Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 7

This week, I decided to comment on John Hayes' blog, "Cities and Social Difference".  I wanted to use Simply Map to better articulate my thoughts, so I had to post the majority of my comment here so that I could insert the maps.


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Hi John, 

Thanks for your post on the Long Beach-Hawaiian Gardens barrier. I find this particularly interesting as I am a resident of Long Beach, but I have not seen or heard about this new divide. Like Monika, I also agree that this barrier's true purpose is most likely to segregate the two communities. There are a lot of cities around Long Beach, particularly on the West side, that are much more racially diverse and contain lower classes. These include cities like Wilmington, Carson, Compton, and Garden Grove. Since Hawaiian Gardens is Northeast of Long Beach, this barrier is a perfect solution to create a divide between the upper class regions of East Long Beach and Hawaiian Gardens. 
This freeway ramp construction is a perfect example of a geography of difference restricting access to Hawaiian Gardens residence. I would like to further your Long Beach-Hawaiian Gardens comparison using Simply Map software, but I am unable to post the maps on this comment, so please follow the link to my blog at:
http://whatdifferencedoesdifferencemake.blogspot.com/
Thanks John!

Here is a map of Hawaiian Gardens, using the variable Motor Vehicle Theft Index:

As you can see, the areas with higher theft reports are in the Northern and Southern outskirts of the city.  To the southeast of Hawaiian Gardens is El Dorado Regional Park, a park I grew up playing soccer on as a kid.  This area of Long Beach is perfectly safe, and these two cities are separated by the 605 Freeway as you can see on the map.  The onramp that was created only further created this difference, and residents of the El Dorado Park Estates are now further separated from the residents of Hawaiian Gardens.  Where I live, closer to CSULB in another neighborhood also called Park Estates, Hawaiian Gardens has a stigma of being an unsafe city. 

In the LA Times article that John presented, I found this quote: 

Cesar Galvesolo, who lives in the El Dorado Estates house closest to Hawaiian Gardens, said: "They say it's racist, but it's not. We're worried about burglaries and robberies. Sometimes drug dealers use it as a cut-through."

The fact that the El Dorado Estates resident stated that he was worried about burglaries and robberies further proves my point that this construction was created to limit access of lower class residents.  

I searched "El Dorado Park Estates" on Google and found a website called livein90808.com.  Here is a quote from their website: "El Dorado Park Estates - a great place to live, with a great school, a great location, close to everything and a family friendly neighborhood."   You can tell from this quote alone that this neighborhood prides itself on being safe.  

Burglary Index (yellow line borders 90808 or El Dorado Park Estates)

The burglary index for El Dorado Park Estates is not as low as I thought it would be, but the neighborhood still seems relatively safe.  Note that it is the same shade of pink as the section on the other side of the 605 Freeway.  

Forcible Robbery Index (shows both Hawaiian Gardens and El Dorado Park Estates)

The forcible robbery index for Hawaiian Gardens is one margin higher than El Dorado Park Estates, but considering the collective results from the three crime variables tested, the difference in crime between the two neighborhoods does not seem significant to me.  What is significant, that I will prove later, is the difference in race. 

In "Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina", Elliot and Pais state that communities and regions are not homogenous, but rather mosaics of overlapping subsystems cross cut by economic inequalities.   Because of the social difference that has been strengthened with this new freeway offramp construction, Hawiian Gardens and Long Beach have been further cross cut.  

East Long Beach seems to have a stigma of safety and high class, but maybe it really isn't much different than Hawaiian Gardens.  This point can be connected to Wilford's lecture series on Axes of Difference.  As discussed in class, race and ethnicity can play an important role in urban segregation.  As you can see in the map below, there is a significantly higher population of Hispanics that live in Hawaiian Gardens compared to El Dorado Park Estates.  

Cesar Galvesolo's quote above is obviously false, because the difference in crime rate between these two districts is not significant.  But, differences in race can cause people to assume more differences, and unfortunately, racial differences are often associated with differences in safety.