Drive the length of Wilshire Boulevard, from downtown to the beach, and you'll come across places that reflect L.A.'s most pressing challenges and greatest ambitions. We picked three stops along the way that capture the city's past, present, and future. First, the E. Clem Wilson Building, the art deco tower on La Brea known for its giant red "hat," to find out how the hat got there and what the building tells us about development and preservation in the city. Plus, a visit to MacArthur Park in the wake of recent DEA raids and the DA's photo-op picnic, to see whether the crackdown on drugs and homelessness is working. And we dig into Metro's own progress reports on the next phases D Line subway extension to find out whether it'll really be ready before the 2028 Olympics -- and whether Los Angeles is really becoming a city that doesn't require a car to cross.

Show notes:

• Wilshire Boulevard, a Main Street that stands apart, by Christopher Hawthorne, friend of the show and writer behind the weekly architecture newsletter Punch List.