The answer in Los Angeles is not fewer bars, but more of them; not tighter, costlier regulations, but looser ones; not suspicious neighbors, but friendlier ones.

one of us intended to ignore Bolourchi’s memory or deny the enormity of 9/11. We who braced ourselves to speak against the proposal did not, however, wish to limit our support to the memory of a single soul when sadness still fell all around the nation.