In addition to dealing with natural disasters, Los Angeles has repeatedly had to deal with social and civic unrest over the past 40 years-most recently in 1992, when widespread unrest rattled a region already afflicted with floods, fires, earthquakes, and a recession. The past decade has seen renewed efforts to unify the city and revitalize long-distressed section of central and south-central L.A. But have improvements really been made? And however resilient it may be socially and economically, can Los Angeles remain unified enough politically to continue to function as a single city?