Week 9

For this blog post I decide to visit the city of Montclair. Many people may not know much of Montclair so brief information on that; it’s a local city to my hometown of Pomona. It is approximately 50 miles east of UCLA. Montclair was the city in its area where most of the stores were located until recent years when other cities flourish as well. As I drove around the city of Montclair I first decide to stop by its largest attraction of the city, The Montclair Plaza. As I began I started walking around inside with a few friends a couple days after Black Friday which left the Mall empty for a good time to come. As I walked around during a weekday in the mall I noticed that not many people were there. I believe this is because since Montclair is a middle class area that many do not do their shopping during the week due to work. The income of the area is roughly around $58,000-$87,000 therefore most of the residents of the area work their 9-5 jobs also causing them to be tired and not really in the mood to be out and about after work. When thinking about this I understand why they had a lot of shopping centers around the area because since most of the area is workers they want to make sure the city is a tool for reproducing labor. In the area there is a movie theater, shopping centers, and parks to allow the working class to distress/enjoy themselves from the idea of capitalism. This is exactly what the Marxian view is because you can see class differences determining the formation and function of Montclair. 

Also after leaving the Mall I decide to look around the city and from the looks of things that Montclair had a strong influence of the fourth urban revolution because of the auto mobility in the area. Most of the streets were 3 lanes are larger but I can fully understand because they want movement and mobility to be capable especially since the area’s economy strongly depends on their shopping centers. While being in Montclair you can see the economical difference in the vehicles driven in the area since I’ve already been to places such as Claremont, Westwood, and Irvine. Also the neighborhoods in the area didn’t have any form of gates or surveillance; it was more of a traditional neighborhood. Montclair was very easily accessible to everyone; the area seemed very open for everyone. In the contrary it seem as higher class individuals preferred not to be in this area because like I stated most cars were those of a middle class family (stereotyping of course). Also the people I had encounter and spoke to were those like myself of a middle-class family.

Also as I drove around the area of Montclair not only did I notice it was well for transportation but that it seemed to have a good source of public transportation especially because so many individuals of the community depend on it. Since Montclair is a working class area transporting all these employees to their job sites are important and I did notice that there were many bus stops and that many people depended on it because many people were waiting for the bus. The use of public transportation was higher that I saw it strongly represented my post on Irvine’s school busses post. Many individuals were waiting and from what I saw many people across the city were waiting for their bus.

Also as I continue on driving around Montclair I did noticed that there were many parks in the area and well kept. Most of these parks were small sections of the city for the resident’s children. However, there was one large recreational park just north of the city located near Claremont (High Income City) that is very accessible to the Montclair community. As we recently discussed in class nature symbolizes wealth which is why the nearest actual recreational park near Montclair is north of it in the city of Claremont. The park being nearby Montclair demonstrates how nature as a terrain has a meaning that is cultural constructed that wealth is symbolized with nature.