Jackson Cantrell

If nature calls while commuting on a bus or train in LA County, finding a public bathroom can be difficult - only three exist in the whole system. So when the agency partnered with Maryland-based Throne Labs to install three brand new high-tech portable bathrooms in October, you'd think the public would shower them with gratitude. That's not exactly what's happened.

Carol Menke is one of just 222 people who live in Vernon, a five-square-mile city just south of Downtown LA. Despite its tiny population, she says the city doesn't exactly have a small town feel. "You're likely to walk out in the middle of the street and get run over by a truck - and I mean an 18-wheeler, not a little truck." Some 45,000 to 50,000 people commute into Vernon every day. It's home to factories, railyards, sprawling electrical substations and meatpacking facilities.

The landlocked Southeast LA County city of Downey is known for airplane production and the Apollo space program. Now, just a few steps away from the Columbia Memorial Space Center, the city is home to one giant leap for prawn farming. In an old warehouse that once held an airplane parts factory, TransparentSea Farm produces nearly 1 million bratwurst-sized prawns a year - while using about the same amount of water as a typical American family.