This week will be my last
blog post. Since I had finished almost all of my requirements except for the
bus trip, I decided to take a short journey to Santa Monica on the Big Blue
Bus. I caught the #2 bus on the corner of Westwood Boulevard and Weyburn Avenue
and rode it until the corner of 4th Street and Wilshire Boulevard.
The #2 bus is referred to as the Wilshire Boulevard bus on the Big Blue Bus’
website because it is their main line that travels down Wilshire into Santa
Monica.
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| The Route of the #2 Bus |
As a freshman and sophomore
I would take the bus occasionally, but now that I have my car in LA I take it
even less. To be completely honest, I had to look up the fare on my phone
before boarding the bus because I didn’t even know how much it would cost. It
turns out that it only costs a dollar for a one-way trip, which is a very
affordable price. In fact, I was surprised that it is cheaper than the two
dollar fare that I grew up with in Hawaii.
When I first boarded the
bus I noticed that there weren't very many people on it. To be precise, there were
8 other travelers. All of the riders looked to be in the same socio-economic
level and there was not much diversity when it came to race. Only two major
ethnicity groups were represented – Caucasian and Asian.
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| Me on the Bus showing the date (12/8/12) |
As we travelled down
Westwood Boulevard and then down Wilshire, ridership did not increase very
much. People got on and off, but there were never more than 10 people present
on the bus. I think that this primarily has to do with the time and day of my
trip, which was Saturday afternoon. I am bummed that I didn’t have time to take
this ride during times when people commute or when the buses are very full
because I feel as though I would have seen a much more diverse crowd if I had.
I wanted to witness some form of segregation that Massey and Denton explained,
but it wasn’t possible due to the fact I was not able to see any Caucasians or
African Americans interact. In addition, all of the people traveling on the bus
seemed to be traveling with someone else and it seemed like recreational travel
rather than necessary travel.
My bus ride lasted around
30 minutes because there wasn’t much traffic. As we travelled further down
Wilshire, the composition of the crowd did change a bit, but there weren’t any
drastic changes. All in all, I got out of this bus trip that LA is made up of
separate worlds. While I didn’t get to see as much social difference as I had
hoped, my trip did still enforce this fact. Each party on the bus did not
interact with any of the other parties. Each person kept to himself or herself
and stayed in their separate worlds even though we were riding this communal
resource.
I think what I have taken
away the most from my blog this quarter is that LA is a city that has residents
that are very detached from one another.
While there may be glimpses of communities, the majority of my sites
involved very limited reactions between residents. In addition to this, some
communities like Bel Air seemed to even discourage such interactions by having
barely walk-able roads. I conclude this quarter by being able to confidently
say that my experiences have shown me that Robert E. Park was right. The city
is made up of many individual worlds, “which touch but do not penetrate” (Park).
Requirement: Bus Trip
Summary of Requirements:
Bus Trip: Week 10 - Santa Monica
Car Trip: Week 2 - Stanley Mosk Courthouse (15.9 Miles)
Walking Trip: Week 3 - Bel Air
15 Miles Away: Week 2 - Stanley Mosk Courthouse
Never Been Before: Week 4 - Sherman Oaks
Simply Maps: Week 6 - Response to Maddie
Social Difference News Story: Week 8 - West LA
