Blogging Social Difference Week 4: Cheviot Hills

As Los Angeles moves to re-establish its rail system, communities along the proposed expansions have come to protest the building of rail lines in their backyard. LA Metro has built a fairly extensive rail system in Los Angeles, with the most recently built being the Expo Line. The Expo Line closed the much needed gap from Downtown to the Westside, yet the gap to the Ocean has not been closed. Beverly Hills has protested their proposed subway lines to the ocean, and the neighborhoods of Cheviot Hills and Westwood have put forward a full fledged lawsuit against the Federal Transit Authority. The neighborhoods of Cheviot Hills and Westwood are along the proposed expansion of the newly constructed Expo Line. This dispute relates to our reading of Sibley’s “Mapping the Pure and the Defiled”. Similar to Sibley’s discussion regarding the rich avoiding “pollution” and the Neighbors for Smart Rail’s (NFSR, the homeowners in the area) criticisms involve pollution: noise pollution, traffic pollution, and not as obvious but certainly on their minds, human pollution. In addition, crime is a concern for NFSR: the Expo Line phase 1 passes through many high crime areas and they insist that “Stations and parking lots have the highest crime rates in transit environments.”  What I saw in Cheviot Hills was a picturesque, suburban-like neighborhood, that would also serve as an easy route for the Expo Line to reach the sea.

Mapping LA describes Cheviot Hills as being bordered by Beverly Hills, Beverlywood, Century City, Palms, Pico-Robertson, Rancho Park and West Los Angeles. It is among the lowest density areas in Los Angeles but average for the country. The median income is $111,813, comparable to Bel-Air or Rolling Hills. The majority of the community are homeowners (64.3%) with a 78.8% white population.

I began my survey at the start of Phase 2 of the Expo Line, behind a mini mall on Venice and Robertson. The existing Expo Line stops at Washington and National in Culver City. I drove along Exposition Boulevard which borders the right-of-way of Phase 2 throughout Palms. Along the way, I observed many working class apartment buildings.

Cheviot Hills has a different character, with the city defined by mostly single family homes, cul-de-sacs, well-tended lawns, and very little trash visible. Trees line the streets and almost enclose the narrow roads, much like an East Coast suburb. Some of the houses even had white picket fences and most had some sort of security system. The cars I saw parked and driving were all newer, mid-tier cars. Overnight street parking is prohibited in Cheviot Hills. Manning and Motor are the only major thoroughfares passing through Cheviot Hills, so this neighborhood is somewhat exclusive. There is a country club on Manning, signifying the exclusivity of this neighborhood.

To get an idea of the impact of Expo Phase 2, I surveyed the area bordering the proposed right-of-way and entered the area itself. Northvale Road is the street bordering the proposed right-of-way. The area I observed had mostly multi-family homes that were still characteristic of Cheviot Hills. The right-of-way was hidden from Cheviot Hills by a thick green wall. A pedestrian bridge linked this neighborhood to a park on the other side of the right-of-way.

The planned right-of-way will be established in a trench that was previously a right-of-way for an old railroad built in 1875. From the inside, I could see that houses bordered along both sides. However, the thick foliage between the right-of-way and housing could serve to block some of the noise produced by the trains. The hiss of the 10 freeway resonated throughout the area. As a result of being unused for years, the area underneath the 10 freeway has been a magnet for graffiti artists. This right-of-way looks to be the most logical place to construct a railroad to the sea.

What the residents of Cheviot Hills are fearing, ultimately, is the kind of “pollution” that Sibley talks about. The development of Phase 2 of the Expo line disregards the boundaries of this isolated community and threatens the stability of geographically established class divisions. The exclusivity of Cheviot Hills is being inundated by the city: the noise of trains, the danger of at-grade crossings, the increase of traffic through the major thoroughfares, and the threat of crime and homeless the Expo Line may bring. This community which is secluded from the rest of Los Angeles could become much more accessible to outsiders. In addition, the drop in property values is a concern for residents here, as home ownership is high. The defilement of their neighborhood is their central fear.

However, there are additional concerns over the crossings that are at grade and the potential dangers they create. The crossing located at Westwood and Overland, in nearby Rancho Park are due to could increase traffic and block off local access to streets and housing. Access is already restricted to Westwood and Overland because of the 10 freeway, and the right of way cuts the grid system off from each other except at Westwood and Overland.

The fight over Expo Phase 2 is not an easy one. Residents of Cheviot Hills do not want Expo to pass into their backyards, yet rail access to Santa Monica is a necessity. The proposed right-of-way makes sense since it builds on existing trenches. NFSR have proposed that MTA takes the money for Expo Phase 2 and use it for the extension of the Purple Line, but that extension has its own movement against it in Beverly Hills. Rail access to the sea has a difficult ride ahead of it, shaken by homeowners who just don’t want it in their backyard. The entrenchment of the city into their previously isolated communities threatens their perceived safety.

Update: Jim Newton's LA Times article discuses the building of the Expo Line tracks and these neighborhoods' efforts to stop it.

Blogging Social Difference Week 3: Response to Gabriel Morse's Post on Long Beach

Last week, Gabriel Morse examined social difference in Long Beach. He first summarized Ernest Burgess’s model of cites, and specifically focused on the “zone of deterioration” concept in Burgess’s model. He explained how this model applies to his hometown of San Francisco and goes on to speculate that the model holds true for Long Beach. Gabriel theorized that his friend’s house was in the zone of deterioration as it is located within a 1.5 mile radius of the central business district (CBD) of Downtown Long Beach. By observing indicators of lower socioeconomic status near his friends house as well as indicators of higher socioeconomic status across 10th Street, he concluded that 10th Street is the dividing line between the zone of deterioration and the working men’s zone, with the side closer to downtown being the zone of deterioration and the opposite side being the working men’s zone. Gabriel argument that proximity to the downtown, as in Burgess’s model, was the defining factor for the zone of deterioration in Long Beach is too simple.

I do not feel 10th street is an appropriate marker with proximity to Downtown. 10th Street is oriented in the East-West direction and Gabriel’s location was much too far East of Downtown for 10th street to be used as a yardstick. Furthermore, I argue that proximity to downtown should not be used as a defining factor for the zone of deterioration of Long Beach. Burgess even states in the article that, “It hardly needs to be added that neither Chicago nor any other city fits perfectly into this ideal scheme.” Other factors are at work here.

Congregation Ale House, a nice bar near 

the downtown core of Long Beach

Long Beach has its socioeconomic gradient oriented from poorer areas west towards the port and wealthier areas located east towards Orange County, with some additional  wealthier areas south towards the beach. It is true that Downtown Long Beach is located in the west, close to the port. But there are upscale, luxury apartments and high rises along the beach just a few minutes from the CBD of Long Beach. In addition, Downtown Long Beach is in a state of revival Approximately 37% of Downtown Long Beach residents make more than $50,000, and gentrification has resulted in numerous nice bars and restaurants in Downtown and adjacent areas.

Map of zip codes in Long Beach

A brief look at median home prices of 12 zip codes in Long Beach puts 90802, 90804, 90805, 90810 and 90813 as the bottom level of the price gradient. These five zip codes have median home prices ranging from $199,000 to $250,000. Two of these zip codes are in Downtown, which supports Gabriel’s analysis. Yet the fact that 90810 borders the port and 90805 is far north of Downtown, takes away from his analysis. Four of five of these zip codes, including those in Downtown, are along the border of Los Angeles River and the Port of Long Beach. In addition, the zip code 90806, located directly north of Downtown, has a median home price that is $100,000 more than all of these locations, estimated at $327,000. Also bordering Downtown are the zip codes of 90814 and 90803 which have median home prices of $480,000 and $630,000, respectively. In addition, there are three other zip codes at the edge of Long Beach which have median prices ranging from $370,00 to $430,000; pricey yes, but the two previous zip codes are significantly more pricey. While it is not the most detailed method to quantify and analyze how “nice” each neighborhood or zip code is since zip codes are so large, the median price of each zip code shows a trend of lower priced houses on the West toward the port, and higher priced homes near the beach and Orange County.

I would argue that the zone deterioration is better located around the port of Long Beach.  “The port district of Long Beach, like many of the port districts studied, is characterized by residents with incomes below the average for their metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and unemployment and poverty rates above MSA levels”, states a report on the economic status of port districts in the United States. Poverty levels are much higher near the port than the rest of Long Beach. Houses here, from my experience, have very obvious markers of “urban blight.”

Blogging Social Difference Week 2: Century City

This week I set out to explore Century City. LA Times’ Mapping LA project describes the neighborhood of Century City as the area bordered by Pico Boulevard on the south, Beverly Glen on the west, Santa Monica on the north, and a combination of Heath Ave and Beverly Hills High School on the east. My trip began at the Century City Westfield Mall through a pedestrian walkway to Century Park, down Century Park to Constellation, from Constellation down to the Avenue of the Stars, and finally to Galaxy. The neighborhood, a business district, is covered in skyscrapers, dotted with hotels and anchored by one of the nicest malls in Los Angeles. Century City is one of many centers in the vast multi-centered metropolitan region of Los Angeles. The neighborhood shares many characteristics with other business-centered districts located within a larger metropolitan area such as in Orange County.  Paul Goldberger’s, New York Times architectural critic, description of the “Costa Mesa-Newport Beach-Irvine complex” as the result of post-suburban planning and it’s movement towards a combination of a conventional city and suburb could easily be applied to the area I explored (Kling et al 10)

The first thing I noticed as a passed along Santa Monica Boulevard as I drove into Century City was the specialized notches in the road for buses to pull over; This type of forward-thinking city planning, which is lacking in much of Los Angeles, allows for a much appreciated decrease in congestion. This is a feature certainly needed across Wilshire in Beverly Hills!

I parked in the Westfield mall parking lot (three hours free!), and walked from the mall through the rest of the district. I’ve been to the Century City mall countless times since I was a kid, and it’s been my main viewpoint of the district. I didn’t spend that much time strolling through the mall but should note that it is decidedly upscale. The currency exchange kiosk caught my attention as I exited the mall. The shop exemplifies the cosmopolitan nature of the district; as the mall and district itself draw tourists or traveling business people. The mall is significant as it acts as both a social center via its large movie theatre but also serves residents with it’s supermarket and shopping center.

I exited the outdoor mall and walked onto the pedestrian bridge that arches over Avenue of the Stars and leads into the rest of the neighborhood. The architecture and city development was astounding. There were plenty of observations to note standing on the bridge; this avenue is six lanes wide with a highly developed and vegetated median. The street width is intriguing since it runs only from Santa Monica to Pico (0.9 miles long). Well-maintained trees line the sidewalks. The bridge leads into a plaza with multiple business high-rises. The plaza seems to have been designed with pedestrian traffic between businesses in mind. Carefully designed and maintained planters strategically break up the plaza. Not surprisingly, I saw lots of business types but with ethnically diverse backgrounds as well. I’ve seen several similar pedestrian-based business areas in Downtown Los Angeles. What sets Century City apart from those is its cleanliness; the area was decorated with maintenance and gardening crews. This is probably what the planners of Century City intended.

The walkway/plaza took me all the way to Century Park. There are many more businesses lining this street, some with new upscale cars parked in front. I took a right onto Constellation Boulevard and walked into a second open space. Here I found a large grassy park-like area between several skyscrapers. The area was set up with tables and benches for employees on their lunch breaks. I then noticed I was standing outside of The Annenberg Space for Photography. I exit towards Avenue of the Stars, and immediately encountered an enormous fountain in the middle of the street; the city planners had obviously intended for grandiose presentation.

Avenue of the Stars led me over Olympic Boulevard, overpassing it much like a freeway. Traffic feeds from both these streets in an interchange fashion which one could see in a freeway, this is very peculiar. Anyway, I walk over Olympic and saw the Fox Plaza. Fox Plaza was the setting for the first Die Hard, in which it was called the Nakatomi Plaza. This is the reminence of when Fox used to own all of Century City, and this entire district was part of its backlot. Fox had planned to develop the land into a similar district, but due to some financial losses the company sold Century City to William Zeckendorf (link). Fox studios still comprises much of the real estate in Century City.

Across the street from Fox Plaza is a residential village, which seems like an anomaly in such a business-minded area. Similarly, west of Fox Hills Drive there is a residential district of mostly single family homes that likely preceded the rise of Century City as a business forward area.

What I saw in Century City was a carefully manicured and thriving business district combined with residential high-rises, smaller family homes, and a multi-purpose shopping mall. The neighborhood’s design reflects Rob Kling’s arguments in “The Emergence of Postsuburbia” as the post-suburban area being multinucleated, with it’s city centers having combined characteristics of both cities and suburban areas (Kling et al 11). There is methodical design and urban planning prevalent in Century City, and its planners clearly intended to impress. They certainly succeeded. Century City of today continues to impress as tourists and employees alike.

First Post!

Welcome to my blog, internet! My name is Patrick Pastor and week by week I will be exploring the role social difference plays in Los Angeles. I’m a geography major and decided to take this class because of my fascination with how diversity shapes a city. I have lived in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area since I was two years old. I believe have an understanding of how social difference has shaped the looks and inner workings of this city through living and spending time in vastly different neighborhoods. Yet, I know that the impressions instilled in me do not necessarily represent how the city really is. There is so much to explore and understand. I will be traveling to a different location in the Los Angeles area every week and providing both my own description and analysis. Los Angeles is such a unique and diverse city and I believe that there is many surprises waiting for us in the field.