Is Los Angeles a City in Decline?

"Los Angeles is barely treading water while the rest of the world is moving forward." That's the first line of a report on the city called rather ominously, "A Time for Truth." The Los Angeles 2020 Commission, empanelled by City Council President Herb Wesson a year ago to assess the city's economic health, issued its assessment today. The results are pretty depression: because of low wages, nearly 40 percent of Angelinos live in "misery;" we've not kept pace with other cities in job creation; we're strangled by traffic; and our public school system is failing our children. While it's safe to say that many of the conclusions aren't exactly news, they are sobering.