Blogging Social Difference in LA: Week 9

Hello again! I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! Because I ate so much stuffing and pumpkin pie over the weekend, I am spending most of my time at the gym this week so I decided to comment on another one of my classmate’s blogs. The blog post, done by a student named Amy, discussed the way in which she used an online mapping website to look at different neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area. I liked that Amy’s blog included an external source (the map), as the visual aspect supplements and personalizes the blog post. I think that if she directly visited a neighborhood in one of the maps she posted, it would have made the blog post even more personal and added more depth to the analysis portion of her blog posts, which were minimal if not absent. Also, if she visited a location she could have detailed specific aspects of a neighborhood that relates to social difference and ideas covered in class, such as the presence of bum proof benches, social access, consumerism, or automobility. This is the comment I left on Amy’s page:

Let me start off by saying that I loved several aspects of your blog post. I loved the way your vivid writing style draws the reader in and I especially loved the way you incorporated a map into your post. With that being said, I feel that there are a few suggestions I could make that would help in your future blog posts. Firstly, make sure you are actually visiting the locations that you are talking about. Secondly, the most important aspect of these blog posts is relating a Los Angeles location to a class concept. Now that we are approaching the end of the quarter, there are seemingly countless concepts to choose from that we have discussed in depth (and occasionally ad nauseum) in class. The concept that I believe is the most visible in cities that I have personal visited is the carceral enclaves of the post-metropolis. Carceral enclaves is a fancy way of saying parts of the cities are walled off to the undesirable public. There are many examples that we can see in cities in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area that embody these carceral enclaves. Physical access is one way that cities restrict access to those that they deem to be undesirable. For example, gated communities are very common in cities where people want to differentiate themselves from others they deem to be inferior. Some gated communities do not even have physical gates, but rather they rely on the symbolic nature of gated communities to keep these undesirables out. Central to the idea of restricting physical access is the concept of automobility, which is a critical aspect of the post-metropolis. Because there are still many people who rely on the public transportation system, certain cities take advantage of this fact and restricts the extent to which public transportation penetrates the city. Finally, the existence of bum proof benches is a final aspect of restricting social and physical access. Bum proof benches are benches that are made in such a way that someone cannot lay down without it being extremely uncomfortable that way “bums” cannot sleep there because they are undesirable to the public. These ways that cities restrict social and physical access are amongst the easiest to identify while visiting a location.

Another class concept that I believe fits in the cities of Los Angeles is the concept of decentralization. The post-metropolis, or the 4^th urban revolution, broke away from cities being strictly centralized like in the 3^rd urban revolution. An example of how Los Angeles is decentralized is the way that there are patches of mini-centralization, such as the centralized locations of car dealerships. In a centralized city, like Chicago and Manchester, there would not be these patches, but rather everything from manufacturing centers to family owned business would be found in the middle or the center of the city.

Finally, a class concept that is easily seen is the absence of factories and manufacturing centers in modern cities such as Los Angeles, which is indicative of the rise in the information economy.

Hopefully these suggestions make you future blog posts easier. Happy Blogging!

Blogging Social Difference in LA: Week 8

      Since I knew I was going to be home for thanksgiving weekend, I knew I was not going to have enough time to visit a new location, so I decided to comment on a classmate's post for this week.  In her blog she talks about how she visited Santa Monica and 3^rd street promenade. She did a great job explaining her experience and I really liked the pictures that she put up because I think that it captures Santa Monica really well. Providing a map of where Santa Monica was an excellent touch! I also liked how she related her trip to a reading that we were assigned in class which is about the concentric ring model or “the loop”. In her blog, my classmate states that Santa Monica is a concentric ring model city by describing how there are obvious differences the closer one is to the center, but I would have to disagree. My classmate does describe what “the loop” is very well but she just relates it to the wrong city. Los Angeles is not a concentric ring model city (like Chicago), it is a post-metropolis city made clear through decentralization, post-fordism, auto mobility and consumerism. To be a concentric ring city there needs to be a designated center which is seen very clearly in the city of Chicago. In the 1^st and 2^nd urban revolutions, the center of the city was the most important aspect because all transportation systems would come and bring people into the center and all work was located there. Los Angeles is highly decentralized because it does not have a clear cut center; it could actually be seen has having multiple centers. One aspect that has made Los Angeles a post-metropolis city is auto mobility, which is where everyone relies on their own automobile to get from place to place. People now have the luxury of going wherever they want to go and do not have to rely on a public transportation system. Another aspect of Los Angeles that sets it apart from being a concentric ring city is post-fordism, or the rapid movement of labor and capital. Because the communal center is always changing, businesses do not stay in one location for a long period of time and capital is gets deported overseas where there is cheaper labor and production, which makes work for people very short and contingent. This type of capitalism in the city produces a lot of instability for not only the workers, but the city as well because it is constantly changing. Even though Los Angeles is not a concentric ring city, I do commend my classmate for being so creative and applying this theory to a single small city like Santa Monica because if someone was just relating this theory to just Santa Monica, it does relate to the concentric ring model in some aspects.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!

Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 7

     With two midterms this past week it would have made tons of sense to simply review another student’s blog post. Unfortunately, nothing I do ever makes sense, so not only did I hitch a ride down to Huntington Beach, but I also spent countless hours, by which I mean two, skimming through articles from the LA Times, desperately searching for one that connected to class concepts. I’ll be sure to post my midterm grades in a later post, so any followers can see to what degree I shot myself in the foot. Anyways, I was able to find an article online that directly relates to the rise of the information sector, as was discussed in Kling, Olin and Spencer’s Postsuburban California: The Transformation of Orange County Since World War II.

     Let me start off by discussing the article itself. The short article, published less than two weeks ago, describes Boeing, an aerospace giant’s, plan to trim their executive workforce by up to 30% and to shut down, sell or demolish its properties in Anaheim, Seal Beach and Huntington Beach respectively.

     Let me now transition to discussing the rise of the information sector, and other features of what the authors have coined, the postsuburbia. Before I proceed, for those readers that do not remember this reading, it is incredibly similar to the idea of the post-metropolis discussed in class. The postsuburbia, as described by Kling, Olin and Poster is characterized by four aspects, decentralization, or more specifically, multi-centrality, an economic dependency on the informal economy, and the emergence of both consumerism and cosmopolitanism. This postsuburbia, according to the authors not only represents Orange County, but is an emerging trend that not only represents numerous other recently established cities, but foreshadows a trend that will characterize all future major cities. Briefly rushing through the three non-essential aspects of the postsuburbia, the postsuburbia is characterized primarily by a shift from the previous spatial layout, wherein which the city was organized by a central hub, to a more dispersed and specialized collection of centers. As far as consumerism and cosmopolitanism are concerned, the postsuburbia is also characterized by a shift toward the extensive buying of non-essential, international and sophisticated goods. Most importantly in this context, however, is the shift from an economy based on manufacturing, to an economy dependent on the information sector, that is, dependent on the distribution of information that is useful in marketing any other similar fields. This concept is easily seen in the article, as the shift toward the information economy has affected a manufacturing giant, in this case Boeing’s, ability to stay financially afloat.

     The only question that is left unanswered, however, is can this shift toward the information sector be easily seen in Huntington Beach? I decided to explore that idea by exploring the city in depth, spending over an hour studying the area, specifically its commercial districts. While I did notice a far larger amount of commercial businesses than manufacturing centers, I could not effectively tell whether the increase in the information sector was in anyway causing a decrease in the manufacturing center, at least when you take out the Boeing example. Seeing as how Kling, Olin and Poster’s book was written about Orange County, I found it somewhat surprising that this idea was not easily visible. In any case, even though my journey was not exactly inspiring, I feel incredibly fortunate to have found an article that connected to class concepts in a place that was both safe and interesting.

Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 6

            Needing a “geography of social difference” break after a full week of studying for my last midterm, I decided to stay in Westwood this weekend and comment on another student’s blog. One thing I can say after reading countless blogs is that I may need to step up my game, as some of the blogs I read were informative, eloquently written and incredibly insightful. The blog I am commenting on is, nearly one of those blogs. The blogs I read range from nearly incoherent to nearly perfect and the blog I chose to comment on is certainly on the far right of that spectrum, although not as perfect as some of the other blogs. I chose to write on a “near perfect” blog simply because it allows me to compliment on the blogger’s writing, while still leaving me enough room to make constructive criticism and suggestions that may help to better their future posts. The post itself describes the blogger’s trip to Lemonade, a delicious restaurant I might add, and the observations they made both at the restaurant and the surrounding area of Brentwood. I especially liked this blog because the blogger was making his first trip to Brentwood, in fact the student had never even heard of it, which ensures an unbiased observation of the city. I left the following comment on the blog post…

            Let me start off by saying that while I would like to say that it was your eloquent writing and insightful commentary that prompted me to comment on your blog, although those were both factors, it was ultimately your blog post’s inclusion of Lemonade that drove me to leave this comment. I am a huge Lemonade fan and have been surprised by how few people have heard of it around here! One final tangent before I get into the meat of your post, let me just emphasize how awesome it was that you saw Guiliana Rancic there. Anyways, Lemonade and celebrities aside, I really liked your blog, especially because I too have never been to Brentwood, which allowed me to view your post as representing the absolute reality of the area, without my own past experience in the area subconsciously shaping the way I viewed your blog post. Let me reinforce an earlier statement by saying that I found your description of the area to be incredibly vivid and eloquent and your connection to class concepts to be insightful and informative. Specifically, I enjoyed your detailed description of the affluence of the area, choosing to describe women’s yoga pants and children’s eating habits rather than just saying that Brentwood’s residents are wealthy.

            As for the content and explanation of your post, I loved how you related the racial and class segregation you saw in Brentwood to the idea of fragmented inequality and post-Fordist capitalism that characterize the post-metropolis. I cannot, however, see the connection between the segregation in Brentwood and the concepts of automobility and radical individualism. While it is incredibly likely that I missed an obvious connection here or there, I just thought I would bring it to your attention that I found it somewhat confusing. Furthermore, I loved the way you compared the ethnic makeup of Brentwood to cities like Long Beach in order to give the readers a better idea of the racial homogeneity that Brentwood boasts. I also enjoyed how you related the segregation you observed in Brentwood to the larger theme of the post-metropolis by emphasizing the sense of decentralization found in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. One small suggestion, however, is that you elaborate on and/or better defend your stance on what you said about the transportation network tying the city together, since a centralized transportation network is not a hallmark of the post-metropolis.

            By far my favorite aspect of your post was your comparison of Brentwood’s inequality to patches on the Los Angeles’ quilt. Aside from the clever metaphor and symbolism, it grabbed my attention most in the way it related to the overriding theme of this blog project, Robert Park’s belief that the city is made up of small independent worlds that touch but never interpenetrate.

            Overall, other than the few constructive critiques I have made, I found your blog incredibly well written and it is clear that you have a true mastery of the class concepts, a rarity based on the other blog posts I read through. Keep up the good work!!

Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 5

For this week’s blog I thought that since I was going home for the weekend, I would do my blog on my hometown of Glendora. Glendora is about 45 miles south of UCLA nestled between San Dimas and Covina. It is a relatively small town located at the base of the foothills. I decided that my hometown would be appropriate because, after the lecture on the post-metropolis, I realized that the concept of the carceral archipelago is represented in Glendora. 

To illustrate this point, I noticed that there are hardly any bus stops in Glendora, nor are there many buses from other cities that even enter Glendora’s limits. This is designed so that unwanted people, often those without cars, are not allowed easy access into the city. Also, there is a noticeable lack of sidewalks in Glendora, yet another way Glendora discourages access to an undifferentiated public. Furthermore, Glendora is also known for its abundance of gated communities. Even though there are a few of these communities that are physically enclosed, many gated communities do not even have gates, but are characterized by ominous community names that further segment the city. While the use of physical gated communities restricts public access in a very blatant way, the use of community names relies on restricting the social access of the community. Glendora’s spatial layout also makes it very difficult for an unfamiliar public to navigate the city. The majority of residential space is designed in such a way that there are only a few points of entry into large residential plots, turning common neighborhoods into virtual labyrinths to non-residents.

I can also relate my hometown to David Sibley’s “Mapping the Pure and the Defiled,” specifically his overriding theory that humans have a deep sided need to separate “us” from “them,” the civilized from the uncivilized.  Glendora boasts an incredibly low crime rate and a relatively affluent community and appears to have taken the necessary precaution to preserve these values. Furthermore, Sibley’s objects relations theory, which holds that “individuals and groups form positive identities of themselves by excluding others that are thought to be deviant,” perfectly embodies the essence of Glendora. By viewing outsiders as potential threats to the status quo of the city, Glendora relies on both physical and social boundaries to turn its city limits into city borders.