Blogging Social Difference in L.A: Week 7

I am responding to Erica Santoyo’s week 6 blog post about her trip to Carpinteria

From what I read and saw from your post, this little town does seem very pleasant. It looks clean and cozy, and sounds like everyone gets along and are friends. When I read your observation that most people are Caucasian , I thought about Massey and Denton’s writing about segregation and race. Maybe it is because this was this week’s readings and it is still fresh in my head, but I was thinking, if there were blacks that are seen, I would hypothesize that the environment would be very different. For instance, people at the restaurant you visited wouldn’t be as nice or as talkative and treat everyone like they were friends. When I read “The Continuing Causes of Segregation,” I imagine that if blacks started moving into a white area, white families would eventually start looking for a new place and move out and the place would be unattractive to other whites. I think Carpinteria is a very segregated town because it is not very racially diverse. This can be another example of how segregation still exists. Whites here probably are “unwilling to tolerate more than a small percentage of blacks in their neighborhoods… and… discrimination against blacks is widespread and continues at very high levels in urban housing markets” (Blackwell Reader pp.181). So, to conclude about the big question of the course about what difference does difference make, here, the difference of race affects how a town such as Carpinteria works or feels. It affects how the residents’ attitudes towards each other are and this builds a certain atmosphere of friendliness or unfriendliness. Of course, this difference also causes a big issue that America has been dealing with throughout history which is race inequality and segregation.

Also, when I read this blog, it reminded me of my car trips up north on 101 freeway. I've had fun road trips up and down 101 and this town reminds me of Solvang, a small town north of Santa Barbara. Coming from the bay area where it is very diverse with race, I was a little surprised to find that my family and I were the only non whites in Solvang. Nonetheless, everyone was very nice and the little town was so beautifully maintained with such nice and relaxing atmosphere. The clean benches and the flowers on the sidewalk in both Carpinteria and Solvang really have similar urban design plans which are to suggest walking and interacting with fellow residents in town when taking nice and slow strolls. I think the pictures of this town convey very similar impressions.

Solvang is a small and cute town. The urban plan to this is to encourage people to take friendly strolls and to socialize. This is seen by the the wide side walks and benches to encourage people to take walks together. The streets are very clean and the buildings have very unique architecture that is attractive and welcomes tourists.