Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 4

This past Sunday, I went to Downtown Santa Ana in Orange County. Downtown Santa Ana is really interesting because it was one of the first major centers built in Orange County. Once suburbia started to sprawl and Orange County became this huge suburban city, DTSA started to become more isolated and this part of the city sort of became a ghost town, until it became more of a center for Latino's, with businesses that were Latino dominated.

Here is a map of Downtown Santa Ana currently.

I read an article in the Orange County Register, that talks about the history of ethnic mixing on East Fourth Street (can be seen in the yellow square in the map above) and according to the article, East Fourth Street was starting to become a Mexican commercial district since the 1930s. Although it was primarily white through the 1940s, Mexican immigrants were already starting to populate this area. Historically the street was a mixed thing, bringing in middle-class whites and Latino customers. There used to be a JC Penny's and other economical stores located in the area. In the 1950s, most of the customers were U.S. born, of Mexican descent. After South Coast Plaza was built in the late 1960s, DTSA started to become more focused on the immigrant working class. It wasn't until the 1970s that DTSA become a sort of a ghost town, and this is when Latino shop owners came in hosting largely to Mexican immigrant customers. 

Currently DTSA is going through a gentrification process which includes more condos and high rises, more pedestrian friendly streets with urban style streets and a light-rail service. Which would not only be in effect in DTSA but also surrounding areas where single-family style homes are located and industrial businesses. Here is an article that talks about some of the plans and problems with the gentrification process. 

Right now in Orange County, these old towns and centers are starting to become more popular and becoming more attractive to live in, especially younger couples with no children and/or older couples with grown children. I walked around DTSA looking at the mix of the Latino dominating areas, new condos and high rises, and the artist village where all the hipsters like to hang out.

Walking around the cars in the area were more economical, the landscape was very urban with some trees planted on the walkways, lots of latinos walking around, specially families. There was a lot of businesses catering to the Mexican cliental, like carts that sell mexican food and fruit, barber shops, hair salons, mexican food restaurants, clothes stores with spanish titles and even clothes stores specified for "quinceniera" (which is a mexican tradition of celebrating the birthday of girls turning 15 years old). On the outskirts of the downtown you could also see some old and dilapidated buildings. 

Here is an image of the outskirts of downtown that have old dilapidated buildings and some single-style family homes at the end of the street.

Barber Shop at a street corner.

Some small businesses that cater especially to latinos.

Trees that line the streets and walk ways.

Small Salon found on a street corner.

Advertising written in spanish, targeting latino clientele. 

Latino customers walking on the sidewalk.

Quinceniera clothing store.

I took a video when I was walking around, so you can kind of feel and experience the area a little bit.

In other parts of downtown there are movie theaters, bars, clubs, cafes, coffee shops, and restaurants. These areas tend to bring in a more younger crowd who like living a more city life. The Art District, is an area that tends to have more of these attractions. A lot of hipsters like to hang out here and of course there is art here!

Playground, a restaurant that has been getting a lot of hype. By the way I have ate here multiple times, and I would highly recommend it if you ever get a chance or are near the area.

Yost Theatre is one of the original buildings but now serves as a club.

One of the many new condos.

A mural in the art district.

The front of Santora building. This is a historical building here in downtown Santa Ana, which now serves as a gallery and holds several businesses. 

A display of some art inside the Santora building.

One of the restaurants in the Santora Building

A cafe in the art district, including the hipster crowd.

There is a lot of controversial about the gentrification going on in DTSA. Some crowds are not happy because of new taxes and they feel that they are trying to push out the latino crowd. Some crowds like it because they like the urban feel and the new businesses that go with it. There are pros and cons to this. Pros being less violence and crime, more sales tax revenue, and the beautification of these old downtowns. Cons being that some businesses get pushed out and people loosing there homes and culture due to new developments.

What do you think is better, the gentrification being done, or just leave it the way it is? 

Blogging Social Difference in LA: Week 3

In this weeks reading “The Great Towns,” by Friedrich Engels, he talks about a city in England called Manchester near London. During the time he wrote this, Manchester was a very poor neighborhood where the working class lived. After having read this reading, I knew I wanted to visit a neighborhood in Los Angeles, where the lower/working class was living. At first I wasn’t sure where I was going to go because I did not want to be in a neighborhood where I would be unsafe and harm could be caused (specially for a female being alone). That is why I chose to drive the route on Wilshire Blvd., starting from Westwood, ending in Westlake. This route is a great way too see all kinds of diversity from social class, ethnicity and religion. It is also a great way to see how the lower class and working class are separated from the upper class.

Going down Wilshire starting from Westwood, you see high-rise apartments surrounding the streets of Wilshire. This is where the upper class and maybe some middle-class live, depending on their situation. This part of the road on Wilshire is pretty wide and the conditions are good quality as well.

As you go further east, you get into Beverly Hills. This neighborhood is where the upper class lives, and you can surely tell by the surroundings and materials. Palm trees and other very well kept landscapes surround the streets of Beverly Hills. You will see high-end department stores, fancy restaurants, high-end boutiques, and expensive cars like Ferraris, BMW and Mercedes. The people that are walking around are dressed very nice in expensive clothing, and the majority of them are Caucasian, though you do see other ethnicities as well. The buildings here are beautiful and thought out very well.

Passing through Beverly Hills, before getting to Westlake, you go through Miracle Mile, La Brea, and parts of Korea Town. Going through here the changes you start to see is the change in buildings, people and cars. Most of the architecture are 10-story buildings, with some little shopping complexes with small businesses and shops. The people walking around are dressed casual or in business attire. Most of the cars are economical cars like, Toyota or Ford. Once you start getting into Korea Town you know you are there because of the change in language. Stores and restaurants are now written in Korean. Korean’s are walking around the streets and you can hear them speaking Korean. I also noticed it is not as clean in these areas compared to Beverly Hills and Westwood.

Finally you reach MacArthur Park Lake, which is the beginning of Westlake area. Once I got here, I parked and walked around in MacArthur Park Lake. It was a beautifully dirty park. I know that is an oxymoron, but I say this because the design, layout and nature aspect was beautiful, but there was trash everywhere and foul smells. Similar too what Friedrich Engels says in the reading, “Everywhere heaps of debris, refuse, and offal; standing pools for gutters, and a stench which alone would make it impossible for a human being in any degree civilized to live in such a district.” Obviously it wasn’t as extreme as it is in his case, because we have laws and regulations that would stop it from getting so bad that it would be like how he described it to be in Manchester, England. Looking at the park at a whole, it was beautiful, but looking at the details is when you noticed all the dirty things about it. Walking around I could hear mostly Spanish and I saw a majority of Latinos, but there were a few Caucasians and African Americans. I walked through a tunnel that brought you to the other side of the park, and it had graffiti art all over, mostly promoting education. Once I got to the other side, there was a large playground for the children in the neighborhood to play in. Most of the children were of Latin descent. Another thing I noticed was that the park here was not kept as nicely as compared to the parks in Beverly Hills.

After looking at the park I decided to drive around a little bit in Westlake. The buildings here were dirty, and the appearance was not very nice looking at all. Some of the buildings were old and dilapidated, or cheaply built. Commercial signs and businesses were written in Spanish. There were inexpensive stores, like the 99¢ Store. The qualities of the roads were narrow and poor, with lots of potholes. Not as many cars were driving around on the roads as compared to Beverly Hills and La Brea. There were tons of Latinos walking around and street vendors all over the streets. Again you can hear people speaking Spanish throughout the whole area. Trash, tagging and grime were found all over the neighborhood and vacant lots.

(I had an audio recording, but unfortunately I cannot figure out how to upload it. I will try and get it up for you guys if I can)

Westlake and Manchester were very similar in ways. Manchester was designed in such a way that it was hidden from the upper class and middle class. “And the finest part of the arrangement is this, that the members of this money aristocracy can take the shortest road through the middle of all the labouring districts to their laces of business, without ever seeing that they are in the midst of the grimy misery that lurks to the right or the left.” Just like this quote from the reading, Westlake is separated from the upper and middle class neighborhoods to where nobody even needs to see it or hear of it. The freeways next to it have tall walls, which block the sightings of this area. The surrounding neighborhoods are other lower income neighborhoods, and the nearest upper class neighborhoods are miles away, keeping themselves from ever seeing Westlake. Every city has a “Manchester,” in Los Angeles we have several different “Manchester’s” located throughout the area. Westlake was just one of them, and this was my experience being there.

Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 2

This week I had commented on another students blog. Here is my comment:

"I grew up in Orange County. Although I have only lived in North Orange County, I have visited or had friends that are located in almost every part of Orange County. Irvine in particular is one of the cities in Orange County where all the trees, plants, streets and architecture pretty much look all the same. The only amounts of diversity you will probably experience in Irvine are the races, which really mainly consist of Asians, Middle Easterners and Caucasians. From your blog post I can see that you did see Chinese and Whites in your experience in Irvine.

Orange County is definitely a city where a car is a must. There are parts of some cities in Orange County where walking around is more friendly, but you can only accomplish so much of what your desires are or places you need to attend by foot. “These specialized residential, commercial, and industrial zones, difficult for pedestrians to navigate, were designed to accommodate the automobile driver.”—Kling, Olin, and Poster: “The Emergence of Postsuburbia.” Unlike Los Angeles, where you get a variety of all different types of stores, businesses and housing all within short vicinity of each other, it is not like this in Orange County. Like what Kling, Olin and Poster said, they have designated areas for a particular type of business, stores and houses. One entire block may be designed for auto dealerships, and another for restaurants and cafes. When I lived in Orange County I could never just walk outside the door to grab something to eat, to shop or even go to work/school. I had to drive to every single place I wanted to go.

You mentioned in your blog post that you thought the city was missing a public space where people could enjoy themselves. I have to slightly disagree with you on this. Although Orange County, Irvine in particular, is certainly an automobile city, the Irvine Company has planned the city to have lots of public space for people to enjoy and socialize. For an instance, parks are located everywhere in Irvine, and I mean EVERYWHERE! Rather it is a park where you can hike, play sports, or bring your children to the playground, they are pretty much located in every neighborhood across Irvine. Currently right now, Irvine is even developing the Great Park, which is supposed to have a magnitude of things from recreational activities to community gardening. There is also the Irvine Spectrum, a place for entertainment such as shopping, eating, comedy shows and the theater. There are a few other mega shopping centers like the Irvine Spectrum located in other parts of Irvine area too, like Fashion Island or The District. Even though these public places may look or be different from areas like Los Angeles or New York City, they still qualify and serve as public spaces for people to enjoy themselves. I do agree that it could maybe not be as diverse and for sure a little more cookie-cutter you could say, but these public spaces surely do exist. Like you said though, probably not a place where people could express themselves in ways like they do in Los Angeles or New York per se.

On a side note, I enjoyed reading your blog and thought your experiences and ideas were interesting. I thought it was well written and easy for the viewer to read and understand. Thanks for the good read!"

Also check out his blog. This particular post is about his experience in Irvine, CA.

Jaeseok Cho's Blog: Field Note: A Walking Trip in Irvine: 10/8/2012   7:40 AM to 8:40 AM   Irvine Blvd from Central Park (Culver) to Jamboree Approximately 2 miles   ...

Who am I and what is this blog about?

My name is Danielle Reppen and I am a 22 year old transfer student from Orange Coast College. I was originally born in Los Angeles but was raised in Orange County. I had just moved back to Los Angeles at the beginning of this September for school at the University of California Los Angeles. I am really thrilled to be here and excited to experience this totally diverse city. I am a Geography/Environmental Studies major and have a passion for the environment. 

This blog is meant for a geography class that I am currently taking at UCLA, but also something that I am excited to write about and explore. Each week I will be writing a post that will be about what difference does difference make in the landscapes of the contemporary, metropolitan Los Angeles region. I will be exploring different areas of Los Angeles, including the areas all the way from Orange County, Riverside County and Ventura County. Each week will be a different location explored in a different way, anything from walking, driving, riding the bus to even an article in the newspaper.

My interests in the class Geography 151: Cities and Social difference, are to be learning about diversity in cities, what roles they play and their meanings. I love metropolitan cities, and I also love the environment. I think this class will really help me understand how cities work and how we can implement sustainability and environmentally friendly aspects into future and current metropolitan areas, while benefiting the different people in their own social difference.