Taking Los Angeles apart: Towards a postmodern Geography Summary

Taking Los Angeles apart: Towards a postmodern Geography By Edward Soja Summary The author discusses and compares the city Los Angeles as the “Aleph” a short story by Borges, which is self explanatory, if you see Los Angeles you see everything. It is interesting to see how the city unfolds itself moving forward in a sequence. As the author moves inside, he explores the city into broken parts with immediate excitement after every fragment; the nearsightedness of a single area/site/block gives an image of the whole city. The author can understand the whole city while exploring a single fragment of the city. But while looking the other fragments all together from a far distance, the author is confused with the image of the city as it creates illusion. The author seems completely lost, as he can’t discover himself where he is, from where he can start his journey. Every other area is complete within itself. All fragments together look like a multiple screen which do not replicate each other, but contains the whole frame of the city. The image of Los Angeles has got so much publicity that the majority of the population has explored this city than any other city. This is the reason the author compares the number of visitors to the city than the economy generated by the progression of globalization. Los Angeles has transformed from a sea port to the port where people, ideas and information trade. LA is a gateway of international trade and commerce, and has become a collection point which has four quarters from all four sides and a single quarter consist a wide variety of culture, it is so diverse that the present LA reflects the world with heterogeneity. The author concludes by emphasizing again on the Borge’s concept of “Aleph” everything you see here is complete in it. The author renames the city LA as LA-leph and wishes to combine the full form of a city knowing that it cannot be possible, but he tries by emphasizing a small fragment taking into an account the functionality of human geography- human behavior, human sociology, relation between society and space, from evolution to the era of development. A round around LA As the author is confused and gets stuck for the starting point in the zig-zag pattern of the city, so he embraces himself by drawing a imaginary circle of 60 miles taking downtown as a centre either a city hall or a corporate tower but a multistoried building which is responsible for an urban sprawl to the city.

The 60 mile circle is so inclusive that it covers the population of 12 million people from various countries and 132 incorporated cities where a high density of people is from India and Spain, and this 60 mile circle itself is Greater LA. This 60 mile circle is a contrast of people with peacefulness, tranquility, moderation amity, concord. The disasters of the world have also affected the city relating to historical or geographic change. Circumspection The author talks about the geographic boundary and explains about the heat which he feels has aroused due to the battle and is difficult to impress with respect to the history. LA is bordered by military outposts San Onofre, March Air Force base, Camp Pendleton and the Cleveland national forest. Enclosures (inner spaces of 60 mile circle) The author describes the area as Dream machine or a launch pad which is responsible for giving glamour to the world through entertainment industry and feels it should be protected and preserved. Though the city, physically has no industry in it, but the author names the oil production, orange groves, films and flying set as the main industry which has changed the identity of the place worldwide. Looking at LA there are many cities which has changed their identity from just a city to a metropolitan city while attracting a large number of employment. Arising of “Forbes” magazine a sourcebook highlighting Capitalists in the world, started with publishing the capitalist in LA. Silicon Valley (the southern portion of San Francisco Bay area) came into highlight leaving the southern California blank, due to the modern technology and electronic world was setup. From past 15 years the area is known as the high-technology employment pool. With other perspective in half past century, no other portions in the world have been supplied with federal money as LA has obtained, due to the Department of Defense, development of housing, transportation and water delivery systems. Outer Spaces (outer boundary of 60 mile circle) The author now talks about the context, the surrounding area affecting the city and how it gets affected from the inner core. He talks about the “Star War” colony that was setup in the periphery of the LA International Airport (LAX) is a major part of outer city. The real concept of Californianization (birth of actual California) took place due the military forces or aerospace industry based on civilian aircraft manufacturing to the IT world i.e. Information Processing

technology and the networking that developed around it due to the demand and supply of goods and services. Around the main city comes the industrialized outer city with the busy international airport, and the surrounding corridors filled with office buildings, hotels and global shopping malls with the leisure valleys perfectly laid around it, the author reflects the present population by emphasizing the development i.e.    

Specialized and master planned residential communities for high technocracy. Armed and guarded housing estates for top professionals and executives Residual communities of low-pay workers living in over priced homes Accessible enclaves and ghettoes which provide dependable flows of cheapest labour

The author describes about ”The LAX”- the inner city core, where houses were provided on the basis of race, class and ethnicity, but was further fragmented to various individual dwelling units. The houses located on the outer edge of the city are comparatively less expensive. As we look the outer edge of the city the author discusses various areas devloped the areas like   

Mission Viejo where a Spanish community exists shows the partial blockage to recreate the places and the people and intimations of the Mediterranean. The Orange County complex has high technology industrial agglomerations that have recentralizing the urban fabric of Los Angeles. Venture Corridor (Peripheral Valley) promoted the inland empire

Decentralization form the inner core of the city can be a long procedure to challenge the older urban cores as central to industrial production, employment, nodality, and urbanism. Back to the Centre The author compares the LA to every other common city where the nodility decides centre of the city/region. Normally the labour colonies are transmitted along and around the social communal development. Generally in urban cities the authoritative and allocative power decides to locate the centralization or decentralization of the urban region, the more the centre it is the denser it is. Signifying downtown (the inner core) The author calls the downtown as the call “Central City” is agglomerative, the centre point of the 60 mile circle, and defines the strategic vantage point where the an older to newer development takes place. The core of the area consist of community centres, trade centres, and administration offices because a huge urban transmission taking place along the downtown.

The author picks City Hall as the focus or the point of concentration of government offices and te bureaucracy of the country. Not only the building or built fabric but the parks can also play a major role for centralizing the city. This can help people to communicate, socialize and gather communally. The author revises the plan of the ancient cities where a citadel plays a major role in centralizing, commanding, socializing, protecting and dominating the urban population. Just like an urban core acts as a citadel and the suburbs around it is the wall protecting it? The two poles of the citadel (political and economic) connect physically through condominium towers. The urban planning of LA is compact and plotted urban environment, with respect to the social and spatial divisions. Lateral Extensions From centrality and nodality the author moves to the symmetrical patterns and urban morphology. Geographically how the city evolved on the discoverable patterns along the landscape. The expansion of LA encountered as polycentric (according to political, social and financial centres). Where a concentric residential rhythm, associated with family life cycle and its day to day access, whereas the land values also play a vital role in deciding the density and flow of the city. The author giving an example of Wilshire Corridor extends citadels to the central city, the author picking up the various downtown centres.     

Beverly hills Century city Westwood Brentwood Santa Monica

To counterbalance the clogging of population. Decentralization (Unclog) Fragmenting or diverting the urban agglomeration to decongest the city. The author looks various aspects from inner and outer peripheries, by emphasizing the inner and outer cores of the city. Creating various focal points such as New York, San Francisco, Atlanta and Detroit as urban citadels and decongesting LA spatially, economically.

SHREYA SHARMA