Reports on declining hygenic conditions in Los Angeles including booming rat and flea populations fed by uncollected garbage are creating conditions favorable for an outbreak of bubonic plague (archived). Los Angeles has already recently suffered an outbreak of typhus, another disease whose spread is readily preventable through a committment to hygiene.

While much popular attention has focused on declining quality of life and eroding preconditions for civilized life in former US industrial centers, the ever popular California by all appearances is leading the pack in the US reverse development race.