Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 9

This week, I made a comment to VIRGIL, YESHEY WANGMO's blog.

http://yvirgil.blogspot.com/2012/11/social-difference-in-la-week-8.html?showComment=1354342057915#c5586187313084787047

Hi,
I am Kei, taking the same class of "Cities and Social differences". I enjoy to read your blog, and through reading, I found 2 interesting points to further discuss. I would like to share with everyone.

Firstly, I agree to your point that the LA metropolitan city can be considered as "organism" which "faces the challenges of maintaining the 'metabolic equilibrium'". As you mentioned, it can be said that city is like a organism which has cells or "groups", and the functioning process is supported with the activity of each group. In other word, if even one group is lacked, the city faces the risk of "maintaining the 'metabolic equilibrium'".

Secondly, you mentioned capitalist idea as one of the notions that emphasize the point that the environment gets differentiated in many means as the society develops. David Harvey said, in his paper, that poor is concentrated into particular area as if it is purposed, and I think this idea further supports your point that capitalist idea activates the debate of "income disparity, race and environmental justice".

I really like to read your blog!
Thanks.

Blogging Social Difference in LA: Week 8

Happy Late Thanksgiving!!

This week, I went to my friend's place, Irvine, and found several interesting points that I want to share with everyone.

When I went to the beach of the Irvine, I noticed that something was different from the aspects that I saw in the beach side of the Santa Monica.
Firstly, it was not easy to find the homeless people in the area. When I went to the beach side, there were only tourists and families who seem to live near the beach. In other word, the beach looked like not much "commercial" but rather "friendly" to the community and residents.
Secondly, the residential houses are built along the seafront. It made me surprised since I thought that the sea front has only hotels, restaurants or shops from what I saw in Santa Monica.
Thirdly, not so much commercial activities were going on around the seafront area. I could not find this feature in Santa Monica area.
Now, the question is, why this certain "difference" exists in the 2 areas of California even though they are same sea fronts. What kind of notion exists in the geography of Irvine sea front area?

What I realized by doing the field study of this area is that certain affluent people are living in this place. I learned from the interview that the land price of this area is much expensive compared to other areas of California. Some people even said that this area is "the concentration of rich". Surely, I could tell this by looking the houses and the cars that are parked in the housing space. In this sense, David Harvey's idea can be applied to indirectly explain the environment of the area; industrial activity is concentrated in the poverty area as if it is purposed. In other word, it means that there is a space that the affluence is concentrated. However, then what made this "difference"?

When we consider about James R. Elliott's arguments, there are certain aspects of differences that become prominent when the disaster happens. Although the Irvine sea front area has had not huge disastrous events, it can be said that they are not much safe places to evade from the disasters since they are closed to ocean. We would like to think about which aspect become more prominent if the disaster happens in this area, class differences or racial differences. Or do they become equally prominent?
When we think about the influence of class differences, we would face with one question; are most of the residents who live in this area high class so how the class difference become prominent? When the similar class people live in the same area, it can be regarded that the class difference debate is useless.
On the other hand, let's think about the racial difference. Elliot said, "“communities of fate” are bound as much by racial experiences and affiliations as by common material resources. This is not to say that class differences are unimportant, but rather that in times of crisis, class differences are likely to shrink and racial differences expand as individuals define, interpret and respond to the situation before them." Considering this, we can say that racial aspect become more prominent in this area since the individual factors become certain key in the area when the disaster happens.

When we think about this, it can be interpreted that not only class factor but also more strongly, racial factors are involved to explain the aspect of  Irvine sea front area.

Blogging Social Difference in LA: Week 7

This week, I made a comment to VINIK, ITAY's blog Los Angeles: L.A Social Difference Part 2.
http://uclageo.blogspot.com/

Hi,I am Kei, taking the same class of "Cities and Social Difference".
I enjoyed to read your blog, and as I am reading through, I found a certain interesting point that can be worth to discuss. Let me share the point with other readers.

As you have mentioned, Beverly Hills shows the clear difference that seem to put this area in some kind of special position. I strongly agree that the part of the reasons that result in differentiating Beverly Hills from other area is a fourth urban revolution. 

It can be said that the one of the explicit aspects of forth urban revolution is that it emphasizes the idea of "core" and "periphery" more strongly. Although these terms are usually used in the global meaning, it can also considered that the terms can be applied to describe the inside of the LA; the Beverly Hills is being classified as "core" while industrial areas are considered as "periphery".

Furthermore, David Harvey's idea that the industrial activity is concentrated in the poverty area as if it is purposed, can also be applied to explain the affluence and environment of Beverly Hills. In other word, it can be regarded that this place is geographically "segregated" from the polluted area.

Your blog is interesting. I am looking forward to see the next blog too!
Thanks.

Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 6

This week, I made a comment to SOULAGES, PATRICK EDWARD's blog Los Angeles: Analysis of Cities and Social DIfferences.

http://patricksoulagesla.blogspot.com/2012/10/blog-post-4-east-los-angeles.html?showComment=1352526788273#c1752006983878519584

Hi Patrick,

I am Kei, taking the same class of "Cities and Differences".
I enjoyed to read your blog, and in the reading I found certain interesting points to discuss. There are two points that I can strongly agree while there is a point that I disagree with what you are trying to say. I would like to share the points that can be considered as important in many means.

Firstly, you mentioned "One Emergence of Postsuburbia: An Introduction" to support the argument about the movement of people in LA. I strongly agree to this since indeed the geography of LA strongly reflects the ideas of multicentered metropolitan region, information capitalism, consumerism, and cosmopolitanism. I also went to Downtown for the field work, I strongly felt these aspects directly from the area.

Secondly, you mentioned that the geography of LA strays away from the Chicago School model that was once so central in the study of cities. I strongly agree to this since the Chicago School Model does not concern about the mobility. Because there are many immigrants including Hispanic, Latino, and Asian in LA, it is significant to clarify a common mistake that people make when they regard LA as the area that applies Chicago School Model.

Thirdly, you said that LA is one of the areas that people can feel the effect of "The Fourth Urban Revolution". When this "Fourth Urban Revolution" is considered in more specific, one may says that "Globalization" goes on in LA regions. However, it is significant for us to notice that "globalization" does not only include the feature of micro means of globalization (ex. inside of area) but also the macro means of globalization (ex. outside of area). When we think about the globalization outside of area, is LA considered as core or periphery? If you consider LA as core, then it should be defined that LA specializes in high value labor. It is question whether LA really specializes in high value labor since certain poverty exists in the town. When you use the word "Fourth Urban Revolution", it can be said that this should be used in more broad sense.

Thank you.

Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 5

This time, I made a comment to RODRIGUEZ, LAIZA CAROL's blog, "Navigating Los Angeles: Cities and Social Differences".

http://uclageography.blogspot.com/2012/10/week-4-not-so-decentralized-la.html

Hi, I am Kei Komuro, taking class of "Cities and Social Difference".
I enjoyed reading your blog, and I found several interesting points to discuss about the geography of Los Angeles.
Firstly, as you have mentioned, Los Angeles County is much like the Chicago School "Concentric Zone Model" and this is what many people think of Los Angels. However, I wonder if "the center organizes periphery" rule can really be applied to explain this area. The reason is simple; it is difficult to determine where is the core of the Los Angeles. As the professor mentioned in the class, the west area can also be seen as the center, and it is question whether the single "core" exists or not.
Secondly, it is question whether the Los Angeles has the feature of Chicago Model, which includes transportation networks as the basis of connecting segregated communities. When I went to downtown for my own blog project, I asked to the local people what way I can use to get there. Surprisingly, most people answered "bus", neither metro nor cab. If the Chicago Model is really applied to explain Los Angeles, it is considered that LA can have more transportation ways that connect the segregated communities. The fact that most local people said "bus" shows that the way to get there is not diverse; this question whether there are certain enough accesses or not.