Blogging Social Difference in L.A. : Week 7

      On Thursday my roommate and I decided to take a trip to Santa Monica. Although I have been to Santa Monica plenty of times I never stopped to really analyze the city for what its worth. We decided to take the Big Blue Bus and unfortunately the trip took longer than expected. The heavy traffic extended our commute to an hour versus the 20 minutes it usual takes to get there. The bus had comfortable seats and was filled with people of various backgrounds. They were most likely commuting back home from work or school. The crowd consisted of young adults and a group of older women.We finally arrived at the Santa Monica Promenade at around 7:30pm. The sun was down, but the bright street lights were illuminating.

      The city was very alive, groups of people were socializing on every corner. After observing my surroundings closely, i found it fascinating to see that the road was built as if cars could drive straight through it. The street had two sidewalks and a line running down the middle, yet it was all a walk way. The street was meant more for the performers and people seemed to respect that. The performers were very diverse.From the pictures you can see that everyone brings in their own culture. The man on the right was singing in Spanish and the women on the left were dancing to music i could not even distinguish. It is interesting to see that 3rd street promenade serves as a center of business for some people. These performers yearn to be discovered and recognized by others. They exposed what can be distinguished from lecture as a social difference in race. No matter what race they were they all struggled in similar ways, although most performers seemed to belong to minority groups. The street was filled with passion, and every single performer had their own story. The audience would sit along the sidewalks, stand around, and some even joined in on the fun. I could see why so many people visited the promenade.
      On the other hand, the promenade is widely recognized not only for its span of diverse entertainment but for its vast number of businesses that travel for miles down the same street. As a matter of fact every time I visit I tend to spend money on at least one thing. It was evident that other people were buying clothes, dining in, exiting the movie theaters,  or giving donations to the performers. One way or another retail sales were being made. The simplymap below exhibits the demand of sales around Santa Monica. Clearly the promenade is the centralized area for business, everything around it made less profit. This information can be connected to our class discussion on class social difference. One point within the Marxian view is that "the city is a tool for the production of surplus value". These companies that have businesses at 3rd street promenade are certainly utilizing the working class for the production of labor. There were hundreds of workers ranging from students to elderly janitors. Walking down the street allowed me to see many types of classes come together in a centralized way.