Week 2: Car Trip

I drove from Westwood to my hometown of Oxnard, California this weekend. As soon as I drove away from my apartment, the first things that caught my eye were the tall skyscrapers along Wilshire. I also noticed the dense traffic and luxury cars such as Mercedes, BMW, Jaguars and Range Rovers. The drivers in this traffic seemed to be coming from the downtown area to West L.A. and the more suburban part of town. I noticed many of them talking on their phones and preoccupied with other things throughout the daily grind of driving through the infamous Los Angeles traffic. On the other hand, I also observed the people out on the street. I observed a white homeless man asking for change right before the entrance of the 405. Yet, I saw a Hispanic man selling roses around the traffic. While one man was working hard and struggling, another seemed helpless begging for change. The stark differences in class, race, and occupation were very apparent just outside of my apartment.

 As I was driving along the narrow roads of the 405 North, the types of vehicles started to change. I saw a lot of work trucks and every day Toyotas, Fords and ‘middle class’ cars. Classism was apparent with the types of cars on the road, the people in them, and the quality of buildings along the freeway. The size of the buildings became smaller, but seemed to look a lot less modern than the skyscrapers on Wilshire. The traffic along the freeway was crowded, but not as much as the city was. Also, the roads were narrow and dense with traffic on the 405, but became wider and had a newer looking surface on the 101. That astounded me because the 405 area besides Brentwood, Santa  Monica, and Westwood seemed to be much more affluent than Reseda. I had driven past there many times but never stopped to notice these details. The social differences between West Los Angeles and Ventura County were very prominent on my car trip because of the vehicles and preoccupations of the people on the road.  

My car trip back home is related to this week's post-suburban article because it includes the greater Los Angeles area as part of one of the “major metropolises of the world.” The infrastructure and easy access of highways allows for these areas to contribute to the greater Los Angeles area and be a part of its economy. Not only does it tie these areas together economically, but also by the diverse people, landscapes and architecture seen on the freeway. It also relates to the chapter on the ‘Growth of the City’ on how expansion and transportation, as I saw this weekend, allow for people to commute back and forth from Los Angeles to the suburban cities close to it. Although I think my car trip was similar to how busy, diversified, and expanded city life is throughout the Los Angeles Metropolitan region, the article clearly shows a greater distinction between ethnic groups that were not as apparent on the freeway.