The City at Stake: Secession, Reform, and the Battle for Los Angeles

The City at Stake tells the dramatic story of how the nation's second-largest city completed a major reform of its government in the face of a deeply threatening movement for secession by the San Fernando Valley. How did Los Angeles, a diverse city with an image of unstructured politics and fragmented government, find a way to unify itself around a controversial set of reforms?


Los Angeles government nearly collapsed in political bickering over charter reform, which generated the remarkabl...