My last blog post will be a response
comment on one of my classmates’ blog. I commented on Andrea Dalisay’s blog
post about her observation of Griffith Park.
Hello, Andrea!
You have written a nice post about your day
in Griffith Park!
I would like to say that going hiking at
Griffith Park after Thanksgiving was a wise choice (a way of exercising!). You
are making interesting and unique observations of the Griffith Park that I’ve
never thought of. It is interesting how you tied your first observation to the
geographies of difference, especially focusing on the potential social access
difference in the park. Since hiking at Griffith Park is a sort of a “leisure”
activity, you’ve expected to see more white dominance or middle class dominance
hiking, who are essentially wealthier and have more time to enjoy and rest in a
place that requires automobility (to go up there) and extra time. However,
instead, you saw mix of people from diverse race like Hispanic, black, Asians,
and white. Interestingly, you sort of proved that there’s no difference in
having access to places such as Griffith Park, and that every one comes to
enjoy and exercise here no matter what is their status, class, or color.
Your second
observation, which relates to Marxist view, particularly caught my attention. You
explain how hiking at Griffith Park could “possibly be an achievement of social
status” or an ideal for certain people, but you found out that this fact was
also not found here in Griffith Park because people who were hiking seemed to
be not caring about it.
This is very
interesting how your observations were exploring what social difference we
have, but actually there was no difference in that particular place! However, I
wished if you could elaborate more on questions like how the Griffith Park
contributes to sustaining social difference, what difference were made that allowed
people to visit/drive to Griffith Park, is it really a place that there’s no
social difference, and more.
I would like to
focus on the 4th urban revolution and relate it to Griffith Park and
its surroundings. The idea of decentralization and the rapid movement of
automobility with the start of post metropolis may led to establishing suburban
areas and leisure places where people can enjoy and rest outside the work
sites. Griffith Park may be seen as one of those places that were established
in the early 1900s. Not only that Griffith Park has hiking tracts, it has
multiple attractions and activities such as camping, golf, horseback riding,
jogging, picnicking, soccer, swimming, bicycling, and much more allows for
entertainment and health life. Even more, there’s the famous Griffith
observatory and L.A. Zoo where people can get knowledge and see things that we
cannot have real access to at home (for instance, real big mammals like
elephants or lions at the zoo and the different telescopes at the observatory).
The development of cities and social
thoughts has created much more comfortable and fun ways to spend our time
besides the working times.
Thanks for
sharing your thoughts on the blog, Andrea!
Joo
