Overall, reports the real estate brokerage Compass Inc., Los Angeles last year saw more luxury properties selling for over $10 million than any other locale in the United States. As of earlier this month, mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, a billionaire real estate developer, had spent almost $34 million to make the November runoff, over 11 times the outlays of his mayoral rival, U.S. representative Karen Bass, a former South L.A. community organizer. Almost 80 years ago, in 1943, Los Angeles introduced the rest of the United States to the phenomenon of smog.