Los Angeles as Seen by the Atlantic

The Atlantic and the Pacific aren’t oceans apart after all.

That’s one way of interpreting this month’s issue of the Atlantic magazine, containing two cover stories totaling 26 pages of text and color photographs on the glory and the grime of Los Angeles.

Among other things, the lead article--”Los Angeles Comes of Age,” by urban affairs specialists Charles Lockwood and Christopher B. Leinberger--proclaims that “Los Angeles might even emerge as the Western Hemisphere’s leading city in the early 21st Century.”

Los Angeles, they say, has evolved in the last 10 years from “a prosperous but provincial regional metropolis” to “America’s true ‘second city’--second only to New York in economic power and cultural influence.”

However, there’s a catch.

Lockwood and Leinberger warn that the city’s overloaded school system, high crime rate, polluted water and air, and clogged freeways--not to mention the ever-present earthquake threat--could obliterate the promises implicit in the city’s economic and cultural growth.

Rating the Mayor

The two also praise Mayor Tom Bradley, saying that “many of the city’s finest recent accomplishments would not have happened without his leadership.” But they go on to assert that “some Angelenos are beginning to believe that Tom Bradley’s effectiveness as a mayor is waning” and that “Bradley has lost influence citywide in the past two years. . . .”

All this is contained behind a cover depicting what might be called the Colossus of Los Angeles--a cigar-smoking gent composed of oranges and green twigs, wearing a Sam Spade fedora and a retro tie emblazoned with a palm tree, striding across the North American continent.

While much of the content may not be news to informed and observant Angelenos, the writers and editors at the Atlantic--a 130-year-old Boston-based institution--apparently believe that their portrait will indeed be eye-opening for the rest of the country, at least that part that reads their magazine.

Co-author Leinberger, who recently moved to Santa Fe from Los Angeles, says that the article is a blow against the “laid-back” image of this city that still is prevalent in the rest of the country, despite the widening gap between perception and reality.

However, astute local readers may find some minor reasons to quibble with what is generally a paean to Southern California. For instance, Mayor Bradley is identified as a three-term mayor--he is now serving his fourth term. And Otis Chandler, publisher of The Los Angeles Times from 1960 to 1980, is identified as the newspaper’s current publisher, a post held by Tom Johnson.

Down the Atlantic Coast in New York, another venerable magazine has been raising a few eyebrows lately.

In its Dec. 28 issue, the New Yorker, perhaps best known for its cartoons and pen and ink drawings, broke from its usual format to print photographs with an article.

According to a spokesperson, reached at the magazine’s largely vacant offices on New Year’s Eve, the last time a photograph graced--or violated--the New Yorker’s pages probably was in 1979 when a portrait accompanied a profile of Louise Brooks by the late Kenneth Tynan. Photos also have appeared with profiles of Cary Grant and Orson Welles, the representative said.

However, the Dec. 28 issue may be the first time the magazine has published more than one photograph with a story, the spokesperson said, noting that three were used.

The cause of this apparently unprecedented move? An article about artists “committing art with insects” by Sue Hubbell. The writer catalogues artists who paint insects on canvas or “use bug parts” in their art in some way.

The New Yorker spokesperson said that the editors apparently believed that such bizarre stuff needed to be illustrated to be understood.

“When you’re talking about silkworms in wooden cases, it’s kind of hard to envision what the artist is trying to do,” she said.

Like its counterpart in Boston, the Dec. 28 New Yorker also contained a California touch--a 28-page advertising insert from the state’s Office of Tourism. It’s reportedly the largest pre-printed insert ever carried by the magazine and features photographs of California’s mountains and shores designed to lure Easterners to the Pacific Rim.

The California insert follows by only a week another extravaganza--of sorts--in the magazine. In the previous issue, the magazine carried a multipage advertisement for a vodka embedded with a microchip that played Christmas carols. That particular ad was so startling it got a mention on the CBS Evening News.

The New Yorker representative said, however, that there is quick relief for readers who hate music and/or California. Because such ads are printed in the center spread, they can be ripped out without damaging the rest of the magazine, she said.