How would you rewrite History?

Make a pivotal moment in the last century and rewrite it your way. What if Donald Turnupseed hadn’t turned left onto Highway 41 in 1955, thereby never slamming into James Dean’s Porsche? Or if William Mulholland had never heard of a place called Owens Valley? Or. . .

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Richard Riordan, mayor

I would erase the civil unrest of 1992. It was a dark moment in Southern California history and a sad time for all Angelenos. We are a strong, cohesive community. Our diversity is our strength--no matter our skin color or our ZIP Code, we share common goals: good education for our kids, access to jobs, opportunities for a better life and safe communities. That is the way I like to think of Los Angeles.

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Julia Child, chef

The dismantling of our great street car systems, the Big Red Cars going all the way from Pasadena to the coast. Had that line and that access to the city still been in existence, the whole growth of Southern California would have followed it, and the map would now be almost unimaginably different.

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Julius Shulman, architectural photographer

What if our early civic leaders and developers had heeded admonishments and created a statewide greenbelt program? We have shoulder-to-shoulder tract houses and the attendant automobile congestion instead of a parklike environment of trees and landscaping. Now, in Ventura County, the devastation of our precious land continues.