Which Way, L.A.?

23 years ago, the fires of the Rodney King riots were burning and the sirens wailing when KCRW first asked, WWLA? We've been through fires, floods, earthquakes and massive social, cultural and economic change. While this is the last program titled WWLA? the question still needs to be asked. We talk with a group of important and thoughtful people about what LA has become and about the challenges to be faced in the future…as we continue.

Urban planners got some bad news today. Ridership on public transit in Southern California is on the decline, despite the billions being spent in recent years to build light rail and subway lines. Why aren't more drivers leaving their cars at home, as traffic gets more congested than ever? Meantime, there's a shortage of money to repair aging roads, bridges and other parts of the infrastructure. We look at the impact on the state's economy.

Porter Ranch and Vernon are mirror images of each other. In one, schools have been closed and thousands of residents are being moved away by the polluter—just months after a natural gas leak was discovered. In the other, residents complained for years about health risks to school children from exposure to lead and arsenic from a battery recycling plant— until the federal government finally stepped in.

Video of police misconduct wasn’t as common 25 years ago as it is today. The spectacle of LAPD officers beating Rodney King was a wake-up call, but didn’t persuade a jury in Simi Valley. When the cops received not-guilty verdicts, the city exploded. We hear from veteran officers who say they’ve changed. What about their tactics? Have they gained the trust of marginalized communities and people of color?

In the 23 years Which Way, LA? has been on the air, there have been five mayors of Los Angeles: Tom Bradley, Richard Riordan, James Hahn, Antonio Villaraigosa and Eric Garcetti. Each has served at a different moment in a process of continual change.

The City of Los Angeles will pay $24 million for the wrongful murder convictions of two men who spent years of their lives in prison because of proven misconduct by the LAPD. The City Attorney says going to court would cost even more.

The Ahwahnee Hotel is about to become the Majestic Yosemite; The Wawona will be known as the Big Trees Lodge. Names that go back generations are being changed because of a trademark dispute between the National Park Service and a New York concessionaire that failed to renew its contract. Outraged residents and visitors are asking how that can happen

WWLA? began its 23-year run in the wake of an incident so complex we still haven’t decided what to call it.  The Rodney King 'riots?" The "uprising?" The "civil disturbance?"  As WWLA? winds down, we look back and measuring what’s changed and what hasn’t.  One major component was race relations. Have we learned, as Rodney King famously put it, to “just get along?”  As always, that question has many different answers. 

LA County District Attorney Jackie Lacey faces no credible challenger yet in this year's bid for re-election, but she is facing increased political pressure. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck wants her to file charges against one of his own officers in a controversial killing — an action he's never taken before. Political activists are waiting for her decision.

The NFL says the St. Louis Rams are coming to Inglewood — back to the massive Los Angeles TV market they left 21 years ago. Skeptics say team owners can't be trusted, but boosters insist this time is different. What will it mean for the taxpayers of Inglewood — if it doesn't turn out to be another broken promise?

The California Teachers Association has been called an obstacle to education reform in Sacramento. Now, the US Supreme Court is poised to reduce its power. The case is about union fees and First Amendment rights, but the decision could be a blow to unionized police officers, fire fighters and other public workers all over the country.

The first of this year's El Niño storms were only a test, and Southern California is braced for another onslaught of mudslides, potholes, flooded freeways and basements and mountains of trash swept out into the ocean. We get updates and look at what's next. 

Mudslides, floods and road-closings have been predicted for weeks — and so has the plight of 29,000 homeless people who sleep on the streets of Los Angeles County. But today, the Civil Grand Jury called preparations "unconscionable and grossly inadequate." We get a response from local officials and update efforts to keep vulnerable people alive — including those who are mentally ill.

Last year, for the first time in more than a decade, all categories of crime in Los Angeles increased over the year before. Homicides went up by 10% to 280. That's a tragedy for the people directly involved — and for the community. But consider that in 1992 there were almost four times as many murders — 1,092. We look at the rise in crime in the context of city history.

The continuing gas leak that's moving thousands of families out of their homes is an ecological disaster of national proportion. It constitutes 21% of the state's methane emissions and 2.3% of its entire carbon footprint. Now it turns out that Southern California Gas Company removed a safety valve that could have stopped the leaking from pipes it knew were not just decades old but likely to have been corroded.

New FAA rules might require you to register your drone before you fly it, and there are several regulations here in California about where these airborne overlords can go. But Sacramento and the FAA aren't exactly on the same page. Guest host Barbara Bogaev tries to make sense of the territorial dispute in the skies.

The state legislature is in recess now, but come the New Year they'll tackle a raft of big divisive issues, and face-off with Governor Jerry Brown in a new climate of shifting power dynamics. We get a preview of the year ahead and take stock of 2015. 

"A new generation of hyper-luxury homes with stratospheric price tags is colonizing the most gilded hillsides and canyons of Los Angeles." That's according to the New York Times, in a series about shell companies that hide the real ownership of such properties--not just from celebrity hounds but local and international law enforcement. We hear about the "Starship Enterprise" and other monstrosities in Bel-Air and around the country.

A medical school with a difference is planned for Southern California by Kaiser, the managed care system that runs hospitals and provides health insurance. The goal is hands-on experience for doctors trained to practice in systems of what's called "coordinated care." With the emphasis on new technology and cutting costs, does a doctor's "bedside manner" still have a future?

At the Climate Change Summit in Paris, the major players insisted that reductions in greenhouse emissions be voluntary. The City of San Diego has taken a big step further. It has established mandatory deadlines — enforceable by law — including 100% renewable energy generation by 2035. Los Angeles and other cities will have to get in line.

Ten years ago, the Port of Los Angeles signed a court-ordered agreement to reduce air pollution at a massive new terminal.But Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told the port director to be "flexible," and she was -- and the new rules were not put into effect. Last year, Mayor Eric Garcetti appointed a new port director to set things right. 

Almost 700,000 students in America's second largest school district were told to stay home today -- when almost 1000 schools were closed because of a terrorist threat deemed "credible" by Superintendent Ramon Cortines.  

The Directors Guild has taken its first official look at Hollywood and found a bastion of discrimination — especially when it comes to women. In the past two years, 82% of feature films, big and small, were directed by white males — with women in charge just 6% of the time. We hear about efforts to penetrate legendary secrecy and diversify an industry where choices are notoriously subjective.

What are predicted to be the strongest El Niño-generated storms on record are only weeks away and FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, says it's time to get ready. Local officials are taking their own measures.

Today, the US Supreme Court was asked once again to consider banning affirmative action in admissions to public colleges and universities nationwide. California is already there. It's been a laboratory for eliminating race-based admissions since Prop 209 was passed by the voters in 1996.