Blogging Social Difference in L.A: Week 4

Unfortunately, I got sick over these few days. In this case, rather than opening a new post, I decided to stay at home to read and comment on my fellow classmate's blog. I have read a few posts today and especially enjoyed reading Kei Komuro's experience in Downtown Los Angeles. I believe Kei has done a great job in exploring Downtown L.A while at the same time, incorporating some interesting concepts from the readings. My comment and suggestions for improvement is then in the following. And here's the link of Kei's post.

Hi Kei,

My name is King Wing and I enjoy reading your experience in Downtown Los Angeles. Downtown L.A. is definitely one of the most multi-centered metropolitan regions in L.A. I especially like the way you start your post, telling us how this area is like and how it reflects the facet of postsuburban spatial organization. I can't agree more with you. Since Downtown is formed by many small districts, it's not surprised that you see Downtown as not having a specific and cohesive center because the place is simply too broad that we can see a bunch of small cores between the blocks and buildings. Besides, while reading your post, I also observe how cultural diversity prevails in this area. For example, looking at the pictures of the small communities like the Financial District, Chinatown and Little Tokyo not just only shows how people are varied from different cultures, such as the difference in their languages, but also reflects people's socioeconomic class and status when we look at the types of housings, restaurants and stores in these communities.

In the rest of your post, I also find that you mention some very interesting points as well, like how inequality is related to one's ability to access information to a extent. In other words, how this information gap affects and distinguishes the difference between the lower class people and the business men. Regarding to this point, you quote a statement, "It can be assumed that this 'gives their industries greater leverage than their less technologically sophisticated precursors had'  to explain your idea and assumption on information capitalism in the town. However, I think it would be better if you could expand this point a little bit more with explainations. For example, after showing pictures in your blog, you could go further and conclude why "these group of people" are not privileged and receives less information that causing them to be separated from the others. Another same situation comes out when you quote "the result of complex and weakly coordinated sets of conscious decisions by private entrepreneurs and many politicians who reflect their interests" to explain your idea. This point is interesting as well, but again it would be good if you can further elaborate such as adding your comments or a few descriptions of the pictures so as to enrich your argument. With all the elaborations, I believe your argument would definitely be more precise and insightful. Lastly, I would say I really appreciate the way you incorporate as many as different concepts from the readings. It is not an easy task, but you do it quite well. Besides, I love the pictures that you have taken and also the way you highlight the words in color so that it makes it very clear to me what certain point or concept you are telling. This is pretty cool and reminds me perhaps I should do the same thing in my upcoming blogs :)

Overall, I find the arguments you make in the post are insightful and with more elaborations, this would be a really great post! Reading your experience in Downtown also makes me understand more about the place and sort of reminding the question; what difference does difference makes? It seems that Downtown L.A is really a fantastic place that worth to walk around, explore and incorporate concepts that we have learned in class, and I can't wait to explore this place on my own in the coming weeks. Again, thanks for your great post and keep on! Have a nice weekend!

Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 3

The Grove

This week, I get a chance to visit the Grove with my friend Michelle. The Grove is basically an outdoor mall that just happens to be next to the Farmers Market. It is also known as one of the famous tourist spots in Los Angeles. When I leave the parking lot to the mall, I am already shocked by its artfully decoration. Not only do the place features a large center park with a fountain, some musical performances are also showed to the visitors. Famous brands and stores are also around in everywhere, like Banana Republic, Gap and Coach etc.... All these cast a glamour to the place, which makes me feel like I am inside the Disneyland. As a shopaholic, I can't wait to shop around in different stores, yet; most of the things in there are a little overpriced (perhaps because it's a tourist spot?:o) so I end up buying nothing. But still, me and my friend have a fantastic lunch in The Cheesecake Factory, which is always one of my favorite restaurants in the states.

Being located across the Fairfax Avenue and the 3rd Street, I am a little surprised to observe the huge differences between the Grove and its surrounding. If the Grove is like a fairyland like I have described in the above, its surrounding areas will get you a little disappointed because they do not show the same image as the Grove does. Indeed, when looking around these areas (e.g. Korea Town, Little Ethiopia etc), they give me another picture. Not only do they represent a large range of ethnic population, but these micro communities also seem practicing cultural agglomeration because of their proximity. In this case, I am kind of wondering how these micro communities actually interact with another in these areas. To make a better comparison, I would like to explore more about that when I visit places like Korea Town in the coming weeks. Another thing comes cross my mind is the social class difference. During my car trip, I pass through some streets in Beverley Hills and parts of the West Hollywood. Surprisingly, within only the few miles away between them, I discover a large disparity between the two places. Beverly Hills is definitely a rich area because houses are beautifully decorated with amazing scenery. Its housing price is also very high when comparing to houses in other L.A. regions. With the high living standard and spending, people who live there are more likely to be the middle and upper class. Nevertheless, when comes to West Hollywood, the glamorous scene in Beverly Hills no longer exists. Rather, working class are more likely to be dominated in this area and I even notice problems like poverty when I see two homeless man in the street.

Lastly, in the reading The Growth of the City, it mentions that our city is consists of a set of rings, ranging from the core "loop" to the "commuters' zone". Although the rings may not be directly applied to the entire L.A. area, we can still relate it to some extent. For example, we can consider the Grove as the "loop" (imagine it is a small town), the transition zone to be Korea Town, and the residential zone to be place like Beverly Hills, which "high-class apartment buildings or of exclusive "restricted" districts of single family dwellings." (The Blackwell City Reader, 2010) Though these may not be exactly correct, but it does help me to gain a better understand about the process for the growth of a city as well as how's these rings can be applied in the contemporary L.A. area.

Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 2

Santa Monica Beach (Bus Trip)
Journey begins! When I consider where to go for my project, the first location that comes out immediately in my mind is Santa Monica. Santa Monica is always my favorite place in Los Angeles not only because it is the place where I am most familiar with the city so far, but also because I am in love with one of its famous places ---- the Santa Monica Beach. Therefore, I have decided to make this place as my first location. Since I am living on campus, I reach there by the bus, and bus Line 1 perfectly matches up with my location. It takes approximately 35 minutes to arrive my destination in the afternoon.

In my impression, Santa Monica Beach is a place full of fun and happiness. It is also a place where I can see racial diversity easily because people are varied in different races, like the whites, blacks, Latino, Mexican and Asians are found everywhere in the beach. The tourists there share a common goal; to relax, play, taste the nature and atmosphere. For example, I notice many groups of families, friends and couples are riding bikes in the bicycle path, cooling themselves in water, sunbathing under the sun as well as playing volleyball games with a lot of excitements. In the pier next to the beach, there are also a group of enthusiastic amateurs performing magical show, acrobatics and singing. Their performances are really fabulous and amazing. However, despite all of these, I am surprised to discover that there's a group of people seems not belonged to this happy and comfort zone. And they are the homeless, lifeguard, janitors and the road safety guard. Unlike the others, they do no smile and feel happy at all; indeed, I feel kind of loneliness in their eyes when compared with the laughers from the people around. Moreover, I notice that most of the people are less likely to get closer to the homeless. Many of them also just simply pass by without giving sympathetic eyesight. This situation reminds me the concept of stratification I have learned in class. According to our professor, "stratification is the differences created through proximity to power; and therefore it is expressed through inequality." I can’t agree more with this statement base on my observation. The homeless people I see in the beach is definitely the group of lower class people because they have very low social status and strong barriers to access to power; the workers for maintenance and janitors fall into the working class and some tourists may fall into the higher class that apparently have a much higher ability to access power. In this way, stratification clearly forms between different groups of people in the beach since they truly reflects how social class inequality pervades among them, and at the same time, affects people’s statuses and how they are being valued by the society.

Santa Monica Beach. Here I come! :)

Apart from stratification, another important concept of organic solidarity from Durkheim's The Division of Labor can also be applied to my observation. Organic solidarity refers to the cohesion exists in a society that individuals and groups are specialized and integrated in order to fulfill needs from each other. As a part of the community, everyone in the beach is performing a different role or task to help maintaining the beach. People are carrying cohesiveness to a certain extent because people function together to fulfill needs from another. For instance, the lifeguards are responsible for taking care people's safety, the managers sells snacks, drinks and food in their stores, and the tourists are the customers who spend money for food and souvenirs in the beach. In this case, I would argue even though people in the beach come for different purposes, each of them implicitly carry some "functions" and they do cooperate in a certain way that helps fulfill needs from each other. This is all how i view organic solidarity can be applied in the beach.

To sum up, Santa Monica Beach is a worth place to visit not only because it's full of fun, but also because it allows us to explore social difference such as racial diversity and stratification. I enjoy my trip there and will probably visit there again with my friends soon! :)

Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 1

Introduction: “What difference does difference make?”
As an international student from Hong Kong, I always wonder how it's like studying in the United States ---- one of the most developed countries in the world. Thanks to my parents, I gain this valuable opportunity to study aboard, having the chance to explore and feel how it's like living in the states. Although I have only stayed in L.A. for less than a month, I have no doubt that L.A. is a very diverse city. UCLA is a good example. It is one of the most ethnically diverse universities in the U.S, which students are come from different parts of the world and belonged to different race and ethnicity. In this way, I believe UCLA can be a small model of this diverse L.A. city. But what causes L.A. more diverse than other cities? What factors contribute to the social difference in this place? In what ways social difference plays a role in L.A.? To answer these questions, I am going to visit five places in L.A. and make a deep analysis on how social difference pervades and influences different areas in Los Angeles. Through my visit, not only do I hope to answer the question “What difference does difference make”, but also more importantly, to understand why and how factors like race, gender, social classes, education and resources contribute to the disparities in today's world.

As a newbie of this city, I am so excited to explore places around L.A. However, one thing I feel so confused now is to decide where should I go since I am so unfamiliar with the city. (Perhaps someone should give me some suggestions? :P) But still, I believe it will be fun to discover and explore this metropolitan area, and I also hope that I can gain a better understanding about how social difference serves as functions to shape the city and affect an individual. 

Before ending up my first post, just let me give a brief introduction of myself. My name is King Wing. I am a junior transfer student from the Bay Area and this is my first quarter at UCLA! My major is communication studies and I wish to work in the media industry. I am also an outgoing person who loves travel and photography. Again, I hope everyone enjoy reading my following posts and welcome to my blog! Let’s start the journey! :)