Blogging Social Difference in L.A. : Week 6

      This Wednesday I visited a place, farther than 15 miles away, that I had never been to before. I walked around Old Town  Pasadena. As I was driving to the city I realized that the road suddenly transitioned from the 110 freeway to  Arroyo street. The street was divided by a row of palm trees and the city was lit up by the open restaurants, shops, and cars. The street lights were an array of four set of lights. Once I parked my car I was walking down S De Lacey Ave which had narrow sidewalks and meters every 12 feet. I had dinner at Buca Di Beppo which cost around 80 dollars for two people. The setting was intimate and mostly large groups were dining.

    Once I left the restaurant i was driving down Colorado Blvd. Colorado Blvd had extremely wide streets with 5 lanes. The city was mostly populated with shopping centers and what seemed to be expensive restaurants. Unlike some previous locations I did not see any vandalism and the city appeared to be very upscale. The picture on the right exposes the wide streets, the maintained vegetation, and a working transit bus. The buildings were not damaged and the city was very calm. 

      While I was on Colorado Blvd. I stopped by the Regency Theaters. To my surprise the theater was small and vacant. Only five movies were playing and the tickets were only 3 dollars. This is the smallest fee I have ever had to pay to watch a movie. As I sat to wait for the movie I noticed that the seats had stains and holes. There was only room for about 50 people and the quality of the film was not the best. The people were mostly older couples past their 20s.

      In lecture we mentioned geographies of difference one being consumption spaces. It was noted that "cities of consumption encourage subtle segregating". I wonder if the city of Pasadena can be an advocate to this claim. Perhaps one end of the city is designed to better fit the lower class in contrast to the other. With all the visible shops, we can follow the Marxian view which suggests that the "city is a tool for reproducing labor". Old Town Pasadena clearly represents a source of labor which leads to class differences and other means of separating groups of people.