Week 9: City of Torrance

Hello! This week I decided to explore the social differences in a city that once was my hometown growing up, the city of Torrance. I think to most people the city of Torrance is known as a fairly middle class type of city with the one of the biggest mall's in the nation being home to this city, Del Amo Fashion Center. Although Torrance is a pretty big city, the mall almost seems to fit at its center and there being various sides to Torrance that most city natives know and refer to it as North, East, West, Central, and South Torrance. Although Torrance appears to be a city who mainly the typical middle class family can afford to live in, I feel there is definitely social difference in this city because of what I like to call the neglected East side of Torrance. This side of Torrance is basically border lined by one of the main streets, Western Blvd and as soon as you cross onto this side of Torrance all the middle class view of Torrance changes to those who live in a less privileged area. i decided to compare neighborhood parks, streets and homes to see this social difference.

The East side of Torrance is corrupted with gang violence, old buildings that are barely holding up and a fear to be able to walk on the street. Growing up, I was always told not to walk at night because of fear of drive by's or mugging from gang affiliated people. You see Hispanic entrepreneurs trying to make a living selling in ice cream trucks, food trucks, or even in carts selling corn and traditional Mexican food (tamales, hot drinks). It is home to the most active park on this side of Torrance which is Normandale Park. This park is a center of recreation for neighboring people where they provide recreational sports leagues, basketball and soccer, as well as family functioning events. This park's programs strive to keep kids out of trouble and active, which is something I participated in growing up. Although the park's intentions are good, the conditions in which it is found are not. There were trashcans right next to the basketball courts, tagging in the bathrooms and the grass was old and not well kept, but the point of the park isn't its quality, it is the services it provides. I also noticed in the neighborhood that there were many people walking to their destinations, this could be because the neighborhood business (which are mainly family owned) are close by so that those without transportation are able to access them. Although I did see a couple new apartment buildings built in the neighborhood, they just looked so out of place because the rest of the homes are old and not well kept, so it kind of looked awkward in the neighborhood. I also saw many empty spaces of land where there were either dumped old cars or just nothing there and made the neighborhoods look so empty. The neighborhoods are also heavily made up of apartment buildings to accommodate more people who cannot afford the expensive housing in other areas of Torrance. I call this the neglected part of Torrance because being that it is a low privileged area it is the type of place that hardly gets any attention, and when it does it is because a crime occurred and the police show up late to crime scenes. I hardly see police patrolling, they only arrive when there is something wrong. It is that area that has a reputation of being dangerous and although it has gotten better over the years, the thought of walking down a neighborhood at night is still not something recommended.

                        

Now as I crossed over to the other side of Western Blvd, better known as Central Torrance, all you notice is houses, houses, and houses. Two story typical middle class homes, with no businesses around. The streets are quiet with hardly any traffic around or even people around. I didn't see anyone walking through the streets even though this is a nice neighborhood where nothing wrong could possibly happen. I always see police patrolling even though the only thing they ever catch people doing is violating driving rules. In this area of Torrance I decided to go visit the park Sur La Brea, which is a small park in Central Torrance. This park has a playground, basketball courts, tennis courts and is relatively small. There were hardly any people, except for in the basketball courts and the tennis courts. There was no recreational gym. I figure there isn't one needed since this isn't the type of neighborhood that needs those type of programs, the use of this park is different than the one in the East side of Torrance. The grass was well kept, it was very clean and looked spacious when honestly it is a very small space, but its cleanliness made it seem so spacious.

                         

I think it's amazing how by just crossing one main street, a city could change and look so different. When we talked about borders in lecture and talked about the quote by Robert E. Park, I see this city of Torrance being once that is by name one city, yet has a division. The areas themselves explain the conditions for themselves, and therefore social differences are created. People don't live in these different neighborhoods because they want to, they live in them because they can and have the resources to live these type of lives. Someone who lives in East side Torrance wouldn't personally live there because they want to. The neighborhoods are corrupted and are dangerous, they live there because they don't have the resources to live in the nicer sides of Torrance. However the homogeneous lifestyles in these certain neighborhoods is what keeps these neighborhood and residents going, and having neighbors that experience the same lifestyle as you are doesn't make the social difference as intolerable, instead it keeps neighbors united and understandable of each other's lives and struggles.