Blogging Social Differences in L.A.: Week 2

     I am responding to Boo’s post about The Grove:

http://thecityofangeles.blogspot.com/2012/10/blogging-social-difference-in-l.html

     Hi Boo, my name is Sasha, and like you, I have grown up around Los Angeles all my life.  Your point you made about not really seeing the city when you live in it for so long, is so true. 

     After reading your post about The Grove, I am very curious to explore it more attentively.  I have been there casually before and not paid attention to the things you noted due to this project.  I’d be curious how all the micro communities you listed interact with each other in this center, especially because it is such a tourist hot spot as well.  The micro communities you listed all seem to be cultural agglomerations, i.e. Little Ethiopia and Korea Town.  I’d be curious if the different cultures here have trends towards certain types of jobs in this center.  However, you pointed out that these clusters were in the surrounding areas of The Grove, which leads me to the question I should have first posed: do they even interact or are they more isolated despite their proximity to each other. 

     Los Angeles is somewhat of a city and somewhat of a suburbia, creating this post-suburban phenomena.  This is similar to Orange Country which was discussed in our reading this week in “The Emergence of Postsuburbia” by Rob Kling, Spencer Olin, and Mark Poster.  One idea to which this reading drew attention, was that in post-suburbias there tends to be less of an obvious transition between places.  Transitioning between one city and the next may be only clear by a sign on the highway, and if you blink, you’ll have no idea of the transition. 

     Here though, are sub-communities that are all within the city of Los Angeles.  It is fascinating then, that the transition between the micro communities is so clear, as you described the distinct billboards, food, and population of each micro community.  This just adds more to the tangle that is Los Angeles.  Hopefully as our projects progress we’ll be able to untangle Los Angele a little bit more to understand clearly how the social differences manifest here.