Today I convinced my friend to take the train too. She seemed surprised by its convenience. It’s been so great here that I am thinking about staying a few days longer, one in LA and one in San Diego. I want to go to San Diego for the sun bathing alone. And then I’d take two days to drive up the coast…
Project: today was day 1 of hall hunting. I compiled about half of my notes from yesterday in the morning and input the addresses into google maps. This will have to be my exception to the ban on maps: I can navigate between cities myself, but when it comes to tracking down these social clubs I’m definitely going to need a good city map!! Unfortunately, I don’t think I did enough prep work before heading into downtown. As in, I found no actually ethnic halls today. And only 3 or 4 of the original buildings were even standing. Photographing the sites was somewhat difficult- I tried horizontal and vertical photos and I think I prefer horizontal. I need to learn a lot more about my camera.
The hall hunting was fun, I cannot wait to actually find an organization which is still active!! I think I am going too far back- 1900 is a Long time ago. Los Angeles has changed a LOT since even 1940. But these physical records reveal some continuity between the different eras, as a lot of groups continued meeting throughout those decades, if not up to the present. Already I have some insight into how multiple ethnic groups sharing meeting spaces. There has also been an almost complete erasure of historically asian neighborhoods: all the streets that Chinese and Japanese community halls were built have been completely redeveloped. Little Tokyo and Chinatown are a shadow of their former selves. I’m learning a lot about urbanism in California, and I’m starting to see history everywhere.
The public transit is great! It’s so clean and cheap (2.50 return from Hollywood to downtown LA) and getting out among the public here feels very vibrant. There is no need to judge LA for being unsustainable! Cities are built all the time everywhere in places they “shouldn’t be”. It’s just different, and it’s as naturally unnatural as any city. But it does feel very divided, very class conscious.
