“There’s a lot of chest-thumping about what...

“There’s a lot of chest-thumping about what a world-class ad center Los Angeles is. But I find that laughable. There simply isn’t the resources and professionalism in Los Angeles to the extent that there is in New York.”

--Richard Kelly,

president of the soon to be closed West Coast office of Scali, McCabe, Sloves, a New York advertising firm.

“We’ve taken off our shoes and we’re learning to make tea.”

--a female official at Union Bank in Los Angeles, alluding to concern about what working conditions for women will be like once the bank’s Japanese buyers take over.