Real estate promotion and the shaping of Los Angeles

Real estate promotion was a key ingredient in the growth and shaping of Los Angeles. Regardless of its attributes, Los Angeles as a place had to be promoted and sold. From the 1880s to the 1920s, real estate promoters attracted large numbers of people to the region, but also encouraged the development of distinct neighborhoods segregated by class and ethnicity. As one of many private sector components in the growth machine, the real estate industry helped to create the distinctive patchwork imprinted on the urban landscape, a segregated social geography that continues to amplify problems in modern-day Los Angeles.