Last
night, as I began to fall asleep I heard something out my window. At first I
thought it was the flow of drunken college students that march across my
streets yelling and laughing. I suddenly changed my opinion when I began to
hear blatant threat’s, leading me to inspect things further from my balcony. To
my surprise, there was a man smashing his hand on another man’s car window
while he was attempting to drive away. The driver, looking very scared, hastily
pulled out of his parking spot and the other aggressor began to open the car.
Fortunately, the driver was able to get away and the aggressor was only able to
smash a bottle on his trunk as he darted off. After, I looked up facts about
the safety of Westwood and ran into an interesting article recently published
by the Los Angeles Times; in pursuit to better understand social difference. The article was titled “Crime alerts for Westwood and
7 other L.A. Neighborhoods” and can be accessed via the following link http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/11/la-crime-alerts-768.html.
The most interesting quote I read was “Five neighborhoods reported a significant increase in
violent crime. Westwood (A) as the most unusual, recording four reports
compared with a weekly average of 0.5 over the last three months.”
This
was the first time I had ever witnessed a criminal attempt to rob someone and
what a quick and strange experience it was. I often forget the interesting location Westwood is in the
general context of Los Angeles. Snuggled up in-between the lavish houses off of
sunset and the skyscrapers on Wilshire; Westwood is a combination of a college
town, family suburb, and young professional hub. Also, being so close to the
405 freeways allows for easy access to anyone in the greater L.A district. When
trying to define the identity it is truly hard, considering the cultural mesh
that is going on. In the course of walking from my apartment to class I saw Hispanic
Gardeners, Asian students, and Middle Eastern businessmen speeding by me in
their sports car. When trying to asses the true colors of Westwood, one may
find it is not very easy.
When
looking at Simply Maps it shows how Westwood is an island of economic
difference on the Westside, and this truth is aesthetically supported. When
driving into Westwood the property is much different than really anywhere else
within a 2 miles radius. This made me curious as to why this area was the most
diverse out of the Westside. Also, considering how over priced rent is for
college apartment living it baffles me as to why anyone would want to live here
if they were not associated with the university. It is not cheap, not luxurious, not
safe, not quiet or necessarily accessible in comparison to the entire Westside. It
seems to be a monopoly the landowners have on the renter’s who needs to live
there for U.C.L.A; leaving much room for extortion.
In
the pursuit to understand Los Angeles and the cultural fabric that made it up, I
found the most interesting to be Westwood. It is a pocket of diversity within a
greater pocket of homogeneity, which is something harder to find in Los Angeles
than one may think. Often times the cultural pocket’s of L.A. are lined up
against each other in a grid, each fitting the historical stereotype embedded
by others. This blog has given me
the opportunity to create my own history about the specialized, diverse, and
modern city that LA is.
