Calling on the angels

摘要

For a while, things seemed to be going so well. Crime has been falling for two decades. Race relations have improved. The weather is as fine as ever and the traffic no worse-in fact, there were even plans for expanding public transport that counted as bold in this culture of sprawl and cars. Eli Broad, the city's leading philanthropist, considers it "one of the four cultural capitals of the world" (along with New York, London and Paris) and talks boldly of attracting as many "cultural visitors" as the other three to its museums and theatres.