The ethnic neighborhoods of Los Angeles are unlike those of most cities around the world. We have cultural hubs that are unique to certain groups, such as Greek Americans, Salvadorans, and Japanese Americans, but in most cases these hubs overlap and share space with each other. . We are a positive example of his one answer to the important question of how to live among people with cultural differences. Here, diverse communities live together and maintain their identities, rather than the exclusive enclaves found in many other large cities.
One unusual way to explore the patchwork cityscape is by signposting.
Angelenos are familiar with the cultural sites officially recognized by blue signs throughout the city. They name districts such as Little Tokyo, Little Ethiopia, and Little Armenia. But there are many more signs around town that mark places and locations where the community gathers for ceremonies, shopping, eating, and just hanging out.
An invitation to dance is painted in multiple languages on a utility box on the sidewalk in Glendale, the unofficial Little Armenia.
(Annette M. Kim)
As a professor of urban planning and director of the Spatial Analysis Lab at USC, I believe that: Together with my team, we generated data on millions of words found All over LA – For store signs, banners, flyers, posters, and more. With little regulation, these signs provide a unique lens into the words and places people choose to mark as their own.
By categorizing words by language and culture, we found that 97 groups in LA County express their cultural identity. we mapped them, found that 58 of the groups occupied areas with such high concentrations of signs that the location could be considered a cultural center. This means, for example, that while Los Angeles has a formal Chinatown downtown, there are much larger informal Chinatowns in the San Gabriel Valley and suburban Rowland Heights, and a new Chinatown is forming in the San Fernando Valley. I found out that it is.
What matters is what the map shows. Demographer Unlike other major American cities, people in LA don’t congregate solely around their own races and ethnicities, making it more likely that they will encounter each other. And it’s not just because they happen to be next door. we talk to each other We found that 18% of properties in LA had more than one language or cultural expression on their signage. It is not uncommon to see three or more languages listed on a single sign.
Los Angeles’ sprawl allows different cultures to have their own strongholds, rather than the typical international neighborhoods of Seattle or the pan-Asian neighborhood of Flushing, New York.And taking that into account More than 64% of Angelenos are renters And that Americans move on average. 11 times in a lifetime, these hubs are important “third places,” locations outside of home and work that serve as community gathering places. In many interviews about personal geography, it is common to hear from people who commute, sometimes for hours, to reach their cultural affiliations. We spoke to people who drove from Porter Ranch to Little India in Artesia, or from the desert in Lancaster to the African-American neighborhood of Leimert Park. They go to such lengths because Los Angeles’ cultural hub is a special and distinctive place that meets the human need for place, especially given its history of gentrification and forced displacement.
What makes LA special is that these cultural locations are not exclusive. Our map shows that they are usually scattered. Traditionally, immigrants have tended to live, work, and interact in ethnic enclaves that can be cut off from the mainstream economy. The pattern we see in LA is one where people from different cultural backgrounds meet and become close to each other.
We weren’t always like this. For example, in the 1980s and her 1990s, California struggled to resist demographic cultural shifts similar to those seen today in states such as Texas and Florida. Citing the federal government’s failure to protect its borders, California sought to enforce its own immigration policy with Proposition 187, banning bilingual education. Proposition 227 Furthermore, in the 1980s, monterey park In response to the growing number of Chinese Americans in the San Gabriel Valley, the city sought to declare English the official language of the city and enact an English-only commercial signage ordinance. The issue split the city into ethnic coalitions.
Similarly, in 1980, the City of Pomona passed an ordinance requiring all non-Roman commercial signs to include an English translation in the same font size, in response to the increase in Korean signs in the area. did.a precedent-setting lawsuit The ordinance was overturned in 1989 by Asian American business groups, calling it a violation of free speech and association rights. Importantly, the U.S. District Court also noted that Pomona did not take issue with the Italian and French language signs that unfairly target non-European immigrants.
Since then, public sentiment in Los Angeles has changed. The presence of multiple languages is often seen as an advantage rather than a threat. Proposition 227 was effectively repealed in 2016. Proposal 58. The growth of dual language immersion programs has been a successful strategy. Increase in number of registrants Los Angeles Unified School District, etc.Parents are responding the study These show that learning multiple languages is beneficial for cognitive development.
Still, voter turnout at the state and city level across the country shows that debates over the role of language in public life continue.by some countsThirty-two states and more than 40 local governments have adopted English as their official language. laws and regulations prohibits or restricts other languages;
LA shows that cities don’t have to participate in the farce of a color-blind melting pot society or horse-trading between interest groups. Angelenos have come to understand that a unique place of belonging is important to all of us and that our futures are intertwined. Anyone here can see this. Just look at the signs.
Annette M. Kim is an associate professor at the university. Roski School of Art and Design and, Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California.
