Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 7

Walking Trip Around Santa Monica

     After the bus trip I took last week, my best friend and I decided to take a walking trip around Third Street Promenade and the surrounding streets.

     We started the journey at the corner of 6th street and Santa Monica. This area was very commercial and there were many people walking around the city. As I was walking I noticed a guy sitting on a bench in a security uniform reading a comic book while hysterically laughing to himself. At each bus stop that I passed there were many people waiting for the next round of busses to come to the stop. As we approached Third Street Promenade, the area became very 'hip'. There were tons of young people walking around with their small dogs and lots of shopping bags. I noticed newer developed apartment buildings surrounding the area. Once we approached the promenade, there was lots of landscaping everywhere. At each corner there was some type of greenery with a combination of palm trees and other types of shrubs. 

     As we began walking on the promenade, I noticed many different expensive cars. I saw many Mercedes Benz, BMW's and Lexus'. I noticed a very expensive car called the Fisker Karma and after some research I concluded that the base price of this car is over $100,000. At each street corner there were homeless people holding up signs asking for money. I notice that there are many Caucasians walking around with tons of shopping bags in their hands. We passed by several tourist gift carts and I later on realized that Third Street Promenade is a tourist attraction. I notice lots of mothers with small children in strollers and many of the kids were playing in the small jungle gym's created for the kids. All of the high end stores at this shopping district were together i.e: Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss, Tiffany & Co., Bloomingdales, Nordstrom and Micheal Kors.

     After walking for about 30 minutes we decided to take a break and sit down so I could easily observe the different types of people there were at the promenade. There were lots of people there on a Wednesday afternoon. Many people were on their lunch breaks in suits, there were very few tourists but there were lots of mothers and with their small children.

     I noticed that north of Santa Monica Blvd on the promenade there were lots of bars and small individual stores and south of Santa Monica Blvd there were lots of high end stores. After the promenade we decided to walk around the city some more and at each corner, I saw no smoking signs like the ones in the pictures below. I remembered hearing on the news that there was a no smoking policy in Santa Monica but I was able to see it firsthand after visiting the promenade. After walking for about 20 minutes my friend and I realized that we were the only Middle Eastern and South Asian girls throughout the bus ride.

     

     When I saw all of these no smoking signs I thought about the article by David Harvey, titled "The Environment of Justice." In this article there is a section that discusses the different clauses that define environmental justice. One of the clauses discussed how urban areas need to clean up their cities and create a balance with nature. The Fresh Air Santa Monica act is an example of this clause. By enforcing a no smoking law, the city is becoming closer to nature and they are enabling visitors and residents to enjoy the outside fresh air. Compared to the other environmental justice issues discussed in this article, smoking is not a serious issue compared to the problem of the Standard View of Environmental Management. This view leads to serious problems for the environment and only benefits the economy. 

     The Fresh Air Santa Monica act not only helps the pollution in Santa Monica, but it also helps the residents and visitors of the city. In my opinion, my visit to this city was more enjoyable because there was no cigarette smoke lingering in the air.  I think it would be a very beneficial cause if more cities in the Los Angeles County area enforced this law because second-hand smoke is very harmful to people who are non-smokers. According to Cancer.org, there are about 46,000 deaths each year of people who are non-smokers.

     I really enjoyed my walking trip around Santa Monica. I had never been to Third Street Promenade so it was very interesting to see the dynamics of the area on a Wednesday afternoon. I look forward to visiting the city again in the near-future.