How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Chinatown.
Quote #4
YELBURTON: Wait—please sit down, Mr. Gittes. We're... well, we're not anxious for this to get around, but we have been diverting a little water to irrigate orange groves in the northwest valley. As you know, the farmers there have no legal right to our water, and since the drought we've had to cut them off—the city comes first, naturally. But, well, we've been trying to help some of them out, keep them from going under. Naturally when you divert water—you get a little runoff.
Like Bagby's speech, this is something that sounds perfectly reasonable and compassionate. But it's empty rhetoric masking the truth, which is that they're actually stealing the water and terrorizing the farmers—not irrigating their land.
Quote #5
GITTES: A memorial service was held at the Mar Vista Inn today for Jasper Lamar Crabb. He passed away two weeks ago.
EVELYN: Why is that unusual?
GITTES: He passed away two weeks ago and one week ago he bought the land. That's unusual.
Jake discovers that Noah's been covering his tracks by purchasing land under the names of retirement home residents and dead people, and moving the water there. It's pure manipulation.
Quote #6
CROSS: Either you bring the water to L.A. or you bring L.A. to the water.
GITTES: How you gonna do that?
CROSS: By incorporating the valley into the city. Simple as that.
Cross originally owned the water company until it was made public. Now, he reverses that state of affairs, stealing the water and bringing it onto his own lands so he can then sell it back to the city.