The view from 30,000 feet

Irvine senior fellow, New America Foundation

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"At night it's a science-fiction wonderland. It feels like some huge, endless, lit-up computer grid with all kinds of magical possibilities. I also think that what you see out the window reflects you and your state of mind. You ask yourself: 'Am I really ready for this?' "

— Tim Street-Porter

photographer

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"When the captain yells out, 'Final descent,' the first thing I do is push the shade up and take a look. I'm always glad to be home. Then I look for the Compton courthouse. When I see that building — which I have been to so many times — then I know where everything else is. That's my landmark. I look for Staples Center and downtown. I check out the traffic on the 405.

"When you're flying over the suburbs, everybody's got a swimming pool. Then the ghetto, as you're getting closer to the airport, you see these blue patches but they're not pools, they're blue tarps for roofs that leak or they're tents for killing termites and roaches, right?

"It's the best city in America and everybody knows it. People come here and they never leave. Some because they're happy here, some because they came chasing a dream and ended up homeless.

"Me, I love it to death."

— The Game

rapper

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"History. Aspirations achieved and thwarted. The commonplace, the place where love and hope is found. I see the only place I know well enough that it matters."

— D.J. Waldie

author

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"Our paean to Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Edison: lighted perimeters of right-angled property, full of people and their stories."