Los Angeles poised for a makeover with US$1.2b bond

New York

LOS Angeles conjures a particular image in the popular imagination: sprawling and spacious, dotted with single-family homes and riddled with traffic. But Angelenos have signalled that they are ready for a change, most recently by voting down a measure that would have slowed new construction for two years.

The effort to slow construction, known as "Measure S" or the "Neighborhood Integrity Initiative", was financed mainly by Michael Weinstein, the president of the Hollywood-based AIDS Health Foundation. Mr Weinstein's office is on the 21st floor of a Hollywood skyscraper with a view of the hills, next to the future site of two 28-storey mixed-use residential towers.