There's a lot to say about this book! It is a somewhat left-leaning history of Los Angeles that was written in 1990, and is split into eight sections (counting the prologue): The story of socialist suburb Llano del Rio; the history of LA's dueling narratives as epitomizing either the American dream or a futuristic dystopia; history of LA's regional political and economic elites; the political rise of the Homeowners; the rise of police state architecture; the story of the LAPD's war on poor and brown people; the history of LA's Catholic Diocese; and finally, Fontana.
City of Quartz has aged pretty well. It puts events just a few years later, such as the Rodney King Riots and even the OJ phenomenon in perspective, and it even illuminates our current economic and political difficulties (especially the real-estate feeding frenzy crisis). The in-depth cultural and historical commentary (and the footnotes) reminded me of Infinite Jest.