My Community My Town My Community My TownLOCATIONLos Angeles city my Community my Town is situated along the coastal plain sandwiched between a hilly peninsula and two mountain ranges. Under the mountain peaks are valleys, rivers, ocean beaches, valleys, and canyons. Los Angeles city was claimed in 1542 by Juan Rodrguez Cabrillo and established in 1781 under the Spanish governor. Later on, in April 1850, Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality. The city saw rapid development due to the oil discovery in the 1890s. This city was likely situated here due to the area's strategic location in terms of geographical features like water and mountains (Soja, 1986). Such features could enhance its security in terms of military operations. For instance, historically, Los Angeles was founded on a village of Yaanga that, according to the Spanish, translates to Poison oak place. Also, Juan Rodrguez Cabrillo claimed the site was a…...
mlaReferences
Camp, M. C., Camp, J. S., Ray, A. O., & Gupta, S. (2010). Demographic and geographic analysis of providers of cosmetic services in the greater Los Angeles area: 2008 to 2009. Plastic and reconstructive surgery, 126(2), 115e-116e.
Cassels, S., Meltzer, D., Loustalot, C., Ragsdale, A., Shoptaw, S., & Gorbach, P. M. (2020). Geographic Mobility, Place Attachment, and the Changing Geography of Sex among African American and Latinx MSM Who Use Substances in Los Angeles. Journal of Urban Health, 97(5), 609-622.
Giuliano, G., & Small, K. A. (1991). Subcenters in the Los Angeles region. Regional science and urban economics, 21(2), 163-182.
Robert Towne's Chinatown is a vision of what the "American Dream" actually is, as opposed to what it should be. In the minds of most Americans, the American Dream is most commonly perceived as the attainment of financial security through success in their career. This success, supposedly, is linked to honesty and hard work. The notions of mobility and migration are also associated with the Dream. Namely, once sufficient success is reached the pursuer of the American Dream can move away from the "bad" areas of town, thus migrating to the more opulent and desirable regions. There have been numerous theories modeling the structure of American society, and many of these specifically rely upon divisions drawn along the lines of race and class. Robert Park's representation of Chicago is one example of how a city might be loosely organized along these two guidelines. A consequence of models like Park's is…...
mlaWorks Cited:
1. Chinatown. Feature Film. Paramount Pictures, 1974. 131 min.
2. Davis, Mike. The Ecology of Fear. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1998.
3. Park, Robert. The City. New York: Library of Congress, 1925.
Los Angeles and the Bi-Polar Economic System
Los Angeles serves as a microcosm for the rest of the United States. Its cultural beginnings are a mish-mash of competing ideologies overrun by the same human failing that eats into the heart of all cultures: greed and excess. As Fogelson notes in The Fragmented Metropolis, such was the case from the days of the early missionaries to the rancheros who secured for themselves huge tracts of land following Mexico's independence from Spain. Then throughout the early 20th century, Los Angeles became a place ruled by a criminal underworld, where vice was available 24-7 and where people routinely bought their way to the top. In effect, the divide between rich and poor in Los Angeles has always been the result of a moneyed "class" making sure that it stayed "moneyed" while the poor grew poorer. As the wealthiest 1% in America continue to become…...
Gehry House in Los Angeles
Frank Gehry's Personal House
Born in early 1929, Frank Gehry would later become one of the most prominent post-modernist architects the world had ever seen ("Frank Gehry: Biography" 1). He went to school at both Harvard and USC for architecture and is renowned for his unique style of combining textures, tones, and shapes. He is truly "among the most acclaimed architects of the 20th century, and is known for his use of bold, postmodern shapes and unusual fabrications" ("Frank Gehry: Biography" 1). The architect is responsible for some of the most amazing public buildings and private residences throughout the United States. Some of his crowning achievements here in Los Angeles include the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Yet, it is the construction of some of his most lavish private residences, like his own personal house in Santa Monica in Los Angeles, California, that truly attests to his mastery…...
mlaReferences
Craven, Jackie. "Gehry House Built by Frank Gehry. Buildings by Frank Gehry. 2011. Web. http://architecture.about.com/od/greatbuildings/ig/Buildings-by-Frank-Gehry/Gehry-House.htm
"Frank Gehry and His Most Powerful Design Tool." Someone Has Built it Before. Archdialog. 2012. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. http://archidialog.com/2012/10/05/frank-gehry-and-his-most-powerful-design-tool/
"Frank Gehry: Biography." Biography. 2013. Web. 28. Jan. 2014. http://www.biography.com/people/frank-gehry-9308278
"Frank Gehry's First Deconstructivist Buildings." Historic Homes. Web Urbanist. 2013. Web. 30. Jan. 2014. http://weburbanist.com/2008/02/03/the-house-that-shaped-an-architectural-generation-frank-gehrys-first-deconstructivist-building/
Impression of Los Angeles
Family Guy in the City
Mario Fernandez Restaurant Owner in South Central (Ex-gang member)
(Crenshaw Boulevard. 5pm. He in his mid-20s and is babysitting his two twin little boys Michael and Oscar who are both four years old and very fond of their daddy. He reveals to me that he used to live a dangerous life in the streets of L.A but decided to change his lifestyle)
Diverse! L.A. is like a big old melting pot that has got some of everybody from some of everywhere! I stayed in the east for a while with the cold but nothing beats the nice weather all year around.
I feel like this city is a busy ton of rich famous but still very hot beautiful and amazing. A lot of people don't realize how big LA is because it is very flat and lay out but yea it's huge.
I feel like LA has…...
Iconography of Los Angeles: The Freeway City
The name 'Los Angeles' has become shorthand for a whole condition of modern civilization, a state of unplanned, disordered, sprawling, polluted, congested chaos. The great mega-city of Los Angeles seems to embody the problems of the modern world on a mega-scale. ut how and why did we come to see Los Angeles this way? In particular, what role has the imagery and reality of transport - above all freeways and motor transport - played in shaping perceptions of this vast and extraordinary modern metropolis?
Los Angeles is not a new city: founded in 1781 and incorporated in 1850, it is the second-oldest city in California and one of the longest-established urban centres in the United States. Yet a recent writer on Los Angeles transport has asserted that it 'is known throughout the world as the prototype of the late twentieth-century city'. Elsewhere Los Angeles has…...
mlaBibliography
Banham, Rayner, Los Angeles: the Architecture of the Four Ecologies (London: Allen Lane, 1971).
Crouch, Winstan W. & Beatrice Dinerman, Southern California Metropolis: A Study in Development of Government for a Metropolitan Area (Berkeley & Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1963).
Davis, Mike, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (New York: Verso, 1990).
Fogelson, Robert M., The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles, 1850-1930 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967).
Cultural Assessment Los Angeles County
Metropolitan areas have demands that are unique to them. In a metropolitan area primarily there is commuting, on a large scale each day and thus there is a large daily movement of population from the suburbs to the central city for business, and many other needs that could be or tourism, shopping, schooling and so on. These shifts in the population also is determining the cost sand the means of transports, accommodation and host of problems that is related to the large travel of such population and the attendant medical needs and hygiene.
The governments in the area of Los Angeles County are responsible for the maintenance of the civic amenities that concern the health and other civil amenities required. The law is that all county is required by State law to "aid and relieve all indigent persons within its boundaries who are incapacitated by age, disease,…...
mlaReferences
Abel, Emily K. (2007) "Tuberculosis and the Politics of Exclusion: A History of Public
Health and Migration to Los Angeles." Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, NJ.
Jones, Helen L; Wilcox, Robert F. (1949) "Metropolitan Los Angeles: Its Governments."
Haynes Foundation: Los Angeles.
High isk Youths in Los Angeles
Los Angeles is one of the cities that have had numerous challenges, particularly violence that has been a major issue for more than two decades. While the city is relatively safe and tranquil, unprecedented violence in some of its high crime zones continues to be a problem. The situation of gang violence and crime has reached unprecedented levels and requires significant response. One of the major factors that have characterized increased crime levels in Los Angeles is high risk youths. Actually, many youths in this city are engaged in criminal behaviors and activities that continue to raise numerous questions and concerns on how to effectively deal with crime and violence problem in Los Angeles. The most suitable approach for dealing with this problem involves examining the challenges faced by youths in this city that lead to high risk lifestyles and how education can be a…...
mlaReferences
Bogie, A., Ereth, J. & Healy, T. (2013, April). A Profile of Youth in the Los Angeles County Delinquency Prevention Pilot. Retrieved April 11, 2016, from http://casala.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/LA-County-Delinquency-Prevention-Pilot-04.2013.pdf
"Citywide Gang Activity Reduction Strategy: Phase III Report." (n.d.). The Advancement Project. Retrieved April 11, 2016, from http://councilcommittee.lacity.org/stellent/groups/boardcommissions/@councilcmte_contributor/documents/contributor_web_content/lacityp_019564.pdf
Maloney, S. (2014, September). Positive Youth Development in a School-Based Setting. Retrieved April 13, 2016, from http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/rgs_dissertations/RGSD300/RGSD346/RAND_RGSD346.pdf
McCroskey, J. (2006, April). Youth in the Los Angeles County Juvenile Justice System: Current Conditions and Possible Directions for Change. Retrieved April 11, 2016, from http://www.educationcoordinatingcouncil.org/ECC_DOCS/Links_Docs/JuvJustice%20Report%20-%20CPC.pdf
Eras in the Development of Los Angeles
Many marvel at how Los Angeles was able to develop from a remote pueblo into one of the country's largest commercial hubs. Truth is that colonialism and the spread of Christianity had a hand, influencing how people interacted with each other, and with their land; and in turn shaping the development of the regional metropolis that we live in today. The permanent exhibition, Becoming Los Angeles, presents the 500-year history of Los Angeles right from the Spanish Era through to the post orld ar II period. I visited the National History Museum in Los Angeles County to get a glimpse of the same. The subsequent sections summarize the major historical happenings that characterize the six historical eras of the town's development.
The Spanish Mission Era
In the last decade of the 15th century, Spain embarked on a mission to convert natives in the 'New Spain'…...
mlaWorks Cited
National History Museum. "Becoming Los Angeles." The National History Museum, 2015. Web. http://www.nhm.org/site/explore-exhibits/permanent-exhibits/becoming-los-angeles
odney King iots
Los Angeles, a city of cars, stars, and ethnic neighborhoods, rests on the edge of a continent and shimmers with the promise of dreams fulfilled. But, as the late L.A. native and journalist George amos publicly confided on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, in the aftermath of the 1992 race riots, "Los Angeles, you broke my heart. And I'm not sure I'll love you again." (amos, 1992). Three years later a graduate student working on a thesis confronted him with those words and asked whether anything had changed. After a moment of reflection he had to admit that nothing had erased the stain of that period, because "… the issue of race & #8230; tears at L.A. It divides us. It angers us. It defines us. It hurts us." (amos, 1995).
Although other cities have been rocked by racial riots in the past, it seems…...
mlaReferences
Ramos, George. (1992, May 4). When loving L.A. turns to heartache: A native son's affection for the city is lost amid the flames and the violence. For him, everything has now changed. Los Angeles Times. p. A1.
Ramos, George. (1995, Mar. 6). No sign of the spark to rekindle a love gone cold. Los Angeles Times. p. 3.
Street Gangs and Loitering Laws
Los Angeles politicians have recently come together behind a proposed city ordinance that would allow police to arrest loitering street gang members. Mayor James K. Hahn, voiced his support for this new weapon in the battle against gang violence and drug trafficking. "Law abiding citizens shouldn't be afraid to go get a carton of milk at night," he said. "This ordinance will put gang members on notice."
Although the presence of gangs in Los Angeles is a prevalent problem that often leads to criminal activity and may pose a threat to public safety, pre-emptive police practices such as anti-loitering laws only stigmatize and indiscriminately target young men based on racial profiling instead of on criminal conduct. LAPD drug busts and massive raids have proven unsuccessful in establishing accountability and has resulted in police brutality and overly harsh enforcement on petty offences such as minor drug possession.
On the…...
mlaBibliography
Davis, Mike. City of Quartz. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.
Winton, Richard. "Los Angeles; Politicians Back Call for Gang Loitering." The Los Angeles Times. 12, February 2003.
Savage, David G. "High Court Rejects Ban on Gang Loitering." The Los Angeles Times. 11 June 1999.
Megan Garvey and Richard Winton. "City Declares War on Gangs." The Los Angeles Times. 4 December 2002.
1. What the City Observatory demonstrated in its quantifiable mappins
Boston:
The City Observatory reports that the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy metropolitan region includes 2,715 storefronts in its core. Although these storefronts are distributed throughout the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy area, they are primarily clustered around the waterfront urban core area of Boston. This number of storefronts places the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy metropolitan region in league with other American cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans and Philadelphia.
New York:
By contrast, with 9,905 storefronts listed, the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island storefront index is the largest listing in the country. The majority of the storefront listings for the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island metropolitan region are distributed throughout but are concentrated in the region’s central business district. In fact, at present there are more than 9,900 customer-facing businesses located within a 3-mile radius of Times Square. This number of storefronts is far higher than the average of 900 storefront businesses…...
mlaReferences
Cost of living in Los Angeles. (2019). SmartAsset. Retrieved from com/mortgage/what-is-the-true-cost-of-living-in-la.Cost of living in Nashville. (2019). BestPlaces. Retrieved from https://www.best places.net/cost_of_living/city/tennessee/nashville-davidson.Cost of living reality check. (2019). Quicken. Retrieved from https://www.quicken.com/home-budget-cost-living-reality-check.Living in Boston. (2019). Walkscore.com. Retrieved from https://www.walkscore.com/ MA/Boston.Living in Nashville. (2019). U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved from https://realestate. usnews.com/places/tennessee/Nashville.Living in Nashville-Davidson. (2019). Walkscore.com. Retrieved from https://www.walk score.com/TN/Nashville-Davidson.Los Angeles cost of living. (2019). BestPlaces. Retrieved from https://www.bestplaces.net/ cost_of_living/city/california/los_angeles.Los Angeles guide. (2019). Discover Los Angeles. Retrieved from https://www.discover losangeles.com/.https://smartasset.
This is her suffering.
LUIS J. RODRIGUEZ, THE REPUBLIC OF EAST LA (2002)
"Unfortunately, Rosalba endured many scary nights staying in dingy hotel rooms with other migrants, mostly women, in downtown Los Angeles. She not only didn't have a man to help but no obvious skills except what she learned on the rancho. She had to survive being cast into a peculiar universe of neon and noise. This was a place where women sold themselves for sex or get stoned, and where people on city buses never say anything to you unless they happen to be drunk or crazy" (229).
In this extract, several things become clear about the nature of Los Angeles and its inhabitants. The migrant, whose group Rosalba joins, represents the suffering of poverty. The "peculiar universe of neon and noise" shows just how far Rosalba feels removed from this artificial, seemingly wealthy world. She has nothing that connects…...
Like Monte in Rodriguez's Pigeons, Lucia recognizes that immigrant Mexican men feel like failures is they cannot take care of their families once they arrive in America. The author uses this described tension related to income and support to show Lucia's need to be independent and depend on no man.
In these seven passages, I found it interesting that each character maintained personality while focusing on a similar goal. Each of the authors used occupation, unemployment, expectations, or responsibility as a literary vehicle and it was fascinating to see how each story incorporated these conflicts. I enjoyed looking closely at this theme since so many characters seem to become real people when you see them committing to the real life struggle and responsibility of their work or occupation. I found that outlining characters this way connected characters that had few other similar attributes and gave a varied but intimate view…...
mlaWorks Cited
Cain, James M. The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and Selected Stories. New York: Random House, 2003.
Fante, John. Ask the Dust (P.S.). New York: HarperCollins. 1980.
Isherwood, Christopher. A Single Man. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.
Murray, Yxta Maya. Locas. New York: Grove Press, 1997.
Mildred tries to imitate the economical management in her own family. Like in Faye's case, whose marriage had been a "business arrangement," her own marriage to Monty has the same business character: Mildred chooses Monty for his relations that could help her daughter to make the most of her musical talent. Also, Mildred's other attempt in getting a husband for money is telling for the way she is constantly selling or trying to sell herself, and not only her prettiness, but also her cooking talents. The analogy between her career as a waitress, and then a restaurant manager, trying to sell food and the way Mildred tries to sell herself as a wife to ally Burgan, using the same cooking talents as a weapon, is striking. It is here that we most clearly detect the parallel between private life and mass economy. Love, like in est's book, is nothing…...
mlaWorks Cited
Cain, James. Mildred Pierce. New York: Alfred A Knopf Inc., 1941
Jurca, Catherine White Diaspora: The Suburb and the Twentieth Century American Novel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001
West, Nathanael. The Day of the Locust. New York: New Directions, 1950
1. The impact of the Salt March on the Indian independence movement
2. The role of women in the Harlem Renaissance
3. The influence of Chinese immigrants on the development of the American railroad system
4. The forgotten history of the Mexican Repatriation during the Great Depression
5. The impact of the Stonewall Riots on the LGBTQ rights movement
6. The role of Native American code talkers during World War II
7. The history of Japanese internment camps in the United States during World War II
8. The significance of the Zoot Suit Riots in the history of civil rights in America
9. The contributions of Filipino farmworkers....
Crenshaw holds significant historical importance in Los Angeles as it has been a center of African American culture and community in the city for many decades. It has been home to various influential figures, institutions, and events that have played a major role in shaping the social, cultural, and political landscape of the city.
Crenshaw is known for its rich history of activism and civil rights movements, with organizations such as the Black Panther Party and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) being active in the area. The neighborhood has also been a hub for African American businesses, arts, and culture,....
Crenshaw: A Tapestry of History and Cultural Vibrancy
Crenshaw, a vibrant and historic neighborhood in southwest Los Angeles, holds a significant place in the city's history and cultural landscape. Named after a prominent early settler, David Crenshaw, the area has evolved over the decades to become a diverse and influential hub.
Early Settlement and Infrastructure
The Crenshaw area was first settled in the late 19th century, as part of the agricultural boom that transformed Southern California. In 1888, the Los Angeles Pacific Railway extended its line to Crenshaw, connecting it to downtown Los Angeles and other coastal towns. This railway played a crucial....
Mississippi Blues: An Iconic Sound of the Deep South
The Mississippi Gulf Coast, a vibrant tapestry of rich history, cultural heritage, and musical traditions, serves as the birthplace of an iconic genre that has captivated audiences worldwide: Mississippi Blues. This distinctive sound, deeply rooted in the African American experience, has become synonymous with the region, and has left an enduring legacy that continues to resonate through contemporary music.
The origins of Mississippi Blues can be traced back to the late 19th century, when freed slaves and sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta began blending elements of African folk music, field hollers, and spirituals....
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