Today CBC takes another step along the road to news renewal by strengthening its coverage of the United States with an expanded radio television and online bureau in Los Angeles.

For the last decade CBC Radio's Jennifer Westaway has covered the American West from L.A. along with frequent contributions on TV and radio from the ubiquitous freelance journalist Steve Futterman.

Now we are expanding our bureau with an aim to challenge the stereotype that the only newsworthy things in Southern California are forest fires, movie stars, celebrity murders and Michael Jackson.

Admittedly, our new office is in the manufacturing heartland of the cultural imperialists, the tinseliest part of Tinseltown, the intersection where the "Walk of Stars" meets the "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" — Sunset and Vine.

And, yes, around the corner from us is the Kodak Theatre, home to the most famous red carpet in the world and the annual Academy Awards show.

Joan Jackson, left, who claims to be a third cousin of Michael Jackson, and her sister Heloise Mitchell prepare to camp out overnight in line at the L.A. Live complex for tickets for a special showing of the \Joan Jackson, left, who claims to be a third cousin of Michael Jackson, and her sister Heloise Mitchell prepare to camp out overnight in line at the L.A. Live complex for tickets for a special showing of the "Michael Jackson's This Is It" movie in September 2009. (Reuters)

And from across the street you can just make out the famous Hollywood sign that too often has been the foreground for the smoke and flames from the forest fires that have rampaged through the Hollywood Hills.

A different view

But if our only ambitions were to be closer to the forest fires, the movie stars, the celebrities and their criminal trials then it would be, by any measure, a waste of your money.

The truth is, we picked our new neighbourhood mainly because of the roommates. We've moved in with the BBC and Australia's Nine Network, two highly regarded broadcasters whose journalists share with us an outsider's perspective on life in America.

The United States is Canada's closest neighbour, largest trading partner and often the yardstick by which we judge our social, political, industrial and cultural maturity.

It deserves closer attention and greater understanding, particularly because it offers a view of America that is not focused through the prism that is Washington D.C.

California represents an entirely different pole in the American personality and we intend to explore what that means.

Where the future begins

Many have said California is the place where the future begins and they usually mean that in the sunniest way. But the future that California presents is full of dark corners as well.

It is the ninth largest economy in the world and yet the state wobbles on the brink of bankruptcy; Californians are experiencing a steady decline in the services they get for the taxes they pay.

One example: the Department of Motor Vehicles in this car-mad culture is, like other state departments, now closed three Fridays out of four to save money.

Calfornia has such over-crowded prisons that this summer a federal judicial panel told the state to prepare to release about 40,000 inmates back into the community before their time is served.

Protesters picket a foreclosed apartment building in L.A., where four families were evicted in August 2009. California was one of the worst hit states for foreclosures over the past year. (Reuters)Protesters picket a foreclosed apartment building in L.A., where four families were evicted in August 2009. California was one of the worst hit states for foreclosures over the past year. (Reuters)

That wasn't foreseen when California was among the first states to introduce strict three-strikes sentencing legislation in the early 1990s, a law that mandated a long stretch in the slammer for those with three convictions for crimes as minor as simple drug possession.

Lessons here

There are lessons in these experiences.

The battle over same-sex marriage, which has taken place in the courtrooms in most states, is much more a street fight here in California after the court decision in favour of same-sex marriage was overruled by a ballot imitative, Proposition 8, in the 2008 election.

They do democracy very differently here.

Today, the campaign to overturn Proposition 8 in 2012 is already well underway and it seems inevitable that it will become the focal point of the same-sex argument in America.

California surprises us in other ways as well.

For instance, America's influence in the auto world is judged to be vanishing because of the collapse in the manufacturing sector around Michigan (and Southern Ontario).

But the cars of tomorrow are being dreamt up here. The designs of most of the world's best known brands — Toyota, Honda, Ford, BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes and others — are all headquartered in Southern California.

Yes, we'll still keep you up to date on MJ, mudslides, earthquakes and fires. But by this time next year we hope to have told you so much more about this place, which, incidentally, hundreds of thousands of Canadians call home.