UCLA CAMPUS
Image from http://www.genetics.ucla.edu/courses/statgene/
WESTWOOD BLVD.
Image from http://www.experiencingla.com/2010/05/westwood-blvd-los-angeles-part-ii.html
WESTFIELD CENTURY CITY MALL
Image from http://centurycitymall.mallsite.us/
This past Saturday I took an afternoon drive with a destination just two and a half miles away from UCLA, down Westwood Blvd. and over on Santa Monica Blvd. Westfield Century City mall was my destination. This region is generally affluent, but driving down Westwood Blvd, the strip between Wilshire Blvd. and Santa Monica Blvd, reminded me exactly of the thoroughfares Friedrich Englels describes of early Manchester. This is a large boulevard which is used to get from point A to point B, a transitioning road, and possibly even commuting as the thoroughfares were used in Manchester. All assortments of shops line the street fronts and completely hide what ever lies behind them leaving the mind to imagine or disregard-- out of sight out of mind...
I personally think, and I am sure many other people would agree, that UCLA is a beautiful place. It could be argued as a sort of elite's utopia. And likewise, the Westfield Century City mall could be argued as the same. Both are aesthetically appealing and impeccably clean (with a staff to ensure this). Both are wholes into which immense amounts of money are pored! And I transversed between these two locations connected by this shop-lined thoroughfare masking what really lies behind, just as in-numerous business elites and their families made in early Manchester to get from their luxurious home to the business center.
Though at first glance, Los Angeles appears to be an unpredictably arranged city, moments like this hint at its organization. The fragments that make up Los Angeles resemble mini cities, such as this example described above which in a microcosm represents the layout of early Manchester.
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