Freeways or Walls?
In Natalia Molina's "Fit to Be Citizens', it is obvious that Los Angeles's history has been filled with racism in many different forms especially when looking at public health. When Dr. Deverell visited our class, he mentioned health and disease spreading between neighborhoods and in specific. Both Dr. Deverell's observations and lecture on top of the history provided in Fit to Be Citizens reminded me of a theme in gentrification that I wanted to look into. This being how certain streets and highways act as literal borders between neighborhoods and how certain public infrastructure divide people by race and class. After both the lecture and Fit to Be Citizens I began to realize that maybe all the streets and highways are placed in certain locations for a reason. Maybe the 10 freeway isn't just coincidentally the line between Culver City and Inglewood. My question is: Can you all think of other freeways/streets/parks that divide neighborhoods by race or wealth? If so how do you think these decisions for placement of roads and highways came about and how do these borders lead to the spread/containment of a disease in a single place? Finally, how does this same theme connect with gentrification and how neighborhoods are distinguished and laid out?
I've never thought of freeways as divisions of race and wealth based on the different neighborhoods, but this is an interesting perspective. I don't know if freeways in Los Angeles, like the 10, were established on the grounds of intentionally dividing cities based on socioeconomic class or race. But, I think these aspects of a neighborhood may still have played a role- just not the forefront reasoning. For example, when the 10 freeway was under development, the intention behind its construction might have been to provide a quicker and easier route of transportation for those living in the surrounding areas (like Culver City and Inglewood) based on data gathered about where the residents traveled on a daily basis. That being said, I am interested in what others have to say because I'm not sure one way or the other. In connection to disease, I'm also not sure if the placement of different freeways have much to do with the spread of disease. I think looking at the borders now, it might emphasize the containment and spread of disease throughout poorer and wealthier neighborhoods.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I haven't thought too much about specific highways that split one community from another, but I know there are plenty all over LA. The presence of a highway is essentially the presence of something that cannot be crossed by anything except for cars. When thinking about it that way, it is clear that highways can definitely create a division between different communities in Los Angeles. This could partially explain the lack of neighborhood diversity in Los Angeles. I have no clue wether these highways were put in in order to do such a thing, or if it's a coincidence that it's happening. I really am not too sure how highways would ever be laid out to stop diseases from spreading because they take long time to plan out and are not a solution that would be very effective to contain the disease before it does its damage on a society.
ReplyDeleteI think the first thing to explore would be which came first, the freeway division or the neighborhood segregation. If we knew that the segregated neighborhoods are direct effects of the highways then we could explore whether or not they were placed on purpose. There are so many highways in Los Angeles. I was thinking about my route to school and I realized that I do not think there is a neighborhood divided by the 134 from Eagle Rock to Pasadena. The neighborhood changes as you move along the freeway but there is not one neighborhood on one side and one on the other. I wonder as well how many neighborhoods are divided by a freeway...looking at my neighborhood and my school neighborhood again, I do not think that there is a tie to gentrification and freeways. Or now that I am thinking about it, I may not know where the freeways "surrounding" neighborhoods specifically lie. For instance, I can get to Silverlake without using a freeway and pass through a ton of gentrified neighborhoods (these are left of a freeway). But on the other side of the freeway there are gentrified and non-gentrified neighborhoods. What I am trying to get at is that there isn't a direct correlation to freeways and gentrification. This will be interesting to explore. Maybe with the help of maps we can uncover more connections between freeways and the neighborhoods that surround them.
ReplyDeleteI was driven to Poly from 2nd grade to 10th grade, and we mostly drive on the 101 and 110 freeways. The long commute gave me as a passenger plenty of time to stare out of the window and look at the surrounding neighborhoods. As for the 101, I cannot think of a part that has a stark divide between each side. However, on the 110, around heritage square, there seems to be a separation of neighborhoods. I suppose what led me to conclude that was the size of the houses on each side of the freeway. We also know that living near a freeway has negative health effects that probably lead to disease, so besides the idea that freeways are divisive, they are a birth place for disease. We also know that there are plenty of stigmas associated with disease so that leads people to use class and race to validate their reasoning to avoid such infected people. I think this is probably where freeways become barriers between communities. We have thought a lot about how metro lines act as gentrification-boosters, but I have a feeling that freeways do the opposite, at least neighborhoods directly next to freeways. I look forward to discussing this topic of freeways and gentrification in class tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteHaving travelled over the 210 every single day for the past 6 years, it still amazes me how different the two Pasadena regions are. The neighborhoods south of the 210, and more specifically closer to Poly, are generally nicer, higher income, and frankly, whiter neighborhoods, while the neighborhoods north of the 210 are generally the opposite.There is no way that this distinction was not deliberate. I believe that this "segregation" all began with redlining, which defined the housing and occupant standards for each neighborhood. For the most part people that live north of the freeway conduct their business, schooling, and most day to day activities in their neighborhood, and the same goes for the people that live south of the freeway. There is not as much interneighborhood interaction as there is intraneighborhood interaction. I have noticed the neighborhood near me to begin gentrifying. A lot of the old family owned restaurants are turning into expensive boutiques and niche breakfast restaurants. I'd like to know where the restaurants are originating from and where the owners of them live. I've only noticed this change recently, but i expect it to continue, and I am interested as to how it will develop.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do not know the names of the freeways that divide up LA neighborhoods (I could describe the freeways and the scenery on the freeways but I don’t actually know what the names/numbers are), I can think of bigger streets near my own neighborhood that stereotypically split up the area by wealth. One region of the street is characterized by a lush green park, complete with a biking path and a children’s playground; the general understanding is that behind this park lie rows of well-kept houses and clean streets. The opposite side of the street, however, is lined with fast-food restaurants and countless nail salons, and the houses in the neighborhood behind these shops is stereotypically thought to house a population of lower-income families who own smaller houses and must protect their dried lawns with rusted iron fences. I am not sure how it was decided that roads should be placed exactly where they are, but I doubt that builders intended to separate neighborhoods in the way that ended up happening. I think this connects with gentrification in that developers specifically choose the neighborhoods they want to develop in, and they typically do not choose communities isolated by freeways/highways because of the low potential for profit there—they usually choose neighborhoods that are already accompanied by a desirable, clean image, or a place that can easily be fixed up or is located in an area that could easily attract customers.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of freeways segregating neighborhoods, I immediately think of how the 210 divides Pasadena. I do not know (I don't have any evidence) if it is significantly divided racially, but the differences in real estate value indicate a class disparity that is pretty evident when you compare houses while driving up orange grove. These division affect diseases by creating pseudo quarantines, wherein individuals tend to stay within the "boundaries" of their neighborhood. Historical documents in Los Angeles prove that divisions like that in Pasadena were on purpose, as you can find maps that lay out the way housing inequality should be in Los Angeles. But, I think this was more significant when transportation was harder. Now, anyone can drive anywhere, making the division of neighborhoods less likely to contain diseases in certain neighborhoods.
ReplyDeleteThis is something we have began looking at in my statistics and social justice class. These divides can't merely be coincidental but they have clear implications for those who reside in these neighborhoods. Race and wealth are so closely related that I believe that the segregation of specific neighborhoods was intended to isolate certain marginalized groups in areas with fewer opportunities/access to resources. In my opinion it is very unlikely that the segregation created by highways was not intentional. When certain racial groups were associated with a disease the reaction was not to improve the living conditions that allowed this disease to exist in this community but rather to create/reinforce associations concerning this group of people.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a very interesting topic and one that we can definitely dive into during class. I have also been very interested in this idea and the deeper connection between race and wealth. I think that there is definitely segregation between areas in Los Angeles especially in Pasadena. I think that the divide between Pasadena and Altadena is very great and can mostly be seen on either sides of Orange Grove. I think that certain races tend to become isolated and centered in a certain areas. There have been many times during class where we have discussed parts of Los Angeles and used vocabulary such as “a predominately black neighborhood” or other races. I do believe that there is a divide between wealth in Los Angeles and that it is purposeful. However, I do not think that city planners purposefully separate RACES but I do believe that there is a distinct line between wealthier communities.
ReplyDeleteNow that you say it, you’re kinda right will the freeways keeping other races separate from each other, and having an underlying aspect of segregation within Los Angeles. And I don’t know what freeway it is…because I don’t know freeways like that, but the freeway on Lincoln definitely has some racial segregation as well as social economic segregation. It’s crazy because some people in this era in time wouldn’t think that freeways do that. But considering they were constructed such a long time ago, people might of had that idea in mind- that idea being that POC are dirty people loaded with contagious diseases.
ReplyDeleteI think that freeways can be looked at as harsh economic divides in LA. As certain areas and communities rebuild themselves and are shaped by a new influx of character.. the neighborhoods around freeways seem untouched. This is most likely because aesthetic but as we mentioned a few classes ago, living near freeways is a total health hazard. The low prices separate the people who can afford not not live there and then the city kind of just neglects those who have to live there. The section of the freeway closer to LAX has always been something that stands out to me. It seems like one of freeways with the most clustered homes right around and under the cars that sit in traffic for hours, blowing fumes down into the streets. Clearly most of these arching freeways were built years ago--in a time of much harsher social politics--and it would be an enormous construction job to rework the lines of transportation, but while they still stand, the division and isolation of the highways exposes our "diverse la"--segregation is not integration.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I don't have my driving license yet, and I only sort of know how to drive so I am really clueless as to what highways are which. I've heard of the 10 and a freeway and also the 605 but am only somewhat vaguely certain about where they are placed.
ReplyDeleteBut I do know that living within 500 feet of a highway poses major health risks for a person and substantially raises the risk of developing lung diseases. A major highway is defined by the EPA as any road which sees more than 30,000 vehicles a day with a single truck counting as multiple vehicles due to substantially higher emissions. This substantially decreases the value of such land which contributes in some ways to economic inequality. For example in Boyle Heights, there are 3 such public schools built in proximity to a highway and students living in those areas are substantially negatively affected by the air quality decreasing their academic performance and future economic output.
Freeways have long been a divider that has separated neighborhoods and cities for a while as history has progressed. It began with city streets as the title for the exercise became “red lineing”. What happend is that city officials would identify a neighborhood that was either low income or a neighborhood that was racial mixed and not white washed and they would use city streets to identify the area. Move this example to a modern day setting and this is where I believe freeways come into account in blocking off neighborhoods. In the business of selling or buying homes also, I know that freeways also play a huge role in determining the market for your house or the house you would like to buy due to the impact they have over the market. Examples I have see if freeways dividing up neighborhoods in an area include the north 210, orange grove and cook street in palm desert.
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