I'll disagree with about 1/2 of Todd's comments...yes, the Newport-Inglewood and Santa Monica faults have low slip rates (1 or 2 mm/yr, compared to 34 mm/yr on central San Andreas fault. But, the faults in the Mojave desert that produced the Landers and Hector Mines M7+ quakes also have low slip rates. It is incorrect to say that they will not fail soon, just because, on the average, the Santa Monica fault may only fail every few thousand years (Dolan et al., 2000)....While the Santa Monica fault has not broken in recorded history, I think it has broken within 10,000 years, so is legally and "active" fault. The Newport-Inglewood failed in 1933.

next....towards the west the GPS contraction is indeed most rapid across Ventura basin...but farther east, it is squeezing fastest near and just north of downtown L.A....so blind thrust earthquakes are just as likely under LA as elsewhere (I posted quite a bit on this a month or 2 ago...). And, there are other active faults in LA area...like the Whittier and the Palos Verdes right-lateral strike-slip faults.
Chris