics that guide urban social processes. Using computational and qualitative text analysis, interviews, and participant observation, I argue that rats and homelessness are issues tied to the proper place of nature in cities. While urban nature is central to the aspirational goals of urbanization, where institutions craft a desirable, recognizably urban life, I argue that managing it means not just introducing "good" nature (parks, street trees, etc.) to cities, but also keeping "bad" nature at bay. Practically, this entails guarding public faith in the boundary between "indoors" and "outdoors." Homelessness and rat infestations present challenges to this goal because they represent inverse spatial transgressions of the indoors/outdoors divide. Rats bring the outdoors inside, compromising safety and security. Homeless encampments, meanwhile, represent domestic, indoor life spilling over into the outdoors. City institutions materially maintain the indoors/outdoors divide and symbolically attend to it by removing meaningful indications of these spatial transgressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID‐19 lockdowns caused significant improvements in air quality in US states where traffic emissions are the main pollution source. In this study, we investigate the socioeconomic impacts of the COVID‐19‐related lockdowns in states which experienced the greatest changes in air quality, especially among different demographic populations and those with contraindications to health. We administered a 47‐question survey and collected 1,000 valid responses in these cities. Our results show that 74% of respondents within our survey sample had some level of concern regarding air quality. In agreement with previous literature, perceptions of air quality were not significantly correlated with measured air quality criteria but rather seemed to be influenced by other factors. Respondents in Los Angeles were the most concerned about air quality followed by Miami, San Francisco, and New York City. However, those from Chicago and Tampa Bay expressed the least amount of concern about air quality. Age, education, and ethnicity were all factors affecting peoples' concerns about air quality. Respiratory conditions, living in proximity to industrial areas, and financial impacts from the COVID‐19 lockdowns influenced concerns about air quality. About 40% of the survey sample reported greater concern for air quality during the pandemic, while approximately 50% stated that the lockdown didn't affect their perception. Furthermore, respondents seemed concerned about air quality in general, not a specific pollutant, and are willing to adopt additional measures and more stringent policies to improve air quality in all investigated cities. Plain Language Summary: COVID‐19 lockdowns caused significant improvements in air quality in US states where traffic emissions are the main pollution source. In this study, we investigated the socioeconomic impacts of the COVID‐19‐related lockdowns in states which experienced the greatest changes in air quality, especially among different demographic populations and those with contraindications to health. We administered a 47‐question survey and collected 1,000 valid responses in these cities. Our results show that 74% of respondents within our survey sample had some level of concern regarding air quality. In agreement with previous literature, perceptions of air quality were not significantly correlated with measured air quality criteria but rather seemed to be influenced by other factors. Respondents in Los Angeles were the most concerned about air quality followed by Miami, San Francisco, and New York City. Those from Chicago and Tampa Bay expressed the least amount of concerns. Age, education, and ethnicity were all factors affecting peoples' concerns about air quality. Respiratory conditions, living in proximity to industrial areas, and financial impacts from the COVID‐19 lockdowns influenced concerns about air quality. Respondents seemed concerned about air quality in general, not a specific pollutant, and are willing to adopt additional measures to improve air quality. Key Points: Most survey respondents (74%) were concerned about air qualityAge, education, and ethnicity were factors that affected peoples' concerns about air qualityRespiratory conditions, living near industrial areas, and financial status impacted perceptions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging literature on multinational migration highlights migratory journeys that involve more than one country of destination. This article focuses on the lived experiences of new Chinese and Indian migrants in Singapore and Los Angeles. We conduct a novel three‐way comparison to examine personal choices to engage in additional migration(s) and to consider the reasons behind such moves. Drawing on in‐depth interviews and analyses of policy documents, we find that new, especially skilled, migrants from China and India actively participate in multinational migration. However, variations exist between these two national origin groups and between the two global cities. Factors affecting decisions about whether and where to further migrate include immigration policy of the host country, job opportunities, homeland economic development, and migration networks. Singapore regulates migrants' long‐term settlement more tightly than does the United States; thus, migrants in the former are more likely than the latter to move onward to another country. Due to a more robust economy in the homeland, Chinese migrants are more likely to return and are thus less likely to migrate to a third country than their Indian counterparts. Job opportunities and migration networks also have strong effects on personal decisions concerning additional migration(s). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban metabolism provides a framework to understand resource flows into cities and waste flows out. Its potential has been hampered by the lack of good disaggregated data. This article presents energy-use findings for the residential sector for the city of Los Angeles based on census-block-level aggregation of address-level electricity use obtained from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. City or county billing data by customer class over time can enable empirical tracking of energy conservation and efficiency programs by different customer classes, and matched to census information and county tax assessor data about building vintage, size, and type can provide information important for rate setting, for example, or energy conservation and efficiency program investments. We report on median electricity demand and corresponding greenhouse gas emissions and expenditures at three geographical aggregations: city council district (15 in total); neighborhood (114 in total); and census block group (2,538 in total). We find that the ratio of median annual demand between highest- and lowest-tier users is 26 at the census-block group level, but only 2.2 at the city council district level, demonstrating that spatial aggregation significantly masks the degree of variation that may be observed. We also show how such data can enable the description of energy to develop energy disclosure thresholds that reflect a city's morphology. In contrast to New York City's 50,000-square-foot reporting threshold, to capture half of Los Angeles' electricity consumption, the threshold for reporting would have to be 5,000 square feet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With faith in government waning, cultural diversity spiraling, and fiscal stress straining the ability of policy makers to address the policy challenges accompanying these developments, the salience of (re)connecting citizens with government takes on renewed urgency today. Nowhere is this more the case than in urban America, where so-called global cities teeming with ethnic diversity and controlling a disproportionate amount of global business in the world economy confront profound citizen participation challenges, choices, and opportunities. In this installment of Theory to Practice, the authors cull lessons from their 10-year action theory-based assessment and participation in the city of Los Angeles' neighborhood council experience. Comparing and contrasting their findings in this global city with those from related studies on participatory mechanisms and deliberative processes more generally, they offer six lessons for those seeking to build stronger democracy in urban areas, argue that further advances require a greater research focus on the longitudinal implementation of these efforts rather than just on their design, and contend that university researchers have a role to play in these efforts as long as they appreciate the paradoxical nature of their participation. Expert e-commentary by Brian Cook of Virginia Tech, Tina Nabatchi of Syracuse University, and John Thomas of Georgia State University on the perspectives and arguments culled from Los Angeles' theory-based participatory efforts can be found on the PAR website (go to aspanet.org, click on the link to PAR, and then on the Theory to Practice link). These e-commentaries are accompanied by the authors' response and instructions on how PAR readers can join the exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adage that Los Angeles, California was a number of suburbs in search of a city may have been a somewhat accurate, though an overly simplistic, description of the spatially dispersed metropolis that seemed to be thumbing its nose at the model of successive concentric zones of urban land use established by the urban ecologists of the Chicago School. Faced with the historic fact that Los Angeles was a hispanic city that predated the intrusion of North American capitalism, Anglo LA sought to create its own centre. While the Anglo Central Business District was seeking a new centre in Pershing Square following the North American conquest, the Plaza fell into disrepair, being used as the site for the city reservoir and then as a wholesale fruit and vegetable market. A revitalized park depends on getting rid of the street people or, according to researcher David Houk of the Pershing Square Property Owners Association, getting nicely dressed people to come into the park and outnumber them. To these ends, a performance area and food and retail operations, which cater to a nicely dressed clientele are proposed.

The article focuses on the conference "A New Urban and Regional Hierarchy? Impacts of Modernization, Restructuring and the End of Bipolarity," held in Los Angeles, California in April 1992. This conference was sponsored by Research Committee 21 of the International Sociological Association in cooperation with the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and the Comparative Social Analysis Program of UCLA. It was co-organized by professors Susan Fainstein and Ivan Szelenyi, and its aim was to examine whether there is a new urban and regional hierarchy. The main theme was the urban impact of third world modernization, global economic restructuring and the end of political bipolarity with the collapse of eastern European communism. Panels on these three trends tended to be segregated, with separate discussions of changes in Eastern Europe, Latin America and East Asia. The systems approach characterizing global cities perspectives, in which specialization in multinational service industries or corporate command looms so large, flirts with functionalism.