AMS 10: Introduction to American Studies

Tainted Meat

2006-09-12T01:33:00.000-07:00

There are three ideas with in the novel My Year of Meats that are colliding or should I say, they are intertwine with each other like a spiders web of conspiracy. The three ideas are profit/money, class and hormones and these three ideas lead to a big picture. A large beef company syndicate called BEEF-EX is expanding their meat empire to Japan. In order to entice the Japanese population to purchase BEEF-EX meats, they produce a show called My American Wife to display the wholesomeness of America through meat especially through beef. They show beef as a high class meat used by wholesome middle class American, basically their view of the perfect candidate to represent the beef. But the illustration of this wholesome meat is a happy cover up. What’s really inside the meats are man made hormones like DES, recycled feeds (which I find repulsive) cement, plastics, hell why not put a kitchen sink in there! The author of this book basically writes that these tainted meats are giving Americans cancers, infertility, and making antibiotics useless to use, and all this just to make a profit.
This is what is going to happen if the claims in this book are true and it persists. BEEF-EX expands, they sell their meats world wide. Their meat festering in hormones and other deviances will decline the birth rate. I already see a correlation, all western countries (Europe, America) have had a decline in birth rates and all of these countries eat a large amount of meat. Countries like China, India non-western states that don’t eat a lot of meat has a rise in birth rates. The use of hormones in meats may result in a decline in birth rates and may link to certain cancers, but our culture is surrounded by meat. Fast food restaurants, commercials all of these things depict meat is American as apple pie. I tried not eating meat after reading My Year of Meats and I failed because the sizzling sound of a 12oz steak with mashed potatoes and fries at Marie Calendars made my mouth water and the books words and facts seem to turn away like dust in the wind. Propaganda like My American Wife is imbedded in our psyche that it would be hard for us Americans to give up our meat.

The results of Wal-Mart

2006-09-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

In My Year of Meats Ruth L. Ozeki introduces Jane Takagi-Little as the director of My America Wife a television show intended to introduce American meat to the Japanese. Throughout her experiences traveling though much of small town America Jane experiences many cultural phenomena and has the chance to witness the good and the bad that come about from it.
Consumer driven America is one cultural phenomenon that can be seen throughout Jane’s travels. This consumerism is most clearly represented though the Wal-Mart chain that is located in nearly every middle to low income, small town that Jane and her crew visits. Wal-Mart feeds on the small town making everyone there nearly dependent on it disregarding the small non-chain stores that they put out of business and then pay less than satisfactory wages. Jane spoke about the small towns that these Wal-Marts were in and expressed that each person living in these towns spent their days at the store. Not only was the Wal-Mart important to the members of the town, but also to the Japanese crew, there for only a few days of filming. “To a Japanese person, Wal-Mart is awesome, the capitalist equivalent of the wide-open spaces and endless horizons of the American geographical frontier” (35). Wal-Mart offers nearly anything that could be desired in a small town and at the cheapest price in town.
The extreme of Wal-Mart can be seen through the experiences of the Bukowskys. The Bukowsky’s daughter was hit buy a Wal-Mart delivery truck and paralyzed. Wal-Mart then refused to give Mrs. Bukowsky so time off to care for her daughter and then refused to fire her so she could collect some unemployment. This refusal came from a concern of making the store look bad, while disregarding the care for their associate and her family.
This disregard for people in the pursuit of money brought about another social phenomenon, and that is one of care for one another without prejudice. After the Bukowsky’s ordeal the whole town came together to help the family. Since neither parent was working the town’s members would bring food and stop by in shifts to spend time with the daughter on the request of her mother.
Each new cultural phenomenon is in some way dependant on anther phenomenon. None can stand alone and while there is many negative affects associate with many phenomena some bring about positive effects.

Greed and Negligence

2006-09-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

Drugs, meat, greed, and negligence all collide in My Year of Meats on the Dunns’ feedlot in Colorado.

In MYOM, Gale Dunn uses illegal DES in his feedlot. Gale wants to earn more money without having to do extra work. Gale feels he can only do this by giving his cows drugs that make them meatier. He neglects to observe the changes that have occurred in his body and his stepsister’s body, and he neglects to take into account the repercussions his illegal and immoral action could have on the population that eats Dunn Farm’s meats.
The potential physical results of this collision are obvious. DES could affect the development and reproductive abilities of quite possibly anyone who eats the tainted meat. For example, Rose Dunn develops improperly because she is always around the DES– she already has breasts, pubic hair, and menstrual cycles at age five. DES meat could potentially take motherhood away from generations of women due to its negative effects on their reproductive systems. This collision of drugs, meat, greed, and negligence could also morph the idea of what it is to be a woman in America. Woman could become separated into two species: childbearing and non-childbearing.
This collision could also result in the destruction of the image of the old American West that defines the U.S. Americans and the rest of the world seem to think of the United States as a place full of plains, cowboys, clean air, and clean living. When we find out that there are drugs in our meat, the plains disappear; the cowboys become businessmen dressed in austere suits hiding money behind their backs, and the clean air and clean living seems as dirty as anywhere else in the world. People would start to lose faith in America because it would become a place and a people they no longer could trust.
Overall, this collision could potentially cause the world to lose trust in America (not that anyone trusts it anyways), and the redefinition of the woman’s place in the American society.

when east meats west..

2006-09-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

In My Year of Meats, a common theme that carries throughout the novel would be the collision of the traditional, eastern ways of Japan, and the novelty of the new, western American ideals and the irony that is seen from the outcomes. The main focus of my argument results from the relationship between John and Akiko Ueno. Through John’s insistent and abusive nature towards Akiko to better become a mother and better wife through emulation of American wives and ideals, he ultimately hurts his chances of becoming a father and having the perfect wife, because of his persistent need to become “American”.

The idea of John’s show, “My American Wife!,” was to due to Akiko’s inability to produce eggs and therefore her inability to produce babies. John felt that if he got Akiko to follow recipes and make the meals, consisted of mainly beef and other meats (the American way), it would “put meat on her bones” and make her fertile. This beef consumption was colliding with the Japanese diet of mainly rice, vegetables, and seafood. John felt that the Japanese diet wasn’t working, due to the fact that they were childless, and wanted to follow the American diet in hopes of Akiko becoming fertile like the Texan women he so longed for with large breasts and childbearing hips. Ultimately, as the book unfolds, we find that the American beef that John thought was going to help him have children caused Akiko to vomit and come a lot unhealthier, which hindered her ability to produce eggs. Also, with the presence of DES and other drugs, it would caused the sperm count of men to decrease, and his constant consumption of it also helped leave him childless.

John also had hopes that his show would turn Akiko into the American wife that we desired. The typical Japanese wife was submissive, quite, and supportive; all the things that Akiko was. But Akiko’s weekly viewing of My American Wife!, which John insisted abusively, caused Akiko to lose her traditional, Eastern ideals of how life should be and how a wife should behave, to adopt the ideals of what a western, American wife should be, with the freedom of choice, happiness, and equality. John’s hopes of having an American wife, ironically, became true when Akiko left him and moved to America in hopes of a better life for her and her daughter.

Ultimately, John’s need to become “American” which counteracted with what John wanted. His views that the traditional, Japanese ways were inferior to the novel, idealized, American ways hurt him. When East MEATS west (I know the correct verb tense would be MET, but there would be no pun), the west won, like John wanted, but it left him wifeless and childless.

"Normal" People

2006-09-10T17:01:00.000-07:00

In the novel, My Year of Meats, numerous cultural phenomena collide continuously throughout the story. One of these collisions that I found to stand out is the difference in the social acceptance of “different” people.

At one point of the story, Jane Takagi-Little introduces a vegetarian lesbian couple with two daughters and decides to film an episode of the show “My American Wife!” about them. In Japan, homosexuals are generally less accepted from the society. To get an idea, it is not rare for people that come out of their closets to lose their jobs because they are thought to bring down the image of the company. Unlike the US, there are no laws that protect them from discrimination of their age, gender, race, or sexual orientation. Although lesbian couples are not necessarily common in the US either, they are more accepted into the society. Consequently, that episode received a very negative feedback from John Ueno; although, the network producers found it “humane and moving…”

Ironically, the episode with the vegetarian lesbian couple turned out to be one of the few successful episodes of the show. This goes to show that “wholesomeness” of a family has very little to do with people’s sexual orientation and more on their determination for their pursuit of happiness as Lara and Dyann understood very well.

Sex, Lies, and Cultural Beliefs

2006-09-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

"Guns, race, meat, and Manifest Destiny all collide in a single explosion of violent, dehumanized activity" that resulted in Yoshihiro Hattori’s murder. Other phenomena that clash in My Year of Meats are that of Jane and Akiko’s individual fertility struggles and cultural beliefs that contributes to the results of each woman’s intimate relationships.

In the early part of the novel, we learn that Akiko’s menstruation cycles had ceased, perhaps because of her eating and purging habits, thus preventing her from having "John’s" children. In the Japanese culture, one would consider it unusual if a couple did not have children soon after marriage. This fuels John’s anger and frustration with Akiko, who beats her because she is, in his eyes, stupid, disrespectful, and dishonest, which in turn, does not help her struggle with conceiving. Akiko, being the stereotypical obedient, submissive Japanese wife, defies these cultural beliefs when she does not notify her husband of the return of her menstruation, with her secret promiscuous behavior, and the betrayal of John as she contacts Jane with the intentions of sabotaging his career.

Like Akiko, Jane Takagi-Little had also had great difficulty in attempting to conceive with her husband. The failure of having a child may have contributed to the failure of her first marriage. But in stark contrast to the Japanese culture and their beliefs, Jane is having causal sexual relations with a man named Sloan while on location in her shoots of My American Wife!. Although this type of activity does not classify as the practical relationship between a man and a woman in the American cultural, it has become more prevalent and more accepted, especially amongst those in the later generations. The two engage in unprotected sex for the first time when they come to the conclusion that it is safe to do so since Jane is sterile. To everyone’s shock, she gets pregnant. Not only is it complete taboo (in the Japanese culture) that a woman is having casual sex with a man she is not married to, it is of even greater outrage that she has a child out of wedlock. The unexpected pregnancy initially appeared to have dampened the pair’s informal relationship that they have become accustom to, but eventually, the existence their baby helped to create a meaningful, caring, respectful relationship. While Akiko and John’s marriage faltered under the struggles of having children in a marriage that lacks love and respect through a web of Japanese cultural beliefs, Jane and Sloan had built a near ideal relationship from a fling with the foundation of an unplanned pregnancy in a woman who was believed to be infertile.

Collisions of Corruption and Intolerance

2006-09-10T16:40:00.000-07:00

Mr. “John” Ueno is a conflict of cultural phenomena all in one character. He portrays himself as a “wholesome” person, who is trustworthy and understanding but his façade can be seen throughout his actions in the book, My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki. At one instance he is a caring and thoughtful husband to his wife, Akiko, by helping her eat more so she could be healthy, but at another moment he is putting hundred dollar bills in the g-strings of Texan strippers and then attempting rape the coordinator of his television show while drunk in a hotel. He is as superficial as the Pepsi in the Coke bottle that Mrs. Suzie Flowers used in her Coca-Cola Roast, “Not the real thing at all…” (Ozeki 30). He does not care for Akiko and only cares to uphold his superficial “wholesome” reputation to his peers and co-workers like him.

“John’s” lifestyle can be illustrated in the superficial ideas of his television show, My American Wife. His show is about “wholesomeness” yet “John” lives in “squalor” (Ozeki 12). He wants to show Japanese housewives his idea of the “true American wife” that lacks any type of imperfection or a second-class status.

His selection of women is similar to shopping at Wal-Mart. His boss selected his wife, he pays for strippers to “offer up her round rump for his inspection” (Ozeki 43), and he thinks he can take any girl he wants, i.e. when he attempted to rape Jane. He is similar to an American shopping at a Wal-Mart superstore where anyone can select and pay for any product they want – from wholesome milk and eggs to guns. Similar to “John,” America is a conflict in cultural phenomena because they promote zero tolerance yet they make guns easily accessible to the public. America is a conflict of “wholesomeness” and corruption.

Furthermore, racism plays a role in the novel when “John” does not want to film Miss Helen and Mr. Purcell from Mississippi because they are black. Racism is apparent within the Unites States and all over the world. Although racism is condemned in the U.S., it is still present in our lives. For example, Jane describes a scene where a white American will not accept that a woman with black hair and brown eyes is also a fellow American, “…a red faced veteran from World War II drew a bead on me and my crew… ‘Where you from, anyway?’ he asked, squinting his bitter blue eyes at me. ‘New York,’ I answered. He shook his head and glared and wiggled a crooked finger inches from my face. ‘No, I mean where were you born?’ ‘Quam, Minnesota,’ I said. ‘No, no…What are you?’ He whined with frustration. And in a voice that was low, but shivering with demented pride, I told him, ‘I…am…a…fucking…AMERICAN!” (Ozeki 11). Although America is supposed to be built on justice and freedom for all, many Americans are not allowed to be American because of the color of their skin.

I was born in the Bay Area and I have lived in the United States all my life. Although I am a full-grown American, people still come to me and ask me where I am from and do not accept my simple answer of “the Bay Area.” Many people expect something exotic and different to match my different skin tone and physical features. America’s value of freedom and equality clashes with the blatant racism in our country.

Culture Clash

2006-09-10T16:25:00.000-07:00

With in the novel, My Year of Meats, there are several prominent phenomena that are “colliding” during the story. The most prominent phenomena that are clashing within the novel are cultural expectations as focused around the main character, Jane Takagi-Little, and the real and perceived notions of what is a true “American Family.” Throughout the novel, Jane not only experiences the differences in American and Japanese culture through her recount of childhood experiences, but also wrestles with a mental clash of cultures as she struggles to identify with her mixed heritage. Concurrently, the Japanese view of American families clashes with the real families that Jane portrays on her episodes of the series “My American Wife!”
During the novel, Jane recounts her experiences growing up as a child of mixed race. The clash of culture is even present in her name, where her mother decides that her American surname of Little will bring great burden upon her life, and therefore decides to have her child keep a Japanese surname of Takagi, literally meaning “tall.” For Jane’s father, Little is “just a name,” but to her mother, her surname is “very first thing! Name is face to all the world.” More important than her external experiences with the Japanese and American cultures, is her internal struggle to identify with a race. As a child Jane fantasizes about marrying a man of mixed heritage, an indicator of her youthful openness to her mixed race. After she reads of the supposed inferiority of her race in a local book in her hometown library of Quam, Minnesota, she begins to doubt the benefits of her mixed heritage. Though her mixed heritage did cause her a great deal of struggle, eventually Jane finds peace with it. This is evident in a conversation she has with a WW2 veteran upon arrival to her first shoot. After asking repeatedly where Jane is from, the man asks what she is. In response to this, and proof of her acceptance of her mixed heritage, Jane ends her internal struggle with her racial identify by yelling that she is “a fucking American.”
Also present throughout the film is the collision of what the Japanese audience expects of a proper American family and what is actually real. Primarily, the producers wanted to present their audience with white, upper middle-class Americans. Though families such as the Flowers presented this ideal family, the shows received lower ratings than other shows that presented a more non-traditional family, such as the show chronicling the Burkowsky’s, a family with a severely handicapped girl. These differences in ratings demonstrate the cultural collision of what is real and what is perceived. More traditional families, though considered to be more “moral” by the Japanese producers, are not the true depiction of American families. The clash of realities ultimately leads to the “real” families winning over the hearts of the Japanese. Though not what they would expect in their traditional values, the uniqueness of these families leads the Japanese audience to relate to them more.
Ultimately, Jane wins her internal struggle with racial identity by accepting her mixed heritage and identifying herself as an American. In turn, the Japanese public accepts the more believable American families represented on “My American Wife!” and thus takes a step at ending the culture clash that is occurring on their television screens.

The Collision of Consumerism and Greed

2006-09-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

Consumerism and greed collide in My Year of Meats. Much of the consumerism occurs in the Wal-Wart stores that Jane and her production crew visits all across America. The establishments of Wal-Mart stores are in small, middle-class cities that make these prime places for consumerism. “There wasn’t anyplace else to go in those towns. I mean, if you took a Sociological Survey of the people who lived there, they all spent their days off at Wal-Mart too” (pg. 33). Material goods and consumerism are of high interest in these towns that it can potentially lead to greed.

The marginal propensity to consume decreases when income increases due to the fact that when people are well off, they consume less because they already live comfortable lives with all the necessities already bought. Whereas middle-class people want to attain the same level of satisfaction as the wealthy, therefore they consume until they feel they have everything they need which can take years upon years to realize. To need and want goods oftentimes leads to varying degrees of greed because in American culture, “want is good”. Therefore, there is a yearning to consume more and more. The effect of consumerism and greed can lead to a dent in the pocket book or the uncontrollable feeling that you need to buy things in fear that you might be lacking some things in your life. But what would this great land we call America be without the thriving economy called capitalism? The cultural phenomenon in America is to have things in a comfortable abundance, or what the Japanese viewers of My American Wife! would call “excess”.

So, to make consumerism even more convenient, Wal-Mart stores have created a strategic placement of all the goods in Wal-Mart stores that makes it easy to purchase items on top of items. “To a Japanese person, Wal-Mart is awesome, the capitalist equivalent of the wide-open spaces and endless horizons of the American geographical frontier. All this for the taking! Your breast expands with greed and need and wonder” (pg. 35). Because the items in Wal-Mart are so cheap, it is easy to “stock up” and oftentimes, one may buy unnecessary things. I, too, have been a victim tempted by Wal-Mart’s cheap, low prices. When I enter Wal-Mart, I usually have a list that intend on checking off, however, every time I see the large array of selection, I reconsider whether if I will ever need that item because it might be useful in the near future. Wal-Mart makes it especially easy to buy things that will complement your item, like buying caramel dip with the batch of apples you bought, or buying things in pairs so you will be the deal at the cash register. So in the end, I usually buy all the items on my list plus some unnecessary items that I regret buying. Consumerism and a mild form of greed have collided in my life.

Capitalism, Advertising, and the Destruction of American Culture

2006-09-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

Throughout My Year of Meats, by Jane Takagi-Little, numerous cultural phenomena are displayed, analyzed, and interpreted. One of these phenomena is centered on the differences between two cultures, more specifically, the differences between the American and Japanese cultures. This comparison, however, is not presented through a simple literal comparison, but through the experiences of Japanese citizens and their interactions with America, Americans, and American culture. When commenting on Yoshihiro Hattori's murder, Little states "Guns, race, meat, and Manifest Destiny all collided in a single explosion of violent dehumanized activity" (89), emphasizing the common American ideology of superiority as a cultural phenomenon.
Although this idea is blatantly stated in the text of this novel, there are many more underlying ideas revolving around cultural collisions and the fusion of diverse ideas. Drawing a close parallel to the collision revealed by Takagi-Little lies the combination of the cultural phenomena of capitalism, racial demographics, and diversity. This combination, although not directly visible, is expressed throughout this text and conveys a strong underlying message about American culture and its interpretation. The first of these cultural phenomena is centralized around the American capitalistic economy and its unsurppressible schemes for making a profit. Though capitalism benefits many Americans, it continues to negatively affect many more through its destruction of the diverse cultural selection of America itself. An example of this type of cultural exterminations is revealed when Little states "Main street is dead... When I returned home from Japan and visited Quam, I found that all the local businesses from my childhood had been extirpated by Wal Mart." In emphasizing the effects of capitalism Little, referring to Wal Mart, goes on to declare, "If there is one single symbol for the demise of regional American culture, it is this superstore prototype, a huge capitalist boot..." (56) This clearly reveals the negative effect superstores and one-stop shopping stores have on American culture and its diversity.
Another underlying theme of this novel is racial demographics and the representation of Americans as one conformed sample of culture and identity. This idea is revealed through the advertising selectivity of BEEF-EX, an American beef exports company.
When conversing with Sloan, Takagi's musical lover, about My American Wife, BEEF-EX's Japanese advertising production, and its demographic selectivity; Takagi states "BEEF-EX people are very strict. They don't want their meat to have a synergistic association with deformities. Like race. Or poverty. Or clubfeet." (57) These statements clearly display the capitalist idea of "real America" and the way America should be portrayed to potential international consumers. These ideas introduce capitalist America as one giant advertising machine, lacking any trace of compassion, reality, or integrity. These issues also highlight profit as the sole purpose of American Corporations; willing to lie, cheat, and sacrifice any dignity they retained in order to further their "cause" and deepen their bank accounts.
The ideas of capitalism and racist marketing are huge problems individually, but are far more prevalent when combined within a corporate operation. The problem is that these two ideas are ceasing to exist as their own separate entities, and are becoming more and more visible in joint action. This collision is very dangerous to America and its culture because it has numerous negative effects on American citizens and their cultural identities. Through the expansion of corporations such as Wal Mart and their utilization of biased advertising, American cultural diversity is at risk of a rapid decline. Also, the idea of a "typical" American is being strongly misrepresented, creating a divide within America among its citizens and an "American" existence that few Americans are able to truly identify with. It is because of these underlying ideas and the coupling of capitalism with racist advertising that Takagi-Little is able to display the immense danger that American citizens are beginning to experience, with the end consequence being the total extermination of a diverse American culture.

Family Values

2006-09-10T15:53:00.000-07:00

In My Year of Meats, Ruth L. Ozeki writes commenting on Yoshihiro Hattori’s shooting, “Guns, race, meat, and Manifest Destiny all collided in a single explosion of violent, dehumanized activity.” Several other “dehumanized” events and themes take place throughout the story such as female fertility, the value of family, sexual relations, and the culture difference between Japanese and American culture.
The theme that caught to me the most is that Japanese value family very strongly. How the women should have children, raise the children, cook for the family, and have a good sexual relationship with their partner. Beginning with the show My American Wife!, the crew tries to convey a perfect family status to the viewers of how Americans live in different places and still have the strong family bond. In the show they used the Flowers family to represent one of the episodes of the show. The family in the show was happy and like a normal happily ever after story. Ironically, after the show Mr. Flowers ended up cheating on his wife and left her. Sadly, everything in the show was fake because after everything was filmed, Mrs. Flowers was a lonely wife. As Jane said, “I felt bad about Suzie Flowers like I’d stolen something from her that could never be replaced.” With that said, Jane feels bad about using her family in the show after the bad situation that happened in the family. Another of family values that they showed was the diversity in the different families they showed. For example, the Martinez family that migrated to the United States who had struggled so much and cost Albert’s hand to achieve every detail of life they have presently. Showing the viewers situations that many families in America face to have a strong relationship as a family is what the Japanese crew tries to convey.

My Year of Cultural Illusions

2006-09-10T15:46:00.000-07:00

Illustrating various cultural phenomena in her novel, My Year of Meats, Jane Takagi-Little describes how they collide in the midst of misunderstandings, prejudices and racial barriers. Two of the main cultural phenomena and conflicts that present themselves in the novel are the effects of a genuine mixing of cultures and the duality that occurs on how people in the novel believe that the Japanese view American life.

Being called a hybrid throughout the novel, Takagi-Little comes to understand that this part of her is both a favorable characteristic and one of jealousy. There are various times in the novel when Takagi-Little takes on more of a masculine role when members of her Japanese video production crew shy away. For example, when the crew is at a bar, they are approached by an American man, who just so happens to be Takagi-Little’s long-distance boyfriend posing as a part of production staff. Takagi-Little notes how various members of her crew act when conversing with him. One crew member looked at the floor while talking to him, while others would pretend to be occupied with other things as to not look him in the face. This instance shows the humility and reverence which they offered to Takagi-Little’s American acquaintance. This cultural phenomenon seems out of place and strange. As an American reader, I did not understand why Takagi-Little’s crew was so abashed in his presence, but this instance where a cultural gap was present is not the only one that occurs in the novel.

Another cultural phenomenon that occurs in the novel is the two different ways that the characters in the novel think that the average Japanese person views American life and the typical American household. Throughout the beginning of the novel, Takagi-Liottle explains that the false image of American life that the Japanese receive via the television show My American Wife is too perfect and that they can swallow a more honest depiction of American reality within the home. Takagi-Little proves this when the director has an allergic reaction to food and puts her in charge of the next episode. Exploring a Mexican-American family in Texas and illustrating the reality of their not-so-picture-perfect-yet- realistic-life, the ratings go up.

Touching several cultural phenomena throughout the novel, Takagi-Little explores the concepts of a duality between what the Japanese audience wants to see in an American family and the importance put on the mixing of cultures and hybridity.

Blog #5

2006-09-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

The worlds of two women are constantly being paralleled throughout the novel, My Year of Meats. Jane Takagi-Little is a Japanese-American producer for a program designed to bring American Culture to the homes of Japan. Akiko Ueno, a Japanese homemaker and wife, follows the program each week, cooking and acting like the American women that Jane features on “My American Wife!”
As Jane pushes the boundary of what “normal” American wives and families represent, Akiko slowly pushes her boundaries as her role of submissive and obedient wife. These two women continue to grow more and more close, and their similarities continue to surface, each woman finds in the other the aspects that they wish they had themselves. Jane's and Akiko's experiences in both American and Jpanese culture collide with struggles with fertility and the role of sex in their lives.
Jane has had the unfortunate incapability to conceive due to a deformity in her reproductive system. In contrast, Akiko's infertility has been a lifestyle choice because she has struggled with her weight which has affected her ability to menstrate. The more traditional roles of women in Japanese culture has hindered the desire for Akiko to have children with her abusive husband. Jane, growing up in America, has been more radical and has been allowed more opportunities for various lifestyles, but has also been unable to fulfill her desire to have children. The conditions of these women shows how the boundaries of cultures have blurred and the collision of these cultures.
Akiko's struggle with the desire to have sex with her husband and Jane's desire to have a sacred relationship with her lover, Sloan, are another way in which these cultures collide. Traditionally, Japanese women are not supposed to have the desire for sex, but to express love and loyalty for their husbands and also just used to have children and raise large families. Since Jane has the freedom to date and have sex with whoever she wants, it is harder for her to establish that bond and love in a relationship that she wants with Sloan.
As their interactions become more personal and frequent, these women share a bond that they don't even know they have.

Cultural Clash and "I " versus "We"

2006-09-10T15:02:00.000-07:00

My Year of Meats addressed several controversial themes, yet the novel was still able to flow smoothly by the colliding of topics. A large theme of the novel dealt with the clash among American and Japanese cultures, in which tradition and notions of authenticity became an issue, as well as the topic of individualtiy as amplified in the phrase of "I "versus "we." However with every sub topic and reoccuring theme in the novel Ozeki was able to emphasize the dominant theme of the novel, by drawing analogies between humans and meat, specifically beef.
Traditional Japanese culture was represented by Akiko Ueno a frail Japanese woman who's purpose was to fulfill the commands of her abusive husband and reproduce a child to signify any selfworth to him. However, Jane Takagi is viewed as non-authentic, being a hybrid of American and Japanese and well over the height of small Japanese women. The irony in the situation of reproduction is found when Mr. Ueno compliments Takagi stating that she is a good example of hybrid vigor, and that she is good and strong from cross breeding. He then states that Japanese women get teh weak genes through many centuries of straight breeding. However, despite his attempt to rape Takagi and compliment hybrid breeding, he denounces his wifes suggestion of adopting Japanese children as he states "I want my own children..not some bastard of a Korean whore and an idot American soldier. I want my genes in my child." This is ironic in the sense that Takagi's father was a GI and her mother a Korean whore.
The issue of male domination leads into the occuring theme of what is specific to the individual and what is shared. The concept of I versus we occurs at several levels in the novel and is paralled between Akiko and Takagi when Akiko realizes that she wanted a child and that she never wanted John, and when Takagi decides to own her pregnancy and forget about Sloan. At this point Akiko has made a decision to individualize herself from "we" and Takagi then is faced with sharing the child with Sloan who keeps emphasizing the words our and we when referring to the fetus.
Within both of these topics there were references to meat and the cattle industry. The term cross breeding was used when refering to race, Mr. Ueno favors it in once sense and then criticizes it. When both girls were experiencing their pregnancies Takagi had dreamt of the dead cow as her child, and Akiko spoke that she knew she could concieve when the animal inside her did not come out.
In terms of the effects of cross breeding and the infilteration of American culture on Japanese tradition, I believe that authenticity of traditional Japanese culture will diminish and become a rarety. The other idea has already proven to be true due to an increase in the number of single mothers, divorse rates and cross breeding around the world.
To tie this into other class sources the stuggle to define ones own space and property may be referenced from several of the sources such as in the Holy Land where all the houses looked the same and the people adopted a similar standards, as well as in the Enacted Environment where fences and front yards either symbolized a welcoming entrance or closed off territory.

Moo, Lies, and Videotape

2006-09-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

Cultural phenomena are useful for gauging the hearts and minds of the mainstream American citizens. They highlight not only what was important at that time, but also what events built up to the phenomena. Sometimes, two phenomena are idealistically opposed, and come to head in a very public manner causing radical changes. Two of these phenomena discussed in the book My Year of Meats are corporate values and independent journalism. Companies do not want their secrets exposed and go to great lengths to hide or ‘spin’ them, but journalists feel it is their duty to protect the people by exposing these greedy and harmful companies.

Companies do their best to hide the corporate values they do not want the public to know about. They are afraid of a public backlash against their product, which can bring companies and individuals to ruin. These companies, however, can comfort themselves with the knowledge that they are extremely powerful and often have underhanded government support. They are not afraid of being exposed, because the companies hide their practices so the public will not know about them. The beef industry documented in My Year of Meats had many deplorable practices such as using a chemical called DES to make the cows larger. Larger cows mean increased production, which leads to more profits. DES, however, has many side-effects for the human body such as premature puberty growth. Jane discovered one little girl, five years old, with adult breasts and pubic hair whose body chemistry had been affected by DES. Her family owned cow graze lands that used DES on the cows. Another common form of exposure to DES is doctors who prescribe it to pregnant women. Jane’s defective uterus was the result of her mother receiving DES, and Jane became more prone to pregnancy complications and miscarriages. If Jane and others, whose lives had been affected by DES, had known the dangerous side-effects, they may have avoided it as much as possible.

Companies want to protect their high profits by keeping unpleasant secrets hidden from public view. It is the responsibility of journalists, particularly those not bound to corporate responsibilities, to expose these secrets to the public. Those willing to investigate face hardships and pressures to stop at every turn. Jane was supposed to positively reflect the beef industry in the lives of wholesome American wives in the show she directed, My American Wife. Whenever she tried to deviate from her assigned topic, she received notes and criticisms from her boss. The beef companies wanted her to make propaganda, not documentaries on interesting individuals facing hardships. She featured one family, the Martinez family, who emigrated from Mexico and were therefore non-white. Jane’s boss disapproved of the subject because it deviated from the propaganda they wanted to portray. Another shock to the beef companies came when Jane showed off recipes that featured other meats. Recipes involving pork and chicken were highly discouraged. Jane’s most daring show featured a lesbian, interracial, lesbian couple that completely undermined the original intentions of the show’s sponsors.

2006-09-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

In My Year of Meats, during the interview with Gale Dunn, he said something that struck me as rather odd.
"It's a growth hormone. Perfectly legal. You give the heifers Synovex-H, and the steers get Synovex-S."
"What's in it, do you know?"
He looked at me with scorn. "Estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone. All natural."
It's occurred to me since that this oddness I couldn't put my finger on was threefold; the legal, the natural, and [the absence of] the moral.
Though every person in every culture has a different conception of the moral implications of their actions, there are some common cultural institutions that are designed to guide our actions. As he tells Jane about the growth hormone, he tries to reassure the viewers and Jane that these hormones are legal and natural, but in fact he is really attempting to reassure himself that what he is doing is culturally accepted and that he is representing BEEF-EX to the best of his ability. At first I though that the look of scorn was in reference to the "do you know?" but it seems that the real question being asked was "does it matter [to you]?"
The day the bovine is born, it takes on the identity of food, it becomes a pseudo-living thing. By asking does he know what's in the growth hormones, Jane is questioning the standard of living as well as the role the animal is forced to perform. In Gale's mind, however, these moral questions have already been answered by cultural institutions, namely the law system as well as American culture (which deems that "natural" is inherently good). At face value, Jane appears to ask a relatively harmless question simply to extract information, but his look of scorn and the reader's knowledge of Jane's true motive assure us that it's a loaded question.
The interaction between Jane and Gale reminded me of the violent altercation between John and Akiko. It seemed to parallel Gale's relationship with the bovines, albeit in a more overtly violent way. In John and Akiko's case, the rape is an assertion of Akiko's intended role as a child-bearing woman. Though there extreme overtones of dominance (which are also reflected in Gale's case), the majority of the dialogue was regarding her duplicity, which (in John's eyes) was an attempt to undermine the institution of marriage and the foundations of a patriarchal society (which admittedly draw from the overtones of dominance).
Just as in Dale's culturally accepted relationship with the bovines , John is forcing Akiko's role upon her in a way he feels is culturally accepted. Both Jane and Akiko question cultural institutions that are intended to bring about order and the transgression is met with hostility (to say the least). To justify their dominance, and later hostility, both John and Gale dehumanize their subjects. Gale dehumanizes the bovines by viewing them as unprepared meat while John views his wife as a fraudulent, willingly unfertile mate. In each case the exposure of an outside influence has questioned the institutions that justify the farce (dehumanization).

Cultural Collisions

2006-09-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

Throughout Ruth L. Ozeki’s “My Year of Meats” there are numerous examples of cultural phenomena that collide and consequently produce physical and cultural results. It is interesting, however, that when the collisions are due to corporate interests or cultural misunderstandings the affects are negative, but when done on a personal level in response to real community, the results are positive.

One of the main cultural themes in this novel is the introduction of American meat to Japanese families using a TV show that is sponsored by BEFF-EX. This is accomplished by emphasizing the positive American values, such as “attractiveness, wholesomeness, and warm personality” (Ozeki, 11), that Japanese families are fascinated with, and correlating this with meat. However, there is a cultural collision because although these values are beneficial, since the Japanese diet traditionally consists mainly of fish and vegetables, there are direct physical consequences. This is seen in Akiko who throws up the beef every night which consequently prevents her from getting pregnant. Thus, while the TV program may have shown authentic American values that enhanced understanding, the corporate interests in the meat industry had detrimental affects on individuals such as Akiko.

Other cultural conflicts can occur when races collide without any cultural understanding. This was this case when Jane and her film crew were in Montana and were accused of being a “band of Mexican terrorists with a rocket launcher”. (Ozeki, 189) This blatantly misguided accusation was based on “Gulf War fever” which caused many Americans to be on edge against seeming foreigners. This conflict had the direct physical result of getting the film crew thrown in jail, and also had more subtle cultural affects on Jane who was already frustrated that people do not recognize her as an American.

The one instance when the cultural collision was positive was when Akiko came to the US fleeing her husband. In this circumstance she was welcomed by Jane and the various American wives who showed her hospitality and gentleness. This is most clearly seen on the “Chick Bone Train”(Ozeki, 339) where the passengers gladly offer hungry Akiko their food. This situation was different than the other cultural collisions in the book because Akiko just wanted to experience an authentic American community and was not pushing an agenda or being prejudiced.

Cultural Differences Through the Eyes of Women

2006-09-10T14:37:00.000-07:00

In the novel “In My Year of Meats,” sexual orientation and fertility are themes that collide within both Japanese and American cultures. In American society, sexuality is an open and commonly discussed topic, while in Japan, sexuality is strictly a private matter. The issue of fertility is important in both cultures, but more important in Japanese culture. Two women, Jane Takagi-Little and Akiko Ueno represent each lifestyle in each culture.

Sexual orientation plays a part in the lives of both women, as well as by representing a deeper sense of the entire story. Jane Takagi-Little is half Caucasian and half Japanese; she is too tall for being a Japanese woman. The abnormal height leads Takagi to follow the representation of a man as others have already labeled her as. She speaks men’s Japanese and cuts her hair short to go with the “polysexual” identification. She changes doesn’t question her sexuality but alters her appearance for it. Takagi tapes show about a lesbian couple and their struggles to establish a family. In American culture, the idea of transsexual marriage is common; the broadcast of their interview on American television would not be a shock. In contrast, the broadcast of the same tape in Japan would cause much fury, as it did to the producer of the show, John Ueno. Regardless, the story of the Lesbians touched a woman across the Pacific, John’s wife, Akiko. Upon watching the show, Akiko questions her own sexuality; she wonders whether she really wants a man and even kisses a girl friend in curiosity. Her thoughts are present but private unlike in American culture. Sexual orientation plays a role in an even deeper matter. The shows that Takagi directs aim to sell beef to the Japanese population. After researching, she comes across information as hormones, specifically DES. This drug is administered to animals to “fatten” them up by enlarging breasts on the males. Upon getting these hormones, the animals also go through their own share of sexual change, but without choice.

Fertility is an issue that causes pain to both women. Takagi was born a DES child; her mother took the drug to make pregnancy easier and the baby healthier. The effects of the drug took toll on Takagi such that she cannot easily conceive a child of her own due to complications of the uterus. Takagi tries to get pregnant with her husband but fails; she finally becomes pregnant with a long time on-and-off lover, only to lose the baby to a miscarriage. Her independent struggle represents the American life. As for Akiko, she is very able to get pregnant but purposely changes her diet so that her body will not allow monthly periods. The doctor tells John Ueno of Akiko’s unwillingness; he is furious for all the times they have tried to have a child. Akiko is made to eat healthier; she hides her periods so that John will not know. Akiko unlike Takagi does not want to get pregnant, but John is desperate to have a child. Regardless of Akiko’s choice, John’s desire overpowers, thus representing the man’s stance in the issue of fertility in Japanese culture. Akiko's husband’s authority represent the Japanese ideology of the role of the man being superior.

Cultural Clashings

2006-09-10T14:36:00.000-07:00

It has been theorized that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This holds true for My Year of Meats, where the television show My American Wife! attempts to bridge the cultural gap between America and Japan and encourage the Japanese to consume American meat products. Yet, when the cultures do collide, the results are not always positive and lead to problematic situations for those involved. Similar to The Edge, where it was said “They want the black everything but me and you,” saying white people are only interested in black culture while simultaneously afraid of black people, My Year of Meats represents the part of human nature that only wants to see the prettier comfortable parts of life, symbolic in My American Wife! and when things are not appealing, it is necessary to edit the material to present it in a better light, changing what people view and their ultimate beliefs about American life, although ironically even those involved prefer the ruse.

When making the television show My American Wife! in America for Japanese audiences, Jane Takagi-Little is forced to use an angle with many of her example families to create the image of the wholesome American lifestyle, even if it is not wholly truthful. The fabricated show that stars Suzie Flowers is ironically preferred, because she liked the way in which her family was portrayed, even though it was not truthful. On the other hand, in Japan where Akiko Ueno was watching the shows, she is getting a taste of American life that is so wholly edited that the glimpses she gets of life, appear better then the life that she has, and due to the shows and the bad behavior of her husband, decides to leave him to live in America. The fictitious nature of the show, collides with Japanese culture in a way that leads its viewers on a fabricated path that was supposed to just lead to higher consumption of meat, but ultimately leads to a lifestyle change for both Akiko and Jane who are adversely effected by the show. For Jane, the cultural colliding that she experiences when she enters the world of a meat packing plant changes her perspective about meat, which leads her to decide to sabotage a job that she desperately needs by trying to put the truth about meat on television. The cultural collisions that are created by the television show in the end change the course of every life effected but because the stories are built on fictitious events that are only meant to show the happy parts of daily life, we continue to focus only on the good while ignoring the negative aspects of the world around us.

The Phenomena of Sexuality

2006-09-10T14:22:00.000-07:00

In My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki, there are several cultural phenomena that collide, from the collisions of race to the collisions of sex. The collision I found most interesting was Akiko's collision with her husband and her sexuality. After watching the episode of My American Wife! from Northampton, Massachusetts where lesbians Dyann, Lara, and their two daughters introduced their Pasta Primavera, Akiko begins to question her sexuality.
Several experiences lead to the questioning of Akiko's sexuality. Akiko's husband Joichi "John" Ueno, beats her when he has been drinking and controls her life to an extreme level. He makes her watch the show My American Wife!, cook the meat that was featured on the show, and then eat the meat in hopes of putting some weight on her so they can have children. The show featuring the Dyann and Lara the lesbians, sort of opens Akiko's eyes and helps her to realize that she does not want John has her husband anymore, she only wants to have a child. When she finds out that she is pregnant, her wishes are fufilled and she leaves everything she had in Japan and heads for America.
The cultural phenomena that are "colliding" here is Akiko, her husband, and her sexuality. She is heavily influenced by the episode in Northampton, Massachusetts and she decides that she can live her life without a man, or the man that she has. A combination of the influence from the episode and her husband's abuse propels her to want to start a new life in America with her child.

Sexual Relations

2006-09-10T10:35:00.001-07:00

Contemporary American society is on the verge of a cultural crossroads when it comes to sex. American society condemns the concept of casual sex that lacks commitment and emotional attachment, yet there are many Americans who embrace the concept of sexual freedom and expression.

Therefore, in My Year of Meats when Jane Takagi and Sloan have a relationship based on around the country hook-ups, they are able to have sex without being in a relationship. Yet, as soon as “fucked without a condom” and conceived a child they became more attached to each other and had to accept that they were emotionally dependent on each other. This demonstrates a collision between comfortable relationships and sexual passion.

My argument is that relationships include both, sexual passion and comfort and commitment and that the two components are intertwined. Sex is often depicted as a very impersonal action, however, in reality; it is difficult to have a sexual relationship without a feeling of attachment and investing emotions into your partner. For Takagi, the point at when she accepted her emotional investment in Sloan was when she consented to unprotected sex with him and thus placing a large amount of trust in him. After that she expected more of him, whereas before she was not in a relationship with him and therefore did not expect anything of him.

When it is said that “sex changes things” they are talking about this collision between a relationship based upon security and comfort and a relationship that is based upon sexual desire and lust. The fact that you can trust your partner enough to be in a sexual relationship with them also allows you to trust that they will be there for you thus giving you comfort and security.

The Real America

2006-09-10T01:46:00.000-07:00

In My Year of Meats, Ruth L. Ozeki writes, commenting on Yoshihiro Hattori’s shooting, “Guns, race, meat, and Manifest Destiny all collided in a single explosion of violent, dehumanized activity.” Several other “dehumanized” events and themes take place throughout the story, such as Akiko’s abuse and subsequent rape, the Dunn family’s chemical-induced deformities (as well as Jane’s uterus), and the show producers’ betrayal of Suzie Flowers. The theme that I found most interesting, however, was the realism that My American Wife! intended to portray, yet failed at completely.

In a description of the show, which was faxed to Jane, four things are listed as undesirable attributes of those to be filmed: physical imperfections, obesity, squalor and second-class people. BEEF-EX hoped to send a message to Japanese housewives that normal Americans are attractive, healthy, happy and wealthy — and through eating their meat they would be as well — yet it turns out to be that many are just the opposite. Toward the end, for example, we learn that Rosie and Gale Dunn have suffered physical deformities as a result of their family’s involvement in the beef industry. Many Americans in the story turn out to be squalid, indeed.

Interestingly enough, the only “wholesome” families turned out not to be so normal after all: Lara and Dyann are a vegetarian lesbian couple with two normal, happy daughters, and the Beaudroux family comprises of Caucasian parents and their two offspring, as well as their ten adopted Korean children.

The explosion Ozeki writes about is that of squalor. To her, it is a spiraling chaotic mess of lies, blood, rape and fear. Not only are droves of American families being infused with fetus-deforming, artery-stiffening, immunity-weakening meat, but the Japanese are being fooled into believing that eating meat just as the Americans do will give the opposite effect of potentially ruining their lives.

Clashes of Food and Culture

2006-09-09T23:58:00.000-07:00

American communities have openness and their people feel free to express themselves emotionally. The Japanese culture is more formal and rigid; there is sameness and an expectation of how one should act. Akiko and John have been married for three years and John is embarrassed that she is not pregnant. When Akiko fell into the china cabinet, she stayed in her home until the injuries healed. Her husband did all of the grocery shopping and other errands. There was a shame to her injuries that had to be kept private. This is in stark contrast to what occurred in the Bukowsky family. When Christina Bukowsky suffered a serious injury, her family relied on their small town neighbors to help the healing process. Each visitor shared what was most important in his life with the comatose girl. The entire community participated in the healing. The United States is culturally diverse and there is no “correct” way to participate in family and community. Helen Dawes’ church with its outpouring of emotion is typical in many African American communities. John rejected using Miss Helen’s family in “My American Wife” in part because of their overt expression of emotion.
Food is another main category for “cultural collision” in Jane Takagi-Little’s description in “My Year of Meats”. An example of such a cultural confrontation occurs in the kitchen garden of the Beaudroux family. Suzuki, the Japanese cameraman, was awestruck when he saw Vern rip and destroy a kudzu vine as if it were a weed. He proceeded to show Vern how to turn the tubers into starch, and also how to make a salad from the plant. Suzuki even created a medicine to treat hangovers from the kudzu vine. This incident lead to a stronger focus on the kudzu vine in “My American Wife”.
There is a plant similar to the kudzu vine from my own experience in that it has separate meanings to different cultures. Americans use grape vines solely for harvesting the grapes. But my mom and her family use the leaves for a Lebanese dish called misha, and often completely ignore the grapes.

Cultural Collisions in My Year of Meats

2006-09-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

Within the novel My Year of Meats, there happen to be a couple of cultural phenomena that are "colliding". An example I chose from the novel is cultural beliefs "colliding" with relationships. I believe that because of certain cultural beliefs, those belief can come between two people's relationship. Their relationship can end happily or just have a horrible/sad ending to it. In chapter two of the novel, Akiko have discovered that her periods have stopped coming. "Akiko's doctor had told her that her ovaries were starved and weren't producing any eggs" (20). Therefore leaving Akiko not able to become pregnant. This also lead "John", Joichi, to be very upset. In most cultures, I believe, find that married couples not being able to have children early on to be quite unusual. Personally, I find that usually when a couple gets married, they tend to have children right away. Probably no more into 2 years or less of their marriage that couples would have had a few kids already. Taking my family for instance, my mom had two kids right away before her 2 year anniversary of marriage. Also in my family, the grandmothers often urge their son/daughter to have kids as soon as possible. Maybe cause the grandmothers only want to be able hold their grandkids before it is too late. Or maybe they urge couples to have children soon because as women grow older it is much harder for them to have kids later on in life. Whatever the cause may be, most couples I know tend to have kids quite early right after their marriages. But with the belief of having kids soon right after marriage might cause some interuptions in their marriages. In the novel, in Akiko's case, because her periods have stopped coming, "John" tells her that "she must put some meat on her bones" (20). Therefore Akiko revolves her daily routine in learning about meat, cooking meat, eating meat and watching "My American Wife!". Akiko changes her way to satisfy what the husband wants. And within my family, my cousin had her first born right after her marriage. Due to complications and problems brewing in her relationship with her husband, they ended up getting a divorce. Some of my family members blamed it on how they got married to early in life but most of them blamed it on how they just wasn't ready to have children yet. Though there are cutural beliefs for couples to have children early in their marriages, it also really depends on if the couple are ready or not to even have children. Sometimes, such beliefs can really ruin a couple's relationship.

Blog #4- front yard, upholding an image

2006-09-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

In Rojas's, The Enacted Environment, Anglo American suburbs have been described as a space dedicated to showing good citizenship and responsibility in community membership. This relationship highly contrasts with the Mexican usage of space in East Los Angeles where "personal and family identity is enclosed in the front yard..the yard is an area they can publicly personalize without interfering with thier neighbors."
Based on his references, I also believe that front yards are truly an expression of the values of the family living there. I feel that people more concerned with their image or their economic status tend to have a very empty, neat, and almost meticulous front yard. The front yard is the first thing that people see, just like your first name as Jane Takagi references in My Year of Meats, "just a name, name comes first." Maintaining an immaculate front yard is time consuming and difficult, it is like anything such as upholding your own image. I know I have found myself plenty of times resorting to pajamas and excessive caffinated beverages during my college years. Every latest product advertised by the media is a shortcut to look better, whether it is buying diet pills to lose weight or resorting to plastic surgery to deter the aging process. This is why America has the highest obesity and diabetes rates, because we don't like to spend time taking care of ourselves and thus we resort to spending our cash to buy time.
In his piece Rojas speaks about fences and their different uses. From what I can recall, it seems that the most wealthy houses are surrounded by fences, enclosing their front yards and essentially defining a territiory. To me, this is a way of cheating as well. It is like throwing all of your clothes into your closest instead of cleaning your room when you have guests coming over. Rojas, states "fences define boundaries between public and private space..boundaries not only mark separate ownership, they can also bring people together." The unseen or forbidden inspires curiosity, an example of such curiosity may be analyzed in the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where a huge gate separated the town from the factory. Everyone ate the Chocolate but did not know who lived or ran the factory at that time. A large crowd was gathered at the gate to see the children with the golden tickets enter the factory.
Other class examples relating to the concept of designated space were presented by the field trip to Village Homes as well as in the film the Village. Village Homes was not necessarily surrounded by a physical gate, however, te defined space was evident from the unique living community and architecture of the specific location. In the film the Village, the Puritan like group isolated themselves from urbanization and moved to a location in which a strip of forest served as a divider from the city.

bagel goodness..

2006-09-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

Smell. One of my top five favorite senses. In my imaginative map, I chose to map the smells found at one of my jobs, Noah’s Bagels (possibly one of the BEST places to eat in Davis, no lie). I chose to map smells because every time I leave work, the first thing that I want to do is to wash off the various smells that I have on me due to work, like the smell of bagels, garbage and cleaning supplies. Another reason I chose smell to map Noah’s is because smell aids the sense of taste, so smells makes sense to map a restaurant.

Smells can tell you a lot about a restaurant: how it’s managed, what happens where, what is served, the reasons for the placement of certain things, and the values and beliefs of the restaurants without the need for sight. For example, if Ivy Walker, from the Village came into Noah’s, she would be able to figure out a lot just from her sense of smell, due to the fact that she cannot see. At Noah’s, the smells can help determine how the dynamics of employee placement is. For example, at the registers, you have the smell of perfume, because the cashier tends to be female, because they tend to flash a great smile, in hopes of receiving a larger tip (NOTE: TIP AT NOAH’S. MOST OF US ARE POOR COLLEGE STUDENTS J).At the bar/food prep area, it smells like sweat (and food too), because we are tying to get your food out as fast as possible so you can enjoy your bagel goodness, but we cannot control the AC unit in our store (because corporate sucks) and we have the bagel proofer, steamer and oven going at all times and it gets really hot in there during the summer, THUS sweat. Since it is a bagel shop, no matter where you are at, there is the smell of bagels everywhere. The only thing that really overpowers the bagel smell would be the coffees that we serve, and the smell of coffees that travels over from Peet’s Coffee. As you can tell from the map, the smell of coffee is very limited due to the fact that Peet’s Coffee is next door, so coffee is not something that we make a lot of sales on. The smell of toast, also lets you know what is served in what fashion. For example, the smell of toast at the toaster tells the customer that you have the option of having your bagel or bread toasted. The smell of toast from the paninni press tells the customer that we offer grilled sandwiches. The smell of garbage near the entrance is from the garbage cans and it is placed there so as customers leave, they can throw away their trash, which makes it easy and efficient for the restaurant. The smell of cleaning supplies show that the restaurant cares about the cleanliness of the restaurant. Since smells do aid the sense of taste, the concentration of the cleaning supplies away from the areas where customers eat, helps customers enjoy their food more. As you can see, smell can tell you more about a restaurant than you think, especially about the management and employee placement, the reasons of placement of things, and its values and beliefs.

Link to a larger version of the map.

The Neighborhood Pets

2006-09-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

Red-Houses
Dark Green-Backyards
Blue-4 Dogs or Cats
Light Green-3 Dogs or Cats
Purple-2 Dogs or Cats
Yellow-1 Dog or Cat
Orange-No Dogs or Cats
Black-Road

My neighborhood is very centered on pets. In the evenings there are a large number of people that come and hang out in their front yards and tie their dogs to the trees and all the kids play in their respective yards. Like in “The Enacted Environment” the front yard was a place to interact with the rest of the neighborhood so is the front yard in my neighborhood, only on a much smaller scale. The front yard serves as a portal to the rest of the neighbors but only during certain hours of the day and each family only really interacts with their neighbors instead of the whole neighborhood. It is a whole circle of older duplexes so two families share a lawn. Most of the neighborhood is full of young new families that are renting, but there are a few families on the street that own both sides of their duplex and turned it into one single family home. There are also a few of the duplexes that each side is owned instead of rented.

It seems that the owners tend to be the houses with more pets. The rent around the block can vary from $1350 a month to $800 depending on the condition of the house, the number of bathrooms and the size of the garage. The general pattern that can be seen is the larger the rent the more pets. This could be because of the income of the occupants. It may also be because the larger homes tend to have the families with children. The corner houses have the largest yards and they were the homes with the most pets.

Dying yards

2006-09-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

Like Davis, Guam is a very small and laid back place where everybody knows each other. I have seen many cases where two people meet for the first time and find out that they are third or fourth cousins. On an island like Guam, there is no natural resource, therefore, must rely on other means such as tourism. Within the last century, Guam expanded very quickly only in certain areas that were successful in their business. These places included mostly of the coastal areas in the middle section of the island. The rapid expansion brought many big name hotels such as Hilton and Hyatt along that one section of the island. The streets doubled their sizes in width and consumed the bike lanes that were originally adjacent to them. Some telephone poles stand right in the middle of the sidewalks that were pushed back as a result of these widened streets. The lack of proper sidewalks and bike lanes discourages people to walk outside. Therefore, pedestrians are very rare for convenience and safety issues in any parts of Guam (except the tourists near the hotels).

Front porch activities are not too common but barbeques and parties can sometimes be seen held in people’s yards. I am sure that the unbearably humid tropical weather plays a large roll here. Because many communities are built with their backs surrounded by greens growing wildly out of control, stray dogs and even wild chickens can be sometimes seen wandering into the residential area. Some residents sympathize them and usually feed them in their own yards. Because of this, pet feeds and remaining can be seen lying around in yards.

Communities located near the air force base and the navy base have a “rotation” of people going in and out similar to the community from “The Edge.” The people sent to live in these communities only stay for two to three years, also discouraging them to individualize their yards in any way. For this reason, these communities are very plain and simple looking. Their houses have a common patch of lawn with a garage sticking out of a mass produced house. In some ways these communities are similar to the “Holy Land” by Waldie where all the streets are parallel and all the houses look the same.

With the lack of pedestrians in Guam, there are not too many people out on their front porches or yards. Some military housings are similar to that of “Holy Land,” but people still occasionally use their front yards as can be seen by barbeque grills and bowls of pet food lying in their yards.

The Quad

2006-09-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

Legend

Left Map - How the Quad is normally
Right Map - How the Quad is during lunch

I chose to analyze the Quad because during lunch there would be a lot of people and this just shows where most of those people are. During lunchtime, you not only see people eating lunch but a lot of socializing. At the Coffee House is usually where all the Greek Life folks are at. The inside of the coffee house is usually where all the academic and professors eat lunch at. At Freeborn Hall, there isn't much people because it usually isn't open. At the MU however has more people because of the bus stops and the foot courts inside. Also, the Quads are filled with people on the grass areas just reading, eating lunch or just enjoying the sun light.

Not all lawns are created equal

2006-09-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

Ever since I began the process of moving two days ago, I have been studying the differences and similarities in the front lawns of my old apartment, new apartment, and the rest of Davis. The front lawns on and near my new home on Hanover Street are all comparable. I consider the small rectangles of grass on the outside of apartments as the “front yard”. And the middle area, hidden from view, with grass and porches, is an apartment complex’s “backyard”. The trimmed shrubbery and bushes right up near the houses appear as though they all came out of the same cookie cutter. Like my previous apartment, the lawns are manicured so that they are all edged at the driveway and sidewalk; all blades of grass are seemingly of the same height. The well kept and almost fake front lawns discourage any sort of activities other than cleaning it. Conversations and social situations occur at the apartment parking lot or inside the complex, and not on the lawns. The only uses that the lawns seem to serve are for viewing pleasure of people passing by and to make the complex more appealing to potential renters. They may also satisfy the owner’s ego. From three days of observing Hanover apartments, most of the social interactions that I have seen on the front lawns have consisted of joggers passing who may say “hi”.
All of this is in complete contrast to James Rojas’ lifestyle in East Los Angeles. East L.A. lawns extend the houses and are meant to be used publicly. Rojas writes “Here, the residents put their faces on the street; the yard is an area they can publicly personalize without interfering with their neighbors. Enclosed front yards function as a work space, party area, or just a place to spend time.”
Of course, front yards of Davis apartment dwellers are not fair comparisons to East Los Angeles family homes. A better comparison would be Davis family homes. Yet even in this comparison the East Los Angeles front yards are more social than those in Davis. In some Davis family homes the house itself takes up most of the lot and the front is mostly driveway and garage. Very little spontaneous interaction is seen in these cases. People rarely just drop by to gossip or make friendly front yard visits in the Davis community.
I grew up in Davis so I understand that most inter-family interaction occurs between families in association through school events or soccer or Little League games.
They are more formal and include a more specific agenda as to subject of conversation than is the case for informal drop in visits.
There are those cases in older neighbor hoods of Davis where a couple make be going out for their regular after dinner evening walk and will stop and chat with a neighbor, sometimes for quite a long while. In these situations the subject of discussion could be children or vacation stories or even gossip about the other neighbors. Another popular topic may be, “What are you going to do with that tree? It’s tearing shingles off my house when a strong wind comes up. When are you going to trim it?” This sort of conversation came up frequently for my father. Not all conversations in the front yard are positive neighborly chats.
Another thing I noticed in my own neighborhood is that the front yards definitely extend in to the street right in front of each house. People seem to claim the public street that is in front of their own house, either for parking there huge RV or boat, or for parking second or third cars. They all seem to resent it (and say as much) when others park in front of their hose. Sometimes neighbors steal the shade of a big tree in front of someone else’s house, usually because they don’t have their own shade tree and do not like getting into a car after a 100 degree day.
Front yards in Davis are social at times but not in the much enriched way we see East Los Angeles. People do not live on their lawns as we see in east LA.

2006-09-01T16:33:00.000-07:00

As I enter my uncle's house, located in the evergreen area of San Jose, I hear children laughing in the back yard. My five year old cousin Amir, ever the social butterfly, has invited some friends from school to come visit. As one of the children swings on a swing, I hear "I can see my house!" Now all the children are swinging higher and higher, each trying to get a glimpse of their home over the fence and almond tree. As I watch the children play, I realize that this is an aspect of childhood I have never known. This is a world of formal invitations from your five year old classmate, a world where being higher on a hill gives you privacy rather than a view. San Jose in particular adds another oddity to this strange suburban world; the turnover rate in Amir's neighborhood is ~2 years. That means that in all likelihood, most of Amir's neighbors will have moved by the time he celebrates his 7th birthday. Because of the exaggerated cost of living in San Jose as well as relatively poor job security, some neighborhoods (such as Amir's) are in a perpetual "getting to know each other" phase.
Seven months ago the Lee family moved in down the street and today there is a moving van in front of their house. I take Amir to say goodbye to their daughter cookie, at least that's what he calls her, we never did find out her real name. He doesn't understand that cookie won't come to see him after school anymore. They will be replaced with strangers, which he will probably get to know before either they move or he moves away.
There are no children playing in the streets, people greeting you from their front lawns, nothing except the occasional and necessarily polite "how's it going?" They never wait for the answer, they simply say it as a way to acknowledge your presence. This is a dead community because it lacks the inherent trust of familiarity. Formal invitations are extended when there is a lack in familiarity. Children are cloistered in the back yard when the safety of the street (which ends just four houses down and would serve as a prime "playground") is questioned, though not because of any potential traffic.
This community was dead before it had a chance. With every move, with every lost friend or neighbor, it seems as though the neighborhood has become that much more hardhearted. Though this prevents a local community, another seems to have formed through schools, jobs, etc. Amir might not be able to walk into his neighbor's door without knocking, but he'll probably have spent time with each classmate. In this case, proximity in the classroom is more influential to harboring community ties rather than proximity in the neighborhood.

LA Front Yard

2006-09-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

As a child, I spent the majority of school holidays and summer vacations at my grandmother's house in South Central, Los Angeles. My cousins and I used to spend the majority of our time in the front yard playing jump rope and riding our "big wheels", with supervision. It was always a treat to be able to go in the front yard because my cousins and I always knew that we would see some of our other friends from the block outside ready to play with us. The back yard was never an option because the house trash and old junk took up the majority of the space. For my family, the front yard was a communal space where we spent time playing cards, learning how to ride our new bikes, and enjoying each other's conversation. When describing East Los Angeles homes, Rojas observes that those neighborhood residents also used their front yards as common areas, meeting places, and entertainment havens. The openness of the front yard, its manicured appearance , and size allow it to serve as a hosting area and an area of commonality for family and residents.
My grandmother's LA front yard was a multi-purpose area. I can remember many days when my uncle would come over with the barbeque pit in the back of his pickup truck to cook for the family and neighbors in the front yard. Often times, my uncles would pull their cars into the front lawn and wash them. This was most fun during the summertime when the weather would be in the 90s. We would squirt eachother with much needed water to cool down. The front yard was also the place where we taught my grandmother's dog new tricks. Although the spce was not big, it have him plenty of space to roll around, fetch frisbees and such in short distances, and occasionally use the restroom.
My grandmother always took pride in the appearance of her front yard. The grass never went uncut for more than 2 weeks, it stayed watered, and it stayed green....no yellow patches. She treated it as though it was her little garden, offering much care and attention to its healthly growth. If she was being critiqued by Frank, he would be pleased with her care and attention to her front yard. In his work "What's the matter with Kansas?", he criticized the Mission Hills community because of their lack of interest in the maintenance of their front yard, citing that it shows a disinterest in community interaction and laziness on the part of the residents. My family is the total opposite. We take pride in our front yard because it is the center of our outdoor activities and entertainment.

Front Yards

2006-09-01T16:19:00.000-07:00

At this current state and time, my front yard is an uncanny representation of Mr. H’s disorderly mayhem. It’s time to move out for my housemates and I and there are bags on top of boxes on top of furniture all on our front yard to make the moving process more efficient. There are trucks and moving vans all lined up and perched viciously in front of my house to get the closest spot to the house. However, before this time of havoc, my front yard was a suiting representation for the demeanor of our house because we have gardening service paid by the management of our complex. It was important to maintain a presentable appearance of our complex since it needs to be attractive to prospective renters.

However, before my housemates and I moved out of this house, our front yard had shrubs and flower beds circumscribing our house in addition to a large, shady tree in the middle of our lawn beside an accessible walkway leading to our front door. Our front yard was replicable to the other front yards in my neighborhood; a monotonous sight of similarity. The signs that college students lived in this neighborhood was empty beer bottles in boxes by their trashcans in their front yards week after week to be thrown out. Other additions to their front yards were random pieces of trash, lawn chairs, barbeque grills, aged newspapers, and a bike parked right in front of their house. A bike parked in the front yard usually was an indicator that the individual was environmentally friendly or just wanted to exercise because there was a bus stop just a couple feet away from our complex.

The front yards in my neighborhood were seemingly average for college students but I then realized that no one ever had garages or the typical welcome signs or shingles, as those were common adornments in my neighborhood back home. These adornments that would normally create a warm atmosphere was not as nearly was welcoming as the front yards of the Latino Americans in East Los Angeles. They, however, were able to create a welcoming feel to their house even with gates surrounding the premise.

I next surveyed the residential areas in Davis. I did see shingles, “Welcome” mats and signs displayed, and gates. Their front yards were similar to my house: bushes, lawns, and flower beds in slightly different arrangements and sizes. Since these residential areas do not have do not have gardeners, you can oftentimes characterize the people and living conditions within the house based on their front yards. If their front yards are untamed and outgrown, that could indicate that they are busy or have been out town for quite some time. If they have nicely kept lawns that could indicate that they are tidy and organized people. Other front yards had garages with vans or motorcycles in them. Depending on the type of vehicle they drive, you can somewhat gauge their lifestyle. A van could indicate that there is a family residing in that house and a motorcycle could mean that the person enjoys living a fast-paced, spontaneous life. Another example of different front yards was when I was in the Village Homes and saw several front yards displaying their hobbies, like a kayak and materials for art projects. I even came across front yards that didn’t even have yards, but a slab of concrete and no foliage which was typical for houses that were closely built together. I also observed that there weren’t many houses with fountains or patios, which would be a regular sight back in my neighborhood at home. Depending on the area, front yards can display a lot of variance from neighborhood to neighborhood.

The Smells in My Apartment

2006-09-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

Map color key:

solid black: walls
sky blue diagonal stripes: doors
sky blue and maroon diagonal stripes: windows
white boxes: furniture/closets
orange dots: front room
green open circles: hallways
red check marks: bathroom
dark blue slashes: kitchen
yellow "s"s: bedrooms

I chose the smells in my apartment as the subject of my imaginary map because it is one of the more difficult of the five senses to grasp, yet often the most overwhelming. An example of this lies in Farewell to Manzanar when Wakatsuki Houston's family ate their first meal at Manzanar and received their first impressions of their new home. Smelling the opposing smells of fruit served over steamed rice, she and her family understood that they were in a foreign place where no one understood their culture, their values or their feelings. Having just moved into this apartment, I am not yet used to its foreign and opposing smells. The smells in my house are vibrant and almost "colorful", which is why I chose to make the rooms stand out more with the color-coding on the map. I believe that the smells that I experience in each room are as important as the room itself and what is symbolizes for the people experiencing it, just like what the uneasiness and foreigness of Manzanar's mess hall signified for Wakatsuki and her family. Ultimately, the smell of one's environment is most important because it can tell a number of things to the "smeller."

Who or what has been there.
What values the inhabitants of that space have.
The habits of the inhabitants.
The first impression of a space, whether positive or negative, will be held when experiencing the rest of the space.

With this list of things a "smeller" can detect, it is obvious that an inhabitant of a space cannot hide everything. For even if the scent is of poutpurri or air freshener, the "smeller" can assume that there is a more offensive odor to be covered. Thus, I chose the smell of my apartment as the subject of my imaginary map because smell is the strongest, most persuasive, and most informative sense of the five senses.

Front Yard War Grounds

2006-09-01T16:03:00.000-07:00

Blog Prompt #2: Front Yards

Ten miles from my Hercules suburb, lay the infamous Richmond, California. Once bustling with people working in shipyards during World War II, it is now in decay after postwar abandonment. When visiting friends in the nearby city, I see streets lined with Dollar Trees and Food Maxxes, buildings that are old and decrepit, and scarcity of nature.

As I pull into my friend’s neighborhood, the first thing I see is the metal fence bordering the front yard, backyard, and the entirety of house. His house was the only two-storied house on the block. Iron rods cover the windows so that robbers cannot break in. Furthermore, sometimes a pit bull sits in the front of the homes. These front yard accessories are evidence of the high crime rates of the city.

Living in the suburbs is the opposite of a city like Richmond. Children ride their bikes and play hopscotch in the front yards of my neighborhood but this is not the case in Richmond. Unlike the neighborhood I live in, children do not play in the street or in front of their houses. They are confined to the backyards of their homes because parents are afraid of kidnappers, rapists, and random drive-by shootings. Once, I went to the front yard to talk on the phone with my mother so I could have some privacy. I assumed I was relatively safe because I was still within the metal fencing. When I was found, my friends hurriedly escorted me back into the house. Later that week, there was a shooting and a bullet shattered a window in the front of the house. Even the iron rods could not protect the windows from danger.

Furthermore, a neighbor’s drive way and the grassy area of the front yard was covered with cars. Some homes housed multiple families. These families do not have enough money to own their own homes so they share with other families.

Two houses down, was an abandoned house where my friend’s little sister liked to go and pick flowers. This abandoned house was like her playground when she was sick of her own backyard. The houses’ windows were boarded but a few windows were still broken by trespassers. Her playground did not have the same safety of real playgrounds in community parks. Recently, her dangerous euphoria had a bittersweet ending. The abandoned home was remodeled and sold to a new owner.

Richmond parallels the history of Detroit. Both were bustling, industrial cities supporting the war effort during World War I and World War II. Detroit was a large automotive industry while Richmond was known for their shipyards. Both cities were abandoned after the wars ended and are now in economic decay. Similar to the Hudson Shopping Center, described in “Disappeared Detroit” by Jeff Byles, Hilltop Mall has begun to crumble. The building was built in the 1970s as a top-of-the-line shopping center but recently all the big-labeled stores have moved out and young teenagers loitering around after school have moved in. Richmond has begun to decay but has not reached Detroit’s level. The city is trying to restore their economic center so that it will not be abandoned like the homes of Detroit and Hudson’s Shopping Center. They struggle to bring back the memories of the lively Richmond before the war. Wars build communities quickly and then destroy them slowly and agonizingly. The front yards of communities become places of violence and fear. They become war grounds themselves.

Front yards

2006-09-01T15:29:00.001-07:00

Davis homes lack unity among neighbors and community. For example, in the article “The Enacted Environment” written by James Rojas, he lets the reader know of how people in East Los Angeles live and make use of their front yards. Older adults in East L.A. like to socialize during the evening in their front porch to talk to the neighbors and people in their surroundings. While children and teenagers play on the side walks or on the yards with toys. The people from East Los Angeles spend their most time when home in their yards because it always has people doing something from listening to music from a parked car to neighbors talking about how their day went or just gossip.

Davis California is full of suburb homes where the majority of people isolate themselves from the rest of their neighbors and community. There are no daily activities where people socialize among neighbors. The houses in Davis are mostly nice large homes with a front yard and great scenery. Most of the houses do not have fences or porches in the front yard. To me, it seems that most people in Davis only have a front yard for luxury to make their house look very elegant. Others in Davis do make use of the front yard as an area to take care of plants or crops they might have for personal pleasure. The situation of how homes are in Davis reminds me oh the homes in Kansas from the article “What’s the matter with Kansas? How conservatives Won the Heart of America” written by Thomas Frank. In his article, Thomas Frank describes houses in Mission Hills as homes where people live in but do not even pay attention to take care of their own homes as he says, “Nobody mows their own lawn in Mission Hills anymore.” This gives people an understanding the gardeners do all the work for the people. In Davis many of the cases are very similar where people do not care for their front yard so they hire people to do the work.
In general, I believe that if people put input to care for their homes and become more sociable with their neighbors the community would feel much more alive.

Front Yards

2006-09-01T15:29:00.000-07:00

The past three days I managed to capture 2 hours of sleep. Being the not-so-proud owner of a 1996 Dodge Grand Caravan, I am the driver of the largest and most versatile car amongst many that I know. Moving day for me started for me Wednesday and did not end until last night. As residents of most Davis apartments know, it’s moving season. Leases end, many students go homeless for a few days as they wait for their new apartment to be ready for moving in. having helped five separate individuals with their moving endeavors, I was witness to an array of different apartment complexes, and the Davis community as they relocated themselves.

Tuesday, most front yards were well manicured and foliage took charge of most yards, although there were exceptions, such as some homes where the foliage consisted of dead grass, weeds, and perhaps a sparse shrub or two. Wednesday, morning, most yards had begun to swell with furniture, boxes, trash bags, open cars. It seemed as though overnight, large industrial furniture donation bins sprung up at all apartment complexes. These bins quickly filled with unwanted furniture. For the majority of Wednesday and Thursday, patio chairs were joined by dining chairs, lawn beds were covered over with aero beds.

Trashbins outside many townhomes were filled to the brim, large garage sale signs placed outside several places. Donation piles of apartment complexes were advertised by the large pleather sofas, stained office chairs, broken desks and bookshelves, and cracked mirrors. The nicer furniture was quickly raided and hauled away by bottom feeding college students, like my self and my friends, who were in need of decent apartment furnishings.

By Thursday night, most apartments were resettled in, and yards were once again trim and clean. However, by Friday, these trim yards were resettled with patio chairs, potted plants, ashtrays, and unfinished drinks, the remains of house warming get-togethers of the night before. The yards once again resembled the aged inviting lived in look as reflected by the bungalow style landscaping.

The yards of the apartments and town homes once again took on the conservative, desperate look that imitated more refined upper middle class neighborhoods. Although the majority of residents are Davis students, the neighborhoods attempt to reflect the image of being home to young modest single family places; places that house diligent individuals who hold entry level jobs, and come home to cook and enjoy a nice relaxing night. While, some fit this mold, many residents, contrary to the pristine middle class image that the landscape architect so meticulously sculpted, do not live that lifestyle. Instead, they hold part-time service jobs around town, order out for pizza, and stay out partying until late hours of the night.

While the majority of these residents will eventually go on to complete their education, land entry level white collar jobs, and eventually fall into that humble lifestyle so well reflected by their manicured lawns, at the moment, these manicured lawns fail to accurately reflect the current state of life of the current residents. It’s a façade enforced by maintenance and management of the apartment complexes to entice new renters, and present prospective residents the most favorable disciplined, and desireable depiction of their apartments.

James Rojas claims that this manicured appeal serves as a representation of how responsible the residents of that community are, and the values and standards of that community. However, this is not necessarily reflected as much in Davis apartment complexes, where management is responsible for the look and feel of yards. The overflow of private life in a college town is only exposed during current times, when residents are forced to bring their lives outdoors exposed to the public. Typically, residents do not spend as much time outdoors socializing and creating these semi-private zones found in the Barrios that Rojas describes.

That is not to say that these front yards are not taken advantage of, as many residents in Davis use the space for storage of rarely used patio furniture. Fraternities, on the other hand, take great advantage of these front yards to invite prospective pledges to stop by and introduce themselves. The typical individual resident, however, holds less interest in community interaction.

This is a result of Davis’ emphasis on individualism more so than in communities. More urban places, such as Manhattan, or Los Angeles are closely developed, leaving individual private open space more limited, and thereby less emphasized. In more rural/suburban communities, breathing space is more open and free, and so individuals adapt to a more private lifestyle.

Outsourcing, Mechanization, and Profit Gains: The Pearls of Big Business

2006-09-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

Outsourcing, to procure goods or services needed by a business or organization under contract with an outside supplier, is everyday progressing into a larger problem for American communities. The reason for these international business deals is very simple: economics; overseas wages are lower, taxes are far less, and labor restrictions almost unheard-of. This "opportunity", as many corporations view it, is becoming more and more harmful to American cities as more and more businesses downsize locally and expand internationally with huge economic gains. Also, in the technological world of today, the uneducated American labor force is competing not only with international outsourcing, but local mechanization, or the mechanical upgrades of processes, as well. The significance of these issues lies not only in the draining of the American economy, but more importantly in the degradation of many American cities.
In acknowledging these issues, a question that begins to arise is how these wealth-driven processes affect American citizens and the cities they live in. Perhaps the most visible effect of the continual transference of jobs to machines and foreign nations is the fact that people follow jobs in order to survive, and when jobs leave the country, they leave their followers behind; creating mass-unemployment, increased crime rates, and migration due to job searching. All of these issues are very significant alone, but when fused together in one concentrated area, the results may be devastating.
An example of this type of job-driven deterioration is displayed through the degraded metropolis of Detroit, Michigan. Once a thriving economic area of endless jobs, due to the auto and metal industries, Detroit has experienced a steady exportation of jobs, education, and its people. Particularly in Detroit, these economic issues coupled with racism disguised as "economic interests" in real estate led to a "mass exodus [that] would cause [the] City of Detroit's population to decline by nearly one half to its present day population of 950,000". (8 Mile- The Gates of Detroit) This fact clearly reveals the devastation that economic-driven alterations can have on Americans and the cities in which they live. Jeff Byles states in Disappeared Detroit that "Detroit is disappearing because Detroiters themselves have disappeared", presumably following jobs in order to prolong their existence.
The occurrence of the migration of Detroiters has not only led to an abandoned Detroit, but the economic strains that have led to this migration have effected education as well. Simply stated, when one has the choice to go to school and be hungry or go to work and be fed; the decision is amazingly predictable.

Photos: Top: from Detroit Blog's Wild Kingdom.
Bottom: from Jeff Byles' Disappeared Detroit.

These photos help to illustrate the devastating products of these capitalistic business "ventures" and strongly emphasize the trend of the economic-driven process of community degradation.

Through the analysis of the economic strategies of businesses and their corporate profit-gaining practices, a clear cause of the fraying of American cities is highlighted. This cause, concentrated around the practices of outsourcing, mechanization, and other supposed "economic" strategies consisting of racial, socio-economic, and political bias; is becoming more and more prevalent throughout the United States. Without national recognition and organized action this cause will remain to spread, terrorizing more cities and expanding its process of the deterioration of the American city. Watch out, stay alert, and be ready to act, because if you don't recognize this monster on your doorstep, you too will be a victim of its ferocious actions!

front/backyards

2006-09-01T14:41:00.000-07:00

In the reading “The Enacted Environment: Examining the Streets and Yards of Los Angeles” by James Rojas, it talked about yards in the neighborhood. In many neighborhoods, you can find houses with front and backyards. Usually, backyards are where the kids play at. However, in the reading, the kids rather play on the streets instead of their own backyards because “of their seclusion and unkempt condition.” And the front yard is used as a welcoming space to your home. The enclosed front yard is “an area they can publicly personalize without interfering with their neighbors.” According to the reading, many “spent much of their free time in the front yard or on the porch.” So what about apartment complexes? Most likely apartment complexes do not have front or backyards. So where do the interactions occur at? I live in an apartment complex myself. Even though we do not have our own front/backyard, like many houses do, we have something similar to it. In the apartment complex, there is an area right in the middle that we call the court yard. The court yard was basically our front/backyard. And the use of the community room in our apartment complex is our porch. This is where all our interactions happen. Like the reading, this is where “children play, teenagers hang out, and the elderly watch.” Therefore, I decided to draw a map of the apartment complex I live in. In the map I drew, you can see that most residents (mostly adults or teens) gather around the community room. This is the place where they throw parties or just a place to sit around to catch up on their gossips. In the open space where the court yard is, this is where the children play at. The court yard has a big enough space for them to play ball or ride their bikes. Though our “front/backyard” has no grass, it is used almost the same way. I call this area our front/backyard because for some residents this area (looking from their front doors) is facing behind them and for some this area is right in front.

People Make the Community

2006-09-01T14:36:00.000-07:00

There are a variety of reasons that cause a community to decay. I personally believe that cities begin to fray once they begin to construct themselves in a way that limits personal interactions. A group of buildings is not a community; it is the people who inhabit those buildings that create the real sense of community. In essence, it is their personal relationships that we maintain that act as the glue for a community. When those relationships begin to disintegrate, the community begins to die, as in the case of Detroit.
When comparing the thriving area of East Los Angeles to the dying urban center of Detroit, it is easy to observe just how personal interactions have shaped those communities. In East Los Angeles, houses are built with front yards that promote personal interactions. In Detroit, houses are built to allow individuals to hide from their neighbors. When one doesn’t have close ties to their neighbors or community, it becomes easier for people to simply begin to fade away from the city. In my own community growing up, there was a similar feel to the one found in the yards described in the Rojas article on East Los Angeles homes. Front yards were for socializing, playing, and being caught up to speed on the latest news in the neighborhood. By doing so, our neighborhood had a stronger sense of community. Best friends were made amongst the neighbors. We even had one neighbor who opted to commute three hours each day to work rather than move from the neighborhood he and his family had become so close to. Had we lived in a city set up much like the neighborhoods of Detroit, I don’t think that the close personal ties we had with our neighbors would have formed.
Once a community begins to fray, there are severe consequences. First, and most noticeable, is the actual physical degradation of the community. The same plight that has hit Detroit is evident in communities that are struggling throughout the United States. Just as described in the “Wild Kingdom” article, old buildings begin to deteriorate, animals take up residence, and the once powerful presence of the city begins to fall to nature. Once these cities begin to fray physically, there are more consequences that occur amongst the community. Probably the most noticeable effect is the increase in crime. Old buildings can serve as hideouts for criminals or people with drugs problems, and the general state of disrepair can promote the attitude of “who cares?”
In my own hometown, there are areas of the city that have begun to fray. These areas are small and isolated, but the effect of that fraying is evident in the lives of the residents. Mothers interviewed on TV feel hopeless; they mourn the fact that they cannot provide a better environment for their children, or simply mourn the fact that the area they once knew and loved has died. Adolescents with a similar attitude have turned to gangs to fill that void. As a result, crime rates have gone up. The entire situation turns into a vicious cycle that threatens to turn parts of the city towards a path similar to that of Detroit’s.
The fraying of cities is not something that can be entirely avoided. People move, industries relocate, but when a community is founded more upon personal relationships with one another, often that fraying can be diminished, as residents will more willingly work to save their community from destruction. For communities that lack those personal ties; however, there is no one left to stop the epidemic.

The Deterioration of Cities

2006-09-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

A wide-spread phenomenon that may characterize the end of the 20st Century is the deurbanization or decay of cities. Millions of city-dwellers have left their homes and continue to do so as a result of pushes from within the city as well as pulls to other areas. Overall this push and pull of factors has a spiral affect of destroying the life and infrastructure of many American inner city communities.

One of the largest factors in the decay of cities is as a result of racial migration. This was the case in Detroit in 1967 following a racial motivated urban riot that resulted in many of the residents of Euro-American neighborhoods to vacate to the suburbs past 8-mile. “The resultant mass exodus would cause City of Detroit's population to decline by nearly one half to its present day population of 950,000.” (8-Mile – The Gates of Detroit) This flight left many houses abandoned and consequently lead to the gradual deterioration of the infrastructure and community. Similarly in Oakland, the opposite affect is taking place where land value has gone up meaning that many African-Americans are vacating because “if people cannot afford to stay, they leave”. ( Tilove, Along Martin Luther King) Instead of resulting in deteriorating infrastructure, this racial shift results in a loss of culture, where many significant sites ion black history are being abandoned.

Besides the factors that push residents out such as racial conflicts and riots, there are factors that attracted residents to new areas. The main culprit in this case is the suburbs, which provides a place where cities dwellers can escape the congestion and crowded corners of unsafe neighborhoods to peaceful communities were they can have their own secluded privacy and remain protected by their immaculate lawns. “In the city’s most recent opinion survey, 92 percent of the residents believe this suburb is a desirable place in which to live.” (Waldie, Holy Land) Thus the attraction of suburbs with its fulfillment of the “American Dream” plays a large part in the movement of populations from cities.

The result of the push and pull factors that cause the fraying of cities generally results in the deterioration of those communities. Such is the case in Detroit where the reduction in population in many white neighborhoods had a multiplying affect were abandoned buildings because a sore sight, and home to crack houses and rapists resulting in a further evacuation of the city. The decaying infrastructure then leads to the demolition of houses leaving only a few select houses among the decay. “Houses squat like pioneer outposts amid sprawling expanses of white Queen Anne's lace, blue cornflowers and other wildflowers.” (Byles, “Disappeared Detroit”) Thus these communities either suffer from crime and very unattractive surroundings or there are so few houses left to even be able to form a community.

Pet-Friendly

2006-09-01T14:02:00.000-07:00

I have a group of friends who live in a big house in north Davis. The home is a pet-friendly environment, some have even called it a zoo. They have accumulated many animals throughout the 12 months they have lived there.

One of the girls, Kristina, is an active member of the foster care program at the Yolo Country SPCA. On two-week cycles, she provides a home for dogs that have been put up for adoption while potential owners go through an application and interview process. Currently, she is foster-homing two Labrador/German Shepard puppies, and their place in the house in a kennel in a corner of the living room, where guests immediately find a pleasant, most adorable surprise. The other dog in the house is also from the SPCA. The housemates decided to adopt Raven, a Cocker Spaniel mix, after foster-homing her for about a month with no potential owners. She has a dog bed set up for her in the corner of the dining room, which the girls use to study and do homework. Raven keeps them company during late-night study sessions.

On the empty side of the kitchen counter, there are two aquariums. One tank contains what the house likes to call the "frog family." In the other tank, they have a one-eyed goldfish that we had stumbled upon while shopping at Walmart. We decided to purchase this fish, first because we thought it was funny, but overall because we felt it needed a better home than the cramped conditions of an aquarium at Walmart. Cindy also has a goldfish which she keeps in her room upstairs.

In the family room, a shelf was built specially to hold three cages of reptiles. One contains a California King snake, another has a Rainbow Python, and the last cage is home to a male Bearded dragon. A second male Bearded dragon is kept in Kristina’s bedroom because two males cannot be kept together, for the same reason male fighting fish are kept apart. The dragons were given to Kristina when an unknowing family return them to the pet store (where she works) after the pair had engaged in a fight, and one had lost several toes. In the opposite corner of her room is a birdcage, usually covered with a towel because the Lovebird inside it is easily frightened. Its name is Squeekers, who was from a bird adaption program in Davis, similar to the SPCA. Through another adoption program in Davis advertised on campus, Stacey, another resident at the house, had adopted a rabbit. She built a play pin for it in the study upstairs. The last pet in the house is a hamster that got into a fight with a dog.

I decided to map out all of the animals at this house to show the many animals that live amongst the human residents. Kristina, Stacey and their housemates have created a home for a variety of animals that were in great need of care and special attention. They have opened up their home to build a community where animals and people can interact in a loving and caring environment.

The Payphone Project

2006-09-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

The Payphone Project is an experiment started in Florida in the 1990s by a teenager named Mark Thomas. He was interested in the concept of reaching out and communicating with strangers -- he would call random pay phones and play classical music on his piano for whoever answered. In 1995 he created a web site dedicated to locating pay phones around the country (and eventually around the world). Site visitors are invited to send him photos and locations of pay phones, which he posts on the site. Unfortunately, the site does not contain a clear visual aid such as a map.

Daviswiki.org recently launched a similar effort titled the Davis Payphone Project, in which wiki users add the locations and phone numbers of pay phones around town. The site uses a Java program to map the locations of these phones, but only several are included. I felt it was important to complete the effort, partly because I was interested in observing any possible patterns. As I had suspected, many of these phones are located just outside businesses (mostly convenience stores, grocery stores and drug stores). Several phones were constructed in the middle of "nowhere," such as Downtown Phone 3, which used to stand just before a grassy area across the street from Central Park. The other reason I felt I should complete the map is that though it often feels as if everyone has a cell phone, there exists a population of those who rely on pay phones. Also, I feel like pay phones play an important role in the culture of Davis. The Payphone of Venus, on the patio of Delta of Venus, rings pretty often. If you pick up, it's likely that no one will speak up on the other end. Sometimes, though, people call to speak with someone they know is there. (Delta of Venus has a lot of regulars.) The site also has the location of the other London phone booth, just outside the Mustard Seed (the first is at the MU Unitrans terminal).

The Davis Payphone Project also lists pay phones that are located on campus, but I felt it was important to highlight only those provided by the city to show its sense of inclusion of everyone in its city planning.

I used a Google map as the backdrop for my own map of the pay phones, which I created in Photoshop. A larger, more legible version of the map pictured can be found here. For more specific payphone locations, visit daviswiki.org/Payphone_Project.

Fraying In Detroit

2006-09-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

It is unfortunate when we see cities like Detroit deteriorate before our eyes. Once a major thriving city has now become practically a wasteland of abandoned homes and businesses. I think the cause of the citys downfall is due to large scale corporate crimes and racism. In "8 mile--The Gates of Detroit", we see how a wall was constructed to seperate the blacks from the whites in so that developers can obtain the funds they need to build homes for white people. Because of racism against blacks, investers will not allow their money to go to an area where there are a lot of minorities. I think this is because they believe the economy will fail because minorities are usually poor and there are higher crime rates in their neighborhoods. However, this is a catch 22 because with no investment in the area, of course there are no businesses, no jobs, and no money. So, of course crime rates will go up because people have to eat. So, their racism is perpetuating this cycle of poverty and crime. Detroit is also failing because of large corporate crimes like outsourcing. Since major business owners can make more money overseas or in a less developed 3rd world country, they will move their company their leaving the American town in ruins. Usually, the entire economy of that American city depends on this company. So, when it leaves, a lot of people are out of the job so they must leave town. In Jeff Byle's website, "Disappeared Detroit", he claims that Detroit has lost 40% of its population since its peak in 1950. With the decreases in population, smaller business, like grocery stores and resteraunts, will go bankrupt. This leaves the city with many abandoned homes and buildings. I think this is partly what happend to Detroit. That is why areial veiws of this city shows how sparse it is and how much natural vegetation is growing. On the Detroitblog website, "Wild Kingdom", we see how dilapitated buildings are surrounded with so much vegetation that it resembles the wilderness. As compared to thriving cities like LA, that barely shows any natural green, Detroit has become consumed with unkempt nature. And, obviously, no one cares.

The Davis Front Yard - A Happy Medium

2006-09-01T13:11:00.000-07:00

A typical front yard in Davis consists of a fairly well-manicured lawn, a driveway, a concrete path leading to the front door, and possibly a tree and some bushes and flowers. A typical front yard in Davis does not have fences. In this light, Davis seems to promote some of the ideas of Levittown, the fenceless community. But, every property in Davis does have a front yard barrier – the garages. I don’t have the statistics on this, but it seems that most of the Davis community contains properties in which the garages are attached to the houses. This means that although there are no fences in the front yard, the garage acts as a physical barrier between neighbors. So, interaction between neighbors is hindered because of these garages. And as we know, neighbor relationships are very important to the success of any community. Davis houses might as well have fences in their front yards.
On the other hand, because Davis front yards don’t have fences they can’t contain animals in their front yards. We haven’t really discussed this in class, but in my neighborhood (that is on the agricultural side as neighborhoods go), a walk around the block would include being barked at by an assortment of dogs behind fences that are a couple feet away. What does having animals in the front yard, specifically dogs, say about a community? Besides the fact that members of a community with dogs in the front yard probably aren’t as concerned with the appearance of their house as the typical Californian, front yard dogs are usually there to send one message: “Keep out”. This is why I don’t take as many walks in my hometown anymore. Having dogs in the front yard is almost as bad as lining the yard with refrigerators as Mr. H did in Waldies’ Holy Land. Interaction between neighbors is hindered when front yards have fences and animals.
While Davis front yards have garages that take away from the sense of community, they lack fencing and animals which helps to avoid the creation of a more anti-communal environment.

"Highclass" Without Sidewalks?

2006-09-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday, August 26, 2006
On August 24th, I visited North Davis Meadows in Davis, California. If you take the 113 North, get off at Road 29 and turn left, North Davis Meadows is just a couple miles down off of a street called Fairway. You can’t miss it. The Davis Municipal Golf Course and residential area are on one side of Road 29 and farmland is on the other. Now just to clarify, the community is not ON the golf course. It is besides it.
When I got there, nobody was out. I saw a few people in cars, but that was about it. Huge Victorian-style houses, three car garages, manicured lawns and shrubbery abounded. There were roughly 6-8 styles of houses and they were all decorated differently. The houses were not close to each other. Each house sat on about an acre of land and each yard was picture perfect. That is, there were no toys, tools, or even lawn chairs left out in any of them. Many of the houses had unfenced front and backyards. It made me feel a little funny openly gazing at the swimming pools, ponds, and garden paths in the backyards. North Davis Meadows appears to foster individuality on a very grand scale, as the estates’ entire front and backyards are very diverse. Above all, it was apparent that the inhabitants of this subdivision care very much about the appearance of their properties. But so does the majority of the American population, right? These inhabitants are different because they have the money to pay for the rigorous upkeep of their estates. This community can sleep well knowing that there won’t be any Mr. Hs running around ruining their pretty streets as was the case in D.J. Waldie’s Holy Land. The cost of living is already so high that only people that can afford to pay gardeners can even fathom living here.
Besides signs of life and backyard fences, I did notice other things missing from this subdivision that are typical of the ‘average’ neighborhood. There weren’t any sidewalks. And, the mailboxes were not located along the street in front of each property. They were grouped in clustered box units at the end of each cul-de-sac.
I have always seen Davis as a place that promotes community, exercise and healthy living, and eco-friendliness. With that said, it becomes clear that North Davis Meadows detracts from Davis as a whole. North Davis Meadows fails to promote community as there were no residents outside when I visited (it’s summer- where are the kids!?), no sidewalks, and 3 and 4 car garages in every home. All of these factors hinder neighbor relationships. There were box unit mailboxes as I mentioned before (which would seemingly promote interaction between neighbors) but I witnessed a resident driving up to the mailbox in her car, invalidating this idea. The subdivision also fails to promote exercise, as there were no paths or sidewalks. Lastly, the community failed to promote eco-friendliness as none of the gargantuan houses contained any solar panels or hybrid cars. Unlike Levittown, this community is a good place for individuality to a certain extent, but it detracts from Davis as a whole because it does not promote community, exercise, or eco-friendliness.

Find North Davis Meadows at http://communitywalk.com/map/16453 Balloon #8

posted by SurdeEden at 5:49 PM

Out with the Old

2006-09-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder whether upper class people socialize to a friendly extent with their neighbors, or if they are too conniving, greedy and superior as media describes. Does this class of America keep to itself or is it stereotyped "cold" for a reason?

I use to live in Vallejo, in a messy middle-working class area where a sense of community thrived. I saw all the things that James Rojas writes about in "The Enacted Environment” in my old community. He tells of children and teens playing or walking in the streets, the adults socializing on the porches and lawns, and of vendors along the neighborhood. The community of East L.A. used up all its space and safely said, labels life outside more valuable than life inside the house. The outside is what brought people together and importantly to watch their streets with careful eyes. Rojas states that when a stranger crossed into the neighborhoods, he would be looked up with a challenging stare. This togetherness existed in my previous community; we knew every face and every car. We played outside until nightfall while the adults watched us from the porch or sat under the shade. I remember running through the sprinklers on hot days in the front yard, or pretending to be a ballerina walking along the concrete cracks on my tip-toes as my grandparents sat on the steps trying to talk to our even older neighbor with the little English they knew. The children were on the streets for hours, a car crossing our path was the most annoying thing in the world, as we scrambled and picked up our rocks we used as bases for baseball. The lawns weren't necessarily green but messy as in East L.A. with clutter that was important to US. What things looked like did not matter. We were safe amongst the neighbors we knew and we were happy with our neighborhood friends.

Today I live just 15 minutes away from my childhood home. The environment here is nothing like where I grew up. In Green Valley, no one sits in the front yard. There is no porch, but a small frame to enter the door in the dark. The area around the double doors is small and screams against entrance. The garage is huge but only holds varies Cadillac’s, Lexus', and BMWs. There is no litter or clutter anywhere and the grass is a perfect green; we would get in trouble if it wasn't. The feel of the environment resembles Mission Hills, wealthy elite in Kansas. The homes there are huge; there are no sidewalks, no stores or shopping centers, but three country clubs. The lack of sidewalks and stores prove that social life is undesired. That kind of setting is what I see in Green Valley. Sidewalks exist but are used scarcely; the doors are situated to implement little interaction with neighbors. The few children I see are on bikes or sometimes in the gated park. I label this kind of childhood as safe, unadventurous and a disgrace. Child life here is nothing like old Vallejo, with street of busy cars, of rocks as bases and yelling at the top of our lungs. These are a few things that I don't see in Green Valley--childhood and interaction.

I live amongst these people and recognize their values of a failure as a community. They use their space to prove wealth rather than make use of it in terms of interaction. Whether they are actually cold, I do not know because I don’t know them personally—and I doubt I ever will (we don't communicate).

Hiding Inside

2006-09-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

Truth be told it’s a little bit awkward sitting in my front yard because in the ten years of living in Folsom, in the same house I have never sat idle in the front yard. Of course I have helped my father maintain our immaculate yard, meaning help cut the roses, water the other flowers, trim the hedges, mow the law, and do the many other things necessary to create a presentable yard, in our neighborhood’s definition. Yet, when the job was done, my father and I would retreat back inside the house, where we were safe from the scrutiny of others. Compared to James Rojas account of home “the house where I slept at night. Life inside the house was bleak and indifferent compared to the excitement and fascination of the street.” For James Rojas, each yard adjacent to a home was a place of individuality, each one looked different and encouraged people to interact with one another through the way they were built. Conversely, when I sit in the middle of my lawn at home, I may see cars pass, people walking briskly with their dogs, and other people working on their lawns. Here the pristine nature of each neighbor’s lawn reinforces my belief that Folsomites are driven by their need for perfection, they live their lives based on the belief that outer appearances are what dictate who we are, thus there is a great need for the picture perfect front yard, and in order to keep the image in tact, we must withdraw into the house and hide, so that the only flaws come from within and are hidden, while the outside is only a façade, which creates a disjointed community.

Just like in David Beer’s experience, in Blue Sky Dream, his dad and later it became his job to work on the yard, as the last puzzle piece to the perfect house. Year after year, his family worked on their lawn, as I know my dad does as well. But as I sit under the big tree in our front yard, and inhale the smell of roses and grass, I see a very structured street, each yard down the street looking slightly different from the one next to it, but if you squint they all look exactly the same. Perhaps it is the heat (for who goes outside when its 95 degrees outside in the middle of the day to play) but I see no children, and when I do see kids outside their parents will put out mini street signs they purchased reminding other people that there are children at play, requesting they drive extra slowly. But I would say it is more likely to find the streets void of children, because in this middle class neighborhood the residents hide inside, afraid of what others might see as they are driving by in their big environmentally unfriendly cars. The community has become fractured because of the set up of their houses, each one trying to be independent and provide the privacy that one feels they need from their house. The fence between yards creates a virtual wall that although one can walk around, most times people choose not to, and each individual stays in their own immaculate yard, but only for a short time, and will soon retreat back into the safety of their own house, because we are all afraid of what the other will think of us. These yards are simply a façade. People spend a lot of money to maintain them, simply to keep the image, and as soon as I was done getting my information for this blog post, I too quickly retreated back into the safety of my own house.

Balconies, porches, etc....

2006-09-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

Having just moved to an apartment in Sacramento, I decided to study the "yards", but more often the balconies and porches of neighbors in my new apartment complex. The items in these areas range from big and small plants, to outdoor furniture and inflatable pool toys. Although I can see many people walking around from time to time, these areas in front of their apartments are never used as oppotunities to talk to neighbors. In fact, the most common use for these areas that I have seen is as a designated smoking area. It is so common in fact, it's hard to believe that people don't use this as a source of similarity in getting to know other neighbors.

From what I have seen so far, I believe that these areas of the apartments are reserved as private areas, more private than the front yards of East Los Angeles. As James Rojas discusses in his essay, the Mexican populations use space in their front yards as "cultural expressions and traditions". The use of space in L.A. front yards puts the community of my apartment complex to shame. Their front yards are always filled with family and friends and their is never a dull moment. Because of their constant use of their front yards, the porch becomes the central area of activity in the house, rather than the kitchen or living rooms like in most other homes. The common American neighborhood in past generations were more likely to display what we see in the Mexican communities today. Neighbors were more friendly with each other, kids would play with other kids in the streets, and everyone would look out for one another. As the years have past however, I believe there has been an abrupt shift in what many Americans value including possesions and more privacy, and this has severly affected how communities interact.

One small thing I did find in common between the apartments here and the front yards of East L.A. are the displays of identity found in both places. Here, the porches and balconies are used as personal and mostly private havens, demonstrating a possible desire for solidarity and reflection. Plants that surround the rails of balconies and furniture set on porches allows the residents of the apartment complex to design their front "yards" as anything they would like it to be, a sort of creative freedom in their use of space. The passion for a close-knit community demonstrated by the Mexican community also "expresses personal and family identity". Their front yards are always used as places to visit and catch up, play, rest, eat, and sell various things to your neighbors. Their identiy as a Mexican community can be seen in the way they all use their front yards as the central areas in their houses and how important it is to them.

I was fortunate enough to grow up in an area where we were friends with all our neighbors, a characteristic I think came from our parents who were also brought up this way by their parents. This has made a huge difference in how I was socialized and how I believe that it made my childhood more memorable. As I slowly get unpacked and settled in, I hope to meet more of my neighbors and although I know that this place will never demonstrate the love for community as the front yards of East L.A., I will strive to make neighbors and visitors alike feel welcome. Maybe one day, when I'm finally living in my own house, i will find a neighborhood like that; very unlikely but I like to think I could.

Fading Away

2006-09-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

Cities each have their own uniqueness on account that different people live in different cities, and different cities have different histories. Their uniqueness, however, does not keep them from falling victim to factors that cause cities to fray like the economy of the city, the highway system, “white flight” or other mass withdrawls, and vancancy of the buildings. The results of cities fraying because of these factors are usually very visible and not usually good for the city.

Cities that have a high unemployment, homeless, and crime rate contribute to the decay of cities. The unemployment rate tells how prosperous a city is because people are more attracted to a wealthy city. High unemployment rate is also associated with high crime rates because people have to find ways to survive – even if they have to do it illegally. Homelessness puts a human face on the social and economic situations of the cities. The homeless ruin the appearance of the cities where they reside when they claim public spaces as their private property—streets are their bathrooms and dumpsters are their refrigerators.

Highways also cause cities to fray. A city surrounded by highways gives residents more options to travel outside of the city; thus, people choose not to stay in the city. They know they can live in the suburbs and work in the city. The people who remain in the city are those who cannot afford housing outside of the city. This can lead to a city becoming a slum when people do not care about the appearance of the city and are not concerned with how their lives and habits affect the city. All they care about is surviving with what little money that they earn from their hard work.

Taking a closer look at Detroit, the city started to decay when a phenomenon call “white flight” occurred. According to the online tour called “8 Miles-The Gates of Detroit,” salespersons started to employ a technique called blockbusting to exploit the urban riots of Detroit in 1967. They wanted to increase their sales of houses to African Americans. As a result, the once Caucasian-dominated neighborhood was gone. The Caucasians began moving out of Detroit in droves and the population of the city was cut in half.

Although people moving out is one reason why cities decay, a corollary that increases decay occurs when nobody new movies in to fill the vacant house, building, or store. This keeps the population from restoring and growing as it should be. For example, people in Detroit did not simply move out of their houses, they abandoned them, as claimed by Jeff Byles in his article “Disappeared Detroit.” In addition, the property value of the houses went down because there was a surplus of houses for sale. People did not believe selling their houses would bring them a profit so they left them abandoned. Overtime the abandoned houses took over entire neighborhoods and persuaded people that were looking for houses to buy to not even consider Detroit.

The most obvious effect of cities decaying is people starting to move out of the cities to look for a new and better place to live. People do not want to help build a community when the members are abandoning the city. Another consequence of the decay of cities is that many previously successful and popular commercial centers become vacant for years with no hope of revitalization. This leaves cites with a lot vacant space covered by overgrown plants and piles of rubble from demolished buildings. The poor quality of land does not encourage developers and entrepreneurs to invest in further development or to revive the dying businesses of the cities. As a result, less people visit the cities and revenue from taxes and sales decreases. This quickly leads to a lack of funding for programs that meet the needs of its residents.

Potholes

2006-09-01T02:08:00.000-07:00

After sitting in my room trying to think of an
imaginative map to design, I heard tires screeching outside my house. I look to see what is was, and it was a black car braking and swirving in the street trying to avoid one o the many potholes on the floor. So I've decided to create a map to show the potholes we have around my block. I took a drive around the area to see how many potholes there are in my neighborhood, the sizes of them may vary, but the number of them are just about right. ( I know!! there is a lot.) Compare to the communities and neighborhood that we've seen in Davis, with its unified built houses and clean swept streets, my neighborhood is no where near to what Davis can offer when it comes to community housing.

Blog post # 4

2006-08-31T23:02:00.000-07:00

The front yard can be a extension of a home or it can be a psychological barrier. The front yard can be a place of social gathering or it can be used to show ones conformity to society. All of these aspects are depended on the stuff (or lack of stuff) present in a front yard.
The front yard can be a extension of a home. Like an outdoor patio, the front yard can be used like a social gathering room where friends and family can interact and socialize. James Rojas writes how East Los Angeles Latinos use their front lawn. He writes “unlike Anglo middle-class suburbanites, who, in effect, pull away from the street, people in East Los Angeles graciously extend their homes life toward the street and bring the street’s party, work place, and conversation into the front yard.” What James Rojas is true. I have a Mexican friend who has lawn chairs, barbeque and a hammock in his front yard. Him, our other friends and I hang out on his front lawn and drink Coronas (I prefer gin and juice, but when in Rome…). Besides hanging out there and drink socially, they cook barbeque for B-days and parties and there are little bits of wood chips lying around indicating that it is his work place as well. In the case of my friend, presenting stuff like chairs, barbeque grills gives a front yard an inviting atmosphere, but having nothing at all on it gives an inhospitable aura…a psychological barrier.
Like a water moat of a castle, the front yard with its waves of cut clean green grass serves as a psychological barrier. An example of this is my neighborhood. Like perfect green checker squares, they are displayed with such precision and no one seems to walk on them. I see no trail marks on these perfect green patches and I notice that the neighbors use the walkways towards their front door to enter their doors. There are no objects that would liven a front yard, its just a green square of nothingness and pretty much everyone else in my neighborhood is the same.
I believe the reason why we put a mind barrier on our lawn is because of conformity. We have a strong need to be one with a community and one way that we show we are part of a group is through our homes. Look at the Latino Community, most of them show a hospitable atmosphere on their lawn and if there is a house that does not show a hospitable environment then they are considered outcasts. Same rule applies to my neighborhood. If it has wild, overgrown grass and hideous weeds sprouting everywhere then we get an impression that they don’t want to be part of the group or they are not a very orderly or clean. Like the “bad color” in the movie The Village, the nonconformist stick out as outcast and to show the neighborhoods dissatisfaction, I saw a neighbor walking his dog, let the animal do a number 2 on their lawn (I think this is wrong and inconsiderate in other words hella messed-up).
So in conclusion my neighborhood is mean and pretty much in all cultures if you don’t conform to their custom, then you’re shunned away.

Sentimental Pictures

2006-08-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

In the second class meeting we discussed the different rooms in our houses and how they are representative of the values of those who occupy the living space. We compared the values of our houses to the kitchen of Paule Marshall. My map shows the different rooms in my house and where sentimental pictures of family and friends are displayed. Majority of the pictures of our close family and friends are collected in the living room and in each of our bedrooms. In class we discussed how a bedroom functions as a place of serenity and personal expression. Pictures of special people are found in the bedrooms of my house because my parents and I like to be surrounded by memories and love which both can be found in each picture that is displayed. Our living room only functions as a place to host guests in a formal setting. Therefore, our living room is meant to show my family in the best light. Similar to the families in Johnson County, my parents want to be thought of as a perfect family with no problems in the world. By displaying pictures of all the people we love, it not only makes us look extremely influential and special but it also makes us look idyllic because all the pictures displayed were professionally taken and show my family and friends only in the best light.

Eco-friendly Community

2006-08-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

This is a map of an eco-friendly community like that of Village Homes in Davis. There are gardens on both sides of the homes to supply food for the residents. There are no streets in sight and bike paths surrounding the homes to promote bikeriding instead of driving, therefore promoting conservation of gas. The people that would live in these homes live a very resourceful life. I believe this is the best way to live because the residents use all of the resources possible and it is a very healthy way of life.

A Sense of Community

2006-08-26T23:03:00.000-07:00

Village Homes was founded in 1975 and "is a special neighborhood designed to enhance a spirit of community and environmental sustainability." This past Wednesday, we took a class field trip to this subdivision to explore and discover what it is about this neighborhood that makes it so different from others in Davis.

The borders that define the subdivision of Village Homes is west of Arlington Street to about Lake Boulevard. Walking into the area from the busy streets is like entering a new realm. The scenery of paved roads and auto traffic along with civilization it seems, disappeared into the background of trees and endless blue skies. I noticed the sudden hush that came with this estranged environment. I felt as if I were no longer in a town that I have come to know quite well in the last two years.

The homes hiding behind the untamed vegetation are not typical of the modern houses or apartment complexes that are most prevalent throughout the city of Davis. They are modest homes; neither brand new nor what would be considered as well-kept. Surrounding trees grow as they please, filling the once blue sky and even overwhelming houses; the grass has never met a lawnmower; and the plants tango with the weeds in the warm summer breeze. One neighbor’s shrub may intertwine freely with another’s since there are no fences to separate the houses. These homes also lacked indoor garages, or garages entirely. Some homes did not have roads in which cars could drive up to. This subdivision also has its very own natural drainage system, where rainwater is absorbed into the ground through a network of creek beds, swales, and ponds, rather than being carried away by storm drains. Venturing deeper into Village Homes on the narrow paved paths, we came across a vineyard and communal gardens, some thriving, others littered with old, rusting equipment and random junk. There was also a large, open field in the heart of the neighborhood, made available for its neighbors to use for their own recreation, but remain unoccupied on the warm summer afternoon. Perhaps the parents had taken their children to the nearby swimming pool instead. The pool was fenced off to the public (only residents were allowed to use the facility) and connected to what seems like a modern clubhouse, uncharacteristic of the nature of Village Homes, whose environment suggests that its residents value the simpler things in life.

The architecture and orientation in which the homes were built, allow for maximum use of the sun’s energy, and compliments the organic nature of the lifestyle at Village Homes; the residents seek to use a natural source of energy and preserve nature and the environment. The lack of fences is customary in all neighborhoods because it provides a sense of security and privacy. Perhaps these particular residents do not value privacy as much as they value a sense of community. The great sense of community along with the organic nature of these people combine to create the idea of the communal gardens where they harvest fresh fruits and vegetables for a healthy way of living. The Village Homes subdivision was designed to encourage a sense of community and the conservation of energy and natural resources.

The Villages Homes community is very unlike the those we have been reading about in class. Contrary to the lifeless pattern of repetition of three floor plans in the suburbs of David Beer’s Blue Sky Dream, The houses in our west Davis subdivision appears to be constructed individually, with care and personality and the consideration of nature in each. And as D.J Waldie said in Holy Land, the people valued privacy but the residents would hear their neighbor’s arguments, and everything but love. In contrast, Village Homes appears to be a peaceful neighborhood that values and encourages a sense of community, which is evident through the prevalence of communal gardens and the lack of fences that would separate each home.

Although Village Homes may be somewhat extreme in the case of a college town, it contributes to the nature and history of the university and the city of Davis. We are known to be environmentally friendly and for our agricultural success. The Village Homes subdivision is definitely a positive contribution to the Davis community as a whole. It provides an different kind of education of nature and environment to students who come from greatly diverse backgrounds. In addition, it is a great reminder of our need for a sense of community, regardless of whether we come from small suburban areas, or large, densely populated cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles.

http://communitywalk.com/map/16453

Village Homes

2006-08-25T17:08:00.000-07:00

Village Homes is a subdivision in Davis, California that is completely different from many other subdivisions. As one enters the community, you notice a drastic change compared towards many other homes near by. It seems that in the community people are very down to earth people because the community is filled up with plants, flowers, crops, and a lot of trees. Also, they use sunlight energy meaning they save electricity and money on their bill every month. Some of the crops people grow were tomatoes, figs, grapes, cactus, and many other fruits and vegetables. The people take time to take care of the crops by watering them and making sure they are ripe. The homes in the community are mostly dark colored like brown and most of the homes had the doors in a hidden area of the house surrounded by plants. The homes have no privacy because there is no separation between the houses they only have plants all over. The style of the homes with the color and the plants surrounding them make the area look very eerie and spooky. Another difference of the homes is that most of the houses have their garages towards the back of the homes and that is a way to have interaction with other people because all the cars are in the same area of the neighborhood. In general, most of the homes are very much alike in the way of color, structure, and way of life just like in the reading Levittown. Most the people enjoyed living very much alike.

The subdivision of The Village Homes to my opinion detracts from Davis as a whole because it seems that the people in the community are to themselves and not interact with people outside the community. In the reading Holy Land by D.J. Wildie also have some similar touches and also some contrasts to the Village Homes in Davis because the houses are suburbs that are very much alike but the people did not have much interaction as a community, everyone was more to themselves. That is why I believe that these homes detract from the a city.

The Houses Up On The Flat Hill

2006-08-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

How many times have you read a piece of literature in which some reference to a better society "up on the hill" has been made? For me, these allusions to such a neighborhood have been made countless times. But even more controversial is that these such places exist.

In the small, family-oriented community of Davis, California, it is hard to imagine the possibility of isolation or the concept of a separate community from the whole. But after visiting a particular gated subdivision of Davis called Village Homes I found evidence to support the contrary. I believe that this subdivision detracts from Davis as a whole because it makes itself a separate community from the rest of the Davis community. Not only that, but it mimics a social gap brought on by financial, political and philosophical differences which cause one common group to remove itself from the rest of the populous.

Upon exploring the Village Homes neighborhood I found its character to be one of solace and cheery invitation. Containing community gardens and parks, the subdivision is a small, safe community for all ages. Different form the open suburb style homes in the rest of Davis, Village Homes displays a simple architecture all its own. No home being the same, each resident seemed to express themselves in the plants and colors on and around their private oasis. Seemingly, a utopian style neighborhood where originality is a requirement and ecological consciousness is a habit, this subdivision only illustrates an example of a society "up on the hill", the only difference being that this hill is flat.

Learning that the homes located in this subdivision tended to be 10-15 % higher than the average cost of homes in the rest of Davis, I automatically understood the gap that it created. By emphasizing "green" concepts of saving nature and the ecosystem, it instilled a sense of guilt in the average owner of a non-solar paneled home. Village Homes creates a separate community from the whole by emphasizing certain philosophical (and thus, political) concepts and creating a known financial gap in its population.

The Davis community is made up of different people who do not all share the same economic, political or philosophical situations, yet it works cohesively toward common goals. Village Homes’ image of near-perfection and a collective of strictly similar beliefs only further isolates it from the rest of the Davis community and creates for itself the ill-bred concept of the houses upon a flat hill.

NOTE: To see a map of Village Homes in its cozy little corner of West Davis, check out this site
http://communitywalk.com/map/16453 and view my comments and the comments of others who visited Village Homes.

Just Human

2006-08-25T16:57:00.000-07:00

On the way to Village Homes, I did not know what kind of community to expect. When I saw the subdivision and its homes, it was nothing like anything I could have imagined on my own.

I grew up in a small suburb in the Bay Area and I am used to the uniform homes and the big, wide streets. When stepping into Village Homes, I did not see homes with one tree on one patch of grass in one long row. I saw houses of all different shapes and sizes that I could not categorize under one genre. Village Homes does not match the “grid” that many of our communities are made from, as mentioned in D.J. Waldie’s Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir.

Trees surrounded the houses with their leaves and fruits as I explored the neighborhood. Eventually, I ran into a small plaque, which stated the purpose of the subdivision: “community and environmental sustainability.” The only plaque that stood in my neighborhood was the name of the subdivision, Mandalay, which most of my neighbors have never heard of.

Although the residents of Village Homes do not have the same ideal neighborhood as the most of the people in America, we all have values that help us make the choices we make. They should not be condescended by our lack of understanding for their beliefs and values. We can see the resident’s values throughout the neighborhood without entering their homes.

The residents of Village Homes value community. This is apparent in the structure of their homes. The front doors of houses in the subdivision do not face the street like most communities. Instead, the front door faces a footpath, which is a leads to all the front doors in the community. The driveway and backyard face the street as if the street were also the back of the house. If the front door’s of the homes were adjacent to the drive ways, residents could enter their homes without greeting their neighbors. They could drive straight into their homes and avoid making contact with the community by seeking refuge in their homes. With the front door not attached to the garage, residents cannot use their garage to hide from their neighbors therefore a stronger community can be built by the relationships developed between neighbors.

We can see the residents of Village Homes value individuality through the individuality of the houses. None of them are the same and they each have their own character. Some were neatly displayed and bushes and shrubs covered others. Furthermore, the street wound around the subdivision unlike the grid-like streets of suburbs. The streets went where they wanted to and did not have to follow a strict path of uniformity.

Trees covering the subdivision are evidence of the subdivision’s value for environment and health. Rows of grapevines covered one section of the area while fig trees lined the path between the homes and the communal vegetable garden. They ate the food they grew and did not cater to the mass production of food.

Unlike the destroyed Valley of Hearts Desire in Blue Sky Dream, by David Beers, Village Homes residents planted vineyards, vegetable gardens and fruit trees instead of building homes over the land. The invasion of suburbia covered the orchards and farmland that Santa Clara County once was.

Although residents of suburbia and residents of Village Homes have different values they all remain human and one way of life may be better than another in certain ways but they both succeed each other in different ways.

The Shire

2006-08-25T16:50:00.000-07:00

The other day I discovered a part of Davis which I never even knew existed. This is strange because I have driven past it almost every day for the last 2 years, but never had to drive through it, or was able to see past the line of trees that shield it from the main road. The area I’m talking about is the Village Homes sub-division that exists on the west-side of Arlington Blvd from Oakenshield Rd to Evenstar Ln, although confining it to roads is not entirely accurate since much of the subdivision is only accessible by path. I’m forced to ask myself, why is it that I have never been to this strange place with small rural-looking houses and un-bounded gardens, like some place out of The Lord of the Rings? Perhaps it is because this community developed out of a desire to avoid the downfalls of mass-produced suburbs like Levittown and Lakewood, and as a result has closed itself off from the rest of modernized Davis.

One of the key characteristics of Village Homes is that each house’s architecture is slightly different from one another, not following some idealized standard model. They are each a slightly different shape and size, some with red-clay tiles on the roofs while others covered in wooden shingles. The variety of home styles reveals that the community values independence and unique self-expression. This characteristic can be seen as a rebellion against the criticisms of the massed-produced cookie-cutter homes of the suburbs described in Pete Seeger’s song “Little Boxes” where every house looks the same. Moreover, the way each home looks so natural in the surrounding greenery is a clear rejection of Corbusier’s notion that a “house is a machine for living in”.

Another defining feature of Village Homes is environmental sustainability, most clearly seen in the plethora of untamed gardens and trees that surrounding each house and the entire neighborhood. This stands in stark contrast to David Beers’ description of his father in Blue Sky Dream as he was “seen fierce and sweating behind some machine made to punish nature into submission”. The residents of Village Homes clearly disliked the artificially perfect lawns of modern suburbia with the noisy machines required to maintain them, and prefer a more natural, though unkempt, environment that can be maintained with the hands.

Finally, the neighborhood is laid our in such a way as to promote community interaction. This is revealed in the architecture of the houses, the majority of which do not have garages and those that do have open-air ones forcing people to walk outside. Moreover, the entire subdivision is traversed with walking paths that connect people’s homes to each-other and to the various parks and gardens. This set-up is a complete contrast to “the grid” described in D.J. Waldie’s Holy Land and the straight, right-angled streets of Lakewood.

All these features enhance the community of Village Homes and increase interactions among its own residents. However, at the same time it cuts itself off from the rest of Davis, by remaining sheltered and removed. This community rejects many of the principles that built today’s modern suburbs, and as a result it also ends up rejecting most of the rest of Davis with its college students who value convenience and comfort instead of nature and non-conformity. It is fitting that the streets in the Village Homes are all named after places in the Lord of the Rings because it reminds me of the Shire, peaceful are serene but also completely removed and separated from the rest of Middle Earth.

Quiet Little Village

2006-08-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

As I walked through a quiet community called the "Village Homes." I think of being greeted by many welcomed smiling faces. As I took another step deeper into the Village Homes under the scorching sun, I can sense an eerie feeling because I can not see anyone at all. Instead, I am encountered with nothing but landscaping: trees, bushes, plants, etc.

Although this place isn’t your average neighborhood around Davis, I can still see it being in a city like Davis. By looking at houses, I can see that this community really appreciates and respects the environment. Most of the houses use solar power and I did not see any ACs installed either. This community does not try to conform like the rest of the neighborhood apartment complexes around. There are more tress, grass, and plants than houses in that one area. If you walk into an apartment complex, you would usually see a lot of cars, buildings and people. But this place is the exact opposite. I did not enjoy being there but I did respect how they kept the community so clean and safe.

The Village Homes were really different to what I live in now, both in Davis and back home. In Davis, I live in an apartment complex where all the buildings are built the same. Back home, I am able to see the neighbors and I can see that the whole neighborhood isn’t built the same. Like in Holy Land, “No two floor plans were built next to each other; no neighbor had to stare into his reflection across the street.”

I can really see that the Village Homes people stuck to their beliefs because most of the people who lives there are very conservative when it comes to the environment. Just like in the movie The Village, where the elders got to pick who they wanted in their village. They choose people who were similar to one another. That is why they were easily able to adjust to one another. Finally, I can see Village Homes being a very positive thing for Davis because they are very ecological.

http://communitywalk.com/map/16453 MARKER 14

I found The Village. It's southwestern-themed and located in north Davis.

2006-08-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

The subdivision I visited in Davis is called North Davis Farm. It is located at the very edge of the city of Davis, if you keep going north on sycamore. It is basically separated from the rest of Davis, with only one street leading inside. What can be found inside is quite different from anything I’ve seen in the rest of the city.

Each and every house is southwestern-themed. All the architecture is made to look like adobe houses you might find in the southwest. Nearly every house is painted the same pinkish-orange color. I think the color I am thinking of is “peach” (put strawberries and bananas in a blender and this is the color I’m talking about). All of the driveways extend all the way to the back of the houses, where a 2 or 3 car garage awaits on the side or back of the house. Most houses have a short (about 3 feet tall) wall around the front lawns, which are of course in perfect condition. A few houses have cacti and other desert-like foliage instead of a lawn. Everyone’s front yard is obviously very well maintained. There was also something on every house that I haven’t ever seen before. They had not only an address, but their own name and logo. Houses are named after trees, such as “almond tree” or “poplar.” At the front of each lawn is a sign that says the name of the house, the logo (which I assume corresponds to that name), and the address. So for example, the almond tree house would read “Almond Tree House [with a picture of what I assume to be an almond tree], 1111 Westfield.” The sign for every house looks exactly the same; they are all mounted on the same peach-colored walls out at the front of the lawn. There was even a wall with a sign that said “Redbud House,” but there was no house behind this wall; there was just an empty lot. At one end of the community there was a cul-de-sac containing only empty lots, which were numbered 1-20 or so, much like in David Beers’ Blue Sky Dream. In the center of the community are two parks (labeled with signs reading “Private Park”) and a small pond.

One thing I noticed after a few minutes in this place was that I hadn’t seen a single person or car the entire time I was there (I finally did see one car and a few people; the car was a gardening truck parked at one of the houses, and the people were the gardeners working on the lawn; that must be how all these houses have such nice landscaping). I also eventually saw a few people in one of the private parks. I would assume that all the cars were parked in garages; there may even be a rule that there is no parking on the street. But on a Friday afternoon at 2 o’clock I would expect to see someone out for a walk; someone making use of their big lawn on a nice sunny day.

The whole time I was there, the community really reminded me of The Village. There are trees on all sides, isolating the houses from whatever is on the other side (in this case, big open fields are on the other side). The whole place is surrounded by a rural-style fence (the kind of wood fence that would be used to contain the land on a ranch) in order to keep those we don’t speak of from getting in. When the people in the park saw me, they seemed to be thinking “what the #!*$ is this guy doing here?” as if I were going to mutilate their dogs and paint red lines on their doors. I got the feeling that they didn’t want anyone to infiltrate their perfect community, although oddly enough there isn’t a gate that you have to go through to get in.

This establishment is obviously for upper-class families, as all the houses are relatively big and probably expensive. The people there don’t want to be disturbed by lower class people, and this is somewhat achieved through their isolation from the rest of the city. However, I got the feeling that this wasn’t really a place where there was a lot of interaction within the community. I saw very few people outside, and the fenced-in lawns create a sense of isolation for each house. There are no basketball hoops in the street. I do not foresee there being neighborly activities such as backyard barbecues in this place. I wonder if the families actually bring their kids to play at the private parks.

All things considered, I think that this place detracts from Davis as a whole because it causes the people living there to be provincial, isolated from the rest of town. This is not The Village; they do not have a community secret that would destroy their whole way of life if discovered. I doubt they send only blind people out to “the towns” to buy food at Safeway which is just down the street. People aren't making their own salsa from plants they grew in the back yard. The village elders don't meet every Sunday to come up with ways to keep the pepole under the impression that they live in New Mexico. When the Joaquin Phoenix of their community gets stabbed by the village idiot, they’re not going to hesitate to take him to the hospital in the towns. If they were self-sustaining, then they might as well become their own city, such as the village from the movie. However, since these people just live in an isolated part of the city, I think that the fenced-in, southwestern-themed, upscale community unnecessarily separates them from all the other people and places in Davis.

2006-08-25T16:26:00.000-07:00

Blog post # 3: Village Homes

2006-08-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

Village Homes, a subdivision of Davis is a quiet and surreal place. As our class walks through its pathway, we see patches of gardens. Within this garden it contains lush green shrubbery teeming with life. Corn stalks modestly standing tall and a large bright orange pumpkins lay on the ground and also friendly looking sun flowers cover village homes humble gardens.
As we continue to walk through the pathway, I took notice of the homes. The homes color consists of brown, some reddish brown and shades of green. All of these colors seem to be in harmony with the environment. The homes also has open garages for their cars and minivans. The open garages blend in with the greenish scenery as if they were artificial trees to give shade for their vehicles. The homes proximity to each other was very close together but there were no fences or boundaries to claim which lot was theirs, it was basically one continuous lot with the pathway in the middle.
The architecture of these homes are different compared to the conventional home. The part of the house that struck me peculiar was the roofs. All the roofs were as a very steep angle towards the sun and on these roofs there are clear or opaque panels that shine like water in the August sun.
As our class continues to walk through tranquility, a young women appeared watering her garden. She waves her hand slightly and says hello to us adding more to village homes friendly environment. We then come across a small playground but it was empty. As I notice the playgrounds predicament, I hear the sound of splashing water, “a community pool”, I say to myself which sounds cool and refreshing in this August heat. As we continue our trek we come upon a plaque that commemorates village homes “spirit of community” explicitly telling the visitors the theme of their community.
Like a jig saw puzzle I piece together what I observed in their quiet little neighborhood and concluded that their values beliefs, and habits are tied with the environment. For example, the house roofs are deliberately angled that way to capture heat from the sun, lowering their cost in heating and insulation. Their garden is also an example of the villagers being tied with the environment. They use the fertile ground of Davis to receive vegetables instead of getting them in the super market which seems cold and mechanistic. The natives of this village seem friendlier than conventional neighborhood. The open garages implicitly indicate this and the plaque and hospitable greeting from the young women watering her garden implicitly show this.
Though this neighborhood projects a zeal of community and environment, does this subdivision improve upon or detract from Davis as a whole? In my opinion the answer is both. Like the transcendentals who try to improve themselves by becoming one with nature, the inhibitors of village homes try to become a beacon for Davis, that their way of living is an improvement to the traditional way of living. But at the same time this can detract them. Like the people in the movie The Village they set boundaries. The green shrubbery I was mentioning about were out side of village homes as if setting them apart, wanting this feeling of being unique and different and being smug about it. The example that shows this smug attitude is their plaque of community. So in conclusion, an person’s environment heavily dictates a person’s values, beliefs, and personality.

Village Homes

2006-08-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

I pass by beautiful gardens, vineyards, and landscapes as I walk through Davis' Village Homes subdivision. Village Homes is a place conducive to earth friendly community development as well as a comfortable place to live. The Village Homes are situated in a way I have never seen before. All of the homes lead to sidewalks rather than streets, therefore promoting bikeriding instead of driving. Even then, the streets were so narrow that two cars could not fit going in opposite directions. The majority of the trees I saw were either fruit or nut trees which also helps promote community spirit by sharing the fruit and picking it together. The values, beliefs, and habits of the people living in this community all revolve around the environment. From the gardens where they grow their food to the landscaping where they promote bikeriding to conserve gas, they have built an eco-friendly community.
The community mentioned in Blue Sky Dream, by David Beers is very different from the one I observed in Village Homes. The tract home community described in Blue Sky Dream invaded the agricultural land that was there before and destroyed many small communities. It was a manufactured community that as a result of being large scale and homogenized, lacked the close-knit feeling that seemed present in the Village Homes. The Blue Sky Dream subdivision was a product of the booming post World War II American commercial world. It caused massive population growths in areas previously only used for agriculture and encouraged the growth of what would become Silicon Valley. However, it does not help the community only the growth of a suburban culture and a capitalist society.
The Davis Village Homes community promotes small-town values and comfortable lifestyle while still sustaining the city of Davis, its close-knit and environmentally friendly environment. The story Holy Land, by D.J. Waldie describes a community much like that of Blue Sky Dream. However, its construction is more influenced by the fear of atom and hydrogen bombs. It seems to be a subdivision that also detracts from the community as a whole. This seems to be because the author describes the suburb as being grid-like and without greenery. Village Homes is unlike the communities described in Holy Land and Blue Sky Dream as it promotes the same ideals as the Davis community.

http://www.communitywalk.com/map/16453
Marker #15

The Weeping WIllow and Mulberry Trees

2006-08-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

Just this past weekend I strolled among the streets of San Tomas, Los Robles, and Laguna, to observe the architecture of houses as well as the behavior of their inhabitants. This small sector of Davis was where I grew up. Walking through, I could see a wide variety of trees. There were a dozen birch trees on Laguna, and a long weeping willow in the precise middle of the subdivision. More importantly, there was an enormous Mulberry tree whose branches stretched across an entire street. Cars from across the neighborhood gathered at this tree to leech from the shade that it provided. There were more than three houses undergoing remodeling, which emphasized the need for constant change. I spotted children playing basketball (there was a hoop in or near the street at nearly every other home), and an elderly women departing on an afternoon walk. But what I didn’t see were many cars driving by. On the streets there were mostly bicycles and pedestrians. As the section is at least a mile away from any shopping center or restaurant, the calmness and lack of cars are expected.

There is some squareness and sameness in the Los Robles area specially when compared to Village Homes; but almost all the houses around Los Robles are changing by remodeling both the inside and outside. Internal changes in kitchens, floors, doors, new wings to make larger master bedrooms are occurring, changing the shapes of the houses. Many of the Los Robles homes appear to have been made bigger by adding a second story or by adding sun porches. The homes have been "modernized". Differing trees and other landscaping have made most of the houses look unique. It is difficult to find one home that looks like another. This is not at like a Levittown or Waldie's descriptions in “Holy Land”.

Neighbors talk with one another. The people have made of the environment what they want of it. Families and even the elderly living on their own, or students in duplexes on San Tomas, all seem to live together harmoniously.

The people of the neighborhood seem far from materialistic. Homes differ greatly relative to the nearby houses on Lillard (which have large elegant designs with three-car garages and luxurious automobiles). Most importantly there is not any evidence of conspicuous consumption. Just a block or two away there are enormous houses standing on tiny lots with three car garages that look like business buildings in malls. Clearly, these people are leaving an enormous carbon footprint having "belongings' which are completely unnecessary to an everyday happy life. The lots are all house with no room for green. The more modest homes of the Los Robles area are more progressive in respect to ecology and are more comfortable. This is a plus for the city of Davis. The huge houses in the next subdivision scream out "my possessions mean more to me than my life". The houses have been built right up next to the pleasant greenery of the Los Robles homes. A cemented mall of materialism next to a warm loving family of homes.
There is a certain amount of pride in the Los Robles area lawns in that they are mowed and kept clean, unlike Mr. H’s lawn in “Holy Land” that resembled a junkyard. But at the same time, the lawns aren’t primped so much that they look artificial, the residents of this subdivision value nature highly. The very first home that I saw coming into the neighborhood covered two small lots, with one lot being entirely devoted to a flower garden and orchard. The garden had clean dirt paths, as well as a bench on the edge. It’s this sort of thing that makes the neighborhood more “inviting” to visitors. Putah Creek Park and the South Davis Bike Path are right across Lillard Drive from the Los Robles subdivision. Soccer meetings and practices, T-Ball practices, and other family meetings take place at the park and people throughout the Los Robles subdivision take morning or evening walks, bike rides, or runs along the bike path. There is frequent use of the outdoors and nature. The subdivision and the nearby Putah Creek Park set a good example for the rest of Davis in terms of ecology, family values, and healthy exercise.

Secret Community

2006-08-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

In 1975, Michael and Judy Corbett created Village Homes in Davis. They were inspired by their mission to maintain a eco-friendly environment designed to enhance the spirit of community and environmental sustainability in Davis. Village Homes is an excellent addition to any neighborhood. It's location in Davis is well-suited because Davis is generally an eco-friendly town, specializing in daily bike riding. The Village Homes sub-division is several blocks of houses built at the same time in a medium sied community. The streets which mark the edges of the community are where Arlington Avenue meets Buckleberry and ends down by Shasta Avenue. The majority of the homes differ in structure. They don't have much of a garage, only a shed under which to park their cars. The arrangement of the community creates a sense of togetherness. The residents' patios are not fenced in, and each neighbor has easy access to the next one. This closeness allows the neighbors to become allies. Village homes is an asset to Davis because it spdcializes in conserving energy and natural resources.
This community is both special and beneficial to have because it's landscaping is neighbor friendly. The large open, grassy areas, the pool and club house facilities, and friut tree orchards down long shaded walkways all provide common areas where residents can come together, have parites, go on walks and just be freinds with one another. This community leads Davis in it's impressively low crime rate. This is because the neighbors work together. The transcendentalists in Transcendental Wild Oats were also working together. Their main concern, however, was that they wanted to break away from the Unitarian Church. They believed that they could still be unique while working together.
The architecture and landscaping of Village Homes is highly individual. Each home is distinctive, allowing each neighbor to be unique, while still being a part of a larger, structurally uniformed community. This is an attractive feature of the subdivision that improves Davis because individuality makes one less likely to become neurotic in the suburbs. The suburbs are normally groups of people with similar ideals and values. In the Village Homes, I believe they value family life, good health, and community togetherness most. This can be illustrated by the family parks in the community, the pool area, and the doctor's offices. These are all things that enhance Davis, by creating healthy people. In Blue Sky Dream, the residents were also reflections of eachother and worked together.

A Village of Homes

2006-08-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

From the many housing communities and complexes that the city of Davis provides for its students, I oftentimes forget that this college town comprises more than just arrangements for students, but also for families. When I encountered the suburban community of the Village Homes, I was reminded of a quaint, white-collared neighborhood inhabited with adults and their children.

The Village Homes is a subdivision located in north Davis based on the common belief, as posted on a placard, of “environmental stability”. It is an entirely fenced community of about 50 homes with many communal areas such as the pool, park, playground, vineyard, garden, and its very own upscale restaurant in the center of the community. Constructing so many communal areas in the center of the community shows that they promote contact and interaction amongst each other. However, if I was not assigned to enter this gated and private community, I would have never known such a community existed since it was also enclosed by tress, like in the movie, The Village. It is also made clear that soliciting is not encouraged by the numerous trespassing signs posted almost next to every house or so, leading me to believe that outsiders will not be welcomed with open arms if they entered. This subdivision baffled me because although they seemed to promote a strong community bond amongst themselves, they detract from Davis as a whole because of this seclusion. Thus, the Village homes are a confined and restricted community based on belief of “environmental stability”.

Their belief in environmental stability is represented in many aspects throughout the community. For one, they are very ecologically and environmentally friendly. They have their own communal garden, vineyard, water drains dug out of dirt and not made out of concrete, houses adorned with foliage, solar panels built into homes, many hybrid/electric cars , and no debris on the ground. They take pride in the appearance of their community, especially their vegetation, just like the community in Transcendental Wild Oats. “The garden was planted with a generous supply of useful roots and herbs” (Alcott, Transcendental Wild Oats, p.2567). The idea of preserving nature is a shared common belief in the Village Homes community and the community in Transcendental Wild Oats. It was also quite refreshing to see people attending to their gardens and partaking in casual conversations in the garden. This really showed me that this community is very interactive and enjoy the company of their neighbors.

They also promote environmental stability by producing a safe and secure atmosphere which seems to be of utmost importance for their family-oriented community. It seems as if they share a strong interest and care for their neighbors, just like in the Christian community in Bonifacius. “Be concerned, lest the deceitfulness of sin undo any of the neighbors…let your charity to your neighbors, make all you can do” (Mather, Bonifacius, p.409). I observed members of the community walk together to dine at the restaurant, housewives helping each other in the garden, and others engaging in friendly conversations with genuine expressions on their face while their children played on the playground. Other children were left unsupervised running hysterically in the park. This proves that because this community is so detached from the rest of the city of Davis that they feel secure in letting their children roam around unsupervised because they know outsiders are rare in this subdivision.

As for the architecture in this subdivision, the two-story houses are well-designed which is perfect to accommodate a family. Children play toys were scattered on lawns and bikes recklessly parked in street, however, they did not have driveways, and if they did, it would be located in the back of their house! This leads to me believe that there must be a strong sense of trust among the neighbors to park their nice cars in the street and not fear that someone will vandalize it. On the contrary, the houses that had their doors facing the adjacent communities always had hidden doors. Their doorways hovered with trees and made it appear dark, uninviting, and hidden in order to let outsiders know that they won’t want to be bothered. I also didn’t see any “Welcome” signs. Because this is such a private community, they want to maintain such standards it by keeping outsiders away to continue their “environmental stability” and preserve the ideal safe, suburban community.

Safe and snug

2006-08-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

Since cities develop outwards, newer communities tend to be at the edges of the cities. Driving down Covell Boulevard westbound, one can see the “line of civilization” past Sutter Davis Hospital where the right side of the road becomes nothing but barren fields and relatively new subdivisions on the left. The subdivision I chose is here along Shasta Drive and Rio Grande Street. (Link of the location)

There were almost no through streets within this area which gives a very private and secure feeling for people living there. The cul-de-sacs were safe enough that kids were playing with Frisbees when I drove by. Two story houses with similar design but with slightly different individual tastes lined the streets. Most of them had very mild tone color such as beige and cream-color. They all had garages and yards but again with slight variations. Some yards were kept simple with only green lawns (still very well maintained), but others had their own private garden filled with flowers of vibrant colors. One water sprinkle system that I saw reminded me of the house from David Beers’ “Blue Sky Dream.” Similar to that family, it is apparent that some people in this subdivision made efforts to individualize their yards. Also there was a house with a broken book shelf and couple other wooden furniture thrown out on their lawn reminding me of Mr. H’s place In D. J. Waldie’s “Holy Land.” Unlike the “Holy Land” though, no two houses were exactly the same (the placement of the entrance, the position of their windows, etc), but the community is similar to that of the text in that it followed the same theme throughout the whole subdivision. The streets were not perfect grids but rows of cul-de-sacs, and all the houses had their own garages and yards.

What caught my eyes in this community was the small bike path located at the back of the subdivision. The path surrounded with greens snaked around the neighborhood, making it an ideal jogging route for the health conscious. Some houses had a small kids’ bicycle and regular bicycles parked together in the front.

This subdivision is one of the ideal communities in Davis. Kids playing in front of their houses, people biking on the weekends in their own communities’ bike path, and others working on their yards all reflect a healthy community unlike the one discussed in “Holy Land” where people go crazy.

Village Homes

2006-08-25T14:52:00.000-07:00

When I walked through Village Homes here in Davis, I notice that the architecture of the homes is very different from other subdivisions. First of all, there are large through streets that leads to the main streets. It seems as though the streets that runs through these homes are made specifically for this subdivision because there are no stop signs or stop lights. Each house is built very close to one another and seems to be consumed by all types of vegetation: apple trees, flowers, and vegetable gardens. Everywhere I look are signs expressing the exclusivness of the people in that commiunity. Outsiders cannot use the community swimming pool, daycare center, or gardening plots. I also notice that it is very difficult to find the front doors of these homes. It is as though they are trying to keep it hidden. I can honestly guess that these people share the same values and beliefs for the preservation of the environment. Looking out for each other seems to be another value since they live so close, privacy among the people of the community might be low. However, privacy between this subdivision and the rest of Davis is extremely high. Their decision to live in such a private environment reminds me of Waldie's Holy Land. I guess I am speaking as an outsider but their little community seems very boring and uneventful. Yes they have low energy bills and low crime rates but Im sure this subdivision is not the paradise that it appears. All their homes seem to be uniform. There is no individuality. I constantly saw the same cars driven, the same plants planted, and no people what so ever. This is my bias opinion, but I prefer to live in a place where I see different people and new things all the time.

The Heart of Davis

2006-08-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

Just as our hearts are positioned on the left side of our bodies, so is Davis'. The Village Homes subdivision on the west side of Davis was built with its citizens' values in mind: We value sustainability and community, as is evidenced by the several co-ops, community gardens, green buildings, and recycling and composting programs in town.

Village Homes' website states that the streets were laid down east-west, and the lots positioned to face north-south to maximize the benefits from the sun. Also, the site states that the streets are no more than 25 feet wide, partly to minimize traffic speed, but also to limit the streets' exposure to the sun. Lastly, the site states that each garden is to be either tended to by the residents of the nearest lot or by several community members who meet periodically to discuss its care. A person walking around the subdivision will spot multiple varieties of fruit-bearing plants (so carefully tended to that one rarely falls to the ground for long), and it's easy to see that this community works so well because it represents so well.

Many communities prefer that their residents maintain a cleanly cut lawn, but Village Homes' grassy areas (except for the two park areas) are shaggy with a few dry spots -- natural. It seems as though using sprinklers here would be frowned upon for being a waste of resources. Also, I spotted several things -- metal ladders, canoes, woodworking projects -- in people's yards that the residents of some communities would ask the owner to remove (though I'm sure a yard like Mr. H's wouldn't fly here, either).

Perhaps some of the residents of Village Homes moved here so their children could safely tour the neighborhood. Annie Dillard wrote about exploring her neighborhood as a child. Maybe these parents wanted their own children to have a experiences even more innocent than Dillard's, and more traditional and natural, in a Middle Earth way. The children of the area are safe to roam their village and upturn rocks with sticks, pick figs and grapes, and play hide-and-seek in the narrow paths between their houses as their parents garden, visit each other or play with them.

The streets of the subdivision were named after characters and themes of The Lord of the Rings and several of J.R.R. Tolkien's other books. Feeding from Arlington Road, from north to south, are Oakenshield Road (and Bombadil and Goldberry lanes), Westerness Road (and Poppy and Overhill lanes), Bucklebury Road (and Creekhollow, Bree, Rivendell and Shire lanes), and finally Elendil and Evenstar lanes.

The Village Homes website states that hobbits of Tolkien's stories "live a simple life" and "enjoy a quiet rural lifestyle of farming, gardening and raising animals." Had they intended for this neighborhood's values to so closely match up with those of the hobbits? Maybe it's Davis.

(Village Homes can be located by clicking on Tag 5 at http://communitywalk.com/map/16453)

Home Away From Home

2006-08-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

Growing up from a town where the perfect dream house is no where to be found for miles, streets filled with potholes and cracked sidewalks, no lawn or backyards, the trees looks as if its winter all year long and apartments buildings that look as if it survived a tornado, you can image how different it was to live in Davis. Don’t get me wrong, because Davis seem to have that perfect future home appeal to it that it gave the “home away from home” feeling to it. It became extremely tough when searching for a new apartment to live in for the following school year, since every apartment complex in Davis is better than anything I’ve seen back home. One day when a couple of my friends and I were driving down South Davis on Cowell, we’ve came across a more secluded housing district, a subdivision that differs from the student apartment subdivisions around South Davis. I made a right on Farragut off of Cowell, and as I drove along the smooth pavement road, I couldn’t help thinking to myself that the houses in this subdivision seems like it came out of a picture from a book. In Blue Sky Dream, when the Eicher design homes stunned his parents, as it was nothing like what they seen in the Midwest, Considering where I grew up from, that was basically my thoughts while cruising through this quiet community. It sets off a wholesome, homey feel to it. Every house had a clean cut green grass lawn, and a few neatly planted trees in the front. The sidewalks were semi-clean with the occasional scattered leaves from the trees, and each of these houses had their own double door garage, meaning living in this subdivision has their own covered parking. All the houses also has a pastel color paint job on the exterior, making this particular subdivision seem like its matching, where they look different yet similar at the same time. Just like in the movie The Village, every house has similar structure to it, with its wooden stairs that leads to the front door to its front wooden porches with grassland all around the area. Looking around it became obvious that quite a few Davis students reside in this neighborhood, since many of the cars parked in the driveway and the streets were mainly modernized rice rocket looking cars (Hondas and Toyotas) with the logo “UC DAVIS” on its back windows. Even though this subdivision seems to be a picture perfect community, it detracts Davis from a community as a whole. To me downtown Davis represents a very strong sense of a busy interacting community, but there seems to be no interactions with the neighbors in this subdivision, and with indoor garage parking it makes communication that much harder with their neighbors. Everyone seems to doing their own thing and isolate from one another. But I would still consider living here, because it just looks so nice. =] So much better than back home.

Take a look!!! http://communitywalk.com/map/16453 MARKER 4

Riot and Expiration Date

2006-08-25T10:55:00.002-07:00

As a young college student I was ready to move into my new home with a group of friends fresh out of the dorms. Sterling University Vista, was most attractive due to its lavish advertising and posh layout. For example, there was a pool, a free internet access lounge with printers, a tanning bed, a workout room and a pool room. The layout of the buildings made a curvilinear shape encompasing the outskirts of the court yard which contained picnic tables, grass, and the pool, while the parking lot circled the buildings. The frame was like a hidden cola-de-sac sharing architecture of circular themes, as in the parking lot, classification by number, as in the parking spaces and apartment numbers, as well as a calling for destruction.
Located between 5th and 2nd, the apartment structure was unique in the sense that the hallways were made of pavement, as if you were walking on a sidewalk with a roof. Halfway down each hallway, skipping about four apartment numbers, there were two large doors segmenting the hall. The destruction came from this layout; doors were shut, and massive parties were thrown between adjacent apartments. Room number 451,452,453,and 454 were now a meshed plot of similar drunken faces making a mini sub division within a subdivision. The conspiracy grew to a point when I came back from a show one evening and a riot had literally occurred. I could not find a place to park, my apartment was full of random people, including the entire wrestling team; and then the irony was apparent. The biggest apartment riot had occurred in the apartment complex closest to the Police station, with no sign of police until things were completely out of control.
To say the least, the structure of a building will affect and reflect its residents. All of the glam and glitter of the advertising of the apartments attracted a certain crowd. Everyone that seemed to work at the front office were young, popular and attractive college students as well. To tie two era's together, paralles maybe reflected in the passage by Holy Land by D.J. Waldie where he states: young men from the he nearby junior college, recruited from the the athletic department, acted as guides to the unfamiliar experience." Another similarity from the passage is that most buyers did not specifically see their house before moving in. They simply looked at a model of houses, and read from the brochure as there were only a few variations in the layout of each house. This was also true in the selling pitch of Sterling University Vista. In fact, my roommates and I had already signed the lease to move in before there was ever a single building put up. We simply were bribed by all of the advertisement, but in reality all there was when the lease was signed was an empty plot of land.
In reference to J. M. Broders Lakewood Journal, Sterling University had an initiation and expiration date. The initiation commenced with the empty plot of land acommanied by four signatures, and had expired a year later after the chaotic riot. In reflection, I believe that Sterling University was a great benefit to several of college students at the time. It was a place to call home and an easy commute to and from class. However, the city of Davis obviously saw the housing as a threat and initiated a change in company management.

Secret Garden

2006-08-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

The Davis subdivision that I chose to take a closer look is the Village Homes located in West Davis. Walking through the Village Homes, I did not encounter any of the residents. The whole subdivision sounded very quiet, I could not even hear the sound of moving cars on the street. The only thing I heard was the conversation carried on by my fellow classmates. It was quiet, maybe too quiet since I have never visited a place so quiet anywhere in Davis. Even though it was quiet when we visited, I could tell that Village Homes was trying to create a strong sense of community between the residents using architecture, design, and decorations.

Based on the landscape and architecture, one can tell that the Village Homes emphasizes its sense of community. Village Homes has big community parks and a playground located at its core, which serves as a gathering place for residents to meet and do activities together. There are also common areas between the houses for the residents to decide what they want to plant so they can have a chance to work with their neighbors and get to know them personally. Architecturally, Village Homes reinforces the concept of community. The community spirit is valued by the residents because all the houses in the Village Homes are facing the subdivision’s core instead of the streets outside. In addition, usage of cars is discouraged. They have many narrow pathways for both bikes and pedestrians and there are wide street lanes to travel through the community. When people walk or bike through the community, they have more opportunities to talk with other residents. Moreover, to create an esthetically pleasing and welcoming atmosphere, most of the homes in Village Homes have a little parking lot in the back of their house and only few houses actually have garages.

The Village Homes is detracted from Davis as a whole. With its fenced borders, the Village Homes seems to want to create a community within community, and is not trying to fit into the rest of city surrounding it. Looking from Arlington Street, one would never suspect that on the other side of the fence, there are parks, playgrounds, homes, and vineyards. Compared to the brightly colored painted houses and apartments in the rest of Davis, the majority of houses in the Village Homes have the same color, which is white and reddish-brown, and is covered by greenery. When I stepped inside the Village Homes, I thought I was in another town, not Davis. Outside of the Village Homes, there was not that much greenery, but inside I was surrounded by greenery everywhere I walked. One almost could not find the front doors of the houses because they were hidden by the plants and trees. With its common garden area, parks, vineyard, and fruit trees, I felt like I was taking a tour of a cult compound. Village Homes is not like the streets of the Holy Land that D.J. Waldie described, which are like the rest of Davis (streets intersecting at right angles). Village Home’s streets are curved and narrow. Moreover, the houses in do not look like the mass-produced houses described in David Beer’s Blue Sky Dream and Peter Bacon Hales’s Levittown: Documents of an Ideal American Suburb. They look like their owner customized the area surrounding their homes. The personal style makes them look different from the apartment buildings that have the color and floor-plan in other parts of Davis such as Allegre, Sharps and Flats, and Tanglewood.

A link to communitywalk.com! Click marker #10

A "Diamond in the Rough"

2006-08-25T09:23:00.000-07:00

Recently, we visited a subdivision in West Davis named Village Homes, which I never knew existed. Curious to know if I was the only one, I found a Davis native and asked if he had known, seen, or ever heard of this place, his answer, not surprisingly, was no. As an outsider entering Davis as a Freshmen, I saw a nice little community, tight-knit and welcoming, but after this visit I wasn't so sure. Upon entering Village Homes I emerged into the community gardens adourned with chickens, grapevines, and many other fruits and veggies. I knew I had now crossed into this mysterious place. I felt as if I was one of "those we don't speak of" from Shyamalan's "The Village", as though I was an outsider, unwanted and not welcome. Park benches, pools, and playgrounds all carried the "Village Home residents only" badge, which doesn't give off much of a welcoming vibe.
The subdivision itself was not composed of your average cookie-cutter houses. The lots are small, without conforminng to others. Yards are kept somewhat overgrown, emitting the possibility of a eutopian-like society where people are free to pursue any interest. In this observation, I also got the feeling that I was in a place where family, friend, and community interaction were of the utmost importance. In fact, throughout my walk, I did not see a single enclosed garage. Every house seemed to have an outdoor carport, so people would have to get out of their car and interact with their neighbors rather than be sheltered of human interaction. I observed homes with solar panels, fuel efficient autos, and a homie feel. Homes were quiet, everywhere I looked was quiet. I only saw two moms with kids coming from the swimming pool. This made me wonder: on a wednesday afternoon, during the "normal" business hours, these residents were enjoying recreational activities. Perhaps they were full-time moms, which reinforced the laid-back feel of the place as a whole.
Upon the completion of my journey, I began to think about this tight-knit community. Sure, it was very nice and looked like an interesting place to live, but what did it do for the community of Davis as a whole? It seems that the people of Village Homes acchieved their percieved goal of a close, self sufficient, interacting community; but only upon completely isolating themselves from their surrounding community. I earlier referenced Shyamalan's "The Village", and that is how I felt, like an intruder: completelt unwelcome. In fact, I felt like I was in the middle of a place with a similar doctrine of that of Cotton Mather's "Christian Behavior at Home and in the Community", only not so Puritan-like, with a more hippee kind of feel. I make this comparison because my observations suggested communally-raised children, and the utmost of human interaction and residential accountability.
Despite my liking for this little community, I think it is bad for Davis as a whole. It isolates people from one another, and instills separation from the values and priciples of its surrounding area. It does seem like a nice place to live and raise children, but aren't they contradicting their own beliefs, and haven't they acchieved the opposite of what they were shooting for? I think the ideals that brought this community into reality aren't emphasized through its existence. The principles of this community seem to be a little hippocritical, but call me a hippocrit because I think Village Homes is a diamond in the not-so rough, and a place even where I could live.

For a map of Village Homes and it surrounding area please visit: http://www.communitywalk.com/map/16453

Homeland Security

2006-08-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

From my bedroom window, every so often I will hear the sound of sirens as ambulances and fire-trucks make their way to the retirement home that is located next door, on Alvarado Street. The blaring sounds take away from the secure feeling experienced as people go about their daily lives in a mistakenly secure happy environment. Walking down the street of Alvarado, between Sycamore and Anderson, the trees and bus stops are most prominent, as well as the people waiting to catch their bus, getting into their cars, riding their bikes, and living their everyday lives. This street is a street of deception because although it attempts to appear as a nice safe place to live, as seen by the trees, the soft subtle sloping of the buildings, and the hundreds of other people compacted together in an attempt to create a strong sense of community, it does no such thing. Instead it is a place where crime does happen as seen by the fact that people club their steering wheels and have alarms on their cars; death does happen; and toxic mold does grow, as exemplified by the signs in front of a complex explaining the risks of entering the premises. Like any subdivision of Davis, it does its best to be peaceful and safe, but every so often, especially when those sirens ring, people are reminded that they are never safe even in their own homes, similar to larger aspects of human nature where we like to forget our own mortality and find that false sense of security in comforting places like our own community.

The slight breeze and stillness can make one momentarily forget about the heat and the unsettling uncertainty of residing in such an area, and if you stand right in the middle of the subdivision it is easy to see only college students and their places of residence. Although these apartment complexes may be old, some light blue, others brown, or beige, it seems befitting that college students live in these run down apartment complexes, because what college student can truly afford to live in a mansion? Built in angular forms, from a good angle one can see a variety of apartment buildings, that must house hundreds of people. These complexes are mostly older, and year after year with the people moving in and out, abusing them as they appear droopy. This is balanced out with an abundance of trees and grass, meant to keep the landscape tranquil and inviting, as is most of the Davis landscape. Comparable to the landscape in Blue Sky Dream, the lawn and grassy areas are a vital part of making the home whole. The grassy areas are as important as any of the buildings, for they promote the area being a peaceful setting and a safe haven for its residents. The area has so many people squished into one area, and it begins to feel safe, almost similar to Lakewood, with the gangs hanging out on the outskirts of town yet the inside remaining a unified community with strong ethics. Yet, crime is not kept out, as my roommate’s car was broken into during the night only a few months ago, and my friends apartment robbed. Appearances can be deceiving, and when those sirens ring on the street, I am once again reminded that there is no such thing as a safe haven, and that the community is built upon deception and lies and the only comfort felt is the kind my mind wants to create.

Community Walk Number Two

Arches and Pillars

2006-08-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

The idea of the post war suburbs was to offer the returning veterans a new and affordable home. The floor plans were kept simple, usually a square or ranch style home. This home was a representation of status. In Beers “Invasion” the father waited at the housing office to be sure to get the best price of land and once built he continuously worked to perfect the home he picked out on the perfect lot. The desire to express status through the size and external appearance of the home is no exception in the Lake Alhambra Estates off of Alhambra. The streets are lined with houses with perfectly manicured lawns, gorgeous tile and brick work, and stunning arches and pillars. Unlike the affordable homes built after the war these homes were built perfect with no need to perfect them and a high price tag to go with it.

The homes were built starting in the million dollar price range. Adding subdivisions with homes starting in such a high price range continues to detract from Davis as a hole because it doesn’t allow for the building of reasonably priced homes desired by most home buyers. While the overall aesthetics of Davis are improved by building of the homes it eliminates a large amount of home buyers from settling in the Davis area, while at the same time increasing rent.

Taking a walk through the neighborhood there is no one working on their lawns, no garage doors open, no neighbors talking, now children playing and no residence outside. The exterior of the homes present a sense of hardworking white collar families. Nearly every home has pillars or columns in the front welcoming guests in a grand way with an arch high above near the top of the two story home. However the area was silent; there are no guests. The lawns are well crafted with just the right amount of each color to please the eye and the lawns are all the perfect green color. In D.J. Waldie’s “Holy Land” he has a section on the way the houses were laid out so that “No two floor plans were built next to each other; no two neighbor stare into his reflection across the street. Each house is unique from it neighbors.” This let each set of home owners feel individual and like part of a group at the same time. In the Lake Alhambra Estates there aren’t any homes that are exactly through the whole suburb, but the same style of home, allowing the same feeling.

With the current home price in Davis already priced too high for many hopeful home buyers are stuck renting. The rent prices aren’t much better though. The amount of renters exceeds the amount of available units to be rented. As the waiting lists to get into apartments grow the price can also rise. Building more affordable subdivisions will allow for hopeful home buyers to finally make the change from renting to owning the cost of renting will also become more affordable and the renters must be more competitive to fill the now empty apartments.

Marker Number 1

Avalon Apartments

2006-08-25T06:10:00.000-07:00

I feel that the way in which the Avalon Apartments community and structure is developed adds to the lifestyle of Davis, because Avalon emphasizes community, the way that a small town such as Davis does, but it also represents individual private community the way that more affluent towns do. However, The unity and monotony of this subdivision detracts from the diversity and uniqueness representative of Davis.
Avalon Apartments is constructed from a small cul de sac off of Valdora Street. The houses consist of similar style townhouses that generally have the one of two layouts, the three and the four bedroom communities. The community is a subcommunity of Sorrento Apartments across the street. Sorrento Apartments also manages Brisa Apartments, a more cultured duplex style community on the south side of Valdora. While Sorrento is a more affordable, modest community, Barisa and Avalon are more posh homely communities. Barisa duplexes offer respectable sized yards and emphasize a more privatized lifestyle, while Avalon provides less spacious yards with more community oriented facilities, such as the pool spa and fitness room, similar to the community oriented Sorrento Apartments.
While Avalon Apartments provides a very cozy warm, and lush landscape, tennants are also restricted to the extent of which they may alter their landscape. This is mostly due to the desire Sorrento has to charge equal prices for each unit. Distinguishing any unit more or less so would make the appearance of that unit more or less favored in the eyes of renters, and as such, Sorrento employes use of a communtiy landscaper and maintenence to ensure that each unit is as well kept as the next (for outwards appearance anyways)
Similar to the tract houses of D.J. Waldie's "Holy Land" narrative, Avalon homes were all Identical to one another, attempting to boast of middle class lifestyle, while not truely being homes of the middle class. However, Avalon makes a very good impression upon local college students looking for fall housing, and the competitiveness of landing an Avalon lease parallels the competitiveness of finding a brand new home, as described in David Beers' "Blue Sky Dream." Early action, as well as steeper prices are key to securing an Avalon Apartment.
Avalon is a more pricey subdivision compared to the surrounding places, however, tennants pay for both the communal properties that basic Sorrento apartments offer, as well as private individualized units, to incorporate the Barisa modeled lifestyle. So, you get the best of both worlds, but at a price that not all are willing to pay.
Tennants of Avalon apartments seem much more open and friendly than at other apartment complexes, I feel mostly as a result of the open design of the subdivision. Many Units are connected in a similar fashion to Duplex homes, while they share their private semi 'driveway' with the neighbor on the otherside, impressing upon the socializing of neighbors, or at the very least the awareness of their presence, represented by the neighbor's car(s) or outdoor porch furniture. The Avalon apartments have iron faux gates at the main entry way, and Many tennants leave windows and blinds open, allowing others to see into their homes, which demonstrates security in the community.

AVALON APARTMENTS in DAVIS

"Little...Rectangular Prisms"

2006-08-25T00:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.communitywalk.com/map/16453#101q03VKh10738.28_a9-121.2mlg0

A few months ago when I was apartment-searching, I came across a house for rent on Olympic Drive. I decided to check it out with my roommate, and the house, (as well as those along it) looked beautiful. All I could think of was, "It doesn’t even look like college students live there! They’re so clean!!!" Unfortunately somebody beat us to it and today we are living in the complexes around the corner. Those months ago, I was looking at the beauty. But today, after some understanding of American communities, I can analyze the same neighborhood with a different set of eyes.
Olympic Drive is located in West Davis, and the homes along it are tall, but not very wide (they look like standing rectangles) and they are different colors and styles but are made of the same vinyl siding.
As for what I notice, I see a basketball hoop on the street, cars parked along curbs, benches and chairs on the patio, many plants, flowers and trees, green grass, and homes with gardens and sunflowers. I do not see a lot of people except a man checking his mail and a woman jogging. I also do not see a garage, nor do I see a mailbox in front of each house.
From the things I saw, I can concur that families do live here (the basketball hoop, for children) but they are likely small families by the size of the houses. From the people I did see, I’m assuming that middle-upper class working families live here. The greenery implies that these people do care a great deal about the appearance of their homes, and might have some hobbies—with the gardening I saw. The benches might have been for "show", but I did see tables with chairs positioned as if people had sat there—I think people are sociable here. From the minor details that I saw, I can suggest some values that these families hold—health (the woman running and the hoop), activities/hobbies (the sunflowers and the garden) and social life (with the positioned chairs and table).
The two oddest things I couldn’t find at first glance were the mailboxes and the garages; usually, mailboxes are in the front yard somewhere and garages are in the front as well. The mailbox is actually a community mailbox, found at the end of the street. As for the garage situation, I found a big alley and followed it; it turns out, that behind every house is the garage. The homes still have backyards, but also garages back there with their cars.
I think that the mailboxes and the garages were removed from the front to conserve space. The street is a bit narrow, additionally; there are condominiums for the elderly across the street, as well as two apartment complexes just a few feet away. Considering the garages in the backyard, I am beginning to think that the cars on the curb do not even belong to those families but to the typical UC Davis student trying to find a parking spot.
The whole setting is reminiscent of Louisa May Alcott’s short-term society that tried to succeed with very little skill or resource. These homes have little space as it is and thus are limited to resources, as land and in general—space to breathe. Additionally, the area also reminds me of Manzanar because the families at Olympic Drive make use of what space they do have and seem to be ok with it. This community must survive with a lot of students; theres a lot of things they might not like—parties, alcohol, loud music and so on. Regardless, they must tolerate this by living in such an odd location as the Japanese Americans did with their struggles.
I think that this subdivision adds to Davis as a whole. It shows the struggle of family/upper-middle class to live in the overwhelming student community. Olympic Drive is already packed, and presumably with cars of students. The contractor must have tried his/her best to have as much space as possible for families—with the mailboxes, garages and width of the homes. The height of the homes gives an attempt at power from not being able to defeat the mass of student residents.

the "village"

2006-08-24T23:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.communitywalk.com/map/16453

MARKER #1.

On Wednesday, as a class, we took a little field trip to Village Homes by Lake Blvd. and Arlington in North Davis. This was a "neighborhood" like no other I have seeen before in Davis. Most of the neighborhoods I past through are of big built houses with their private driveways and their picture perfect green lawns. And none of these houses' door entrance are blocked by large trees and long stretching vines.
Village Homes is surrounded by tall fences and then it is surrounded by gardens (growing pumkins, corn, sunflowers, there was even a grape vineyard) all around. Unlike Mr. H’s yard, in D.J. Waldie’s Holy Land, which was filled with junk and his lawn keeps dying not wanting to stay green. The houses seem to be built in the middle of this subdivision. Most of the houses were painted either of white or brown color. To me, the houses look like they are built in a circle within a cirlce in this subdivision. Also within Village Homes, I've noticed that there are many paths big enough for people to walk through but not big enough for cars to drive through though. I found it kind of odd that this whole subdivision is covered with so much vegetation too. Many of the houses' front and back doors were so covered with tall trees that you can barely see the entrance to the house.
When I was walking through Village Homes, I kind of gotten lost walking the pathways trying to find the exit to get back to the bus stop. It was like a big maze in there. Because of all those pathways and not spotting a car driving past once made me wondered how do cars even even get into this subdivision. I also wondered how the residents find the door to their house since there were no street lights. Or at least I didn't see any. It was a little creepy there. The whole time I was walking around and exploring, I barely saw any residents at all. It was quiet the whole time until I walked past the community park/pool area. I'm guessing that that is the main area where the residents come together to meet up.
Village Homes reminds me of the movie we watched in class "THE VILLAGE". Village Homes is surround by fences and vegetation just like how the movie portrayed its subdivision. And Village Home also had a common area (the park and pool area) where the residents come together. Of all the residents I seen, while walking through Village Homes, were caucasians much like the movie also. (I could be wrong though since I only seen so few residents.) And much like the movie "THE VILLAGE", Village Homes seemed to be keeping the Davis community out of their area and keeping their own neighborhood to themselves.
Village Homes is not the typical neighborhood you would see in Davis or anywhere as a matter of fact (to me that is). It seemed so private and so easily to get lost in that I even wonder how the mailman delivers their mail without getting lost in there themselves. There's so much trees and shrubs that you won't even be able to see if anyone is hiding behind them poping out any moment to scare you. And there don't seem to be any street lights.. HOW DO YOU SEE AT NIGHT? I wouldn't want to be walking around there at night.

Shrubbery and Shopping Carts..

2006-08-24T22:33:00.000-07:00

Davis is a very controlled community, in the sense that the appearance of lawns, streets, and trees, are enforced. When you bike around, you see well maintained lawns, nicely paved streets, trimmed trees, and flower gardens. The subdivision that I visited, the Drake Drive circle in north Davis that is intersected by Sycamore Lane, exemplifies the “perfect” Davis atmosphere, for the most part. Within my subdivision, I would like to compare how the south part and northeast part of the circle reinforces Davis’ ideals, and how the northwest section detracts from this ideal. With broken streets, overgrown bushes, and shopping carts galore, the northwest section of Drake Drive would be our perfect town’s ghetto, aesthetically speaking.

Take a drive. Head down Sycamore Lane towards Russell Boulevard and make your first left after Covell Boulevard. This is the northeast section of the Drake Drive circle. What do you see? Old, but well kept duplexes, the Drake apartment complex with greenery galore, and a few older homes that are nicely painted. The lawns are mowed, the bushes and trees are kept trimmed, with no eyesores in sight. Continue around the bend by crossing Sycamore Lane. The pattern continues, you can tell that this is the Davis ideal. There are more lawns, great shrubbery, well painted apartment buildings, even a few flower gardens. This matches the values that Davis tries to enforce.

The values of nice aesthetics and a “green” Davis are seen. You can tell the owners of the houses maintain their yard, and put a lot of time and effort into it. You can also tell the apartment complexes’ management care about how their complexes look, because you can hear the leaf blowers and lawn mowers early and often in the morning. Overall, it is a very aesthetically pleasing street. This matches the Davis that the residents want to see. This is true because a friend of mine has a fence that had been graffitied. Within the week, the police came by and said that they would take care of this eyesore. And they did exactly that (but in this case, they just flipped the boards, so the graffiti would only be seen from inside their yard, because the Davis police department is dirty, but I guess that could be a topic for another AMS paper). In another case, a friend had left some sofas outside on his porch and he received a notice that said this is against Davis’ codes, and if he did not bring in the furniture, he will be fined. Unlike Mr. H’s yard, in D.J. Waldie’s Holy Land, which was FILLED with junk, my friend did not receive repeated notices, he received a fined.

Now, getting back to Drake Drive, after you have seen the southwest circle, follow the bend into the northwest part, and what do you see? First off, a very old, small apartment complex on your left hand side, with a very old paint job that would only be described as a worn out, gross shade of Peptol Bismol pink. When you keep driving, you will see old, worn out fourplexes with driveways that are cracked badly. You see sidewalks that looked like an earthquake just hit, repeatedly. The street has many potholes, and some potholes that were filled, badly. There are construction A-Frames (the white ones with orange stripes, with the little blinking light on top), that have been there for weeks and a car with a flat tire, that has sat on the street for at least a month. As far as greenery, there are no lawns, no grass, no flower gardens, and with overgrown trees and bushes, it is easier for me to walk to the bus stop every morning (yes, I live in the “ghetto”) in the middle of the street, then it is to walk on the side walks, dodging the tree limbs and bushes and the occasional shopping cart, or four. It feels like I live in a particle board home neighborhood in Emporia, while the rest of the Drake Drive circle residents live in Mission Hills as described in Thomas Franks’, What’s the Matter with Kansas? The beliefs that you see here is that the owners do not care about the state of their apartment complexes, street and sidewalk, and the tenants do not care because the rent is cheap.

From the comparison of just this subdivision, you can see that the northwest portion of Drake Drive circle could be considered the aesthetic “ghetto” of Davis, while the rest of it fits into the typical Davis mold. Most of the time, the cliche, "the grass is greener on the other side", is true. Everything always looks better when you aren't living it. But in my case, the grass REALLY IS GREENER on the other side, and that side actually has some grass. But it's okay. We have shopping cart races.

P.S. I've even seen cars cruise up and down the street with drunk people hanging out of the windows, while blasting music. If thats not a DUI waiting to happen, I don't know what is.

Drake Drive: Community Walk: White Marker #1

Where the Green Grass Grows!

2006-08-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

Tim McGraw sings a song entitled Green Grass Grows where he sings about his desires to live in the country because those who live in the city “don’t know who your neighbors are and there are bars on their doors and bars on their hearts.” What McGraw fails to realize is that people moved to suburbia looking for the community friendliness of the country and have thus turned suburbia into the feared vision of a crime ridden and untrusting city.
On the class field trip to Village Homes, I found what at first seemed like a very hippy, abnormal, too earthy for their own good community. However, on a closer examination and a little exploration, I realized that what seemed at first to be just plain weird is actually the kind of community that I hope for when I think of the suburban dream. Village Homes is a model of a strong community in Davis. It’s an ideal subdivision that has successfully created a strong community bond and environmental preservation both of which are things that most suburban subdivisions have not been able to accomplish.
American society has been inundated with propaganda selling them on the simple country life. Tim McGraw himself is guilty of encouraging his listeners to move out to the country where children can build parachutes and send them off into the world and be positive that a nice neighbor will return them to their rightful owners as David Beers did in Blue Sky Dream. Or even in the movie The Village, where they built a country community where the children were completely safe to play with one another and everyone worked together. This lifestyle is what all of America wants but no one can attain.
Village Homes has attained this lifestyle. While I was walking through the winding streets I saw a woman walking over to her next door neighbors, I saw two boys skateboarding together down the street without a parent supervising them to make sure they aren’t abducted, and I saw tons of community land that is meant to be shared by the entire subdivision together. So instead of everyone having their own large lawn, they share one together that way they can mingle and get to know one another. By having community land and car ports instead of closed garage doors, this allows the community to really get to know one another. The whole community is friendlier with each other because they interact with each other on a daily basis. Instead of closing their garage door so that no one can look in at their life they park their cars in open lots so they converse with neighbors as they walk out to their car each morning.
When American society thinks of the country they think green as McGraw clearly tells listeners, “I want to live where the green grass grows.” Village Homes is very environmentally friendly and this helps to keep the country feel. There are few paved roads instead there are lots of rock sidewalks that connect all the houses to one another. Instead of concrete (alluding to city) water drains, they utilize natures best water drain, dirt. And instead of huge brick fences between every house, they plant trees which not only shade their houses and look pretty but also give them their desired privacy. This community oriented, simple lifestyle is what American society wants but rarely achieves. The fact that Davis has a community that represents the exact lifestyle that the rest of California desires helps to make Davis a hugely desirable place to live.
Fot more info see: marker #5
http://www.communitywalk.com/map/16453

Just a typical suburb

2006-08-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

Walking through the subdivision behind my apartment complex, one can easily recognize the area as being home to primarily families. The subdivision is roughly contained by Cowell Boulevard, Lillard Drive, and Valdora Street in South Davis. On its fourth side, the subdivision is bordered by the South Davis bike path.

Though built around the same time, the subdivision is not your typical suburb of rows of homes lined up along small streets. Instead, the streets are almost all cul-de-sac in design, with an entrance to the bike path at the end of each street. This neighborhood is a far cry from the homes described in D.J. Waldie’s excerpt from Holy Land. The homes here are not cheap looking; rather, they are structured to look like cozy farm-style housing. With wooden front porches with swings and potted plants set out as if to say “come on in,” these homes are much more personable than the cookie cutter homes built in Holy Land.

While walking through this neighborhood, one can come to understand what type of person lives here. Behind the wood-sided walls are families, evidence of their activities is available throughout the year. During the summer there are small bikes on the lawn and water guns strewn across the driveway. As Halloween approaches, small Kleenex tissue ghosts begin to hang down from the trees and carved pumpkins begin to appear on the porch stoop. Around Christmas lights are strung upon all the bushes and Children’s drawings of Christmas trees and Santa Claus appear in the windows.

Despite the fact that these homes seem to carry much ore personality than those in Holy Land, they still embrace some of the ideals of suburban life. Just as in David Beer’s “Invasion,” lawns are almost perfectly maintained, though as upper-middle class families, it is most often a gardener who does the work. Flowers are meticulously planted in the flower beds and hedges are maintained at the perfect height. Despite the variety in the facades of these houses, they still hold on to a sense of uniformity. These families still value fitting in. For them, this means putting up cheerful holiday decorations, keeping the outside inviting, and most importantly, doing nothing that would cause their home to stick out.

In addition to the appearance of their homes, these families seem to partake in similar activities. You can often see them leaving their homes in the evenings to walk to the nearby park or along the bike path. Almost all seem to own some sort of Labrador retriever. If not a Labrador, some other large breed of dog; I have yet to see a family walking a family dog that is less than two feet high. This neighborhood also seems to own the same cars. In almost every driveway it seems as if you can find one SUV and one small car.

Though walking through this neighborhood appears to be far different than walking through the post-WW2 suburbs of “little boxes,” one begins to realize that these are just fancy boxes. With more frills on the outside, they appear different, but upon closer inspection, these families are only a façade away from representing the typical suburban family life of the post-world war era. One might argue that this uniformity would detract from a city such as Davis that values its diversity. Contrary to that, this development adds to the appeal of Davis. People don’t like unusual things, it’s a common notion. Almost everyone nowadays has grown up in a suburb; they are the accepted form of living. This suburb adds to the character of Davis in a couple of ways. First, it is more aesthetically pleasing and unique in neighborhood design than the rows of houses in Holy Land. Streets curve and wind in a maze of asphalt that tricks the resident into believing they are not a typical suburb resident. Though unique in that aspect, this neighborhood still allows the resident to stay within the comfort zone of the suburb, adding to the harmony of the community. In a sense, it allows residents of Davis to feel unique while not breaking any new boundaries that might test their comfort zone.

Blog post #2: Community

2006-08-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

The room that has significance in my childhood and still has significance till this day is the dining room. The dining room is significant to me because that is where my family sits,eats, and talk about practically anything and this brings us close together. I remember when I was young my dad would tell me stories about his experiences. One particular story he told me was when he fought in Vietnam. He would vividly tell me the harsh conditions he had to go through and he would tell me how to correctly fire a M-16 rifle. After he tells me his story he pause a bit then laugh hysterically at me saying how gullible I am. My dad is a jokester. He likes to liven things up at the dining room. As I grew older the talks became more serious. My mom and dad tells me good advice at the dining room. They tell me about issues like the "bird and bees" (I did not eat much during those conversations) they tell me about the importance of education and so forth. Their advice has help me a lot. It help set my goals and kept me straight, if it was not their advice and support I would not be at UC Davis. Besides talking with my parents, the food also has its significance at the dining table. It gave me a glimpse at my cultural background. The food that we ate are traditional Filipino dishes. I'd ask my mom about the food she made and then she tells me the history about it. One dish she talks about is arroz caldo (rice with chicken soup). She tells me it is an old Spanish cuisine. She learns how to cook it from he mom and her mom learns how to cook it from her mom and so on. Now my mom teaches me how to cook arroz caldo, sort of like a tradition the family. The dining room is significant because it brings my family close together, it is a good place to receive good advice from parents and it is a good place to learn ones cultural background. My experiences in our dining room has shaped my to the person I am today.

Blog post #2: Community

2006-08-21T16:35:00.000-07:00

A community is a place where groups of people gather together and feel that they are family. It is a feeling of understanding one another and a feel of looking out for one another. These traits of community can be found in schools like in university dormitory, a close knit neighborhood or being fans of a sports team like the Raiders (ask a die hard Raider fan and you'll know what I mean). Though these ideas of community can be found in many situations and settings, I believe that the sense of community can be found more in the bar. In a bar your friends are there and they feel like family. If one of my friends had too much to drink, I'll help them out. I'd be the DD (designated driver) safely taking them home, or sometimes like a family we go to Fairfield and play miniature golf. My friends whole heartedly call it drunk put-put. In a bar with my friends there is a feeling of understanding one another.In the bars my friends and I try to hook up with girls. We say our best lines, buy them drinks, try everything to interact with them but my friends and I understand that we can not be play haters, it is a line we can not cross. A play hater is someone who is eyeing on the same girl that you are trying to hook up with. He tries to make himself look better than you in order to get the girl. Just as the Transcendentals can not cross the line in eating meat, we can't be playa haters to one another. To do so would tear our sense of community. In the bars, my friends and I look out for one another. When we go out to drink it is important to eat something. If one of us is short on cash we all spot him some money. If one of us needs help spit his game to a girl, we all give him some advice. If one of us is too drunk, I usually provide the ride.In bars you think its just drinking and socializing. With good friends though its a little bit more, you get a feel of family, understanding one another, and looking out for one another just like a community.
posted by Alexander F. at 3:24 PM

In-class questions for August 21

2006-08-21T12:37:00.000-07:00

Answer the following questions, drawing on course readings.

1. What are the roles of religion, mythology, spirituality, or similar ideologies in building community?

2. What is the relationship of the suburbs to war?

3. Reread the section of Blue Sky Dream where Beers’s father struggles to establish a lawn. What’s at stake in this process, and who are the stakeholders?

4. Historically and today, do Americans find uniformity desirable in their communities? If so, is it the same kind of uniformity criticized by Pete Seeger in “Little Boxes”? Explain.

5. What is David Beers’s “tribe”? Why were they so influential? Are they still powerful today?

6. What role does race play in the building of American communities? Where is race explicitly addressed? Where is it implicitly addressed, and how can you tell?

7. What were the imagined threats to American communities in the mid-20th century? And in The Village? And in our lives today? What has changed, what has not, and why?

8. Why does Robert Bruegmann praise the suburbs? Does he appreciate them for the same reasons Beers’s parents appreciated the Valley of Heart’s Delight?

Blog post #3: Davis subdivisions

2006-08-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

(Before writing this post, be sure you’re caught up on the readings through Wednesday.)

1. Select one subdivision in Davis. (How are we defining "subdivision"? Several blocks of houses built at the same time on similar architectural plans. Downtown Davis, for example, is a neighborhood but not a subdivision.) For clarity, state which streets you believe constitute your subdivision’s edges.

2. Walk through the subdivision to get a sense of its character. What do you see? What do you not see that you might see in other neighborhoods?

3. What values, beliefs, and habits do you see expressed in the architecture and landscape of the subdivision? (Be specific about architectural and landscape features.) Do you see these values replicated in the activities (if any) of the people you see?

Now for the argument: In your opinion, does this subdivision improve upon or detract from Davis as a whole? Draw on at least two course texts in supporting your argument.

My Church Family (Edited)

2006-08-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

My Church Family

Deep in the heart of each person lies the need to be accepted, the need to be a part of something composed of more than just oneself. This basic concept leads to the forming of friendships, fraternities/sororities, clubs, sports teams, and other relationships. These principles are emulated in the forming of communities. Communities are groups of beings who share certain core goals and work together to achieve those goals. But what makes a community so great is the fact that every member is working to benefit not only themselves, but the entire community. One such community which I came to accept and be grateful for is my church community.

Born into it, I hardly understood its true purposes as a child. Regarding the people of my church as “my church family” came as second nature to me. Valuing its youth was the core idea of “my church family” , second to spreading the gospel to anyone who gave an ear to listen. Growing up in the church and being dedicated to it as an infant in a dedication ceremony in front of the entire congregation gave me a place in the hearts of each. Each and every child within the “my church family” had more than his or her share of mother, father, aunt, and uncle figures within the church community. I remember being told things by a member of the church and regarding it as sacred I would the words of my own mother.

Not coincidentally, one of the adopted mottos of our church was “It takes a village to raise a child.” My church community was a village. It contained wise elders who told us of life’s woes and offered abundant advice. It contained mothers and fathers, sharing the joys of child-raising and the responsibilities of adulthood. It contained children, like myself, who laughed and played together, and became as close as real brothers and sisters.

Unfixed by geographic limitations, those who had moved away would be sent letters of encouragement and love from their “church family” left behind. And when they returned for a visit, they would always exclaim, in one way or another, that there is nothing like coming home to one’s church. Unlike Bonifacius' “Christian Behavior at Home and in the Community”, our Christian values and actions did not follow and set regulations or codes, but rather ethics of heart and the pure compassion that one person can feel towards another.

My church community is something that I will always be part of because of the values and ideas that it instilled in me at a young and impressionable age. Fulfilling my need to be a part of something larger than myself alone, I look forward to contributing to the success of my church community by taking its core beliefs of love and family and instilling them in everything I do.

My family Community

2006-08-18T17:05:00.000-07:00

The community that I grew up since elementary to this date is quiet and family oriented. The community is basically were parents can raise their children and prepare them for college or their future in general. The community is most alive when families have young children because the children interact among each other but once the children become teenagers or even adult, it is very rare to see people interact as a community. Usually once everyone is all grown up people just usually stay to themselves.
My family moved to this community when I was about six years old. Everyone that was part of the community since I was a young child was very close to each other. In my family there were four children and two teenagers at the time and we had neighbors that were around the same ages as my brothers and sisters. Everyone was close because we played together, went to school together, and grew up together. The community seemed the best ever because people interacted in school events went on, the county fair, and family events. Everyone was very close and supportive to each other. Once the teenagers hit senior year of high school and were ready to go to college either they moved away or were too busy with college and even work for those who worked. That is how the community seemed to me once friends and family would go on with their lives and try to succeed in them. At have already reached the point of leaving my community. It has been a year since I moved away from the community because I want to study at the University of Davis, about three hours away from my community.
Over all, everyone goes through the same procedure of leaving the community of one reason or the other. Later on as time passes by, one will be part of a new community similar to the one were I grew in raising their own family and go through the same process of life.

My Student-run Davis Family

2006-08-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

My first year at UC Davis was my first time experiencing life outside the shelter of my parents. Leaving home and living on my own came with many new responsibilities. Therefore, it was important for me to make new friends so that I would not be alone in this new and overwhelming environment.

After two and a half years in college, I have built my Davis family. We are all students of UC Davis and lived in the same apartment complex in 2005 therefore, we are a mini-community of students. As a family, we occupied three separate apartments in this complex. I always saw my friends in separate apartments as my extended family while my friends residing within my apartment were my immediate family. Although I was not related to any of them by blood, I am related to them in many other ways. For example, we are related through our common interests in taste of music, dancing, swimming, and Monopoly. Furthermore, we have similar values in friends and family and we all have the common goal to make something of ourselves, be it a doctor, an engineer, or a businessman.

These similarities were important for the growth and bonding of our community. Without the similarities, our community would not understand each and therefore we would not be able to support each other or trust each other like a community should. Trust and support from a community is important because when someone is hurt or needs attention, we can trust each other for support when in need. Building a Davis family was important for me because when I could not go to my parents for advice, I had my Davis family for guidance.

Similar to the women that Paule Marshall describe in “The Making of a Writer: From the Poets in the Kitchen,” the women of our family like to spend time together sharing our thoughts, advice, and aggravations from school, family, and relationships. We often go out for ice cream or dinner to talk about things that are bothering us when we need support. These conversations help us “reaffirm [our] self-worth” and be strong people. We are as honest as we can with one another and are always looking out for each other. The support and confidence that I have gained from my relationship with my Davis family have helped me become stronger and happier.

Farewell to Atwater

2006-08-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

The separation of families throughout history has often been a result of wars or changing environments, like the internment camps during World War II or immigration to the new world. However, in more recent times families can become separated for more commonplace reasons. In Farewell to Manzanar families are split up forcibly because of internment camps, however, unlike the famliy in Farewell to Manzanar, my family chose to separate for less dramatic and more modern reasons.
Initially my family, including my mom, dad, both sets of grandparents, uncle, aunt, and cousins, all lived in the same neighborhood within five miles of one another. However, when my parents, who are divorced, both received better job offers they moved far away from each other and the rest of my family. My dad, who had been hired at a magazine printing press moved into a bigger and more expensive house. My mom also bought a nicer house as she had been hired as a first grade teacher. In their new houses my parents were both a 30 minute drive from my old town of Atwater. While my parents now were both in better financial situations it was still extremely hard for me growing up to be moved away from the rest of my family.
Although my situation is much different from that presented in Farewell to Manzanar, I can still relate to the feelings of alienation and grief that the family members in the story experienced. It has only been recently that families have started to become more and more spread out more as we have more technology to travel. However, the communities of yesteryear where families lived within a five mile circumference are becoming more and more appealing to our divided society.

Midtown

2006-08-18T16:12:00.000-07:00

Right after high school I belonged to the community of Downtown/Midtown Sacramento. It was a change for me. I grew up in the suburbs of Sacramento as a child, at first in Folsom and later in Fair Oaks. Where I moved to the city there were three major bars in the midtown area that formed a triangle around my house. It made my home seem like it was stuck right in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle of Sacramento, where nothing was ever ordinary.

I moved there for the same reason that Papa located his family in Ocean Park in “Farewell to Manzanar”. He liked Ocean Park because “he didn’t want to be labeled or grouped by anyone. (132)” Unlike in “Farewell to Manazar” I felt out of place at first because there were some many people with a completely different lifestyle that I grew up with. I was very much out of my comfort zone at first. Where he felt uncomfortable because after his move it was the first time he had lived around others of the same ethnicity.

I have never a wider rage of people and larger number of people than I did for the two years that I lived in Midtown. I moved into an old Victorian house that already had four people living in it. The only think that linked these people to each other at first was geography. We all became really close though. One roommate was a 47 year lead singer of a Sacramento punk band. One was an 18 year old gay guy who hosted a smoke out for ever occasion including the death of the Pope and another for the naming of the new Pope. Another roommate was a 23 year old make up artist trying to portfolio together to get job. The fourth roommate was a Preachers son turned drug dealer turned clean again with a political opinion about everything.

The community put a huge emphasis on the nightlife and art life of Sacramento. Second Saturday was a huge deal a great excuse for the whole town to get together with the common interest of music and art. It was a night when all the galleries would stay open late and local bands would play out in the street. There was a true sense of belonging for everyone. While my opinions, beliefs and traditions were shared by few, nearly everyone was willing to listen and to experience part of my life.

It is important in life to go out and experience new people and places and things. Moving to an area outside of your comfort zone is a great way to do that. It opened my eyes to a whole new set of opinions, beliefs and traditions. I have since moved out of the midtown area, but I maintain a great set of friends from my time there. The people I was at first only liked geographically with I am now are linked by so much more.

Dead-end Career

2006-08-18T16:08:00.000-07:00

In my family’s eyes, success equals high status and high income, therefore majoring in engineering, computer science, pre-law, or pre-med were the only exceptions that equated to it. Any major, especially the arts would not be considered. As a first generation Vietnamese American, I’ve been faced with many pressures from my family and community majoring in Environmental Biology because they see no source of high income or recognized high status.
My parents arrived to the states with absolutely nothing and faced a lot of hardships and pressure to earn a decent living. For them working hard and providing me with many resources should entail me to make the best career choices and not go through with what they went.
For me choosing my major was like the woman who ate the fish’s tail because she did not follow the Transcendental Wild Oat’s ways and was then condemned from her community. I have not only made a decision not acceptable to my parents, but also embarrassed them from their own community.
My parents have become almost paralyzed from my decision because I have chosen a pathway that does not guarantee success. Making them feel as if they had lost out on their investment. There are many times my parents would feel ashamed to mention this to their friends and often times convince me to change my mind. They would even exaggerate on my major. For instance, since I’m majoring “Environmental Biology”, they would tell others I’m majoring in “Biology” possibly concentrating on Pre-med just so that they could feel part of their community.
I think my family and parent’s ideals are extreme. I believe that success should equate to happiness regardless how much income or what kind of status you have.

In or Out?

2006-08-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

Had I not left when I was four years old, I would have never thought twice to define my self as belonging to the Israeli community. To this day I still continue to feel a strong connection to the community, yet because I do not fit the stereotypical Israeli model as I am also an American, I teeter back and forth between being an outsider and being an insider. Israel is a state with much inner dissent and often its external stressors force Israelis to come together and be a strong unit, otherwise the country could fall apart. Like any other community that is under external stress it pulls its members together with the use of love and force, to create a community that is withholding and inclusive all at the same time, like a closed fist, you feel warmth and comfort from the inside and isolated and abandoned from the outside, because one person with a vision is not enough to keep a community strong. Being a part of the Israeli community often means holding on through good and bad times, by creating a fist to protect itself the Israeli community has survived longer than many thought it could.

It can be tricky to identify as an Israeli when, to most it is so obvious that I am American. I define myself as an Israeli through my family living in Israel because they do not question who I am. But these boundaries are not flexible because to be labeled as an Israeli it includes many things that involve things like army duty, having the accent, and the general things that go along with living daily life in the country, some of which I have missed out on. The fist is made to keep out outsiders who threaten the survival of the state, in which mandatory army duty can be seen the state attempting to coerce people to stay within its fist. Yet most do things like army duty with love for the country, because they see it as their responsibility to protect the state. Israelis hold their fists tight around their community because of the people who wish to see the state fail. My experience within the Israeli community is similar to the way in which Jeanne Wakatsuki reentered the Japanese community that her parents had chosen to leave. It is odd the ways in which one can define themselves, because although Jeanne had always been immersed within the Caucasian American community, she was forced by the American government to live within a Japanese American community that she had never before experienced. Conversely, I wish to be a part of the Israeli community but often find that the many years of American way of life that I have experienced often leaves me on the outside of the community looking in, but in those occasions where I am accepted by others to be a part of the community, I feel its hospitality.

My Volleyball Community

2006-08-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

The bump, set, and spike is what has brought the UC Davis Men’s and Women’s Club Volleyball team together into what we like to call the "volleyball community." And what a glorious community it is.

I would have to say that one is automatically granted membership after making final cuts of tryouts, and of course, paying club dues. That is how I became a member of the volleyball community this past season. But that is not the sole form of acquiring membership. Come to the ARC for open gym at approximately 8pm, Monday though Thursday, play a few games, make your presence consistent, and we shall unofficially deem you a member of our volleyball community.

Unlike Transcendental Wild Oats, where its members must follow the rules of a strict vegan diet, I do not believe there are any rules in our community; we are all free to do as we please and live our own individual lives. However, that does not go to say that there are no repercussions in our actions. Dating and relationships between the teams for example (what we like to call "volleyball incest")- there is great potential for drama and disaster. Dating the coach, going out with a teammate’s ex-boyfriend, spreading mono, jeopardizing friendships, awkward encounters at mandatory volleyball events, stringing along two volleyball guys at once...all of which are neither against the rules, nor even frowned upon. You will not be banished from the community as Jane did after her peers discovered she ate fish; you will only be placed in the spotlight of volleyball gossip for the remainder of your volleyball career at UC Davis.

As any other sports team, the volleyball community values the love of the game, competition, winning, and most importantly, having fun. This past season, we came up with theme nights for our practices. There was beach night, clash day, and even a super hero costume theme. And as a long standing tradition for Nationals every year, we design a t-shirt and throw in a sexual innuendo. Unfortunately, this season’s design wasn’t subtle enough and the shirt was not approved.

In Farewell to Manzanar, war and politics had threatened the lives and well-being of the Japanese-Americans. Although I do not feel as if our community’s well-being is threatened in any way, some individuals may feel that their place in the community is in danger. For instance, there is competition within the team for starting positions. And when the new season rolls around, some may fear that new players will knock them out for a spot on the team, which to their ego, essentially says they are not good enough to be a part of the volleyball community. The coming season will be my second and last year of club volleyball. The amount of time dedication among other factors will keep me from retaining membership of the community for another year. But this past year has already far exceeded my expectations, and I look forward to a successful season, and spending time with the wonderful people that make up our volleyball community.

Hopkins Avian Science Research Facility

2006-08-18T14:33:00.000-07:00

There is a program offered through the UCD Animal Science Department that gives students free room in one of its seven animal facilities in exchange for 32 hours of work at the facility each month. I applied to this program in order to help my parents out with money in my 3rd year of college. The program is a bit competitive. Lots of people want a free room for the school year. Although I had wanted to live in the horse barn because I feel most comfortable working with horses, the bird barn was notoriously easy to get into, and so I applied there. I guess nobody wanted to take care of the chickens. I was accepted and my new home officially became the UCD Hopkins Avian Science Research Facility. It's a building off Hutchinson, west of the 113, isolated among the fields and abandoned buildings of the university. There were 4 student assistants in all, including myself; 3 girls, 1 guy. The work was fairly easy, just dirty. It was basically refilling food and water for all of the chickens, finches, quail, parrots, and cockatiels, and making sure that nobody was dead. Our living space presented the real challenge. There were only 2 rooms. Because there was 1 male (Antonio) and we were abiding by the university's coed rules, he ended up getting 1 room to himself. This left Jennifer, Alexa, and I to work with the remaining room. Mind you, it was fairly big, but there were permanent partitions throughout because it had been used as an office. Those dividers were hard to work with. Everything was OK when we all moved in. As the year progressed, everyone's beliefs became clear. Alexa was a health-nut and a strong believer in the theory of evolution. Jennifer ate what she wanted, went to bible study 4 times a week, and didn't believe in dinosaurs or evolution. I was trying (unsuccessfully) to be the best dancer I could be on the UCD Dance Team. I would leave our room for performances in my skimpy costumes with Saintly Jennifer and Dr. Alexa looking down their noses at me. All of our differences, the added tension of daily communal work, and our birdseed, divider-filled room made it a hard year. Although we were all respectful of each other’s space and ideas, those literal and figurative partitions were just too strong to take down. At the end of the year, we 3 parted ways. Alexa went on to grad school in Virginia. Jennifer moved to a different barn. I moved to an apartment complex in Davis. Just like Timon Lion and Abel Lamb’s failed Fruitlands, our isolated rent-free, hard-working community had been almost unbearable simply because of too many conflicting ideas packed into the same room. In reality, we were like the chickens we took care of. We were not given enough room to be completely comfortable in our environment.

2006-08-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

When one faces a decision on whether or not to go Greek, the values at question are identity, recognition, belonging, discipline, love and respect. But these values are at the core of our being, and they represent the complex structure of social hierarchy amongst ourselves and our peers. These principles were shared by my suitemates and myself, which was the larger reason why we considered and rushed for Lamdas.

When considering our own rush, my suitemates and I had these values in mind. A handful of friends and I favored the Lamdas, based on the strengthened emphasis they seemed to place on loyalty unity and respect. To me, the four principles of Peace Love Unity Respect were large factors in my life. The status, popularity, and power that came with a Lamda title were quite appealing as well. Brotherhood spoke to me the way the kitchen spoke to Paule Marshall, but in the end, four friends rushed Lamdas, eventually all depledging except one.

We already considered ourselves a brotherhood to begin with, and we even labeled our faux fraternity Xi Xi Xi to represent the triple threat that we represented. We partied, we smoked, and we womanized. We were the archetypal college guys. The four of us represented the two primary different cultural communities that we saw: Two of us represented the So Cal connection. The other two of us were from the Bay representing Nor Cal. We were unified principally by the dorm common room where we mostly hung out, and assembled for late night endeavors, including two or three rush events.

Through the course of pledging, fights, differences, and all others who came and even through the face of disciplinary action, we stayed a unified group for the most part, supporting one another, and strengthening our resolve, our faith in the values we represented.

We all had watched one another sacrifice sleep and time and dedication for Lamdas, and we understood one another, and respected each other for it. We had endured the college equivalent boot camp, we had socialized ourselves in a way to fit the mold of a Lamda bro, and although only one of us had joined up, the rest of us felt like we had made our own bonds and established our own unity through the pledging process and being there for one another.

Through the commonality of our pledging and depledging, we had formed our own brotherhood. We understood and formed our own peace, love, unity, and respect for one another and our individual independence, high profile social status, and kinship. We established our own brotherhood based on commonly shared values that we established and abide by. We stick together, and we pride ourselves in respect. We show others the same courtesy they show us, we stand unified a brotherhood of friends who live by a code of respect, and who will stick together for one another despite different our different backgrounds and tastes.

The Last One Standing

2006-08-18T14:04:00.000-07:00

At first it was just a bunch of friends hanging out together all the time, both guys and girls. Eventually, the bunch of friends started becoming a few groups of friends. So, our groups eventually split apart. However, I still enjoy being with each group. I just chose this group because of the common interest we all share, we like to have fun and enjoy the nightlife. Therefore, my kind of community is what surrounds me which is people and not boundaries. I believe this community I belong to is more like a big happy family. We label our selves as the "Fam Bam".

This community consists of six guys and me, one girl. Being the last girl standing from the bunch of friends didn’t really bother me much. Although to others it might not seem appropriate because I am often the only girl hanging out with a bunch of guys. I am fine with being the only girl because they treat me equal just like family. Each member of my "Fam Bam" possess a quality that’s unique so that is why I feel that this community works out so well. Just like in the Farewell to Manzanar piece, my "Fam Bam" has a Woody who always looks on the brighter side of things. When everyone else is angry, he continually knows how to make everyone put a smile back on their faces. Also, we have a Mama in our community as well. He possesses all these great quality and has the finer things in life but he still continues to be humble like Mama. The others all really like to have fun and enjoy life. They keep on bringing joy to my life.

My community was formed unexpectedly and I became a member of it. The idea of us becoming a "Fam Bam" was threw out in the air and no one opposed to the idea. Again, the idea of me being the only girl was never a problem. I would often see it as a problem but I am constantly reassured that it is just my imagination and that they enjoy me being part of their community. That is why I see my self lasting in this community for a long time because we constantly support each other in what we do. So that is why I choose to continue to be the last one standing.

My Chinese Communinty

2006-08-18T13:42:00.000-07:00

I belong to the Asian American community, more specifically the Chinese American community back in my home town. Belonging to the Chinese American community is more than just people sharing common physical characteristics determined by genetic make-up, but actively perpetuating and participating in cultural traditions and festivities. My Chinese community in my city is mainly the neighborhood that my family and I reside in. Since our town lacks diversity, it just so happened that all Chinese Americans live in the same neighborhood as my family. So to be part of our Chinese community is to live in the same enclave as my family’s and share the same heritage and interest. Traditions my family and community perpetuate are two main Chinese events each year: Chinese New Years and the Moon Cake Festival.

The most popular and celebrated holiday in my community and for many Chinese Americans is Chinese New Years which occurs in the beginning of February. This time of year is very festive because we light firecrackers to bring in the New Year and cook large meals consisting of various plates of meat, vegetables, soups, and seafood within the company immediate family and friends within the neighborhood. In addition to the dinner on the first day of Chinese New Year’s, we visit the houses of our relatives’ and members' of our community throughout the next two weeks. During the visit, it is customary to give out red envelops filled with money because it represents wishes of good fortune, good health, and prosperity on behalf of your family. Along with the red envelopes we give distribute cookies and fruit. This holiday is very interactive and personal for the Chinese community because it gives us the opportunity to strengthen friendships, perpetuate our culture, and acknowledge our heritage.

The second major event my community celebrates is the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Cake Festival. This is when we celebrate the full moon in mid-August. This celebration recognizes the importance of the moon in the company of family members. We celebrate with a lot food (similar to the food served at Chinese New Year’s) and little cakes patterned with clouds, the moon, and the rabbit with a hardened egg in the middle symbolizing the moon.

As for my Chinese community that I go back to, I can say that I am a member of this community because we all share something in common: our heritage, culture, and experiences we share every year. Just like Jeanne in Farewell to Manzanar, not any Japanese American could claim membership in her community unless they lived, endured, and experienced the internment camps for themselves. There must be a common ground that all members in the community must share.

Deadly City

2006-08-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

Some might say the Deadly City is a community of punks, but I was a part of it, so I guess there are exceptions. You could argue that the boundaries of the Deadly City fell exactly over Davis', but I feel that it (at least my definition of it based on my own involvement and knowledge) is only a name for the slightly larger network including other nearby cities (such as Woodland and Dixon). After all, communities are borderless, untangible things that can mean anything. "Deadly City" is a name many people find synonymous with the Davis punk scene, and isn't a name I made up for it -- The Whiskey Rebels, a punk band from Davis, wrote a song of the same name.
I became a part of this community when I went to Redrum Burger (everyone calls it "Murder Burger") one night with my sister, my roommate and my friend. One of the cooks was smiling at me, and for the next week or so, I mistook his signals for liking (I think the people I was with kind of egged me on). He came over one night after work and we became friends instead and he got me a job with him. Though at the time Redrum Burger seemed to me like the center of the Deadly City, I feel like the only reason for this was because so many members of this community worked there all at once. My coworkers had a strong-willed, working-class ethic. We sang along with the Dropkick Murphys (a working-class Boston-Irish punk band) while we scrubbed, and after work we chain-smoked and drank Pabst. Our friendship helped oil the machine of the restaurant -- some stayed late to help others close so we could hang out after work, for example. Eventually, after one member got fired, every last one of his friends quit because of their sense of unity. One day several of them were getting matching tattoos (the word "Scallywagger" and "530," to express their tie to the working-class deck scrubbers and to Davis), and asked me to get one too. When they told me I was the only girl who deserved to get one, I beamed, but declined.
If my mom knew I was hanging out with these guys, she would hate it. Like Cotton Mather, she closely monitered my friends in school (she even worked in the attendance office at my high school so she could track the delinquents among them!) and tried to set me up on dates with my older sister's MIT-graduate friends. Sadly, she would have judged my friends on their looks and her first conclusions alone, though I really respected them for their hard work, loyalty, wits, generosity and acceptance. Though I haven't hung out with many of them in about a year, I've been invited to one guy's wedding and just the other day I drank beers in the arboretum (an old tradition) with another; but regardless of my involvement, the Deadly City lives on.

My Musical Family

2006-08-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember. When you join a chorus, you don’t just join a performing arts group, you join a family with a real sense of community. For my high school, our chorus always went on a retreat at the beginning of every year. Now when one thinks of a retreat, they might envision a nice manicured facility with the comforts of home. This isn’t so, our retreat took place at a working ranch where we had to bond over activities such as cow milking, feeding the pigs, and doing the dishes for one hundred people every night…by hand. The sleeping quarters at the ranch consisted of small cots set up under lean-tos along the hillside. Despite the lack of comforts at the ranch, it was the very reason our choir turned into its own community, much the community mentioned by Cotton Mather’s description of community in “Christian Behavior at Home and in the Community.”

In addition to our yearly retreat, the chorus also traveled extensively throughout the year to various choral competitions. Over time, these activities cause our group of vocalists to become like a family. There were the older students who acted as the leaders, a big brother or sister figure really. There were the freshman who ultimately can be equated to the annoying younger sibling, an integral part of the family, yet capable of driving you crazy at all times. Most importantly, we had our father figure, Papa Mac, the conductor.

As this family took shape throughout the year, customs also developed. Traveling required cooperation, which was present everywhere. Like the community in Mather’s writing, individuals worked for the good of the group. One person cannot sing a choral work; you need the help of all of the other people. As such, when one person failed to contribute, they would be reprimanded by the rest of the community. Those who failed to show up to a performance were required to do extra duties at fundraisers to make up for their transgression. Though the rules were never written down, everyone knew them. It was simple, live and breathe for the group, or the group would die.

Though I am no longer a part of this community (unfortunately, we all have to graduate high school at some point), I still recognize the impact that chorus had on me. I strive to work and help others; it has been engrained into my nature. Despite the rigid nature of the chorus, I will always be grateful for having had a constant wealth of support from my peers and for the life lessons I learned about helping others while I sang with that group.