Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 1

My name is Michelle and I will be spending the next ten weeks (maybe longer) blogging about the city of Los Angeles. I am a student at UCLA and I am currently taking a class about cities and social difference. Since I attend school in Los Angeles, I am lucky enough to get to explore the city on my own time while also seeing the topics we explore in class out in one of the better known cities in the US. This is an invaluable experience that I will attempt to share while I write about the places I visit and observe.

I grew up in Hawaii so Los Angeles is a very different scene. During my first two years here I didn't have the chance to explore Los Angeles as much as I thought I would. Last quarter I took two class about Los Angeles and left campus much more than I had before. My experiences of seeing other parts of Los Angeles are what piqued my interest in this topic of cities and social change. Cites are intriguing. The processes that create them and the growth that occurs in them over the years are motivated by many different factors. All of these factors make them very dynamic and very unique around the world. 

While I was taking my two classes about Los Angeles last quarter, I learned a great deal about the history of the city. Since I didn't grow up in California I didn't know much about the history of the area. I found it fascinating when I heard about the Watts riots and their effect on the city as a whole. The riots are a perfect example of how social difference actually changed the urban fabric of Los Angeles. Social differences created a crisis that caused restructuring. There have been many more historical events caused by social difference that have brought about change that I can't wait to explore. Cities push people with social differences together and that's why they are the perfect place to study how change comes about and the effects of people's interactions. 

Source: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/north-america/usa/los-angeles/