A special report on Los Angeles packaged in today's print edition of the U.K.'s Financial Times includes pieces on digital media, art, Antonio Villaraigosa, Hollywood, Downtown, real estate and other topics. L.A. bureau chief Matthew Garrahan sums up in the opener:

It is one of the richest cities in the world, home to billionaires, such as Rupert Murdoch, David Geffen and Eli Broad. Yet the freeway system and public infrastructure are falling apart, the result of years of chronic under investment. It has numerous bus routes and a limited light rail network that connects the downtown area with the San Fernando Valley, Pasadena and Long Beach.

But it lacks a comprehensive subway or mass transit system to connect Santa Monica and the Westside with the rest of the city. With no alternative to traveling by car, gridlock is common.

Gang crime continues to be a problem, despite the best efforts of Bill Bratton, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. The city has world-class higher education establishments, but its state school system is grappling with falling graduation rates and a cash-crunch. With California desperately looking for ways to trim spending amid an economic slowdown, schools are continually threatened with cuts in funding.

There are other drawbacks. Los Angeles is a vast, sprawling city yet it can at times be an insular goldfish bowl, with some residents seemingly unwilling to consider the world beyond the Santa Monica Mountains. There are plenty of internationally minded residents, but a common grumble is that Los Angeles lacks the cultural and intellectual clout of New York.

But there is no denying the growing international status of America’s second largest city.

Mark Lacter of LA Biz Observed contributes the real estate story.