Hacienda Heights Week 4

Location of Hacienda Heights

For this week’s blog I decide to go on an adventure to Hacienda Heights to better explore the La area and expand my analysis of it. My reasoning for visiting Hacienda Heights was due to having plans to meet some friends at “Guppy Tea House.” As soon as I arrived to Hacienda Heights, I noticed that the culture and ethnicity was completely different in comparison to what Pomona. I noticed that many building signs were all written in an Asian language, which I am still not sure which sect of the Asian culture they were from.

Logo of the Place

So I began with ordering dinner, and as I was ordering food I noticed that the people in “Guppy Tea House” were largely from an Asian decent. There were few Anglo-Saxons and Hispanics, but no African-American people, which is extremely different from Pomona since it consists of mainly African-American and Hispanic residents. This was new and different experience for me. When my food arrived, I noticed that what we ordered had little to no Asian background. I order popcorn chicken and shaved ice with fruit, ice cream, and condense milk, and although it was tremendously delicious, I felt as if the meal was not connected with the culture of the environment.

Once we finished, we decided to walk around the area and I honestly could not manage to read a single billboard, due to its Asian language. After walking around the area, I noticed that it was completely adapted to its residents' culture/ethnicity. There was no diversity in this area at all, which surprised me since I am use to a diverse environment. Observing the area, you could presume that its residents obtained an adequate to high source of income in regards to the type of homes around the area. As explained in class, Hacienda Heights had two forms of fragmented inequalities based upon ethnicity and income. Hacienda Heights is a mix of two traditional models, I believe, of racial differences and hierarchical base models. I noticed to live in this area you need to both A) be of the same ethnicity, just as Detroit, since many if not most were Asian culture and B) have a good source of income, since most residents appeared to be wealthy, such as New York.

This was a new experience for me; I got to eat a different kind of food, and be around a different culture than what I am used to. After visiting Hacienda Heights, I noticed how LA is revolutionary different to other cities as well. Not many other cities have such a rich diversity of cultures. LA can’t be seen or studied with older forms, such as the Chicago school model. Hacienda Heights has a mixture of modern industrial urban model, because within Hacienda Heights, the work is centralized but viewed as part of the LA Metropolitan area, which demonstrates a multinucleated metropolitan set up.

Blog Post on Erica's Week 2 (Week 3 for Me)

Link to Blog I reposted on:
http://ericasantoyo.blogspot.com/2012/10/blogging-social-difference-in-la-week-2.html?showComment=1350705393684#c1972392691881164098

It is week 3 and I was not able to visit any particular area, due to my little sister’s 15^th party and having midterms for other courses. I decided to do what many others have done, which is comment on someone else’s post. Erica Joy Santoyo's Blog! was the post I chose because I have heard things about the city of Burbank, yet have never been there before, even though I have lived in the LA area my whole life.

Erica stated that Burbank was her hometown, which I think is a great place to start this assignment, because it allows her to do her best on the first assignment, since she knows her hometown well. Also, the ideas and concepts she observes from other cities will serve as comparisons to her hometown, which is great because it will allow her to identify similarities and differences among surrounding cities of Burbank. From her post, it seems that Burbank is portrayed as a better city than my hometown of Pomona, in regards to the cars types, because in Pomona there are very few variety of car types, which are most lower, cost efficient cars, when on the other hand Burbank has a variety of car types in the area. In respect to Erica's blog, Burbank seems close to a Utopian city, however, I do agree with other people's comments that perhaps Erica speaks highly of Burbank because it is her hometown. I truly believe every town has good and bad, which is why I feel that Erica should have include some of the negative sides of Burbank to portray the city more in an overall sense.

My last supervisor who used to live in Burbank did state that there are not many lower class locations in Burbank, however, I feel as if Erica did not speak of the economic differences at all in her post, which could have been more informative. I believe that information would greatly help her analyze Burbank more, and also help when comparing it to other cities she may visit.

Overall, her post was great! It was very informative on the things she included, which made me want to visit the city. If I were to visit Burbank, this blog could possibly contribute to my comparison of Burbank and Pomona, as well as obtain a better understand of both of the cities. In a different sense, a little discussion over our hometowns could help us find similarities that link us both to the LA metropolitan area, and also identify the differences in location, social class, economic class, and many other factors of each city as well.

Irvine Walk Around (15+Miles from LA)

Week two has come to an end, which means it is time for another post. This week I headed out to the city of Irvine to spend the weekend with my girlfriend at UCI; which is approximately 52.8 miles from UCLA. It amazes me that our reading for the week consists of Orange County, and in particular Irvine. As I drove to Irvine, I noticed that the freeways/highways in the area were large, presumably to withhold hundreds of residential commuters, which evidently there were plenty of automobiles on the freeway along side mine. This incident verified the reading in “Post-suburban California,” which states that some highways are 8-12 lanes wide, giving Orange County the availability to hold many commuters. Visiting UCI enforced my knowledge of it being a commuter city because I noticed that the school structure is set for commuter students, as well as the structure of the city being set for residential commuters, in aspects of places being spread out forcing residents to often commute everywhere.

 Irvine is structured differently compared to the city of L.A. Housing in Irvine is structured just as the reading stated with private enclosed areas with a lot of gates. My girlfriend and I decided to go shopping and noticed that most of the shops were grouped together, and were all fairly similar. This was due to the fact that most of these places were built in 1970’s and 1980’s, which were designed for efficient shopping. A great example of this is the Irvine spectrum and Fashion Island, where my girlfriend and I spent some time and of course had a large range of shops to choose from within the area.

Another thing I noticed was that near the 405 freeway, there were many large multi-floor buildings with big corporations. All of this demonstrates the consumerism aspect in Orange County and how the city grew (Post-suburban California). A great example is the MetLife building, which demonstrates the growth of the city and how large corporations are part of the Irvine community. When I reflect on the functioning of Irvine, I can see the city being based on mechanical solidarity, for the fact that there is an emphasis on the value of American consumerism and commuter groups, and not so much individuality. This can be understood in view that people live together in the same community and accept the values of outer area (Emile Durkheim "The Causes [of the Division of Labor]" from The Division of Labor in Society (1893) "Organic Analogy" from Dictionary of Sociology).

I am glad I decided to visit my girlfriend in Irvine; I didn't notice that while doing so would tremendously help me with my assignment and better understand this week’s reading.  Irvine is a growing city, and as stated in the Post-suburban California reading, it triggered memories of what I saw and helped me understand Irvine’s structure, including UC Irvine. After week two, I have learned that the structure of Irvine and its different formation of the city, has formed an impact in society and on its own future.

Edit (12/07): As we’ve gone more into the course, I would like to note more relative information in regards to this post, especially in perspective of the 2^nd half of the course. *For instance, Irvine is great example of American suburban designed for working men and stay-at home women. While visiting, I could see many women located in their area of domain, which is the home, as stated in Chapter 26, City A/Genders by Sophie Watson. Irvine’s suburban atmosphere also supports gender is a floating signifier. Also, Irvine supports Marxian view of capitalism in the city because it allows the residents to believe they are achieving the American Dream, therefore, they are okay with being exploited by the individuals who have the means of production (Bourgeoisie).* Also, in nature, inequality is demonstrated in Irvine but in the positive sense, viewing that they are a wealthy city, they have access to parks and recreational areas.

Post of Week 1

My blog will focus on viewing the differences between individuals and groups of people in reflection of their location and social standings. During the course, Geog-151 City and Social Differences, I hope to learn what makes people to view one other as being different from each other. As a philosophy major, emphasis on ethics, I hope to understand what bridges we build around people depending on their race, class, religion, etc. This course will also help me gain better understanding, on how the upper and lower class individuals are in comparison in regards to their location, race, and religion. I hope to construct a new way of observing individuals, paying little attention to what arises from the naked eye, but observing more in depth at people's true personal characteristics.

In taking this course, I am interested in figuring out how our morality/ethics interplay with our social economic status. For instance, I have been personally treated poorly by many individuals due to the city I reside in, Pomona, because it is considered a “Ghetto” city, leading to be referred to stereotypes of being either a gang banger or uneducated. Also, for the fact of being of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, people presume that I am uneducated and unworthy of an American lifestyle. I want to change the way I am negatively judged from my outer characteristics, and force individuals to stop judging, take time to get to know people, find out who they truly are, what they've been through, and all their successes before labeling them.

Social differences is a topic that we could learn from and grow with. A large city, such as Los Angeles, allows us to attempt new and different things due to its diverse culture, which could improve people into becoming more open to diversity, and tolerating social and economical differences. Consequently, I plan to visit Compton due to its negative connotation, in the sense that USC is the only good thing about the city, and attempt to observe it for myself and create an opinion based on personal experience. I also plan to visit Claremont because it is a city distant away from UCLA and observe the environment around the Claremont colleges and compare the differences between the whole city and that of Compton. I have heard that from both of these schools, USC and Claremont colleges, students come from wealthier families, which in turn, is different in comparison of my personal hometown. In order to get personally integrated in both areas, I plan to ride the bus around USC, and take a train ride in Claremont to observe the cities as closely as possible from a resident point of view.