At 11:32 AM 4/2/98 -0800, Jim Devine wrote:
>Last night, I went to my neighborhood's "homeowner association" meeting,
>which was a response to a recent gang slaying at the neighborhood park's
>basketball court (luckily a very rare event). Despite the mixed ethnic and
>religious character of the neighborhood, I saw a strong show of
>middle-class solidarity. (No-one even hinted at the fact that the
>gang-members involved were black, since more than half of the crowd was
>black too.) On reason for the mood of middle-class solidarity is that the
>apartment-dwellers in the neighborhood are excluded from the meeting.
>
>We (my wife and I and others) are pushing to prevent the movement that
>turns our neighboorhood into a "gate-guarded community" (the abomination
>that disgraces the LA landscape). Luckily, no-one is talking about closing
>the park or getting rid of basketball. Our homeowners' association seems
>less reactionary than the reputation that most in LA have. That may be
>because of the ethnic mix and the relatively good conditions we have in
>Culver City compared to Los Angeles (the city and county that engulf us).
The ethnic mix seems the be a good explaining factor. Although the urban
landscape of Baltimore is not very conducive to building gates, private
security forces seem to be the trend in the white enclaves. I live in what
has beeen designated as the empowerment zone, a racially mixed homeowner
community amidst urban wasteland (although some gentrification efforts are
under way) -- and nobody even mentions private security - the main concern
is building a community garden.
A friend of mine at UCSC, orginally from the Orange County, wrote her
thesis on the white mobilization in her lilly-white home community. She
chose that topic because she was apalleed by seeing that nothing can
mobilise white community better than the prospect of Blacks moving to the
neighborhood (in her case it was the white opposition to integrated
schools). Little wonder why Wilson was elected Gauleiter, err.. Governor
of California.
Regards,
WS
