The public library in places such as Evanston and Northbrook, IL or Bethesda and Silver Spring, MD (to talk about the D.C. suburbs) are funded in much the same way as L.A. suburban libraries. But they are around 1000 times better. It's not the financing, it is the local political system and the endless propaganda about how taxes are too high. Plus, there is a certain lack of involvement by local citizens in California.

As to the Disney Hall, although certainly there were very large private donations (thank you Disneys and Mr. Broad) L.A. County paid for a very large hunk of the construction via various subsidies and has now taken the Hall over because it was about to go under.

As to airports, you are right--L.A. does not get even close to its fair share of federal money. But, a large part of the problem is the desire of the City to use LAX to give big bucks to favored contractors/contributors to campaigns (al la Chicago) and, again, the lack of citizen oversight. Admittedly, the system of governance for LAX has been set up to be tough for citizens to understand or do anything about.