"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 ...
No comments:
Post a Comment