Future Fact : NEXT L.A.: A look at issues, people and ideas helping to shape the emerging metropolis.

Los Angeles at mid-decade is at a unique place in its history. Demographic and economic shifts dictate a new approach to old problems. These ideas are at the heart of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, a new clearinghouse for research on L.A. The center will mix academic work with archives of a practical nature, including the papers of recently retired State Sen. David Roberti.

“Los Angeles is going through a tremendous change and transition in the 1990s,” said Dr. Fernando J. Guerra, the center’s director and an associate professor of political science and Chicano studies. “We want to make sure these issues are well understood in the future.”