Exploring a new city
These past two weeks we have gone on urban labs in order to
explore our assigned cities. We have had the chance to experience the culture,
the people, and the food of Cypress Park, China Town, Highland Park, and Boyle
Heights. Through these explorations we have developed a greater sense of the
history of each neighborhood and have discovered the cultural, social, and
geological aspects of our assigned cities. Although these cities are so close
to us in Pasadena, we don’t seem to know a whole lot about these aspects and these cities aren't too familiar to us. We have been given this unique opportunity to use our
skills as thoughtful observers and occupants of the city and learn about a
specific area in Los Angeles.
How are these urban labs expanding our knowledge about Los
Angeles? How do we as students benefit from reaching across communities and
exploring a city that we aren’t too familiar with? How does each city differ
from Pasadena or where you live? How can we integrate the experiences we have
in our cities into the classroom?
These urban labs that bring us to different communities within Los Angeles give us the unique opportunity to see areas that we might not usually spend time in. Because the "Pasadena/Poly Bubble" is a thing, these labs allow us to reach out of the small part of LA some of us might be exposed to daily. As young students in a developing Los Angeles, exploring cities vastly different than ones we are familiar with can present new experience, leading to new curiosities and comparisons. Because I live in Alhambra, I do get a different experience than I would if I lived in Pasadena. I make this claim because I compare my daily life to those who live in Pasadena and see differences. By just living in a community that is so different than the area of "Poly Pasadena", I am able to compare the two, sometimes blindly moving from one to other and sometimes consciously aware of the apparent differences. When I think of the wealthier areas of Pasadena where many Poly families live, I consider where I live and the socioeconomic status of those around me and compare that to the environment that surrounds Poly when I'm at school. I have also come to realize that most all of these communities cater to the dominant demographic of the area. For example, where I live, if you go to Main Street Alhambra, many of the businesses and restaurants are Asian, or have some sort of Asian translation. Although, recently the Main Street area has been developed and more Americanized places such as Blaze Pizza or The Habit have opened up. This prompts me back to the question of gentrification versus development and the direct effects on the community. I also notice Spanish translations in certain areas of the city. When I go to other neighborhoods such as Highland Park, I see mostly Spanish translations/businesses, catering to the majority Latinx demographic. Yet, this is only true for certain parts of the city. In the areas that are being gentrified, I see mostly a mostly white crowd, new places without the Spanish translation, or trendy upscale Mexican restaurants.
ReplyDeleteI think that just being in Los Angeles is the best way to understand it. It is similar to how people say you can never fully understand a skill just by watching people do it. You must try it yourself. I think this is applicable to understanding Los Angeles and, in a way, understanding anywhere. I think we like to call ourselves Angelenos even though most of us live outside of Los Angeles City, but I think an important part of being an Angeleno is understanding your home. I think it is really interesting to visit somewhere that is completely different from where I spend most of my time. Like a lot of us have said, Los Angeles is a very diverse but segregated city, and I think that mindset can be applied to the neighborhoods as well. Each place is completely different from the next, but they are found in their own little spots. Perhaps this is stemmed from the idea that the people are segregated but diverse, but I think this is a very interesting representation of this idea. Being a student means exploring things that you have yet to explore in order to gain more knowledge and learn. I think this urban lab project is the definition of educating a student. We are introduced to a new place with the purpose of learning about that place. I think we are already effectively integrating our experiences into our classes. I am unsure as to how we would integrate them further than just speaking about them at this moment. I feel like recording them and making the podcasts will be exciting, but it is still simply auditory storytelling, similar to us just stating the experiences. I think that is an interesting thing to think about... how we might make our experiences more accessible in a more sense-driven manner.
ReplyDeleteI think it is so amazing that we live within a 20 minute radius of extremely different neighborhoods yet we know close to nothing about them. As students there is a lot of valuable information we are gaining about various cities in Los Angeles, furthering our exploration of the city we live in. But we are simultaneously gaining knowledge in how to respectfully observe a new neighborhood, one in which we are foreign. It is sometimes tricky finding ways to "interrupt" those in their daily routine but the history, stories, and anecdotes that we able to hear from doing so are worth the risk. Of the four neighborhoods that are exploring, Cypress Park is the one I know the least about. In all honesty when I read "Cypress Park" on the sheet, I did not even know where it was. Through our research and urban labs, I have found that it is really close to Highland Park, and Mount Washington, neighborhoods I am very familiar with. I reflected on our first urban lab that Mount Washington looks down on Cypress Park and that I remember taking walks in the hills and looking down not knowing what was there (I located my exact walk route up in the mountains). As we continue to observe and learn about our neighborhoods, I think that we will be able to use the information we gain within our classroom to further our discussion of varying cities within Los Angeles. I believe it will add rich conversation and bring insight to the differences and similarities that are found throughout different neighborhoods within one great city- Los Angeles.
ReplyDeleteWhat is incredible about LA, is that we have a little piece of everything. Geographically, culturally, etc.--Los Angeles offers all. But what is frustrating about LA, is that these characteristics of our city are sporadically spread out and sometimes closed off to one another. I have lived in Pasadena my whole life; I have gone to Poly from Pre-k to 12th grade. Everything I know and essentially need is within my Pasadena barriers. Pasadena itself is wonderful, but it only offers one perspective. Last year was the first year I really made a conscious effort to go outside of my bubble. I got to know my city's freeways, side streets, small restaurants and even smaller movie theaters. Our class this year has allowed me to continue this exploration through our urban labs. By reaching out to other communities we are tying people, experiences and understandings together. When we live in one place, in one lifestyle, we are isolating ourselves from building connections with people with new and different perspectives. This past Tuesday, we have an over 40 minute encounter with an old, mid-western lady named Arlene and a possibly crazy religious fanatic. Our new connection with Arlene has given us unique insight into highland park through a slightly religious lens. We hope to further the connection and gain a wider understanding of the displacement of people in LA as a whole. When we connect across communities, we are pulling our sporadic city and all its chaos, closer together.
ReplyDeleteThese urban labs are giving me a ton first-hand of insight about Los Angeles and mainly the different layers of gentrification in the city. Being able to personally see something like gentrification happen before my eyes and understand it has greatly impacted my knowledge about the subject. By exploring anything- be it a new country, state, or even city- is very beneficial to ones knowledge and experience. With that being said, exploring Boyle Heights is a perfect example about that. I'm personally learning more about an area that I'm familiar with and getting new experiences that really shape the kind of person I am. I think that we can integrate these experiences into the classroom by giving a space to talk about ones experiences on such urban labs. I also think that along with the podcast, it would be really interesting to try to make a short film about these neighborhoods.
ReplyDeleteThe urban labs expand our knowledge by placing us in parts of Los Angeles we are not familiar with. While I had spent time in Chinatown before our labs, the extent of my exploration was as far into the plaza next to the train as needed to find a vendor willing to sell fireworks, and as far down broadway as it took to find the best deal on a tax free knife. Being in Chinatown in the daytime, with no intentions beyond learning more about the neighborhood, works to create a familiarity that is otherwise impossible to achieve. That experience allows to understand the neighborhoods as places of life, similar to that of Pasadena, wherein people live and grow up in the same manner as we do (yet, not exactly the same). That sense of commonality has many benefits, the most simple of which is an empathy that works to make us strive towards a better Los Angeles.
ReplyDeleteAs it stands, I can't say what all the differences are between Los Angeles and Chinatown, but the main one I have observed is in Chinatown and Pasadena's commerciality. Pasadena has local stores and restaurants, but merely the existence of Chinatown's plaza's filled with independent vendors shows how Chinatown's economy is far more local than Pasadena's. Store Owners, at least the ones I have talked to, are immigrants who have no higher up who manages their stores. A stroll through Pasadena’s Old Town shows how this is not the case in Pasadena (granted, Old Town doesn't represent all of it). The experiences in our urban labs can be integrated into our classroom through concentrated dialogues on certain trends in all of the neighborhoods. Gentrification is a clear starting point, but I think expanding that conversation into topics like how ethnic makeup affects business, city planning, etc. is a great way to not only share our experiences but search for common problems and solutions for issues facing the neighborhoods.
I think that we should start to tell our own stories and the stories of others-- through more writing, art, music--- somehow. The importance of going into other neighborhoods is exploring what boundaries mean. Why do we section off neighborhoods in the first place? How does that create community? How do boundaries cause problems? Ultimately, neighborhood boundaries are imagined, like the Tropic of Cancer line in the book. Sometimes borders protect us, like they protect Sol from the villain "who could not push his body past an invisible anger" (Ch 30). The irony here is that the villain, who probably created the boundary in the first place, now sees the "failed magic" of imaginary things... He's now on the outside of the barrier, having "lost control of his world." I don't weep for him, but I wonder if the loss of control is the downside of boundaries for everyone. Boundaries are a means for control. They also take away power for the people who are cast aside or told to conform. They, the innocent, lose control too. The difference is that they lose control of their own lives, while the villain loses control of others. The question still reigns... do boundaries protect or exclude? When we cross boundaries, do we gain control? How does that relate to the story of the villain?
ReplyDeleteConsidering I VERY rarely go different cities in LA, I guess I could say that I have been able to have my knowledge, about LA, expand in the sense that I've seen and noticed more differing things in the different neighborhoods that we go to. It has had me reach a sense of realization even though I already knew that some places were very different from others, it kind of gives me a sense of privilege knowing that I have grown up in more (for lack of a better word) modern neighborhood and I go to such a "prestigious" school. I think we as students (I mean i just said i got a sense of realization about the privilege that I have but I have already known of it, I just saw it with my own eyes) can benefit from these urban labs because someone people.. need help realizing that not everything is the same for everybody and everyone goes through different things, everyone is grown up a different way, and everyone does NOT have the same social economic background. So I believe that witnessing those certain aspects of REAL life and leaving our bubble that is Polytechnic is great so that we can see the juxtaposition between where ever we live and where ever the places are that we go to.
ReplyDeleteThese urban labs have giving me a completely new understanding of both Chinatown and Los Angeles as a whole. I have been to Chinatown a couple of times, but the majority of the times I have only have driven through it on my way to Downtown LA. Now as my project has placed me in Chinatown, and I have to spend extended amounts of time there, I have uncovered a lot of truths and been exposed to what seems like a completely different city. Before I thought the majority of the shops sold different items, however now after having the opportunities to venture through the city, I have witnessed that a lot of the stores sell the same items and that the stores are not only on the street. The stores actually can extend from one street to another through indoor markets that are split up with big tarps. In how Chinatown differs from Pasadena has to do with the size, culture and the housing element. Because the city of Pasadena is much bigger and does not relay heavily on money made from selling items, Pasadena has accumulated a lot more wealth. I would say the class structure in Pasadena also varies from very rich to poor. However in Chinatown to meet what it seems like visually, is that the citizen/vendors a pretty close in terms of class structure. I believe that we can take the lessons we have learned from our experiences to further deepen or discussion and also to provide a perspective from a much smaller city that could soon be feeling the benefits/disadvantages of gentrification.
ReplyDeleteThe Urban Labs have given me an opportunity to consume some of the finest tacos in all of Los Angeles. I have never been in Boyle Heights and knew nothing whatsoever about the neighborhood other than basic demographic information. Luckily, we had Luna, who had deep connections to that neighborhood and we were able to talk to her uncle who clearly summarized the current controversy over gentrification. This experience was useful in expanding my worldview to consider the existences of other people and communities in my city.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest realizations to me was the communal aspect of Boyle Heights. There is a very strong influence of latino culture in the neighborhood as evidenced by the shops at the intersection of 1st and Boyle. I remember seeing a skate shop with a big sign outside that said afterschool homework help with a list of point values for certain assignments such as finishing homework, reading a book, writing, etc. After kids receive a certain number of points, they are then awarded candy, a t shirt, a skateboard, etc. with the more points that they get, they get better awards.
It takes a village to raise a kid, and Boyle Heights resembled that mentality. It is very clear to see why the residents are against gentrification because every single shop and business they have is part of a community, and the newcomers are not as interested in contributing to the community i.e. not donating for parades and not participating in communal events.
As for us observing the community, I have found that all of the people I met welcomed us and were willing to tell us more about their community so I think we're doing this whole observing thing correctly.
My group has been going to cypress park recently and I personally have had a great time discovering a neighborhood and part of my city that I had ignored and did not know much about. Cypress Park was always known as the neighborhood that had the Home Depot. That is all I associated it with because that is all I did when I would go there. Through our urban labs I have learned a lot about the neighborhood. Previously I just though the area was a continuation of Glassell Park, which I am much more accustomed to and know in a context that I am close to. Through these explorations I have now added to mental map of my city. I now know that Cypress Park sits perfectly in between Mount Washington, the river, Glassell Park, and Lincoln Heights. It is a primarily latino neighborhood and surrounded by major gentrification, which scares me because it seems as though with the current trend our neighborhood is next in line. We have met some very nice locals and non-locals who have explained what there job is in the community and how their business helps or hurts their neighbors. Cypress Park is very different than silverlake even tough the two are fairly close. They both share close connection and access to the river, but silverlake's gentrifying antics seem to be slowly spreading to surrounding parts and every time we go back we see more and more development.
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ReplyDeleteAs we have discussed before in the class, every neighborhood, and especially every neighborhood away from Pasadena, is extremely different from the one next to it. I have gone to Cypress Park one time in my life and that was this past Tuesday, to my knowledge. It seems like the borders between many of these neighborhoods have very arbitrary demarcations. When we were driving through Highland Park to get to Cypress Park, it was hard for me to distinguish between the two neighborhoods. I didn't know if Mount Washington was its own neighborhood or if it was part of the tow aforementioned ones. When we got to Cypress Park, it seemed quite desolate. No matter where we walked, it seemed like no one was around. As we walked through the streets we passed a very small number of people. I am curious as to what Cypress Park looks like on a weekend or during rush hour. I wonder if it is similar to the busy life that I have seen in Highland Park and Silver Lake, both up and coming gentrified neighborhoods. And, it seemed much less dense than other neighborhoods near Cypress Park. Maybe we didn't walk near it, but I didn't see a real hub for the neighborhood either. Like Highland Park has Figueroa or York, Cypress Park didn't seem to have anything like that. This interaction with the city is really the best way to learn about it. Reading a book are receiving a lecture about Cypress Park would do it no justice, and we wouldn't learn something that we are each individually able to notice. Some things fly under the radar, and I'm curious if the rest of my group has noticed the same attributes of the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I saw very few similarities between Cypress Park and Pasadena. Many of the stores and shops were yet to be gentrified in Cypress Park, although this is not denying that there is gentrification in Cypress Park. There is. As long as I have lived in Pasadena it has always seemed to be a pretty nice and fairly upper class place to live. Cypress Park seems like it hasn't quite reached that level. It hasn't yet been gentrified to the point where it is similar to a place like Pasadena.