Los Angeles: New Face from Cultural Transformations - Essay Example

? Los Angeles: New Face from Cultural Transformations The diversity of geographical patterns of different landscapes marks the insignia of the Creator’s ability of abundantly supplying picturesque beauty to the topography. They are filled with adequate resources to expand the habitat of the population by forming communities of civilization for generations since the origin of human kind. The city of Los Angeles and its suburbs are remarkable examples of the development of a city as part of a cultural evolution passing through different stages of political and socio-economic reformations in the past. Los Angeles is the second largest populous city in the United States after New York with the potential to be called the hub of world commerce which deals in almost all aspects of business ranging from motion picture production to manufacture of airplanes (Population Facts). A careful observation of the present-day transport system may be seen as the factor significantly contributed to the new identity of the city’s culture and lifestyle. The present face of the city is a morphing of the ancient culture and territorial history that involved the fights among different communities and races for claiming the identity of the Los Angeles. Historical Implications Los Angeles is a synonym for natural as well as manmade beauty of a landscape; this may be the reason why it is still called as the ‘Land of Angels’. The new face of the city conceals the untold stories of continuous fights by different racial and regional forces to establish their might in the identity, culture, population and history of the city. The 1781 founded Spanish city in the North American continent had been a part of Mexico since 1821 following the Mexican war of independence until when it was purchased by America in 1848 after the Mexican American war. While most of the cultural and social conflicts ended from time to time, the resultant factor was the appearance of a trailed contribution of the dominated in the form a new venture in the development of the infrastructure of the city. Often called as LA, Los Angeles is the second largest contributor of American wealth by facilitating a number of centers for entertainment and education (Los Angeles Transit History). The city is blessed with the accessibility of all means of transport as a significance of its geographical location on the blue planet. A number of rivers and the presence of eminent sea-water access made the city grow faster as an industrial zone. Los Angeles claims a large share of the world’s total contribution towards art, culture, media, fashion, science and technology with adequate facility of a potential automotive segment to support the need of the city dwellers. The spectacular frame of transportation infrastructure provides for the glory of the city’s feasibility to a dream like life style that makes the city a heavenly destination for merchants and tourists from every part of the world. The development of the city had a direct relation with the cultural exchange through different times in the history involving wars and settlements. This entertainment capital of the world has a very long saga of its making, that largely involves the introduction of several social changes basically resulted in the formation of a fantastic city with a classic pattern of transport system. Cultural Dominations The rise of the present day Los Angeles was not an overnight miracle; it has a distinctive trailer of incidents that took place during the matches of might between different countries. The identification of the Los Angeles city dates back to the Mexican American war that broke out in 1846 in which California and neighboring regions were invaded by America. As the war ended in 1848, America bought the California including Los Angeles, which then was a small suburb full of migrant people basically belonging to agriculture and livestock management. The exposure of the land to the sea shore and the hill terrains of the topography attracted the Mexican army largely for their warfare against the American naval attacks. At the end when America bought the land, the resident Mexicans were thrown to jeopardy as the migrant whites from San Francisco were too powerful for them in the wake of immediate absence of law. Los Angeles during the early years of its American induction was treated only as a cattle county as it met the demand of beef for the Northern Californian gold miners. The resultant factor was the emergence of thugs and burglars from among the native Mexicans in Los Angeles. Community violence and racial murders became usual incidents. Every effort of the American army to bring peace was foiled by the Mexican race that retaliated with brutal force focusing the migrant whites. During this time the whites formed lawless gangs of refugee criminals and prostitutes from San Francisco and continued lynching Mexicans. However, the racial fire inflicted by the Mexican community was strong enough to establish their supremacy of the The cultural exchange in the History of Los Angeles further passes through the plights of migrant Asians, basically, the preexisted self employed Indians and the migrant Chinese job seekers (Los Angeles Transit History). The Indians were the first to face the turmoil of the impacts of the American takeover of the Californian mainland; as the land become lawless suddenly, mighty Mexicans dominated the meek Indians and captured all their survival chances. The Indians were denied jobs and were captivated as prisoners for auction of labor. In most contexts, they were brutally harassed and even killed by the Mexicans in order to get rid of them as the law did not provide for the trial of an Anglo for any crime against Indians. Another episode of the Mexican brutality that resulted in the growth of the city of Los Angeles is related to the migration of the Chinese in search of employment opportunities and good future in the gold mines of northern California. The Chinese were hugely exploited for their employability to work in the mines as well as the technical perfection they had achieved in the engineering skills. They were the first to start a railroad in Los Angeles that connected to the mines in California for the transportation of man and material related to gold mining. The American approach was cold towards them after the transcontinental railroad was built; when they sought jobs in neighboring cities to Los Angeles, they were denied and as a result, the hapless Chinese set up their own township, the Chinatown, and engaged in daily labors while a majority of them running laundries or restaurants peacefully until the Chinese Massacre of 1871. Emerging Transportation Systems The introduction of the transcontinental railroad to Los Angeles indeed had paved way for the development of the city on a rapid pace. The Central Pacific Railroad owners’ fear of the possible threat from San Diego forced them to direct their freight route toward the southern hub through Los Angeles; this was a blessing in disguise for the city to prompt its sudden expansion and development of the city region as early as 1871. The following years were the platform for extensive development of Los Angeles during which it achieved the acquisition of several sea-line townships and in 1898 when the Pacific Electric Railway was inducted, the city reached the optimum of progress in transportation to places covering Hollywood, Pasadena, Venice Beach, Huntington Beach and other prominent cities of the neighborhood. The continuous process business growth in the Californian region paved way for the infrastructural development of the city limits of Los Angeles, particularly reflecting in the emergence of sophisticated systems of road, water and railroad transportation across the city. Early identification of the geographical factors supporting industrial growth as well as business expansion resulted in the making of Los Angeles one of the most powerful cities in the world. Now the city claims the possession of best quality subways and world class metro rail systems for the easy commutation and commodity mobility. The present day style and comfy transportation facilities are expected to be the development of a city based on a physical plan for its improvisation. The synopsis for transport system is acceptable to the people as it gives equal right on the road to the pedestrians and motor vehicle users. However, the 20th century experienced the rapid growth of automobile use since the new liberated system of transportation provided better result at the cost similar to that of mass transit system as a result of the entry of the automotive industry. The automotive industrial development that took place around the first quarter of the 20th century resulted in the induction of several companies coming to the mainland and settling their business headquarters in New York and Los Angeles. The city had provided its vast resource of sea routes and railways for the transportation of manufactured automobiles of domestic use as well as sales to other countries by the mid-twentieth century. Along with the growth in auto mobile industry, Los Angeles was reconstructing and introducing high profile roads along with wide subway running for long distances. The energizing rising in the automobile usage dominated the consumable portion of the roads meant for the pedestrians and the city streets were restructured as roads and parking lots of the automobiles; as a result, the street based merchants and city dwellers of the lowest profile were evacuated from the city limits. Rising intensity of commutation demands The ongoing raise of the traffic utilization and infrastructural development invited amendments in the traffic laws at regular intervals and new literature of administration was introduced to ensure that the city was reforming the cultural outlook while facilitating the highest grade of transportation amenities to the existing as well as emerging infrastructure in Los Angeles. The creation of automotive cities was considered a new idea for meeting the ongoing demands for more land use in the city as a result of the intense use of private transportation system in the United States mostly based on cars during the period between 1920s and 1960s. The renovation of transport infrastructure and the reconstruction British Law configured complete evacuation of pedestrians from using the roads; eventually, fast track highways as well as city line broadways were laid for the promotion of increased sales of cars in the city. Even though cars were the primary device of transport, the travelers and passengers of long distances needed a supporting line of roads that connected cities of far distances. There was substantial rise in the total mileage of the railways also by the end of the 20th century. The railway lines of Los Angeles had played a pivotal role in the rapid growth of new industries including automotive industry. Most of the cargoes and commodities for freight at shipping ports were carried by railway lines that stretched across the city. This instrumental prominence of Los Angeles in connecting major Californian cities gave adequate enhancement to the rise of the city as a whole while several new investors entering from other countries enjoying the benefit of free trade and easy mobility of tradable goods came up to boost the city’s status as a substitute commercial capital of the world. Transportation during the 20th Century The new identity of Los Angeles owes much to the effectiveness of transport system prevailed in the country by the end of the 20th century which inducted a wide range of facilities for the classified consumption of the infrastructure. Roads were categorized for the use of various purposes of vehicles and maintenance of them was brought under a uniform regulation during this period. Los Angeles was by this time, booming its air travel opportunities by constructing a number of airports for the supplementation of high intensity air transit requirements of the tourists and business people associated with motion pictures and media arts. Foremost of the street car commutation system was the Yellow Cars operated by Los Angeles Railway from 1985 to 1946 that covered a radius of 6 miles connecting the streets of the city which, by 1924, was expanded to 624 miles. Later the company morphed the system slowly to a bus line and performed the operation until 1963. The transport system then achieved a new energy with the reentry of light rail operated by the Metro Blue Line in 1990. Transportation culture of the city had its amusing variety of cable cars owned by Huntington for the entertainment of tourists for their plentiful holiday experience along with a supporting line of steam rail system that carried them from Los Angeles to various beach townships. There was an emergence of subway terminal that carried passengers between Hill Street and Glendale Boulevards. The engineering excellence in 1925 designed the office building for the administration of the subways with solar harvesting and air ventilators in a wide area. The period of development of railways and subways witnessed the introduction of a number of bus transport companies which were immediately subsumed by Pacific Electric or Los Angeles Railway during the years from 1930 to 1954. This was indeed, the most significant land mark of the public transportation infrastructure development in the city. The company later sold the buses and to Metropolitan Coach Lines Bus Company in 1953, the owner of which later bought Asbury Rapid Transit in 1954 for with a view to abandon the rail portions. However the induction of Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (LAMTA) paved way for the rapid changes in the aggregate transport outlook of the county by undertaking a number of new projects of commutation coverage across Los Angeles to different provinces of Southern California. The limited power of taxation affected the performance of LAMTA which then issued bonds and invited security investments for promoting large amount of revenue requirements of the projects (Los Angeles Transit History). The Image of the City’s Transport Systems The new face of Los Angeles transport system has a heavenly look with ample of air ports, intercity train services, intercity highways and bus services, harbors and ferry services. Los Angeles International Airport is one of the busiest commercial airports in the world today. The train service between Los Angeles and San Diego accounts for the assistance to a large number of commuters everyday with the influential presence of some of the busiest stations like Amtrak and the Union Station. Most of these train services contribute to the city’s identity as a major freight hub in the world. Intercity highways passing through the city connects the people from various places through lines such as Interstate 5, Interstate 15, Interstate 10 and U.S. Route 101. Apart from the harbor and ferry ways along the beach ways of Port of Los Angeles, as number of freeways are also constructed to associate the rapid transport system in the city (Cruises from Los Angeles). Despite the vivid architecture and constructive engineering skills applied in the transport infrastructure designs, traffic jams are a common phenomenon in the city during the peak hours of traffic intensity. Los Angeles accounts for the highest number of vehicles run within the city limits after New York and the rush-hour-traffic is a regular incident that engrosses the city as early as 5:00am and lasts until 10:00am on week days which may be extended up to 2:30pm on Sundays and general holidays. The heavy rush of the vehicles causes highly intensive traffic congestion but the mean travel time permitted to work commuters for driving across the city is much less than other large cities; as a result, the people are seemingly busy driving uptown and down in the maximum permissible speed limits which makes the city a busy traffic zone. Despite the riches and prosperity of the city, a certain fraction of the commuters are still walkers while a large proportion of the population approach the means of mass commutation as well as bus and rail routes for meeting their employment as well as social mobility needs. Computerized transport monitoring systems as well as the centralized security systems of the roads, rail tracks and street ways effectively guarantee a quality travelling experience to commuters across the ‘City of Angeles’. The night and moonlit views of the fancied traffic paths of the city are marvelous enough to enthrall the hearts of any traveler. Thus, the careful concern for the transport system of Los Angeles ensured the city’s position among the most beautiful location for tourists and travelers from every corner of the world. Works Cited Cruises from Los Angeles. International Cruise Center. web 13 http://www.cruisesfrom.com/losangeles/ Los Angeles Transit History. Metro. Web 13 Sep 2011 http://www.metro.net/about/library/about/home/los-angeles-transit-history/ Los Angeles Almanac. Web 13 Sep 2011 http://www.laalmanac.com/history/index.htm Population Facts. New York City: Department of City Planning. Web 13 Sep 2011 http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/census/pop_facts.shtml Read More