Week 7: Bus to Beverly

            For my most recent adventure, I decided to take the MTA bus from UCLA  to Beverly Hills to have dinner on the edge of Korea Town. I was very curious to see who exactly used public transportation in this part of Los Angeles, considering most people who live in this area can afford to drive their own car. When I first stepped on the bus the following quote from Fredrich Engel’s Great Towns seemed to resonate with me “poverty often dwells in hidden alleys close to the palaces of the rich; but in general, a separate territory has been assigned to it, where, removed from the sight of the happier classes, it may struggle along as it can.”  In this case it seems that the separate territory creating inequality is the difference in transportation. There seemed to be a racial and economic difference’s when I looked inside the bus at the individuals compared to the individuals driving their car’s next to the bus. Also, I gained an interesting perspective because I was on the bus at the end of the workday, so all of the residents on the Westside were coming home while all the worker’s maintaining this nice area were leaving on busses. I have traveled from Westwood to Beverly Hills a million times though never on the bus, this new experience shed light on the way individuals share space in a city. It almost was upsetting, seeing the stark contrast in lifestyles, so close together yet so different.

            When I arrived to Beverly Hills I walked the rest of the way to Genwa, on Wilshire, which was the restaurant I wanted to eat at.  After stepping off of the bus, I was entering a completely different world. It seemed that the bus suspended the reality of the westside of Los Angeles, leaving the contrasting lifestyle’s ignorant to each other. It was a strange feeling because I went from sitting next to a bunch of hard working people leaving the Westside on the bus to sitting next to a bunch of hard working people arriving to the Westside.  Despite their similar commitment to work, I still wonder why their lives are so different.  For dinner I was served some of the highest quality Korean BBQ that I had ever had, all the while wondering if the workers who made this food actually lived near by.

            I found this adventure to be more interesting than pervious ones because I was able to see how individuals in the city are so close yet so separated from each other. The bus ride really made me evaluate and consider every individual that made up the restaurant I ate at, I was really trying to put myself in the shoes of the waiter and the obnoxious man at the bar. Ultimately ending the night with many questions.  Is this the way the city should be organized? Do individuals who make up a city consider the greatest good for the greatest number? Do stranger’ in the city care about each other or is everyone jaded from the crowds ? I hope these are questions I will be able to answer by the end of my blog.