Design and Architecture
Modern Trades, Build Better LA, TOM House
Jobs have left America, but there's growth in new high-tech manufacturing jobs. What are they? How are people being trained for them? First there was the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, now there's the Build Better LA initiative. Why has housing become a ballot box battle? And we visit TOM House in Echo Park, a museum and mecca for LA "leathermen" and admirers of the homoerotic illustrations of Tom of Finland.
By Frances Anderton • • 29m ListenMany manufacturing jobs have left America in recent decades. However, factories have been coming back to the US, but the jobs have changed due to high levels of automation. So what are those jobs and are there enough of them? In the first part of our series called "Modern Trades," we spoke to Kelly Candaele. He’s a writer and filmmaker who served four terms as a Trustee of the LA Community College District. He’s spent many months capturing the stories of the construction workers at the 73-story high Wilshire Grand Center in downtown LA.
Photo: An ironworker at the Wilshire Grand Center (Sandoval Media)
In this episode
3 storiesModern Trades
The United States has reportedly lost more than 4.5 million manufacturing jobs since NAFTA took effect in 1994. Now, factories have been coming back to the US, but the jobs have changed due to high levels of automation. So what are those jobs and are there enough of them?
Read the story10 minBuild Better LA
The Neighborhood Integrity Initiative is a proposed ballot measure that would stop construction of large-scale residential projects requiring a planning amendment or variance. Now there's a competing measure, The Build Better LA initiative, currently in the signature gathering phase.
Read the story6 minTOM House
Robert Mapplethorpe has gone mainstream, with shows of his work now at LACMA and the Getty. But what about the other artist who celebrated hot men in leather? We visit TOM House, the "butch, hippy" community of leathermen and admirers of the homoerotic illustrations of Tom of Finland, now the subject of a new book from Rizzoli Press.
Read the story11 min
