Directly democratic metropolitan government: Envisioning beyond oppression, rebellion and reform

As a teacher of community organizing at the UCLA School of Social Welfare in the 1970s, Professor Warren Haggstrom articulated an engaging view of Los Angeles as a polity. He once said, "Los Angeles can be understood best as an under-developed city -- complex in the sense that large dinosaurs were complex -- without being adequately guided by its own ideas." That was several decades ago, but the comparison is still apt.