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.