Blogging Social Difference in LA: Week 6

      Luckily, for this assignment I have a job through UCLA that allows me to travel all around Los Angeles County as a member of the Bruin Ambassador Program, attending college fairs, conducting high school visits and workshops recruiting for undergraduate admissions. This week I was given the opportunity to visit Bell Gardens High School and decided after my school visit to do a bit of exploring around the surrounding areas. I knew i was right by the City of Commerce, a place I had never been to before, but found very intriguing due to the concentration of industry in this area and though it would be a fun change of scenery from the urban bustle and the dreary suburbs. What I found was definitely not bustling but certainly still dreary... it could have been the time of day and the fact that Commerce has very few residents or maybe that is just the way things are. I couldn't tell because it was my first time there and I haven't been back and probably wont.... there isn't much to do or see. Sadly I decided to explore on foot so I didn't have the fortune to reach the casinos or the outlets. I was pressed for time so I only saw an industrial area that seemed pretty quiet.

 

Aside from the occasional car speeding by on Eastern Avenue, there weren't many people to be seen just a seemingly endless sea of warehouses, office parks and railroad tracks. It doesn't even make sense why the city invested in sidewalks when it appears that not a single soul uses them, but the tax revenue has to go somewhere right? As I moved along I encountered some more warehouses or possibly abandoned mills or works of some kind that were pretty run down and I doubt were still being used. They were the only structures in the area with graffiti that had not been cleaned off possible because there is no owner or controlling interest to put in the cost and the effort.

 These are some signs of a past endeavor that went south, but considering the state of the economy and the cities long history of heavy industry shut down such as the Chrysler plant that shut down in Commerce in 1971, the city seems to be fairing well relative to the rest of the city. It has maintained its standing as an industrial stronghold in the middle of low income communities that have lost all if not most of their industry. The City of Commerce is surrounded by Bell Gardens, Maywood, and East Los Angeles and is a short drive from Compton and Watts. This whole area is a part of the 710 corridor which has been known for its high levels of atmospheric particulates and exposure to toxins due to the high traffic of tractor trailers driving from the port of Los Angeles to distribution centers along the 710 and ending in the City of Commerce. This area experiences increased pollution and its residents show increased rates of cancer and type two diabetes. These are areas of high segregation and concentrations of black and Hispanic populations with no way of organizing any effective opposition to such conditions. I wish I had a chance to speak with the students at Bell Gardens High School more about the neighborhood, but I did not decide to explore the area until after my school visit. I'm sure they would have given me some good insight on what it is like o live near such an industrialized area along such a congested freeway. I would bet that I would have found several that suffered from asthma as children. There were also several tracks that ran through the area, naturally for transport, that definitely created quite a commotion as trains went by.

There are no zoning laws protecting the nearby residents in the surrounding communities I previously mentioned from the noise pollution this rail traffic must produce. In stark contrast we have John Wayne Airport in Orange County that must stop flights from departing or landing after 11 PM to keep from disturbing the residents. God forbid anyone with money or an ounce of political clout loses a minute of sleep.

The City of Commerce definitely offers a unique perspective to the types of landscapes that make up the greater Los Angeles area and offers a glimpse to what a larger portion of this county looked like before industry in Southern California shrunk significantly throughout the 1970s and 80s. The separation from production that was achieved by affluent white populations is evident in the surrounding demographic and is perpetuated by the creation of cities designated for the sole purpose of production. These areas become entrenched in certain practices and ensure that industry will not rear its ugly head anywhere near the suburbs to the east or on the West side.