Precursors to Planning

Abstract

From the 1880s to the 1910s, the Los Angeles city council actively regulated street activities and fulfilled requests for street improvements. These divergent but related public interventions were significant planning precursors. The city council categorized, delineated, and regulated street activities and helped to make the rapidly changing city legible. The city had limited interest in the specific activities however. In contrast, travel became the explicit purpose of municipal action, and municipal professionals, most notably engineers, took responsibility for the streets. This article examines the relationship between the efforts in Los Angeles, California to regulate street life and the ways that the streets were created as distinct spaces of mobility.