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.