by 
Like
many
older
industrial
towns,
Paramount,
a
mostly
Latino
city
of
50,000
located
18
miles
southeast
of
downtown
Los
Angeles,
has
been
through
hard
times.
In
1981,
the
Rand
Corporation
described
it
as
“an
urban
disaster
area.”
In
2015,
it
was
named
among
the
worst
cities
in
America,
based
on
22
measures
of
affordability,
economics,
education,
health,
and
quality
of
life.
In
2019,
Business
Insider
ranked
it
near
the
bottom
along
with
several
other
nearby
cities.
Founded
as
a
largely
agricultural
community
in
1948,
the
city
eventually
transformed
itself
into
a
manufacturing
hub
but
was
then
devastated
in
the
1980s
as
aerospace
and
car
companies
exited.
Yet
today,
walking
along
Paramount
Boulevard,
one
sees
not
broken-down
storefronts
but
a
thriving
downtown,
full
of
attractive
restaurants
and
shops.
The
city
has
adopted
a
“broken
windows”
approach
to
policing.
While
crime
rates
remain
above
average
for
the
state,
they
have
been
trending
down.
Homicides,
down
two-thirds
from
1990s
levels,
are
well
below
the
L.A.
city
average
and
almost
half
of
those
in
nearby
South
L.A.
neighborhoods.
Paramount
has
also
gotten
its
city
finances
on
a
more
solid
footing
than
those
of
its
peers.
Whereas
L.A.
was
flirting
with
huge
deficits
even
before
the
wildfires,
Paramount
maintained
budget
surpluses
over
the
past
decade.
Perhaps
even
more
remarkable,
one
sees
no
signs
of
the
homelessness,
graffiti,
and
urban
disorder
that’s
so
common
throughout
Southern
California—a
remarkable
shift
from
conditions
just
a
decade
or
two
ago.
“In
places
like
Paramount
people
get
things
done
because
that’s
where
they
live,”
says
former
Paramount
city
manager
Pat
West.
“In
L.A.,
they
have
meetings.”
Much
of
Paramount’s
relative
success
comes
from
paying
attention
to
little
things.
The
city
has
focused
on
parks,
urban
space,
and
landscaping,
helping
local
neighborhoods
improve
their
look
by
subsidizing
flower
beds
and
white
picket
fences
to
improve
the
curb
appeal
of
homes.
Under
its
elected
leadership,
Paramount
has
seen
job
growth
in
the
hospital,
education,
small
industrial,
and
retail
sectors.
The
city’s
income
levels
are
significantly
higher,
and
unemployment
lower,
than
the
L.A.
County
average.
Unlike
the
dysfunctional
L.A.
school
system,
Paramount’s
independent
school
district
has
improved
its
graduation
rate
from
71
percent
to
over
90
percent
in
recent
years,
according
to
city
manager
John
Moreno.
Much
of
this
success
stems
from
the
city’s
strong
community
spirit
and
close
collaboration
between
local
government,
businesses,
and
schools.
Moreno
notes
that
Los
Angeles
operates
in
a
more
“siloed”
manner.
In
contrast,
Paramount’s
tight-knit
community—now
increasingly
led
by
young
families,
many
of
them
homeowners
or
aspiring
to
be—has
driven
its
turnaround.
“We
went
from
a
place
with
shootings
and
murders
to
one
that
attracts
young
families
who
see
this
as
an
up-and-coming
place,”
Moreno
says.
“We
had
a
lot
of
blight,
but
the
citizens
and
churches
brought
it
back.
When
I
go
to
L.A.,
I’m
amazed
they’re
not
doing
these
basic
things.”
The
turnaround
in
Paramount
and
a
host
of
other
South
L.A.
cities
may
seem
like
an
obscure
data
point
in
the
vastness
of
the
Los
Angeles
Basin.
Spreading
1,200
square
miles,
the
basin
encapsulates
an
immense
area
stretching
from
Hollywood
to
Orange
County.
The
area
is
home
to
roughly
10
million
people
and
80
cities,
including
some
of
the
country’s
best-known
locales
like
the
Hollywood
hills,
Santa
Monica,
downtown
Los
Angeles,
Venice,
Koreatown,
and
East
Los
Angeles.
In
the
recent
fires,
several
of
these
communities,
notably
in
the
Pacific
Palisades
and
Hollywood,
went
up
in
flames.
Read
the
rest
of
this
piece
at
City
Journal.
Joel
Kotkin
is
the
author
of
The
Coming
of
Neo-Feudalism:
A
Warning
to
the
Global
Middle
Class.
He
is
the
Roger
Hobbs
Presidential
Fellow
in
Urban
Futures
at
Chapman
University
and
and
directs
the
Center
for
Demographics
and
Policy
there.
He
is
Senior
Research
Fellow
at
the
Civitas
Institute
at
the
University
of
Texas
in
Austin.
Learn
more
at
joelkotkin.com
and
follow
him
on
Twitter
@joelkotkin.
M.
Andrew
Moshier
is
Professor
of
Mathematics
and
Computer
Science
at
Chapman
University,
where
he
recently
served
as
the
Dean
of
the
School
of
Communication.
Photo:
Ken
Lund
via
Flickr,
under
CC
2.0
License.
Go to Source
Author: Joel Kotkin and M. Andrew Moshier
