The
location that my post is based on this week is the intersection of 223rd
street and Pioneer boulevard in Hawaiian Gardens. At first glance the
intersection is quite unremarkable, but this intersection and a proposal to
erect a gate there to restrict the flow of traffic along it between Hawaiian
Gardens and Long Beach caused a controversy that garnered national attention
nearly twenty years ago.
This
intersection is in a peculiar place at the end of Pioneer
Boulevard, a major street in this area. When the gate was proposed,
the Carson exit for the freeway actually let out onto Pioneer, so some
commuters would use the street as a shortcut through the residential
neighborhoods into Long Beach and Los Alamitos. It is also important to note
that neighborhoods to the north and south of this intersection bear very little
resemblance to one another. One is a relatively affluent upper middle class
enclave, and the other a relatively poor predominantly Latino neighborhood
known at the time for its high rate of gang related crime.
Safety
issues related to the amount of traffic flowing into the affluent Long Beach
neighborhood were claimed as the reasons for why the barrier was being
constructed, but many were skeptical of this justification. Many in Hawaiian
Gardens and even some on the Long Beach side felt that the real issues were
related to race and class as some of those in support of the gate claimed
concerns about crime entering their neighborhood from the poorer neighborhood.
Ultimately, the issue went to court and the city of Long Beach was prevented
from using the gate.
This wasn’t
the topic that I was originally going to write about this week, but as I drove
past the Carson exit on the 605 today the topic of carceral archipelagoes and
urban environmental design were on my mind and I felt like this was a perfect
example of these concepts. The carceral archipelago refers to the way that
certain urban planning decisions tend to segment off different populations
within cities. In many cases such designs are done subtly such as reducing
vegetation to increase visibility and surveillance. In this case, it was done
quite bluntly by erecting a physical barrier. Whether the motivation was rooted
in limiting traffic flow through the neighborhood or over concerns of crime in
Hawaiian Gardens overflowing into Long Beach the message being sent out is
essentially the same. The Long Beach residents were sending out a message that
that neighborhood was theirs, and the presence of outsiders was not welcome.
EDIT 12/9/12: Added some new images of the area. Enjoy!
EDIT 12/9/12: Added some new images of the area. Enjoy!
 |
| The 605 Freeway is directly behind this wall. |
 |
| Here is an image of the new intersection I reference in my comment below. This intersection has only been there a couple years and is on land that formerly had housing on top of it. The gate as I remember it was located in the upper right corner about where the white fence is. |
 |
| Another image of the intersection. |
 |
| A sign on Pioneer as you enter Long Beach. |
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteI agree that this barrier's true purpose is most likely to segregate the two communities, rather than minimize traffic. Even if traffic is diverted, it is diverted at the expense of the Hawaiian Gardens - while the upper class of Long Beach enjoys their new enclosure. They believe that they deserve only the best and to take what they need (similar to the Bourgeoisie); especially when they see Hawaiian Gardens as the cause to all their problems (theft, graffiti, etc). However, maybe this barrier would help the area since it was originally transportation and movement that brought the destruction of the concentric ring model. With limited/restricted transportation, would those in Hawaiian Gardens cause crime in their own city if the upper class area is no longer accessible? Carceral archipelagos and barriers are created to prevent the degradation of communities - for example how Professor Wilford referred to Skid Row. I'm not sure what the right answer is, if the barrier between Long Beach and Hawaiian Gardens is a bad or good thing - but we do know that it is unfair for those in Hawaiian Gardens to experience the surplus traffic and segregated implications.
Thanks for your post!
-Monika
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post on the Long Beach-Hawaiian Gardens barrier. I find this particularly interesting as I am a resident of Long Beach, but I have not seen or heard about this new divide. Like Monika, I also agree that this barrier's true purpose is most likely to segregate the two communities. There are a lot of cities around Long Beach, particularly on the West side, that are much more racially diverse and contain lower classes. These include cities like Wilmington, Carson, Compton, and Garden Grove. Since Hawaiian Gardens is Northeast of Long Beach, this barrier is a perfect solution to create a divide between the upper class regions of East Long Beach and Hawaiian Gardens.
This freeway ramp construction is a perfect example of a geography of difference restricting access to Hawaiian Gardens residence. I would like to further your Long Beach-Hawaiian Gardens comparison using Simply Map software, but I am unable to post the maps on this comment, so please follow the link to my blog at:
http://whatdifferencedoesdifferencemake.blogspot.com/
Thanks John!
Appreciate the comments. Just wanted to clarify that this isn't something new at all, it happened nearly 20 years ago but as I am a bit older than the average undergrad I remember it quite clearly. I also remember driving past the gate very often and it was still there as of a few years ago but they have since torn it down.
ReplyDeleteI actually think that to some extent the traffic argument did hold a bit of water for the simple fact that Carson is such a pain to drive through if you were headed towards Cypress, Los Alamitos, or the furthest northeast extents of Long Beach. Ironically, if you are to take the traffic argument at face value they are basically trying to block out middle class and upper middle class individuals from their community. In that sense, it is a territorial issue first and foremost, but even so still falls in line with the ideas of Foucault on the carceral archipelago as its intention is to signal "us vs them" while promoting surveillance and limiting access.
On a related note, (and one I should have commented on in my post) when I went over there for the purpose of checking out the neighborhood to write the blog post I was surprised to find that Hawaiian Gardens had purchased a couple of the houses that used to be there, demolished them, and created an artery into the neighborhood on the south side of Carson a couple years ago. It appears that over the course of 15 years, keeping the route discussed in my blog post and the LA Times article open was not the solution to Hawaiian Gardens' own traffic issues. Like I said, traffic on Carson is a nightmare and this new artery has likely brought some relief to the situation by providing an alternate route for those who live in this part of Hawaiian Gardens. I am going to post some satellite imagery from Google Earth that shows this soon.
In any case, I still believe that race and class played a significant role in this debate, but whether the extent of that role versus the extent of the role legitimate traffic concerns played can be quantified or not is a question I don't think we will ever have an answer to.
Madison - I really dig your map because what it shows is not what I would have expected at all. That's one of the beautiful things about GIS; it quantifies real world characteristics in a coherent visual manner and allows us to compare that data with our own worldview. Thanks again!