Bus Rider’s Journal
Los Angeles is a great city that not only embraces multiple diversities, but also amplifies those differences with cultural, economical and racial means. This phenomenon can be seen and examined throughout every street, every corner, every building, every landmark and even every person in the city, crossing from east to west as well as north to south. In order to fully experience the impact of this strong characteristic of Los Angeles, I took four bus rides to go around the city: two on Metro Rapid Line 720 from Westwood to Downtown Los Angeles, with one at around 2:30 p.m. on 2014/10/14 and another one at around 2:10pm on 2014/10/27; one on Metro Rapid Line 2 from Westwood to Pacific Palisades at around 2:20 pm on 2014/11/16 and one on Metro Rapid Line 320 from Pacific Palisade to Westwood at around 4:30pm on 2014/11/16. Along my trip, I developed a sense of understanding of this particular city from east to west through observations.
At the perspective of cultural development, the east part of Los Angeles far exceeds the west part. Historically, West side of Los Angeles was built earlier as part of Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica. It was however, never really cultural orientated. Evolving from the rancho, this place later on developed into “wheat fields and orchard lands by Japanese immigrants.” (“West Los Angeles,” Last modified on 13 August 2014 at 00:34, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Los_Angeles.) Along my bus ride, few cultural landmarks were identified. Constructions along the road were mainly big American chain stores that were built in near decades. On the other hand, however, the east side has a richer culture comparatively. With the Korean Town next to the downtown area, the downtown area was emerged by rich cultural elements. In Pershing Square, there were portraits of local famous people hanging on the Art Walk; On Whitter Boulevard, there is a Latino Walk of Fame to honor Latino people that are socially or historically legendary; in Montecito Heights, there is the Heritage Square Museum, where most well known architectures are collected and displayed such as the beautiful “Hale House.” On my way towards Pershing Square, I was mesmerized by the huge cultural clash of Latino and America. It was such a strong comparison towards the way to Pacific Palisade.
More importantly, seen from the perspective of economical standing, the west part of Los Angeles still takes the lead ahead of the east part. This conclusion is obviously testified along the bus ride, since the shops around Pershing Square are 99 cents shops, Dollar Trees, Dry-cleaning Laundries, Payday Loan business, Asian supermarkets and so on. Even the small restaurants there are either named in Spanish or belonged to one of the cheap American fast-food chains. Comparing to Pershing Square, the driveway down to Pacific Highway barely has any shops. Soon after the bus got on Sunset Boulevard, there were only green plantations on the side of the road to shield houses and mansions into shades. There were couple big shopping malls, or some streets filled with tiny yet delicate, well-decorated stores. Also an excellent example of economic well being, Beverly Hill Center, which is considered as the most high-end, luxurious shopping area, lies exclusively in West Los Angeles. Shops such as Tiffany & Co., Jimmy Choo and Louis Vuitton were displayed with unspoken pride and prejudice. Restaurants tend to be named in French or English. Another observation is that, the population flow on the Pershing Square Bus was insanely large. For several times I had to hold on tightly in order to maintain my stand on the crowded bus. In contrast, along this whole ride to Pacific highway only two people got on and three got off. This obvious difference could be an outcome of economic diversity. People live towards downtown needs more public transportations while people live towards the east have their private vehicles to travel anywhere. The economical difference can also be examined from the data of college education. In East Los Angeles, statistic shows that only around 5.1% of residents aged 25 and older had a 4-year college degree. In contrast, West Los Angeles is part of “Los Angeles Unified School District, which is he largest public school system in California State.” (“Los Angeles Unified School District.” Last modified on 11 November 2014 at 14:12, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Unified_School_District.) The education level dominates the job opportunities for people from both sides, and therefore formed this huge economic gap.
The last but not the least, examining from the perspective of racial diversity, the east part of Los Angeles is far behind the west part. This conclusion is made through the observation of the racial distribution among the passengers on the bus ride. On the way towards Pershing Square of my first ride, the bus was extremely packed and crowded. Even though multiple races were shown: few Asians, few African Americans, but it was an obvious Latino domination. At least five different dialects of Spanish were spoken at the same time on the bus; people were yelling against each other or talking loudly on the phone. White people were rarely seen on the bus or around the Pershing Square area. Historically speaking, East Los Angeles was evolved from a “rancho called La Rosa de Castilla at 1870s.” (“Eastside Los Angeles.” Last modified on 6 September 2014 at 19:06, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastside_Los_Angeles) The statistic analysis shown that over 90% of the residents on the east are either Latinos or Chicanos. They build up an exclusive yet comparatively poor community downtown. I approached a Latino girl on the bus while she was working on her math homework. She is in a local high school, and she informed me that even though she was the “majority” population in the area, she still felt disadvantaged socially and economically. On the other hand, however, the passengers on the bus towards East represented very large racial diversity. There were only countable people on the bus towards Pacific Highway: couple white boys, one Latino lady, an African American businessman and three Asian American girls. They were all sitting quietly on their electronic devices. I approached one of the Asian girls and had a short conversation, in which she told me she was skipping college today to go to the beach. Interestingly, there exists an obvious difference in attitude between the two same age group girls I have talked to on the bus. While the Latino girl from the east was extremely friendly and talkative, the Asian girl from the west was somehow indifferent and disinterested. It might not be an issue in race, since I identify myself as Asian as well, but more of an issue of social standing. People from upper level class tend to be more self-centered, I assume.
In short, according to my observation of passengers, landmarks and street views on the bus along the ride, I can safely draw to the conclusion that Los Angeles indeed embraces a great divergence within a small area. The east part of Los Angeles exceeds the west part of its rich Latino cultural emergence, however, it obtains a much lower economic standing and a poorer racial diversity due to the exact same factor. This difference is drawn by multiple elements, such as historical usage, immigrants’ distribution, education level and etc. Los Angeles still has a long way to go to make full use of its dramatic area diversity, balance the poor and rich, and eventually develop and improve the city equally.