The story behind Zocalo

Nice piece in Sunday's L.A. Times on the success of Zócalo Public Square and the people behind the discussion forum, led by founder Gregory Rodriguez. From the story by Reed Johnson:

Talk series like his, Rodriguez asserts, are filling a niche left by the shriveling of newspaper op-ed pages, and represent a democratic (small "d") challenge to the corporate-membership men's-club forums of old that served the wealthy and well connected.

"We've benefited from the old models crumbling," says Rodriguez, a Los Angeles Times op-ed columnist; senior fellow with the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy institute headquartered in Washington, D.C.; and author of "Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America." "It's about tenor and tone. Our advantage is that we're on the ground."

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In seven years it has hosted more than 500 speakers at 235 events with push-button titles ("The Curse of Oil," "Is Feminism Transforming the Middle East?"), the majority at roughly two dozen L.A. venues including the Hammer, the Skirball, the Getty Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard's Miracle Mile (the topic: "How Does Better Design Make for Better Health?") and Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang theater in Culver City. Coming up this month: "Can the Internet Stay Free?" with Columbia University law professor Tim Wu.

While screaming matches dominate talk radio and cable TV, Zócalo shuns intellectual bomb-throwing. It recruits speakers across the political spectrum, from the conservative Michael Gerson, former President George W. Bush's chief speechwriter, to the liberal economist Paul Krugman.

LA Observed has been a media sponsor of the Zócalo events since pretty early on.