Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 4

               If I have a preconceived idea about a location's personality, it may lead to a one-way relationship in which I impose my ideas upon it, but it is unable to communicate openly with me. I want a genuine relationship to develop, not one marred by bias or stubbornness. However, for this blog I wanted to focus on a low-income area with a high crime rate. Thus, again utilizing www.simplymap.com, I researched and found that the zip code 90021 (San Pedro) has the highest EASI Total Crime Index. I hoped that this area would demonstrate the conditions William Wilson included in his definition of underclass in "The Truly Disadvantaged": "long-term unemployment or are not members of labor force, engaged in street crime and forms of aberrant behavior, families that experience long-term spells of poverty and/or welfare dependency."  

Total Crime Index by Census Tracts: 90021 highlighted

Not in Labor Force by Census Tracts: 90021 highlighted

               As I drove into the area, located near South Central L.A. in downtown, enormous factories on either side distracted me from evaluating whether or not the area seemed dangerous. Dilapidated windows 

Factory for American Apparel in San Pedro

and old-looking buildings suggested less- than-glamorous working conditions. The factories contrast with the modern, sleek business buildings I saw last week in Korea Town. Various signs on the buildings ("Legalize LA!") indicate social unrest for a certain part of the population fighting for more rights. The labor signs on the factories remind me of the principle of community employed by David Harvey in "The Urban Process Under Capitalism" to explain a major "springboard" (Harvey 37) for class action; it is a "weapon in class struggle" (Harvey 37). The conflict that results is central to a society under capitalism, a society of contradictions and civil disorder. Continuing further into the region, it appeared as though this had once been a booming area, but today it felt rather empty...until I reached the Fashion District. Sun glinted off of sparkly skirts, shirts, dresses, and shoes as I walked past rows of boutiques. Were there more people or mannequins? Mannequins, I guessed. Like the flower district I describe below, this adjacent area is a cluster of almost identical businesses trying to out-compete the next. Spanish conversations floated on the bustling sidewalks where stacks of card board boxes made maneuvering difficult. Competition, the fuel of capitalism, was not out-of-stock here. 

            Why do you live here? This is a complex question in disguise. Auroura, an elderly Mexican woman I encountered while walking through the Flower Market in San Pedro did not pause to ponder.

Flower Markets

Auroura came here to Los Angeles from Mexico in 1965 "para encontrar una vida mejor," to find a better life. Interviewing her in Spanish, I asked if she has found that life. Sí, yes she has. In the Flower District, "hay mucha competencia," there is a lot of competition, but the work she has found sustains her and her family. After speaking with Auroura about immigration, I pictured the concentric circle format  Ernest Burgess uses to illustrate the zones of large cities. In the "zone of deterioration" which surrounds the central business zone (just as the Fashion District is on the periphery of central downtown L.A.), he claims there are poverty-ridden slums with "underworlds of crime and vice" (Burgess 342). According to Burgess, these regions consist of immigrant colonies--American adaptations of old cultures--who are "obsessed with a vision of a new and better world." While Burgess's naturalization of difference may not be accurate, Auroura puts a face to his claim; the district consists of many immigrants searching for "una vida mejor." The model he utilizes is "ideal" and can not perfectly represent Los Angeles' expansion. Nevertheless, though L.A. is not as clearly separated or organized into rings, this region demonstrates how immigration can reorganize and lead to differentiation into economic and cultural groupings. Even on a brisk Fall afternoon, every street side and corner in sight is in bloom; flowers of all colors, shapes, sizes combine to form one person's living, and another person's fragrant gift. Each shop is only slightly different from the next, and even so, the differences are often imperceptible. How do they differentiate themselves when there are only so many ways to display a bouquet? It is no wonder that Auroura emphasized "mucha" with a widening of her mahogany eyes when describing the competition. Although the flower vendors are side-by-side, clustered onto two blocks, their success depends on attracting more customers than the others. Auroura believes there to be little "violencia," violence, in the Flower District, but conflict is still very present despite the similar ethnic, social, and economic backgrounds of the vendors; this type of conflict is less physically painful than the violence William Wilson refers to in "The Truly Disadvantaged," instead I am reminded of David Harvey's "The Urban Process Under Capitalism," which focuses on the inseparable dichotomy of class struggle and accumulation. Although they are competing, the working-class community in the Flower District is just that: a community.
           Curious about the redlining phenomenon discussed in a 1992 New York Times newspaper article entitled "Riots Raise Concerns About Insurance Redlining," I asked various people in the Fashion District about the Rodney King riots and whether they believe it has had lasting affects on Los Angeles' social structure or the presence of businesses. Not one person was able to answer the question directly. Instead, a majority shrugged and stated that it did not affect them; they acted as if the location they are currently in is separate from "over there," gesturing somewhere off in the distance. These reactions surprised me, considering the close proximity of this community to where the riots occurred. Thus, I turned to an imaginary Robert E. Park, who believed that "the City is a mosaic of little worlds that touch but do not interpenetrate,"  and nodded in agreement. While I still am not positive about the truth of Park's statement, each area I have traveled to so far has characteristics of a little world--some multi-ethnic and others dominated by a single ethnicity and social class, like the sellers in San Pedro. Similar to the Koreans in Korea Town, this community of ethnically similar people work in the same area but do not necessarily work together.
         Although I did not find what I intended to find--how  "current racism" affects "nonracial factors such as economic-class position and modern economic trends" (Wilson 189)--this area confirmed the possibility of a mosaic city-structure. Seconds after leaving the boundaries of 90021, I entered historic downtown L.A. and an entirely different atmosphere--a separate world?

The district is difficult to describe in words; a video more accurately captures the pulse of the community. Here is footage from my walk along the streets: