Blogging Social Difference in LA: Week 3

"The city is a mosaic of little worlds which touch but do not interpenetrate." - Robert Park

At the surface (and coming from someone who moved to LA a month ago) it seems that this statement holds a lot of truth. Los Angeles is a post-metropolis that has no one city center. Decentralized cities like this one have many segmented pieces and by consequence have less of a feeling of public solidarity or common good. Historically, city centers were sustained and accessed by public transportation, but since the rise of the automobile Los Angeles became more spread out and rendered the concept of centrality unimportant. People could (and still do) go anywhere they want to in the privacy of their own car, which works to further separate the communities that make up this city. Although automobility - the car as a technological extension of the body - and unrestrained car culture is still a facet of Los Angeles, the city's public transportation infrastructure has been progressing by leaps and bounds. 

Map of the seven projected subway stops of the Purple Line extension
From the New York Times

In 2008 the City of Los Angeles passed Measure R, which is a (voter approved!) half-cent sales tax that is estimated to generate $40 billion for transit. Measure J, a proposed 30 year extension of this half-cent tax was just approved for the November ballot. The potential proceeds from Measure J would speed up the extension of the Purple line (aka the Subway to the Sea) which would make it considerably easier for those on the west side of Los Angeles to get around without a car. However, the plan of westward expansion involves tunneling under Beverly Hills High School, which has caused quite a stir with Beverly Hills residents. The Parent Teacher Association of Beverly Hills High School claims that tunneling under the school will be unsafe and put the students at risk. The MTA has done numerous studies, like the Tunneling Safety Report which was released in 2011 and outlines safe ways to complete the project with its projected route under the high school.  

Today I visited the high school and the surrounding area of Beverly Hills with this controversy in mind. Beverly Hills is famed for its wealth and privilege and when walking around the neighborhood, it definitely feels like a world of its own - one of the isolated pieces in the mosaic that makes this city. The streets are wide, many newly paved. The residential streets are lined with trees, manicured lawns, and many luxury cars. Walking around the school during the middle of the day, there were very few people around except a security guard patrolling in a golf cart (which I have never seen at a public school before). Painted on the side of the school there was a big blue ribbon specifying that it was a "Blue Ribbon School of Excellence." The surrounding area had a little more action, with visitors on Rodeo drive and lunchers sitting outside of the many cafes and restaurants lining Beverly Drive. According to a neighborhood profile from the LA Times, the residents of Beverly Hills are 87.5% white. Most of the ethnic diversity that I observed (which almost seems too cliche to be true) was a hispanic woman walking two dogs and a couple of groups of hispanic men doing yard work and some construction work on a few buildings.

While walking around this finely manicured neighborhood and thinking about the strong opposition to the subway under the high school it is hard not to think about the socio-economic status of the Beverly Hills residents compared to the status of those who ride the trains in Los Angeles. According to that same neighborhood profile from the LA Times, the median household income for Beverly Hills is $169,282, while an article on the Atlantic states that the median household income of train riders is $26,250. On the surface it's easy to think that residents of Beverly Hills want to keep their oasis of wealth and privilege inaccessible and sheltered from those who ride public transportation. While this was my first instinct, the theory is an unfair assumption. It seems that most residents are in favor of the subway extension but just opposed to the path it will take under the high school. In addition to the controversy that this rail extension has produced, it has also brought about some highly entertaining YouTube videos from both parties. The Parent Teachers Association of Beverly Hills High School made this dramatic video that details why they are opposed to the plan.

And here is a video in support of Metro's expansion plan, which is a satire that mocks the Beverly Hills stance.

David Sibley, author of "Mapping the Pure and the Defiled" discusses object relation theory, which is the process of creating a positive self identity by excluding others. By putting up boundaries, whether physical, social, or psychological, the "other" is kept away. This language is perhaps a bit extreme in the context of Beverly Hills and mass transit, but the new subway could be seen as a physical fracture of some of the neighborhood's social boundaries. While this particular issue involves political, fiscal, and environmental factors, it seems to be deeply rooted in social difference as well. Beverly Hills is a community that is able to harness their collective resource of wealth to combat the MTA's plan in costly court hearings. If the purple line were planned to go under a different school in a different neighborhood I'm not sure we would see such a drawn out and publicized conflict. While most residents in Beverly Hills are in favor of the subway extension it seems like there is a bit of a not-in-my-backyard attitude when it comes down to the actual construction of the subway.

Hopefully the increase in public transportation will change the way people navigate the city and break some of the spatial and social boundaries that keep the communities of Los Angeles isolated.