Blogging Social Differences in L.A.: Week 9

     I am respoding to Ellen's outstanding post about her visit to Watts:
http://adventuretimewithellen.blogspot.com/2012/11/blogging-social-difference-in-la-week-8.html?showComment=1354322374975#c532169621047570055

Hi Ellen,

      I loved your post! You really covered an important topic that perhaps other students (including myself) wouldn't feel as comfortable doing. (In retro-spec, looking at my own blog, I have rather a bias to more comfortable areas-- I need to change that! Thanks for the inspiration!) That must have been really unnerving though, to watch the Flying Lotus video again and realized that was the exact location you visited.

      I loved the contrast that the Hawking House of Burgers provided. Even with just the picture of the happy patrons, it captures a sense of community. The argument of education seems tangible from your experience. Most of Watts, it seems, has that eery unsafe feel, yet Hawkins House of Burgers, "the only place in Watts you'll find people with a college-level education," creates an entirely different and comfortable environment.

      Rather than a critique of your blog, I find a critique of our class. We have been studying Urban Cities and Social Differences all quarter in terms of race, class, gender, etc. We haven't really gone into depth on education though. Understandably so, because perhaps an entire class could be taught on just that subject.

      In sum though, I really appreciated your gumption, to visit Watts! And how you provided such an unexpected but tangible example of social differences due to educational differences.

Blogging Social Differences in L.A.: Week 8

 (Note: This post is a day late due to the MyUCLA maintenance that took place from 11/23 9am to 11/24 6pm.  Due to this I could not access the Blogger Roll.)

     I am responding to Breeanna's post this week about her bus trip to Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica: 
http://metromotleyla.blogspot.com/2012/11/blogging-social-difference-in-la-week-8.html?showComment=1353826182141#c2644272315948803083

Hi Breeanna,

      Your blog instantly caught my attention because I just had my bus experience too. Isn't it incredible how long it takes to get anywhere on the buses in L.A.?? I traveled just over ten miles east on Sunset Blvd. from UCLA and it took over an hour. I think your trip from UCLA to the Third Street Promenade at Santa Monica is about the same distance and it took you such an extensive amount of time to cross that short distance too! L.A. is plagued with traffic but cars transverse those distances in L.A. much faster than buses!

      Your bus experience seemed really positive. My bus trip headed towards eastern L.A. I pasted some rather grungy areas and encountered a few unstable people. I wonder if, because your bus trip was headed towards western L.A., towards the beaches, if there was more wealth and correspondingly more cleanliness. This might be becoming a tangent, but I can't help but notice from your pictures that the bus looks rather clean too! This was not my experience. Your bus, you noted, was the Big Blue Bus, sponsored by Santa Monica and the route I took, was the Metro bus-- the big dirty orange bus if you will. I'm surprised that the difference between the two networks of buses has such a visible representation. It's as if eastern L.A. and western L.A. are represented in symbols in each of our buses, the Big Blue Bus and the Metro Bus. I recognize that is a broad assumption, but it is interesting nonetheless, that these things can be noted just from our brief experiences.

      The rest of your experience at Santa Monica sounds very interesting too. L.A. is a great attraction to tourists. It seems to be as much of an enigma to them as it is to us locals. But in particular, locations that are tourist hot spots, like Third Street Promenade, create a complex dynamic with so many social layers. Another location, The Grove, represents a similar situation: where tourist collect and expensive shopping flourishes. These very things then attract a contrasting crowds: of people who come not to shop or site see, but to ask for money from the passer-byes. You had a great point about how the people asking for money may be smart to come to these areas, not only for economic motivations, but because this area in particular has such stable weather. I might add that they have access to the public beach showers as well, which could be really beneficial to homeless people.

      This topic of the contrast in wealth, whether it be eastern or western L.A., or a dynamic economic social cluster, as the Santa Monica beaches attract, makes me curious of the questions James Elliot and Jeremy Pais might ask regarding help in times of crises here; however, instead of regarding those of different races, emphasizing those of different economic classes. Their piece, "Race, Class and Hurricane Katrina," about aid to these categories post crisis found, for various reasons, that low income people of African American decent received the least aid in terms or preparation and recovery and the pace of this was the slowest in comparison to other categories as well. I can't help but wonder if results would be similar in L.A. especially given its dynamic socioeconomic status’.

      

Blogging Social Differences in L.A.: Week 7

So far, through my “Blogging Social Differences in the L.A. Metropolitan Region” explorations, I have considered differences in issues that should really be uniting among humanity, soaked up the embodiment of Gemienschaft in a cozy coffee shop, experienced the dissolving of differences through music in an ever changing venue to match its audiences, explored Manchester-like thoroughfares, and considered micro communities of ethnic agglomerations.  My initial question for this blog was to identify differences in L.A.  I expected the differences to occur in clusters and have strict boundaries.  Thus far, I have found this to generally be the case—in the micro communities and Manchester-like thoroughfares.  However, I have witnessed environments that dissolve differences too.

This week I decided to explore something that would provide a snapshot of the many clusters in L.A.  As a result, I witnessed differences in an entirely new light.

I took the Metro bus line 2 from the Hilgard Ave. and Westholme Ave. stop ten miles to the subway off of Sunset Blvd. and  N. Vermont Ave.   Buses in L.A. are a rather unnerving experience.  I understand now why L.A. is such an automobile dominated city.  After taking the bus, my preference for cars here was solidified.  I appreciate the environmental argument for buses, but L.A. seriously needs to improve its public transportation system.  It makes me think of the David Harvey piece, “The Environment of Justice.”  Though L.A. is a relatively wealthy city, we choose to pollute it rather than invest in more environmentally friendly means of transportation.  This is the opposite of what Harvey argues—poorer regions accepting pollution, in particular pollution imposed by wealthier regions.  L.A. represents the idea of productive destruction, as the automobile clearly dominates as a means of transportation despite the pollution, traffic, accidents, headaches, etc., that it produces.       

As I got on the bus I was greeted by a gruff disengaged bus driver annoyed by naivety as I fumbled with my coins.  It was early in the evening but many of the seats were occupied.  I was relieved to settle into a window seat.  As I road I was aware of my fellow bus riders—some of them other students, several somewhat older Hispanic ladies, and in particular a man who smelled like urine and kept mumbling to himself, shouting indiscernible words each time someone pulled the yellow cord to initiate the “Stop Requested.”

Outside the window passed the luxurious homes of Beverly Hills off of Sunset Blvd.  Excessively luxurious.  I noticed few sidewalks which I understood to discourage visitors and lingering.  Then we passed the commercial strip of Sunset Blvd.  This was lined with trendy shopping, expensive brands on the billboards, and elegant restaurant after elegant restaurant.  As the bus continued east though, the sites became grungier and grungier and the bus became more and more full.  Finally after passing under the 101, my destination was within a stones throw.  I pulled the yellow cord to request my stop and was acknowledged by the man who smelled of urine with his shouts.  I was more than happy to get off the bus!  I met my boyfriend’s sister who works at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles for a quick dinner, then back on the bus!   

The entire affair took much longer than I was expecting and it was very tiring.  But witnessing the differences of L.A. passing by my window was surreal due to the pace.  The differences are really in such close proximity to each other though they resemble entirely different economic classes, personalities of peoples, differences in cleanliness, etc.  You’d think they were entirely different cities rather than just subsections of L.A.

     I had to include this video because WeirdAl tweaked the song, "Another One Bites the Dust" to "Another One Rides the Bus," and his jokes are funny becaue they are true!  This is a long clip but anywhere between 1:30 and 2:30 captures the essence of it.

Blogging Social Differences in L.A.: Week 6

     I am responding to Teresa Pilon's post about Dia de los Muertos:
http://findlostangeles.blogspot.com/2012/11/blogging-social-difference-in-la-week-5.html?showComment=1352349171358#c1258480471649740577

Hi there,

I found this post about your uniting experience at the Dia de los Muertos celebration to be very interesting.  Despite all the differences between people there remain a few fundamental things that cut across all boundaries.  As human beings, matters of life, love, and death are deeply relatable no matter one’s background.  Differences in religion may lead people to practice different actions regarding these matters, but these differences are not enough to extinguish the empathy that exists among all.  

Strangely though, the death of Trayvon  Martin did not receive universal empathy.  One reading we had this week, “Fear of a Black President” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, discusses this tragedy.  After this tragedy President Obama responded.  The reaction to Obama was, as Coates states, “Before President Obama spoke, the death of Trayvon Martin was generally regarded as a national tragedy. After Obama spoke, Martin became material for an Internet vendor flogging paper gun-range targets that mimicked his hoodie and his bag of Skittles.”  
  

That is to say, that among some people, due to the color of our president’s skin, and likewise the color of Trayvon Martin’s skin, Obama’s comments where turned into racist’s ammunition.  In my opinion this just makes this an even greater tragedy.  It is truly a wonderful thing how celebrations like Dia de los Muertos are such a uniting emotional experience.  That is how it simply should be.     

Blogging Social Differences in L.A.: Week 5

image from http://talesofamagpie.typepad.com/tales_of_a_magpie/food_and_drink/

     This past week I decided to explore South Pasadena.  I had never been there before so I made the 30 mile trek, which of course because it's LA, takes over and hour.  My destination was Buster's Coffee Shop, a wonderfully charming and unique place recommended to me as the ideal location to sit and study, read, or just observe.  As I was driving though South Pasadena to my destination, I caught myself needing to be extra careful driving because I was so mesmerized by the beautiful lanes of houses.  I should have been walking in order to enjoy it more-- and not cause an accident.  Nonetheless, I eventually arrived at my destination off of Mission St. which just oosed old town main street.  There is a train running perpendicular to it and actually creates a unique architectural element to the buildings which have grown up around these track.  These old brick buildings, instead of being traditional efficient squares, had walls at 45 degree angels from the other walls in order to make room for the train tracks to pass right by to them.  As a result, inside Buster's Coffee Shop were these unique niches one could be lost in for hours nestled in with a good book.  The atmosphere was very cheery and friendly.  Small things, like using proper dishware as opposed to disposable, gave the environment a more settled feeling that said we're not a massive-corporate-money-hungry entity.  Instead, we are a home, we welcome all, stay for a while and lets have a chat.  It was the embodiment of Gemeinschaft.  This was further exemplified in there prohibition of computer use on weekends and the unique array of visitors to this shop-- including a young vagabond with a beard of a true traveler and with adventures to share.  Social differences do not matter here.  Come one, come all!
Visiting this little niche makes me nostalgic for Gemeinschaft where bumless benches would never be an understood concept.