To ask what kind of city Los Angeles is today is, also, to wonder what kind of city it could be tomorrow.
David Helps
David Helps is a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan and a historian of policing, politics, race, and global cities. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Metropole, and other publications. 
The Police: Gentrification’s Shock Troops
In Detroit today, politicians promise that real estate development—coupled with police violence—will guarantee the city’s spiritual redemption.