Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 4

The City of Diamond Bar(15 miles outside of UCLA)

As I am sitting at the Starbucks, 27 miles east of Los Angeles, in my hometown of Diamond Bar, California, out the window is a view of one of the oldest windmills in the city, I started thinking to myself, “I came to the grand opening of this Starbucks over ten years ago.” The way I feel about the Starbucks and Target being built right before my eyes, my parents have felt the same way about this city for almost 30 years. In 1983, my mother and father ventured from Monterey Park, to the quiet, newly established city of Diamond Bar which was nestled in between the rolling hills of the San Gabriel Valley. The origins of this city take us back to the 1840’s where the entire city used to be home to the largest cattle ranch in the western United States.

The City of Diamond Bar Famous Windmill

In 1960, a large corporation bought a large portion of this ranch for the development of the nation’s first master planned community. At the same time, The Emergence of Postsuburbia states that areas of Orange County were purchased in 1960 by large corporations for the production of planned communities and housing tracts. In the past 50 years, this ranch has transformed into a city with a population of over 55,000 people. This city is home to a population of mostly Asians, South Asians, Whites and Hispanics. The city of Diamond Bar borders Chino Hills, Pomona and Walnut. The city has a very low crime rate where you can leave your purse in the car overnight and expect it to be in perfect shape the next morning. A person can also go jogging at 2 am and expect to return home safely.

The city of Diamond Bar is unofficially split into the “north and south side.” The south side contains the Walnut Unified School District, which is more prestigious, and it is home to the upscale, gated community called The Country. The north side borders the city of Pomona, also encompasses the Pomona Unified School District and is home to the only K-Mart in the area. I have lived in the same house on the north side for 20 years and I have always sensed a difference between both sides of the city. The landscaping on the south side is relatively neater as opposed to the north side. As a young child growing up, my parents enrolled me in a district transfer program, where I was able to attend middle school and high school at the blue ribbon schools on the south side. The high school that I was supposed to attend was in the city of Pomona and my parents had the desire for me to attend high school in a “better” area. I attended elementary school at a school in the Pomona Unified School District and growing up I was the only Pakistani student surrounded by a majority of White and Hispanic students. As soon as I started attending middle school on the south side, Asians and South Asians i.e. Indian and Pakistani students surrounded me.

Within a five-minute drive from my house, the Pomona city limits begin. Compared to Diamond Bar, the streets of Pomona are less smooth, there is no landscaping and many areas of this city are industrial. In Diamond Bar, most residents believe that Pomona is relatively “ghetto.” With this next sentence, I do not mean to insult anyone or the city itself; however, rough roads, old traffic lights, no landscaping and graffiti all over buildings and street corner is my definition of ghetto. It amazes me that within a two-mile radius these two cities are noticeably different.

Just like the Kling, Olin and Poster reading stated like Orange County, Diamond Bar was once agricultural and has now transformed into a commercial suburb, 27 miles east of Los Angeles. Diamond Bar is home to many coffee shops, two large grocery stores, K-Mart, a beautiful community center, many boba teahouses and lastly a huge Asian supermarket. Because of the steep hills in the city, residents mostly travel by car and there are very few pedestrians throughout the city. Since I came home on a Friday, there are many students who are walking home from the various bus stops across the city.

The Diamond Bar Community Center

The Super H Market 

Driving through the city with my parents, they always mange to say “back in the day, this street was not here”, or “back in the 80’s there was only a Ralphs grocery store in this city.” 30 years ago they never thought that this city would become one of the best places to live in America. I cannot be more thankful to them for enabling my siblings and I to grow up in such a prestigious and safe city. I cannot imagine myself starting a family in any other city and I would love to tell my kids all about the changes Diamond Bar has gone through before my eyes and my parents’ eyes.