New York City had become a barren, and unforgiving concrete wasteland. The once thriving metropolis had been reduced to a state of dilapidation by years of neglect and the forces of…
Pacific Palisades is a small, strange town. In rainy weather, the streets turn to a slippery, wet endless abyss of freshly paved blacktop. Succulent plants grow abundantly in front of the almost- mansions. The Palisades Park is near my house, and the whole community revolves around it. Somehow, the weather was good. The dogs were fluffy and cute. The cars were Mercedes and Porsche brands, but still not fast enough for their owners. The men are always dressed well and have good jobs. The women dress in yoga pants, and are often running, or doing Pilates. The people move quite quickly. They go shopping at Acaí Nation. The time goes by fast every day. Money is abundant, yet everyone is thriving for more in this technological and materialistic…
Joseph Rodriguez’s photographs gave us an opportunity to explore what the Cholos, “low life” in East L.A., is really like from the insider’s perspective. Why the life is so different within the four- block neighborhood, called “inner city”, comparing to the rest of the American cities. In the inner city, the majority resident is Mexican-American kids, aged from ten to twenty-one. The drop out rates from schools and the unemployment rate are extremely high. Also the teenage pregnancy rate and juvenile crime rate are super high. Not like other crime photographs, Joseph’s pictures is not focusing on the physical violence, but focusing on what behind the physical violence, quiet violence, which is more crucial…
The government subsidized Jordan Downs Housing Projects in the Watts district of Los Angeles consist of 700 units that are home to some of the poorest residents in the entire state of California. Recently a measure was unanimously passed by the LA City Council that calls for the demolition and redevelopment of the projects, leaving a gravely uncertain future for the nearly 2400 low income residents that currently occupy Jordan Downs. The poor condition and high crime rate have caused nearly unanimous support from the residents for some form of government intervention in the area, though the extremity of the proposed redevelopment has community members uneasy about their future.…
There are two visions of Los Angeles – one of a successful, sprawling ‘Jewel of the West Coast’ and one, the ‘‘nightmare’ anti-myth’ of superficial soullessness first depicted by Noir (Davis 21). Both perspectives fade in and out of fashion. Los Angeles’ founders hoped for a sprawling utopia, capable of usurping San Francisco. In the early 1940s however disenchanted artists and thinkers began spreading the dystropic perception of Los Angeles that still colors our perception of it. Noir’s gutless, rotten, Aryan, trophy wife ‘L.A.’ still lingers. As Mike Davis1 puts it ‘Noir made Los Angeles the city that American intellectuals love to hate’ (Davis 21). Recently however, a new wave of pro-Angelino literature has begun fighting back. Many Americans adamantly stereotype Los Angeles along Noir lines, but its become trendy to argue against the superficial and artificial reputation of this city. Its ‘paradoxical’ land (MacWilliams 184) has two faces. L.A. is both ‘the sunny refuge of White Protestant America’ (Davis 33) and the only city in the world more, or equally, as diverse as New York (Davis 80).…
On a humid summer day in Chicago, my family and I decided to take a long journey to visit my distant family/friend in the Upper East Side of Chicago. Although, the car ride seemed peaceful and smooth, little did I know this was a journey to the most horrific town I’ve ever seen.…
Not far removed from the hustle and bustle of busy Ft. Lauderdale is Hugh Taylor Birch State Park. This area is chock-full of natural beauty that is just waiting to be explored and enjoyed. Take a look at all that it has to offer.…
Living at Santa Monica has contracted Parking Network Solutions Inc., (PNS) an outside source, for parking enforcement. Our services provide a 24 hour / 7 days a week response center for your convenience.…
New London. A place of opportunity. A place for the future. A place of fierce oppression.…
During the Mexican era, Los Angeles consisted out of five big ranchos with a very little population. In 1910s, according to the calculation the population of the Los Angeles was 319,198 people according to Dr. Gayle Olson-Raymer [1]. The construction of a transcontinental railroad to Los Angeles completely changed the city. The industrialization brought a lot of immigrants who were seeking new work places. By looking crime data points, it is obvious that most of crimes are concentrated in the Downtown of Los Angeles. All violent, property, and other crimes took place there. This concentration of crimes suggests that the downtown was the center of Los Angeles, and a lot of people lived or spent their time in the downtown. At that period of time, the downtown has become a financial center of Los Angeles. In early 20th century, banking institutions started clustering around South Spring Street, and it became Spring Street Financial District. Also, commercial growth was the reason of hotel constructions in the downtown, such as the Alexandria in 1906, the Rosslyn in 1911, and the Biltmore in 1923, in order to entertain the population of Los Angeles. 1910s the downtown was flourishing, and it was a center of prosperity in…
Santa Monica is a typical beachfront landscape; it is enclosed by three sides of cities and one seaside in Los Angeles which can also describe as Pacific Palisades to the north and five cities to the northeast, east southeast and south. Therefore, the city suggests sustainable living. Gehry Residence stands in a dense residential area. This significant environment establishes a standard dwelling for Gehry’s family lived in Gehry Residence.…
Drip, Drip, Drip. Finally, the sounds of the blessed rain that Southern California has been waiting for has arrived.…
After completing your scratch outline, write your rough draft. You may write your rough draft in ink on loose leaf notebook paper or type it if you desire. If you write it, skip lines; if you type it, double space.…
In the United States there are a lot of hair styles that are extremely popular.…
To begin with, when I was a little girl I lived in South Central Los Angeles, California with my two parents whom the names are Arturo Ferreiro and Cynthia Contreras. We all lived in one small pink house with my grandmother named Yolanda Contreras. My parents worked so hard to move from the ghetto. My mother once said to my grandmother “ I don’t want my daughter to distinguish the negativity.” There were so many crimes around our area and honestly, it was dense to walk around the neighborhood without having a doubt that something was going to happen. The helicopters were always around our neighborhood which made our family in danger. In 2004, I attended to a school named 107th Street School and everyday after school, my grandmother would pick me up from school. After a vigorous day at school, my grandmother would ask me “ Leslie do you want popcorn?” I’d respond with “ Yes grandma I’d be really appreciated if you bought me popcorn.” Every time she would ask I’d get excited because we would get closer to the lady with the red shirt across the street, the smell would get stronger. The taste of the popcorn was so delicious because it wasn't just popcorn, but it…