Driving east on the 10, I exited Vermont going south right into the heart of the district an area that is one of the oldest in Los Angeles. Some of the homes and businesses still have a unique look to them that can only be described as "L.A." around the 30s and 40s. Palm trees surround the buildings with a certain carelessness yet also refinement that adds to temple-like style of some buildings. The Shriner Auditorium north of campus opitimizes this as shown below.
This area from its infancies then grew into a solid middle class neighborhood throughout the 40s and 50s as the city expanded and was part of the effort to make this area around USC a beautiful place to live and work for all people. As time went on though, this area quickly became a by gone neighborhood that was widely abandoned as mostly white residents were replaced with less wealthy black and latino ones who were moving into the area. Race was not what changed the neighborhood into an undesirable one, it was the urban problems of the 60s and 70s that plagued all races in many cities. Crime rose, demographics changed, and the "nice" neighborhood with its historic buildings were replaced with tenement housing and blight brought about by the change. With the freeways, people could also move out of the areas around downtown and commute in for work and go back to other "nicer" areas on the westside or the valley. This reminds me much of what was the case in Engel's "The Great Towns" piece describing the thoroughfares that bypassed undesirable parts of the city of Manchester. West Adams and the Figueroa Corridor were now these low-income areas that were being passed.
Today, while improvements have been made, like efforts to remember the Historic West Adams district with signs or posters advertising the Figueroa Corridor adjacent to it have tried to help bring about some history to a neighborhood that has changed along with Los Angeles.
Exposition Park directly to the south has been growing and with the new light rail line has brought new faces and opportunities as people come to visit the L.A. Coliseum and California Science Center. I'll be writing about that in the coming weeks as well for my public transportation piece.
While the area around USC has changed, the university has not though and is still a well-thought of institution with great programs and a lot of money that support it still. While many would wish the surrounding area was different, it is not, and USC has responded in trying to strike a balance of being involved in the community yet also "protecting" its students from lies around. There a police and rent-a-cops who patrol the campus and stop those who look like they shouldn't be there, a mini sanctuary from the rest of Los Angeles. It reminds of a piece by Mike Davis called "The City of Quartz" which discusses US cities and in particular L.A. where little pockets of neighborhoods and areas seal themselves off from the rest of the city. They build big walls or security systems or hire many security guards to watch over. It's a very interesting dynamic to see in such a bustling part of the city.
On my way out to the freeway, I saw the USC shuttle that takes students from housing outside the area and to the university, a reminder again of the predicament that a wealthy private school like USC faces everyday.
I really like how you chose to focus on such a geographically bound area like the area surrounding USC. In particular, I enjoyed how you gave a brief history of the area. It is important when studying geographic areas to understand its layout in the present but also understand its past geographies. In doing so, we can see what factors have shaped a current geographical area and these shifts over time paint a greater picture of the current state of the area. For example, I thought the metamorphosis of the Historic West Adams district changed from a relatively wealthy area to a disadvantaged area and now to a "reclaimed" area undergoing gentrification. I think this is a trend we see a lot in different neighborhoods in large cities. Gentrification is very popular and I talked about this regarding the Echo Park/Silverlake neighborhood. Historically, these neighborhoods are known for a high presence of lower class residents but recently this has been shifting as middle class white residents enter the area.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I enjoyed reading your comments about how USC is somewhat of a "protected" zone from the neighborhoods directly surrounding it. Here at UCLA this is definitely not the case. We are surrounded on all sides by rather wealthy neighborhoods. But at USC like you mentioned, the university takes great care in maintaining a balance between promoting the safety of its students while also investing in the surrounding communities to show that it is doing its part in reclaiming the neighborhoods. Professor Wilford talked about these types of urban zones and USC is a perfect example of this. It's also interesting to imagine how this geographic area might change in the future. For example, might the area change for the better with USC's continued investments or will it remain the same and USC continue to remain a "castle on a hill." These are interesting trends to think about and I definitely think you brought up some good points surrounding the issue.