Fishman characterizes Los Angeles as a “suburban metropolis” for several reasons (29). First, the city’s historical development was associated with active trade and large free territories, contributing to the private sector’s growth. The founders of the city paid attention to the fact that the area’s infrastructure aimed to meet people’s needs moving by transport. Accordingly, the distance between the living areas increased, making it possible to form a city’s suburban picture. Second, mechanical engineering development has led to the exponential growth of public transport and personal cars. People have the opportunity to live in the suburbs and get to work in a relatively short time. “Suburban metropolis” is not a contradiction in terms since the author believes that he pays too much attention to the city’s separation and its surroundings in modern urban discourse. According to Fishman, these two components are one, and there is no need to separate them. “Suburban metropolis” describes the unique location and development of Los Angeles.
Manchester and other industrial cities are characterized by well-defined sectors: city center, industrial park, residential areas, and suburbs. In Los Angeles, the city’s development was driven by the constant and very active development of infrastructure, expanding the city in scale rapidly. Consequently, it is possible to observe the absence of clearly defined zones since different areas can overlap and replace each other. As Fishman notes, Los Angeles was initially designed as “a collection of villages, devoid of the slums and overcrowding of the past, offering to almost everyone a suburban home on its land” (179). This is the main difference between Manchester and other industrial cities.
Freeways were and still are an integral part of Los Angeles. The founders of the city approached the design so that “residents would have the opportunity to live in their own homes on their land.” The presence of a developed transport infrastructure was necessary for the further growth of the region. Despite the problems of air pollution and lack of fuel for cars in the city’s history, the decision to develop the town territorially was right.
In her essay My Blue Heaven, Becky Nicolaides explores the impact of suburban living and property ownership among workers in South Gate, California. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, the city’s neighborhood developed in a derivative order. Urban development’s characteristic features were the owners’ independent planning and construction, and the absence of building codes. Moreover, it is worth considering the large areas set aside for gardens and agricultural needs as factors that shape the suburb’s appearance. Mostly, this area’s residents did not have high incomes, respectively, so owning property was their prerogative. The formation of the suburbs has provided Los Angeles residents with some economic security. The most important aspects of the work are descriptions of suburbanites’ actions in the 1920-the 1940s and the reasons for such behavior. The first aspect became fundamental to “the phenomenal growth of homeownership nationally in the twentieth century” (Nickoladies 212) Moreover, the formation of vast territories of private property made it possible not only to ensure relative economic stability but also to reduce dissatisfaction on specific issues.
Private ownership’s predominance has made Los Angeles a unique example of how cities and suburbs are becoming one. As is usually the case in other industrial centers in America and Europe, the territories are not divided. In turn, this strengthened the city’s transport infrastructure every decade. Therefore, economic ties between residents of the town were strengthened. Reinforced development of private houses allowed to moderate people’s dissatisfaction with capitalism’s injustice and give residents additional motivation to work.
References
Fishman, Robert. Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia. New York: Basic Books, 1987.
Nicolaides, Becky. My blue heaven: life and politics in the working-class suburbs of Los Angeles, 1920-1965. Chicago: The University of Chicago, 2002.