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!