I decided
this week to drive around one of the more interesting cities in southern
California, the city of West Hollywood. With
the affluent populations of Beverly Hills on one side and the not so affluent
groups in Hollywood on the other this city, affectionately called “WeHo” by its
residents, presents a melting pot of rich and poor and a very diverse ethnic
population. Its early history is full of
the glamour of Hollywood as many of the super stars of the golden age of movies
used to live here. But over time they
moved to other parts of the city and West Hollywood became a rundown community
in a not so nice part of Los Angeles.
But in recent years the area has had a phoenix-like rebirth and is now home
to some of the trendiest boutiques, restaurants and night clubs on the
Westside. However, the residents saw
this boom as a detriment to their economic survival, fearing high rents and
expensive stores. It is said that that the gay and lesbian community make up
more than 40% of the population here. And as I drove along Santa Monica Blvd, I
could clearly see a representation of this as male couples and female couple
could be seen walking and shopping and eating at restaurants.
But the
city draws to it a diverse crowd as people move into the old houses of the
1920s and 1930s and refurbish them and as newer more artistic and modern houses
and condominiums cover the landscape. However,
the old apartment buildings are still home to the lower income inhabitants and
the city is quite friendly to the homeless and the needy. In 1984 a coalition
of residents incorporated the city of West Hollywood and enacted one of the
strongest rent control laws in the state. This allowed many of them to be able
to stay in their apartments despite the meteoric rise of prices in the area. The
resulting community appears to be friendly and accommodating. I went on the
simplymaps website and discovered that it becomes very clear to see this huge
split when looking at a map of racial distinction. Although
the other maps seem to have a fair evenness within them it is important to see
that there are differences of affluence and race.
The little
clothing boutiques along Melrose, near Fairfax, are a wonderful mix of
shabby-chic offerings. Here the wealthy
mix with the poor as they all try to find the latest in grunge wear. As I walked west along Melrose I came across
the Pacific Design Center, commonly called the Blue Whale, which has now grown
to include several brightly coloured buildings housing hundreds of show
rooms. These stores are definitely for
the rich and in many cases require an appointment before you can get in. Along the Sunset Strip there are many fancy
restaurants and people cruise by in their Ferraris and Maseratis looking for a
place to park that would be visible to show off their fancy cars.
The city
does not have any manufacturing plants and is primarily a service-oriented
community with many hotels and restaurants and the largest employer is
Ticketmaster. Most of the employees in
these businesses commute to work each day and the people that I saw in the
street appeared to be mostly people who had come here to take advantage of its
many stores. This goes along side with the idea of “automobility” and having
the home become the focal point in a person’s life.
In the
readings from the city reader David Harvey writes “ the system of production
which capital established was founded on a physical separation between a place
of work and a place of residence. The growth of the factory system, which
created this separation, rested on the organization of cooperation, division of
labour and economies of scale in the work process”. We can see this separation and process in
almost every part of the LA area, including West Hollywood. In this region
there are thousands of little shops and stores all along the main streets while
the houses are on the smaller minor streets leading into the cities center.
Within the city of West Hollywood we can see that there are huge class and race
differences depending on the areas in which people live. In class we discussed
the idea of difference being a natural part of life according to some
philosophers such as Spencer and Parsons. If this were the case than the
contrast that can be seen in West Hollywood is just a part of life where some
people are higher up and therefore others must simply be lower. However this
belief is not widely upheld and it can be said that this juxtaposition is a
result of selfish individualism and moral disregard (as we read with Marx and
Engels). The one thing that can we know for sure is that no change will come
about any time soon unless there is a complete restructuring of our society.
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