Kingdom of Treasure

A Colorful Utopia

Sunny Los Angeles California. Home to the stars. A shopper’s paradise. A place with a perceived reputation of pure glamour. Where dreams come true. Superficial descriptions usually fill the air when people discuss the city of Los Angeles, but on a deeper level this overwhelmingly large city is made up of small communities whom connect with the space, and each other, in profound ways. Somewhere in the middle of chaos a city with a particularly special sense of community is located, the city of West Hollywood. Here is where the gay community in Los Angeles has carved out their own niche, a space in which they can freely express themselves. In this neighborhood people are friendly, outgoing, and often flamboyant in their mannerisms leaving in the air a sense of acceptance.

Youth and Tattoos

            Youth have a different ways of standing out and showing the world who they are and what they stand for. Ever since we were little, the types of clothes you wear, what type of music you listen to, place you into a certain genre of society. So what do youngsters do to break free from these stereotypes put on them and how do they show their individuality?

The West Hollywood Experience

Let Us Begin

Sunday is a very busy day in West Hollywood; school is not in session, and many people get to enjoy work-free weekends. West Hollywood Park, located directly behind The Abbey, is in central West Hollywood; south of Santa Monica Blvd. on Robertson St. Everyday spent in the field, the weather was beautiful; with temperatures averaging in the mid-eighties and the sun shining. In West Hollywood Park, it is typical to see many same-sex couples playing in the sand and on the jungle gym with their children. While in the field, my research partner and I had met two young brothers playing in the sand. With their father standing close by, they scurried back and forth kicking up sand and playfully screaming. Over the screams and laughter on the playground, music and multiple voices can be heard drifting from The Abbey’s patio out onto the street and into the park. The smell of food permeates the air. The south sidewalk of the park often has very heavy foot traffic by mid afternoon; with people coming in and out of the park, and making their way to The Abbey. Although there are dispersed groups of lesbians who pass by, the majority of the pedestrians are groups of gay males. They stroll by, holding hands, exchanging hugs, and occasionally kissing one another. Everyone seems to have care-free, relaxed attitudes; laughing as they walk, and taking time in their steps.

            These observations lead me to ask, considering same-sex couples take their children to the playground, hold hands and express their sexuality openly in public, how do gay residents express their connection to the neighborhood? What feelings does this particular neighborhood evoke in them? Does it carry any important meanings in their lives? At the onset of this project I felt these answers were already quite clear; West Hollywood is known as the place of Los Angeles’ gay community. It is a place which hosts a heavy concentration of gay and lesbian residents. It is known to be naturally accommodating and accepting of this main population. I feel this is a subject worth examining because the gay community is becoming nationally more recognized, and accepted, in general. These questions are relevant because through my fieldwork, I hope to capture what it means for the gay community to have a specific area which accommodates their lifestyles and allows them to flourish. This examination may open outsider’s eyes as to why it is essential to have a place of common belonging and acceptance; especially for a group who has been discriminated against for so long a time. These questions however, are especially important for me because I too am gay. Although I do not live in West Hollywood, this neighborhood is very important and supportive of my community. I, for this reason, was compelled to investigate West Hollywood and its residents.

            Questions similar to my own, are informed in Setha Low’s ethnography, “On the Plaza.” Through her fieldwork, Low had examined the social production and construction of space in San Jose, Costa Rica. Through her studies, Low attempted to discover the political and cultural significance of public spaces by focusing on the history of two plazas; Parque Central and Plaza de la Cultura. Low’s studies incorporated Costa Ricans’ views as to how theses plazas became a part of their lives and daily routines; what people think, and what they do while in the plazas. Low’s questions were answered through a historical understanding of these spaces, behavioral inventories, movement mapping, and first-person narratives. (Low, 2000) It was through these methods which enabled Setha Low to gain an understanding of the importance public spaces play in the lives of people who occupy them.

MacArthur Park and Its People

by Valeria Pascual

I will study a social space, McArthur Park, in Los Angeles.  This will be described and analyzed though the eyes of a twenty something college student who lives four blocks from the Park but is not an avid user.  I’ve had fifteen year of preconceived notions.  They are mostly made up of hearsay and the media.  This project made me go into a place that has been instilled in me as a bad unsafe environment where only the worst of the neighborhood go.  In fact when I told my mother I was going to study MacArthur Park her eyes widen and she asked “Why? There’s nothing there?” The reason I chose this place is because through the years numerous people who used to live around the area or used the park have mentioned how much it has changed for the worst.  I wanted to know what socio-economic factors have influenced the change in McArthur Park's population; how they use this public space and ultimately how current efforts to revitalize the park will affect the current residents of the area in a negative way.

The Santa Monica Pier

　
　
　
　
　

The Santa Monica Pier

By Justin Gomillion

　
Introduction     I have lived all of my life in Lancaster, California, a medium sized city located in the Mojave Desert about sixty miles north of Los Angeles. The weather out here is schizophrenic, it gets up in the hundreds during the summer, it snows sometimes in the winter, and it can go from nice to windy without warning. Regardless of the time of the year, one thing that my friends and I loved to do when we had the time was to travel down to the Santa Monica Pier and hang out. We always had a good time; there was moisture in the air, no wind, and plenty of girls to go around. I have a lot of good memories from my time spent at the pier, which made me wonder why I seemed to have this connection with it and if others had it as well, since we weren’t the only people there.
     When our class had our ethnography project assigned, the pier was the first place that came to my mind that I wanted to study. I wanted to better understand the connection that I had with it, so I decided to research and study the relationship that people had with the pier. However, as anyone who has ever had a boyfriend or girlfriend will tell you, relationships where only half of the couple is engaged are relationships that don’t work. Therefore, I also decided to research and study the relationship that the pier has with people.
     If you have ever been to the Santa Monica Pier, then you know it is a very unique place. From the aquarium and muscle beach out to the observation post at its tip, the little shops and vendors selling wares from their carts along the way, everything about the pier really gives off this unique vibe that you would be hard pressed to find elsewhere. What really stands out about the Santa Monica Pier for me though, is the Playland Arcade and Pacific Park. These two parts of the pier are extremely special because they cater to the younger part of the population and this is noteworthy for many reasons. Locations that are geared towards entertaining the younger population are very important culturally in Los Angeles. They help to bring this sort of sense of tradition and belonging to a city that doesn’t really have one because it is so large and culturally diverse.
     When it came time to start going into the field, I knew what I wanted to study, but I didn’t have a specific question that I wanted to find an answer to. I thought that if I would go into the field for the first time, I would come up with a question to try and answer. However, after that first trip, nothing really stood out to me so I decided to do some research some of the history of the pier. I found that in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s there were a number of plans going through city council to destroy the pier and replace it with condominiums among other things. Upon hearing of this, the people of the city stood up, made their voices heard, and protested. It seems pretty ordinary right? Well, what really makes it special for me was that the majority of the protests were by young people who wanted to save their favorite hangout spot. I think that today, my generation has a negative stigma associated with it. The world today is much different than it was then and life is generally easier for us than it was for our parents. However, I think that because we have had it that little bit easier that people see us as lazy, entitled, and spoiled, not that its entirely wrong. Just turn on MTV later and you will see what I mean. The actions of a very select few young people shouldn’t make everybody view the majority in that way. This discovery gave me a specific focus in regards to my project. I still wanted to and did study the relationship between the people and the pier, but I had the specific goal in mind to see if a similar thing were to happen today, would my generation stand together and make our voice heard to save the pier again? I knew that my generation was so much better than some people were giving us credit for and I wanted to prove it.
Data Collection and Description     For my next four trips into the field, I collected a lot of information to help me to answer this question. I made maps of the pier, took field notes of things that I saw and heard, interviewed some people, and took inventory of what people were doing. Most of it was helpful and some of it was just interesting, but I was able to learn a lot about the relationship people had with the pier and get closer to answering my question.
Listening to and holding conversations with people is a very good tool for learning about things because you get to see other people’s perspectives on things. On one occasion, I listened in on a discussion between a father and son over a game of air hockey and the dad told his son that he went on the first date with the mother at the pier. Another time, I interviewed a nanny, Vicky, who, in the middle of our conversation, spoke to the little girl she was watching, "When I was about your age, my mom used to bring me here every weekend and I loved the spinner" to which the little girl responded by bolting off in the direction of the ride. I even heard a nice little gem from a little girl talking to her mom about how she wanted to go play at the "big kid’s playground" (muscle beach) because they were done riding rides at the pier. In total, I did eleven interviews, but only three of them really had all of the information that I wanted to collect. It was definitely a lot harder than I expected it would be to get people to talk to me, I only had the eleven people talk to me in two trips to the field. I was still able to get a lot of information from listening to others; you’d be surprised to hear what people say to each other when they think no one else is listening.
     Mapping the pier, observing people, and taking inventory of things they were doing was also a very valuable tool in the process of collecting research. Making a map of the pier helped me to get to know the space a little better. Making the movement maps, observing people, and taking inventories made it much easier to develop an understanding of how people used the space and how that defined the relationship they had with it. I made two traditional maps, one of the entire pier and one of the interior of Playland Arcade. I also made two movement maps. They both were of the same area, from the front entrance of Playland Arcade to the entrance of Pacific Park just a little way down the pier. I did one at mid-afternoon on a Saturday and another at lunchtime on a Tuesday. I did the same thing with behavioral inventories; I made two about what people were doing inside the arcade just after I made the movement maps. I didn’t really have any challenges with making the traditional maps, but it was sort of difficult to make an accurate movement map and inventory on the Saturday due to the volume of people there that day. It wasn’t really that big of a deal though because I still was able to record the general trends in behavior, which was what I really needed anyway. So after collecting all this data, what did I learn from it?
     My movement maps definitely helped me to understand the how people use the space. Pacific Park and Playland Arcade are basically unavoidable from what I recorded. An overwhelming majority of the people who went to the pier at least walked through these areas, which for me shows that the park and arcade are culturally important to the area. A girl I interviewed named Sarah said, "In my opinion, its (the pier) as iconic as the Hollywood sign or the stars on the walk of fame are to LA. I can’t imagine having grown up here without having been able to come hang out and play." In some of my other interviews, I got similar responses from people. Everybody seemed to have this memory of the pier that was special for them. I can still remember my first kiss back on a Friday night in January in 2007 when I went to the pier with my girlfriend at the time and we got stopped at the top of the Ferris wheel. Its experiences like these that build a connection between people and the pier and my movement maps helped confirmed that.
     Taking behavioral inventories of the people inside the arcade also was very helpful. I was able to learn about which kinds of people used the arcade at certain times and what games were the most popular as well and like the movement maps, the behavioral inventories also helped me to confirm the connection between the youth and the pier. For the most part, people that played the arcade games were about twenty-five or younger. The people who were outside this age range typically played pinball or the ticket spitting machines with their kids. One man I interviewed named James said that, "I like to bring my kids in here to let them play the games to try and win some tickets so they can get some prizes. They really love the feeling of winning something even when it’s not that big. When I get the chance though, I try and play pinball. I remember having a machine like those when I was younger and it’s still fun to play after all these years." For the twenty-five and younger age group, the games that were used most often were the shooting and fighting games, which as a person who plays video games on occasion didn’t really surprise me. A lot of the people playing these games were male, but there were a lot of females playing games in the arcade as well. It was interesting because they tended to play the racing games, which I would not have guessed on my own.
     As far as answering my question, would my generation today protest the destruction of the pier, interviews were the most helpful information I collected. The rest of the data that I collected served to confirm the relationship between people and the pier, but the interviews gave me a definite answer. Out of the eleven interviews that I did, only two were of adults and the rest were about my age and their answer was yes. Generally, they didn’t know much, if anything at all, about the original protest. The common reaction was a lot like mine, shock, because it seems so strange that a place as popular as the pier would ever be in danger of getting torn down and it’s pretty hard to understand the thinking behind it. They overwhelmingly answered yes when I asked if they would get involved today to prevent the pier from getting destroyed. One person that I interviewed, Junior, described his political involvement to me. He said, "Even though we tend to get a bad rep about being politically and socially involved, we are a lot more into these things than we get credit for. Whenever I get the chance I like to go down to city hall and participate in the town meetings there. It’s actually surprisingly high tech. If you can’t attend the meetings in person, they usually have a section at the end so you can Skype in and still make your voice heard." Not everyone that I interviewed was as politically involved as Junior, some people didn’t even know how to register to vote, but they all said they would do whatever they could to save this place that held some memories for them.
Data Analysis     When I analyzed at all the data together, there were two major trends that stood out to me. The first, I liked to call the babysitting factor. I went a couple of times in the early afternoon on weekdays and most of the people who were inside the Playland Arcade and Pacific Park were young kids with their parents or nannies. I think the lack of other groups of people can be explained by the time of day, kids are still in school during the week and most adults are off at work. I didn’t quite get the reason why this particular group of people liked to visit at this time though until I had my interview with Vicky, the nanny. She explained it like this, "For me, being a nanny is my full time job. Her parents work all day and she’s still too young to start school so I’m basically a full time babysitter. I think it’s good for her to get out of the house and explore every once in a while and now is the perfect time to come to the pier. It’s walking distance form
the house and it’s not crowded at this time so I don’t have to worry about her getting lost or anything like that." The pier is a very kid oriented place during the week and it was interesting to learn that because it’s something that I never would have even thought about before. It also helps to reinforce the idea I had about people having a connection with the pier. Things that occur in our youth tend to shape our lives and I think the fact that these kids are getting to spend a lot of time here is definitely going to create this connection for them.
     The other major trend that I noticed from analyzing all of my data is something that I like to call the date night effect. It actually kind of goes hand in hand with the nanny effect in that it occurs at pretty much the rest of the time. Weeknights and the weekend in particular are times when people are off work and school so the pier is a lot busier. When I was there on the weekends and at night, the pier had a little different feel to it. There were more groups of high school aged kids, there were a lot of couples who seemed to be on dates, and it got used differently. The air hockey tables and some of the multiplayer oriented games inside the arcade that were previously lightly used became the main attractions. Also, a lot of the bigger rides like the Pacific Wheel and the West Coaster had lines to ride them filled with people, while they were basically walk on earlier in the day. In my interview with Junior, he explained why he liked to take his girlfriend to the pier. "I’m actually here with my girlfriend tonight. She went off with her friends to go get some pictures in a photo booth back that way. It’s really nice because we get to spend the day at the beach in the ocean and then when the sun goes down we can come up here and do some rides and play some games. It’s way cheaper than going to like Disneyland or something and I think it’s a lot more fun too." A lot of people that I talked to or overheard had similar things to say about the pier. The pier is like the perfect place to have a good time and because of that; it kind of draws us in and creates a connection with us.
     In our class, we read a little about urban theory from a couple different authors. Out of all the reading, there were two people whose theories seemed to apply to my project in particular. The first of these was Castells’ "An Introduction to the Information Age". The main idea of his work was that cities aren’t places, but spaces where uncontrollable flows pass by. They only exist because of the flows of money, goods, people, and commodities that go through them. This applies to my work because it helps me to understand the relationship between the pier and the people and some of why the people protested the demolition of the pier. Without the flow of money and people through it, the pier wouldn’t exist. The space would be there, but the idea of the place wouldn’t. Conversely though, the flow of people and money wouldn’t go through the pier if the place didn’t exist. Would you still go and hang out at the beach in Santa Monica if the pier weren’t there? I think that this article definitely added to what my research was telling me about the pier, but I think that in the case of the pier, the place attracts the flow which is something that is very unique (Castells 1997).
     The other article that stood out to me was de Certeau’s "The Practice of Everyday Life". The main ideas that were conveyed in his article were that walking was a form of protest and that people use rules that are established by the system to fight it. Because of the nature of my own research question, it is very easy to draw the parallels between his article and my work. The pier was set to be destroyed, but the people used the established rules of the system to fight it and save the pier. What I found really interesting in the article was that he said that the government constructed spaces in a way that would control the population and they favored unity within the city. During the time of the protests, there were a lot of changes that were going on in the country and it was a little wild. This might not have been the original idea, but did the government see the people protesting and think they could "appease" them by letting them keep the pier while they gained another level of control over the population? I don’t know how I would go about researching this question, but I think it definitely is something worth looking into (de Certeau 1984).
Conclusion     In the course of doing this project, I was able to learn many things about people and places in general. I think that anywhere that you go, you can find a place that is special to someone. A lot of connections that we make with people, places, and things come from when we are young so anything really has the potential to be a special for someone and I think that its these connections that make our society function today. Before this project, I used to look at the pier differently, but since I’ve changed my perspective. It was somewhere that I loved to go to, but if I had the chance to go to Six Flags for a day instead, then I would go there because the pier wasn’t as exciting as Six Flags. That’s the problem though because I was looking at what wasn’t there, when in reality the pier is just as cool a place to hang out as Six Flags. I think that if people change their perspective and look at what is there instead of what isn’t, then they would be able to see what makes any place special. I think that this applies to everything in life too, if you open your mind to new ideas and a new point of view then the world is something that you can truly enjoy.
     I think that my work at the pier was very successful. I was able to answer the question that I set out to and prove my hunch that my generation is better than the reputation that we were given. I was also able to learn about the relationship between the people and the pier. It is definitely one that is symbiotic as we both give to each other and flourish because of it. The pier is still around today because of the protests from our parent’s generation in their youth and we get to go there and have a good time with our friends and family because it exists. The only real loose end of sorts is that I came up with a new question that I didn’t get an answer to, did the government allow the pier to continue its existence as a form of population control? I really enjoyed the time I got to spend at the pier and I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to study there.
　
　
　

Works Cited

Certeau, Michel de. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California,
1984. 91+. Print
Gfbertini. "An Introduction to the Information Age- Manuel Castells." Scribd. Web. 16 May. 2012. <http://www.scribd.com/doc/22569082/An-introduction-to-the-information-age-Manuel-Castells>.
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

Conquering the Streets

Hi my name is Jaziel. Like many others in Los Angeles, I ride a bicycle. It is an activity that at times can be therapeutic and relaxing, while other times stressful and life-threatening. My research question for this “Youth and Los Angeles” project, is how has cycling affected the youth on a general scale both positively and negatively? What drove me to ask this question was the fact that over time, the age of cyclists has been lowering rapidly. A very popular bicycle being ridden by the youth right now is a bike called a “fixie” or “fixed gear.” What this normally is is a bicycle that has no brakes and all movement both forwards and backwards is controlled by the pedals. While this is an extremely dangerous bike, it appears to be the favorite in youth groups. Surprisingly, the majority of youth who ride these “fixies” are usually around the ages of twelve and eighteen.

Los Angeles Going Green?

     Los Angeles Going Green?

By: Robin Hazard

Throughout the spring semester of 2012, my research has revolved around the following question, “what is your motto or philosophy for living sustainably within an urban area?”  In the beginnings of this research project I knew exactly what I wanted to have my focus on, yet did not know how to go about doing so.  I was unaware what would be a deep enough question, a question that would spark all viewpoints and reach the broadest amount of people.  I originally wanted a holistic question that would be simple yet profound that could capture and meet all perspectives. I found this to be too idealistic, for I did never found that “ah-ha” question.  The one I picked however, did suit my needs and the purpose of this project.

            My initial intention on setting forth this project surrounding sustainable practices within Los Angeles was surrounded around my avid curiosity for this topic as well as my hopes in learning a thing or two from this research.  In essence I picked this topic so I could light two candles with one flame.  I can continue my own research on a topic that I am passionate about and that fascinates me and use it towards a required research project.  In combining this interest into a school project and with the project requiring a lot of hands-on participation I had figured, and partially hoped, that this research project would guide and push me more so into learning and experiencing various ways of practicing sustainability. 

            Upon entering the field with my research question ready to fire, I had no idea what to expect.  Los Angeles does not exactly scream sustainability and therefore I had no idea what or who I would run into.  I had only learned of a few groups just prior to the spring semester and knew I wanted to meet with them.  I honestly was more interested on what I could take from the situations I encountered as well as what I could do to participate in making a difference, rather than the actual people I would come across.  Maybe not the right mindset I realize now, yet the stereotype and assumption of Los Angeles being an unconscious mass of individuals sat pretty comfortably in my head at the time.

            Aside from the fact that I am passionate about this topic, I feel that it is important for individuals to be aware of the workings of their life.  Sustainability in itself refers to the sustaining of something, and in the case of my research topic the bottom line refers to the sustaining of the human species and the systems it works with.  This is important for obvious reasons, yet many people are either unaware of sustainability or are unaware as to why it is important.  Learning about various people and what they are doing within Los Angeles to make a difference, is something I felt I could easily learn from.  The broadening of knowledge and awareness concerning individuals, who are working toward the global community, would not only contribute to my further education in this field but also make me more aware of others who are conscious about our home.  Having an awareness of individuals who are concerned about the same things you are gives one a sense of community, as well as sense of hope and power that what you believe in is stronger than originally thought.

            For collecting my data on sustainable practices within Los Angeles, my primary research method of choice was participant observation.  Participant observation I felt to be the most effective and wide-ranging.  With participant observation I was able to meet with various organizations and groups.  It would be the most useful way in learning about how the groups work as well as their intentions. 

            Food Not Bombs is one of the organizations I met with.  There are various chapters throughout the United States, but the one I attended was the Reseda chapter.  Food Not Bombs collects wasted or donated food from local businesses or farmers and distributes it to the community for free.  They meet at Reseda Park on Sunday’s at 1:00pm.  The volunteers meet at this time and they bring and organize the food to prepare it for distribution at 3:00pm.  From 3:00pm to 4:30pm people from all walks of life come to collect their fair share of the free food that is distributed. 

This was an interesting group to meet up with for I had heard of the organization Food Not Bombs prior to actually meeting with them.  The impression that I had got from this group was that they were a strong organization with many volunteers and many people who know about their free food distribution.  The groups that I had seen prior to meeting the Reseda chapter were located in San Francisco.  In San Francisco Food Not Bombs is well “tolerated” and they are never arrested for the “illegal” distribution of wasted food.  A group from the same organization in a small chapter in the San Fernando Valley was practicing the same goodwill, but in a very different atmosphere.

The Reseda chapter of Food Not Bombs is run by a group of people aging anywhere from 19 to 26 and have been meeting each Sunday for over five years.  These individuals have come together in a place where they were swimming upstream.  An organization such as Food Not Bombs is not tolerated very nicely in the San Fernando Valley.  This group, however, has made the location for food distribution look like a picnic.  This way they are seldom bothered by the authorities.  The individuals who know of this Food Not Bombs chapter are well aware of how this group organizes so there is not much confusion as to where they should pick up their food. 

I find it absolutely fascinating that a group of young individuals such as these who, on their own time, with complete dedication, are able to form this amazing group for the good of the community and no other reason.  The individuals seem to come from non-prosperous backgrounds and do not attend college.  These are young individuals who live and work on their own and have formed this chapter of Food Not Bombs with perseverance and compassion.  When I had asked Hana the coordinator of the Reseda chapter of Food Not Bombs about her “green” philosophy of living in an urban area, she replied, “Hmmm...I dunno.  Use less, reuse more often?”

Another organization that I employed participant observation on was Food Forward.  This is an organization that collects excess fruit from overly fruiting trees and donates the collected food to homeless shelters and food banks.  I met with Food Forward on a Saturday in Pasadena.  They were at a man’s home who owned a very large grapefruit tree, a lemon tree, and an orange tree.  There were six volunteers who showed up and our instructions were to pick away at the grapefruit tree except for what was able to be picked from the ground, to pick the lemon tree and to leave the orange tree.  Using ladders, our climbing skills, and specially made satchels we gleaned the fruit trees.

This organization is fairly well known along with Food Not Bombs and even has an annual orange pick at California State University of Northridge’s orange grove.  They glean trees all over southern California, from Ventura to Studio City to Huntington Beach.  In Food Forward anyone can volunteer and it’s really fun, especially if you like to climb trees.  There are also pick leaders who coordinate and run fruit picks.  As I noticed with Food Not Bombs, Food Forward has a majority of younger individuals who are taking charge and volunteering their time due to their compassion for our global community.    

    For my research I also attended a Smart Gardening meeting which is run by Los Angeles County.  This group has various meetings all over Los Angeles County and they discuss how to conserve water, how to be fire wise, and how to reduce green waste.  Composting and vermiculture were both discussed and examples were shown.  Vermiculture is essentially keeping blood worms as pets and feeding them your kitchen waste, in return they produce a rich and nutrient compost material that you can use for your garden.  Compost bins were displayed and offered at half the price they would usually be.  Using native plants in your garden and converting your lawn into an edible oasis was a topic discussed.  Eliminating water intensive plants, such as grass, and converting these areas into an oasis of native plants is an option that many do not consider.  Options such as these were shown to be a good solution for conserving water as well as growing your own food. 

I interviewed Dr. Wohldmann who is a Psychology professor at California State University of Northridge (CSUN).  She is also with CSUN’s Institute for Sustainability and teaches the Sustainability course, Best Practices in Sustainability, as well as co-instructing the Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Sustainability course.  She is an activist and has a strong passion for the topic of America’s food industry.  In the Psychology department at CSUN she even teaches a course entitled Food and Cognition which discusses the food industry within America along with its marketing tactics and pesticide uses. 

Upon interviewing Professor Wohldmann and asking her what her philosophy is for living sustainably within an urban area, she replied “to be conscious”.  She stated that in order for individuals to become more aware of their surroundings, they need to “open their minds, their hearts, their ears, and their eyes”.  She stated that it is hard for people to comprehend various sustainable efforts for it seems too abstract for them, when in reality everything is connected.  When people are asked to rethink the way they live it becomes difficult for them, understandably.  The only way to reach people, Professor Wohldmann states, is through concrete facts.  When you have the facts available for people then they begin to listen. 

My Interview with Professor Wohldmann

Sierra Tower Room 320, CSUN

Professor Erica Wohldmann's office

Thursday, March 22, 2012

1:11pm - 1:42pm

            Upon arrival of meeting Professor Erica Wohldmann during her office hours on this particular Thursday afternoon, there were a group of girls standing outside her office chatting.  Professor Wohldmann's office door was partially open and I could see she was speaking with a female student. I turned to the girls standing in the hallway and asked if they were waiting to speak with Professor Wohldmann.  One girl stated that she was the next one "in line".  I got the impression that they were friends and collectively went to meet with Professor Wohldmann individually.  I set my backpack down and sat against the wall in the hallway of the third floor of Sierra Tower waiting for my turn.  

          I opened up my backpack and pulled out an orange that I had just picked from the orange grove on campus.  I started peeling at it when a male student walked up carrying a skateboard, a backpack, and two tamales.  He asked if I, and the group of girls, standing near me were waiting to speak with Professor Wohldmann.  I spoke up and said that one of the girls standing was next and then I.  He got the picture that it might be a minute and sat down near me, stating that it gave him an opportunity to eat his lunch.  He asked me if I was in Professor Wohldmann's Sustainability 310 class and I replied yes.  He then asked if I enjoyed the class.  I replied that I loved the class and everything it entailed.  He told me that last semester he took the Sustainability 310 class along with the Sustainability 300 class, and I replied that I was doing the same thing this semester and we agreed that it made the experience so much more rich and interesting.  He continued to talk about one of the classes he was taking this semester, Sustainability 401, and how a group within the class is planning on putting solar paneled lighting all along Reseda Blvd.  We chatted for a bit more, and then my turn to speak with Professor Wohldmann came up.

          As I walked into Professor Wohldmann's office I noticed a map on the door.  It was a map of the world, and on it were various colors coordinated with various temperatures of the globe around the world.  I walked into her office and there were two chairs in front of her desk and a bike in the corner.  I noticed wording that was on her window facing outward toward the Sierra Quad, it was backwards from my view but I could see that it said "VOTE WITH YOUR $".  I set my back pack on one of the chairs and sat in the other.  I had my notebook and questions previously pulled out in order to make room for the oranges I had collected earlier.  As I sat she stated, "sorry, let me send this real quick", regarding to an email she was finishing up.  She then turned to me, smiled and said "hello".

-In starting the interview I began discussing the questions I had previously prepared, shared below. 

                                         

                               Questions to ask Food Forward and others

   (Prof. Wohldmann, TreePeople, Heal the Bay, Food Not Bombs…)

 1. What is your philosophy on living sustainably within an urban area?

 2. Do you find living sustainably within an urban area difficult?  If so, why? What challenges           do you face?

 3. What routines do you have that are influenced by your passion to live sustainably?

 4. Where do you see Los Angeles and its sustainable/organic/slow movement in the next five to ten years?

5. What motivates you to follow this path you have started?  

6. Do you feel you influence others to follow in your steps?

7. Are you ever faced with tough questions or debated about the sustainable practices you participate in?  If so, how do you react/ answer?

-For the purposes of this installment and convenience, during verbatim interview recordings I will portray Professor Wohldmann as "EW" and myself as "RH".

RH: So what is your philosophy on living sustainably within an urban region?

EW: (her voice was stern, yet genuine) That people be conscious, that they open their minds, their hearts, their ears, and their eyes. 

RH: What motivates you to follow this path you have started?

EW: I am trying to prolong the inevitable.  I am trying to prolong the demise of our species.  (her tone changes and she begins to bubble up and smile) I also want people to be happy and live happier and healthier lives.

RH: Are you ever approached by individuals who debate you on the issues you are fighting for?  How do you react?

EW: I have a lot of facts in my head.  People like to hear concrete facts, they don't want to hear your opinion on how they should live.  So I’ll throw out 'did you know California produces 60 percent of our nation’s food?’  People start to listen when it's actual facts.

RH: What routines or behaviors do you feel are shaped by your passion to live sustainably?

EW: I drive my car very little.. I teach.  Teaching is the best tool; I teach and provide knowledge to people. 

RH: Do you feel you influence other to follow in your steps?

EW: I don't try and make people do anything.  I just want them to think.  I would like them to be conscious.

-During the first part of the interview stated above, Professor Wohldmann and I were not entirely in a comfortable setting.  The questions I had devised seemed to form a partially uneasy environment.  In asking them I feel that it disconnected both of our ideal expectations we were hoping for from the interview. 

RH: (deciding to follow another route) I feel that these questions may be a little vague and too broad. 

EW: (having a subtle expression of relief) Ya.

-Beyond this point we just began chatting.  The mood was much lighter and I feel that I learned a lot more from this portion of the interview.  Having not recorded it I am unable to share the discussion verbatim. 

-She discussed her experiences after college and how she felt odd having nothing to do after being in front of a computer for months straight writing her dissertation.  She told me that having an abundant amount of free time can really help shape who you are and remind you of the things you like to do.  She said it took her awhile to remember what kinds of things she liked to do, and then she remembered she liked to go hiking.  When she would go hiking she would take an ID book with her to help her learn and identify the different plants around her, realizing some of them were edible.  

-This was interesting to hear, for she now forages for a living.  It was neat to hear her beginnings in how this happened.  Next fall she is actually taking a sabbatical from teaching and driving a vegetable oil-run Vanagon Westy across country, eating wild edible plants the whole way and teaching individuals about food.  She wanted to do this so she can take this knowledge "to the streets", to individuals who aren't as privileged as the ones who are able to attend CSUN. 

-A couple of weeks prior to this interview with Professor Wohldmann, she had taken a couple other students and I on a forage around the CSUN campus.  We learned that rosemary, lavender, onion, strawberries, broccoli, peppers, kale, oranges, walnuts, rosebuds, nasturtium, roses, clover, dandelions, and many other flora were growing on campus and entirely edible.  I told her that she had inspired me on that forage to take others on it.  I mentioned my backpack full of oranges and offered her some.  She had a big smile and said, “ya, if you have them on you I would love one right now”.  I tossed one to her and she started peeling away, continuing with what she was saying.  

-We discussed living in a large area such as Los Angeles and how it can be difficult to live among people who are judgmental and don't understand why one would live in a simpler manner.  She reassured me however, that even though there may only be a minute ten percent living this way in Los Angeles, many of these individuals are extremely interesting and knowledgeable and are definitely worth getting to know.

-She moved to Venice, California from Boulder, Colorado five years ago.  I asked her if since living in Los Angeles she has found a sense of community.  Her eyes grew larger and she stated "oh ya".  She has also created the Venice Harvest Xchange, an event where individuals can come and bring vegetables, fruit, homemade items, and food they have made.  Everything that is brought is either grown or made by the individual.  Money isn't needed either; it’s more of an exchange of reciprocity.  They exchange items instead of "paying" with money.  

        Professor Erica Wohldmann
-As the interview was concluding, she stated that she loved talking to me but she wanted to give Jason (the boy I had been talking to outside) a couple of minutes since he had been waiting so patiently.  She stated with a big smile, "i like you..come by anytime".  I smiled and stated with the same enthusiasm, "I like you too".  I offered her another orange and she giggled and showed her appreciation.  I thanked her and walked out of her office, thanking the boy with the skateboard for his patience as I turned down the hallway.

-I feel that the structured questions may have hindered my abilities to attain a rich interview.  Perhaps I am just better with "on the whim"-type interviews, or perhaps it was the situation that made it difficult due to the heavy topic discussed.  In any case, I feel that the questions I devised did help in preparing me for this interview; however a loose and semi-structured interview seemed to work nicely for me in the particular context I was placed in.  Interviewing processes are just a matter of trial and error, but that goes for everything and anything if you are attempting to become better at it.

-One comment that Professor Wohldmann stated that stuck with me is "be careful what you practice...because you're gonna get good at it”.

Professor Wohldmann’s bus will be leaving the first of June.  She has invited anybody interested in foraging or experiencing her journey with her, to join her for a couple days.  During her seven month adventure across America, she will be blogging the entire away about her experiences and the people she meets.  Something I found appropriate for this ethnography was the title of Professor Wohldmann’s blog… Simply Urban.  If you are interested and want to know more about her trip and what she is doing you can visit her blog at simplyurban-erica.blogspot.com.

Richard Sennet’s The Public Realm focuses on various aspects of public space and its uses.  He mentions how sustainability is an important topic to always consider when discussing urban planning and restoration (p. 264).  Sustainability is, as stated earlier, what makes things last.  This mentality and awareness of having a sustained lifestyle, or city, or food system is what can makes things thrive.  Sennet also describes how urban planning should allow for social interaction within the community.  “Spatial engineering in form of the pressurized street cannot alone induce people to interact… Put in formal terms, diversity and intensity of the street provides a necessary but not sufficient for social cohesion; people remain closed off from one another” (Sennet: 270).   

Sustainable urbanism is a rapidly moving urban form that is taking shape in many cities throughout the world.  Aspects of sustainable urbanism include an efficient form of public transportation, high density housing, and a “walkable city”.  Cities that allow its residents short walking trips to regularly visited destinations also allow for a stronger sense of community.  More individuals walking or biking on the streets allow for a safer community as well, reducing “dead spaces” and therefore reducing crime. 

In Marina Peterson’s Sound, Space, and the City she shows support for this idea of public communion.  Peterson portrays Los Angeles as lacking in a city center, which in my personal opinion does not feel too far from the truth.  She puts up for debate the organization known as Grand Performances held at the California Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles as the current center of this metropolis.  Peterson states that Grand Performances acts as a refreshing change within Los Angeles that will help bring union to this expansive city.  “Making downtown a city center supports ideals of urban form and public life, against Los Angeles’s infamous sprawl” (Peterson: 4).  Peterson uses the term “civic subject” and defines its membership as being recognized using public services and participating in public events (p. 9).  This definition I know does not define most people who live within Los Angeles, mainly due to its size, but this also largely in part because of our single-occupancy vehicles that contribute to Los Angeles’s car culture.          

TreePeople is an organization that was created and developed by fifteen year old Andy Lipkis in 1970.  TreePeople is a group that has the immense initiative on making Los Angeles an urban forest.  TreePeople is an environmental nonprofit that unites the power of trees, people and technology to grow a sustainable future for Los Angeles.  Simply put, there work is about helping nature heal cities. 

On May 5, I attended their second annual Green City Fair.  They had many workshops for individuals to attend and learn about practicing in sustainable ways.  Workshops ranged from the “Renter Do It Yourself on Green Living” to “Water Works- Harvesting the Rain!”.  In the rainwater harvesting workshop they offered rain barrels for sale.  These rain barrels can be used by any homeowner.  For every inch of rain that falls on one square foot of your roof, you can collect over a half gallon of rainwater.  This rainwater can then be used for your garden, washing your car, or any other use that might be wasted with drinking water.

At the Green City Fair there were also many booths offering various services.  There were multiple booths offering Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes.  CSA boxes contain fresh produce form local farms.  These boxes can be delivered or picked up by any individual and are offered at a cheap monthly or weekly rate.  I have used CSA boxes previously and enjoy the surprise in what you receive from your local farms.  You receive whatever is in harvest.  Often times this entails produce you may have never heard of before, allowing you to improvise with your cooking and learn new produce as well as new and intriguing flavors.

Andy Lipkis is an amazing individual and upon seeing him, I was semi star struck.  I introduced myself and expressed my admiration towards him and his remarkable work.  He had a genuine smile and seemed very appreciative of the compliment.  I asked if I could get a picture with him and afterwards he smiled and turned to me stating, “You’re the first person I’ve gotten my picture taken with besides Smokey the Bear.”

Andy Lipkis and I

It is difficult for people to comprehend what is the “right” thing to do, or what is the “best” practice for this method.  Truth be told, I personally do not feel that there is an end all solution, if anyone knows of one feel free to fill me in.  That is what I feel scares people the most, change.  Any change at all is most often considered to be scary, or a risk.  What we need to guide our focus on is comparing one’s current situation with that of an alternative situation.  We tend to forget about the current situation one is currently in, and just focus on the possible negative outcomes of the proposed alternative solution.  We often consider the situation that we are in now as a safety net and a place where no harm can be done.  What about the negative outcomes of one’s current situation, are there none? 

With our nation having its top priorities surrounded around the economy, employment, and terrorism (Pew Research Center 2011) no wonder we are scared, worried and fearful.  If we wean ourselves from these negative emotions and begin to open our minds to other prospects, we may find that these alternative sources are in reality…solutions.

In researching sustainable practices within Los Angeles I have found that the youth seem to be leading this movement.  Maybe this is due to them recognizing that their future, more so than older individuals, is what is at stake.  It is important for individuals, especially the youth, to stand up and take charge of this movement.  Yes this is a movement for our Earth, our home… but it is also a movement for human kind.  I feel that once the weight of this respect is realized, individuals will start to join in.  One quote I would like to conclude with comes from Garrett Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons, “Freedom is the recognition of necessity”.

Bibliography

Petersen, Mariana, 2010 Sound, Space and the City: Civic Performance in Downtown Los     

Angeles. Philadelphia, PA:  Uni. of Pennsylvania Press.

Pew Research Center.  pewresearch.org (2011)

Sennett, Richard, 2010 “The Public Realm” (excerpts from The Fall of Public man, 2008 and

Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western Civilization, 1994) in The Blackwell City Reader, eds. Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.  261-272

Occupy Education

The research question that drives my data collection is how youth activism relates to the city. Los Angeles is known as the city without a center, or perhaps too many centers. People within the city often create their own center, a public space. Public spaces can defined as small streets to as large as plazas. Although not a formal center, City Hall in Downtown Los Angeles has become a center within the city, specifically for protestors during the recent Occupy Movement. Public spaces are the only place in which people feel truly, physically unified. With so many protests going online, the physical element is critical for enhancing society's sense of togetherness and solidarity. Campus protests also benefit from their familiar setting because students are near their dorms when in need of food, showers and restrooms.

What to Eat?

An Ethnography On the Issue of Eating Healthy in CSUN by Roxana Waterman

            Since the beginning of the semester each student in the class was assigned the task of an ethnography project that involved L.A. and its youth in some manner. This would generally boil down to being about something we cared about, so plenty of us had to think hard on what we wanted to focus on. For my particular ethnography project I wanted to know more about dealing with food consumption issues in urban settings. I have worked in the food industry before, and I’ve always been interested in people’s choices between healthy and unhealthy food. I also have friends who have always talked about their issues with dieting and how hard it is to do so when they constantly want to eat unhealthy food. They’ve always made it sound like it was an issue of personal control, or lack thereof, but I’ve started to think otherwise.

In urban areas, we’re often constantly tempted by fast food restaurants lining our streets and filling up our shopping centers. Universities are like microcosms of the larger city environment because of the fast-paced, high-stress lifestyles its community members practice. A college student is regularly concerned with meeting deadline after deadline of assignments, regularly trying to fit a social life around a schedule of work and school. When it comes to choosing your food, it’s never really down to what you think is best for you, otherwise a majority of people would be eating salads and there would be a serious decrease in fried food demand. Other factors work in to it: how much you’ve eaten that day, how tired you are, what your area has to offer, how much time you have to eat. As a student at CSUN I’ve known what it’s like to feel exhausted and simply wanting to eat a slice of pizza before I have to get to my next class. I’m sure other students know what I’m talking about. In my three-hour classes I’ve noticed that plenty of students come back from break with a bag of chips as their meal and the obvious reason for that is that anything else would take too long to order because we’re often only given 15 minutes tops. A meal involving steamed vegetables, for example, would not be an option. 

Cemeteries as social spaces

Cemeteries as Social Spaces

This semester I traveled to two cemeteries in the greater Los Angeles area in order to study how these cemeteries are used as social spaces.  The two cemeteries I visited were Forest Lawn Glendale Memorial-Park and Hollywood Forever Memorial.  To find out how these cemeteries operated as social spaces I kept several questions in mind while I conducted my fieldwork:  Who goes to these cemeteries?  Why do people come to these cemeteries and what do they do?  What do these cemeteries mean to their visitors?  And finally, does Forest Lawn Glendale continue to be a space for recreation and socialization that it once was in my early youth?  Taking the information gathered I will interpret and theorize aspects of the character and culture of life in Los Angeles.

The importance of my project is to show that cemeteries are not just used for burying the dead; there are many more interesting things that take place in them.  As a child growing up in the Los Angeles area my perspective on cemeteries might be different than most.  My father was a groundskeeper at Forest Lawn Glendale Memorial-Park and my family would visit often.  We would have picnics, feed the ducks by the pond, run around and look at the many monuments and architecture located there.  It is one of my favorite places to go and yet when people here that statement they get a morbid picture in their minds and they are not afraid to share that picture with me.  The more I explain the beauty and history of the cemetery, the less these people view my attachment to the cemetery as odd.  I realized over time that not too many people are actually aware of the beauty and different aspects of the cemetery.  It appears that most people also do not realize the many different activities that take place in a cemetery.  Not only is Forest Lawn a place where loved ones have their final resting place, but it is also a place that holds church services, weddings, and holiday events.  I have been visiting this park since I was a baby, I have three generations of family buried there.  My great-great grandparents were also married there.  This cemetery holds a very special significance in my life. 

Methods

For my project I used a variety of methods to collect data on how cemeteries are used as social spaces.  I did many observations, I visited many of the tourist attractions of Forest Lawn, researched the historical background of Forest Lawn, and I conducted interviews.  In addition, I did an inventory of the number of cars entering and exiting Forest Lawn in two fifteen minute increments to give an idea of how many people visit the park.  I traveled to Hollywood Forever Memorial twice, spending more than five hours there; I went to Forest Lawn Memorial-Park four times and spent over thirteen hours at that location.

Data

Hollywood Forever Memorial

Hollywood Forever Memorial I first paid a visit to on Wednesday February 22^nd, 2012. I was completely prepared with a notebook and camera.  When I arrived about 2:00pm I was extremely shocked to find the place almost completely empty.  For an hour I observed, there was some construction going on, two men in business suits were sitting at a table, three people rode their bikes by me and one older Asian women went for a walk with what appeared to be her granddaughter. What I had not considered until after my arrival was that if this is a tourist attraction not too much tourism occurs during the week.  I decided to go and talk with an employee to find out more about the cemetery. I walked into a very beautiful, old style building and a nice woman at the front desk asked me if she could help me. I told her the purpose for my visit and asked her if she could tell me anything unique about this cemetery. She says, “A lot of famous people are buried here”.  I felt like replying “No duh” but that would not have been very professional.  She then said, “during the summer months an old movie is shown outside on the lawn once a month and it cost $10 to get in.  A lot of the younger crowd goes to that.”  I thanked her for talking to me and then I went to the flower shop and bought a map of the place.  I decided to return on a weekend when hopefully more people would be there.

When I arrived the following Sunday at 1:04pm there were more people there but no tourist activities were taking place as I had originally expected.  A funeral was being set up, and several families were tending to occupied plots. I observed people cleaning off the tombstones, and planting and watering flowers.  As I walked through the park I observed two men listening to very loud rap music and smoking marijuana next to a grave.  I walked briskly past them.  I was a little frightened by the fact that there was no security there to stop them.  I finally arrived at the section of Hollywood Memorial where the movie stars from the 1920’s and 30’s rest.  I had an image in my mind of people taking photos with friends and families next to the gravestones of their favorite classic actors and actresses.  To my surprise, no one was visiting there.  There was no activity at all.    

At 2:09pm the stillness broke with an approaching tour bus.  I was so excited, I felt like now I could observe some eventful use of this cemetery as a tourist attraction.   To my dismay as the tourists came out of the bus I saw many walkers and canes accompany them.  All the tourists appeared to be in there 70’s and 80’s.  There was a tour guide talking to them and they stood and listened.  I realized at this point that focusing on Forest Lawn Glendale would prove to be more profitable in gathering data from a youthful perspective.  In regards to observing how cemeteries are used as social spaces the data I gathered from Hollywood Memorial tells us with a lot of useful information.  A cemetery can be used as a tourist attraction for the elderly, a unique place to watch a movie during the summer and a location for smoking marijuana.  

Forest Lawn Memorial Park

The History

The purpose of Forest Lawn from the very beginning was not to be just a cemetery; founder Hubert Lewright Eaton had something grander in mind.  Before the creation of Forest Lawn, Eaton, the son of a professor, obtained a Bachelors degree in chemical engineering.  He held many jobs.  For example, he worked as a chemist and also worked in a copper mine.  He even purchased silver mines in Nevada.  However, by age thirty he was in St. Louis with no job and no money.  After talking to Charles Marsh, a friend at the local bank, it was recommended to him that he speak with Charlie Sims about a new idea of selling cemetery plots before death.  Up until this point it was rare to buy a cemetery plot ahead of time.  After much reluctance to Marsh’s idea, Eaton finally gave in and met with Sims.  This was the start of something wonderful.  In June of 1912, Forest Lawn Cemetery Association, ran by Norton Wells at the time, hired Sims and Eaton to sell cemetery plots.  After wrestling with many political and financial issues through the building of this new idea, Eaton became very successful and eventually was named president of Forest Lawn Cemetery Association (Kath, 2006:18-22).  New responsibilities came with this new job title.  Eaton was not only in charge of selling plots but he was also responsible for developing the cemetery.  Just as this association ran into more financial and political troubles, it was decided that Forest Lawn Cemetery Association be renamed as Forest Lawn Memorial-Park Association, and Eaton would soon after become owner of Forest Lawn.  His vision was soon to become a reality.  He turned Forest Lawn into something more than just a cemetery; it became a park for many other activities to take place.  Churches, statues, monuments, and paintings were placed all over the lawns.  His biggest project was the construction of the Hall of The Crucifixion, which reached completion in 1951.  This building’s sole purpose was to house The Crucifixion, a painting created by a Polish man named Jan Styka.  This painting is 195 feet long and 45 feet wide, and was rediscovered by Eaton in an old Opera house in Chicago.  

The Tourist

During my research, I took the time to visit all the “tourist” attractions of Forest Lawn.  On February 24, 2012 I went to Forest Lawn from 12:40pm- 5:06pm.  I began my research by first sitting in the grass at entrance of Forest Lawn and counting the cars that entered and departed. The purpose in this is to discover how much activity takes place on a daily basis at Forest Lawn.  I found that there is a lot more traffic that comes in and out of this cemetery compared to Hollywood Memorial.  For example, in a 15-minute period at 12:41pm, 32 cars entered and 37 cars exited.  At 4:51pm, 36 cars entered and 50 cars exited.  These numbers suggest that many people visit this cemetery throughout the day.

The Museum

Due to the fact that Forest Lawn is a large area it was difficult for me to observe the whole park, I decided to pick a few locations that I enjoyed as a youth and observe why people attend. I first went to the museum at Forest Lawn to observe.  The smell inside was similar to a library and is the same as I remembered. It was rather quiet until two women started chatting in French.  Soon after a man walked in.  He was dressed in black.  He took a quick glance around the room and then left.  Two minutes later an older couple walked in through the back entrance near to where I was sitting.  The older man got a phone call and walked out.  This gave me the perfect opportunity to ask the woman a few questions.  I asked her why she came to the museum and if she comes often. She told me that her friend brought her here because she loves cemeteries. She also said that she feels at peace when she visits a cemetery.  I said in excitement “me too!” It was neat to know that I am not the only one that feels this way. 

The Hall of the Crucifixion

At 2:00pm a presentation was being shown at The Hall of the Crucifixion.  Being that the museum is right next to this location the transition was easy.  When I arrived I noticed that there were only four people inside and they were the same four people whom I had observed in the museum earlier. The building is massive.  It was so grand that words can hardly describe it.  The presentation of the painting was very detailed and moving.  At the beginning of the presentation, a large curtain covered the painting.  The painting was created in 1897 and it’s amazing to see the skill that the artist had to create this 45-foot tall painting so long ago.  The history of the painting and how Eaton found it was all presented in a documentary, which was featured on two big flat screens below the painting.  The lights were off when the documentary was playing and then to add to the drama the painting was revealed and the only light that was shining was on the painting.  A voice narrated the painting as lights shined on the areas that the speaker was talking about. 

A Funeral

At approximately 3:05pm I took a break from touring and decided to relax underneath a tree in the older area of Forest Lawn.  A crowd began to form around the freshly set up grave across the street from where I was sitting.  As more and more people gathered, I noticed that their ages were roughly between 50 to 70 years. A hearse pulled up slowly and six men lifted the dark brown casket out of the back of the car. The energy of the crowd radiated toward me, a sadness, heaviness and anxiety reached my heart. A minister wearing a white gown and holding a silver chain connected to a box with smoke of burning incense pouring out of its holes, led the casket to its final resting place. I had never seen this ritual before. The language, I didn’t understand a word. The crowd became quiet as the minister continued with the ceremony. They moved their hands to their bodies and performed the sign of the cross in unison. Then, out of the quietness of the crowd a cell phone went off. A loud bell-like sound flowed from an older gentleman’s golden shirt pocket. After two rings he answered, “No no, its okay I can talk” and began to walk away from the funeral.  I felt angry by the disrespect that this man had shown toward the person being lowered into the earth and those that were there to pay their last respects. I began to wonder, why did this man come to the funeral?  Many people turned and looked at him but he just walked away continuing his conversation. 

A Unique Interaction

             It was the last three minutes of my final observation when a man approached me and asked “Doing research?” “Yes”, I responded while still looking at the cars, trying to make sure one didn’t slip by my view. During the next two minutes we exchanged a few words.  Then the man stood by me in silence.  It was awkward.  When I finally finished observing and counting cars, the man introduced himself to me as Peter.  I shook his hand and said, “Sheena, nice to meet you.”  He asked me what my project was about.  I summarized my assignment and then proceeded to ask him what he was doing there.  He explained that he was taking pictures for a tour company that he worked for.  Forest Lawn Glendale was the newest addition to their L.A. tour. I found it fascinating that Forest Lawn is now being considered a tourist attraction. He then shared with me his educational background.  He had just graduated from UCLA with a Masters in Urban Studies. I was impressed and understood why he was talking to me, I don’t think he cared too much about my project, but I humored him with more details hoping to get some good “UCLA” feedback.  We began to walk together to where he was parked, exchanging thoughts and ideas of Forest Lawn. Right before he got in his car he began to show signs of being nervous.  I noticed that the color in his face turned to a light pink.  He placed his hands in his pockets. His eyes were focusing on his shoes.  He lightly kicked the air and tilted his head slightly to the right. I smiled and tried to play it cool but his nervousness began to make me nervous. He changed his gaze from the ground to meet my eyes and said “So maybe sometime you can give me a personal tour of Forest Lawn since you are such an expert and all.” I responded, “Sure, I would love to.” I gave him my email address and he said he would contact me soon.  Sadly, I never heard back from that good looking, cute, well educated man, however, I found it interesting that I was hit on at a cemetery. Apparently cemeteries are not just used for burying loved ones, meditating, tours and looking at architecture.  They are also places to get a date!

The Formal Interviews

I conducted two formal interviews one with Beverly and David Rios, life long visitors and also my grandparents, and the other with Elaine Williams, the Vice President of Forest Lawn Glendale.  Both interviews gave two different yet informative perspectives on the Park.  Beverly has several generations of family buried there and finds peace on the grounds.  Elaine has been an employee of Forest Lawn for two years and knows more of what takes place behind the scenes. 

On March 25^th, 2012 I arrived at the Rios residence at 10:34am.  After knocking on the door twice, I was greeted with open arms.  After a bit of small talk and learning that Beverly has three generations of family buried at Forest Lawn and has been visiting that space since she was four years old, we all agreed to make a visit together to the cemetery. 

At 12:43pm Beverly and David went to Forest Lawn and began to visit the gravestones of their loved ones that had passed on.  We drove to each approximate site and got out of the car to search for the specific plots.  It was lightly sprinkling, and a few raindrops hit the screen on my camera as I took a picture of each gravestone. 

After our tour, we went to eat lunch at Ernie Juniors, a restaurant that is nearby the cemetery.  We sat down at a half circle booth and began to view the menu.  David and Beverly both visit this restaurant often and know several servers by name.  They got the soup and sandwich combo and I ordered the club sandwich with no mayo.  We finished with lunch and arrived back at the quant duplex house with the white trim, it was 2:45pm. 

Once we arrived back to their home I began to conduct my formal interview.  I asked her if she had noticed any changes over the years of her attendance.  She responded: “ Um, it’s a lot more populated (she stops to clear her throat).  It was always busy but not like it is now. Um, there was just, there are just so many people now it just gets so crowded. Back then you could take your time… It’s so beautiful there, it’s just like a park, an oasis in the middle of the city. Its beautiful green expanse of the beautiful green grass and then the trees. It’s… it makes you feel like it’s the closest thing to heaven.”  She continued on talking about how at Christmas time they used to decorate the graves with small Christmas trees and all the music that used to play in the different sections around the park.  Her face lit up as she told me all her memories.  I could tell that this place was very special to her.  She went on to discuss the history of the park, the architecture, and the museum from her perspective.  She even mentioned getting stuck in traffic during the Michael Jackson funeral.  One story that was particularly funny was when the geese chased Beverly and David back to their car.  By the lake geese and ducks will visit seasonally, on one particular day Beverly and David didn’t have any food to give them but they still wanted to go to lake and rest for a while.  The geese apparently didn’t like that idea and as soon as they got to close, the geese began to chase them.  They both laughed while telling me this story and expressed some concern for Forest Lawn in fear that someone who could potentially get bit might sue them. 

            As we went on with the interview she shared one last thing with me about Forest Lawn.  She raved about the Easter Service that they held there each year.  She then told me about the restaurant that was right across the way that her and David would go to after the service.  I was so moved by how much she and David both loved that service that I attended the next Easter service at Forest Lawn.  One thing that she failed to mention to me was that the service was in Spanish.  I didn’t understand a thing but I did get a feel for the beauty of the service that she described so eloquently.

            On April 16^th, 2012 I went to Forest Lawn and interviewed Elaine Williams who is the Vice President of Forest Lawn Glendale.  The interview went from 1:40pm-3:07pm and it was extremely informative.  When I arrived at the main office in the front of the park I opened a big, antique style door and that special Forest Lawn library like smell hit my nose.  I was greeted with a warm friendly smile and was led into a conference room.  Elaine was extremely warm and welcoming, I was comfortable right away.  After some small talk she began to discuss the history of Forest Lawn and its founder.  I asked her about her job, how long she worked for Forest Lawn and what she liked about it.  She responded, “It’s an awesome place to work, I go home thankful everyday and there are good people here.  You get a lot of education, I mean, you learn a lot because you have to be kind of the voice for the people that come here.  And you have to help them because they don’t know what you’re talking about so you have to make sure you know what your talking about to help them.”

            I gathered some basic information from her about Forest Lawn Glendale.  She said that there are several Forest Lawn locations, and there are over 900 employees throughout the company.  The fountain at the front of Glendale Forest Lawn had to be made smaller due to Los Angeles’ regulations and codes.  As a result, the ducks don’t come around as often as they had in the past.  There is a very low turn over rate among the staff.  Very few people actually quit because they enjoy working for such a great company.  Most of the employees, including Elaine, feel like they are making a difference and that is another reason why so many stay.  I also asked her what made Forest Lawn different than other cemeteries.  She said that most cemeteries don’t have a mortuary but Forest Lawn does.  They also have support systems and offer help to those that have lost their loved ones.  These services are offered before and after the funeral.  It is basically a one-stop-shop for all your funeral needs and more.  There are also several activities that take place yearly, such as a civil war reenactment on Memorial Day.  It is held in honor of a solider from the Civil War who is buried there.  As far as the number of guests that enter the park on a daily basis, she stated, “There was a time that we were only second to Disneyland as visitors.  It slowed down a bit because it’s hard to get here.  The freeways in California are just ridiculous. But we want this to be a place where people come to.”     

            I then asked her some questions that my classmates suggested I ask during my fieldwork. I inquired about the gravediggers and what their job entails.  She said that they set up the plot for the burial and then have to fill the hole once the body is placed in, however, if the family is still at the grave site the gravediggers have to treat this situation with a little “finesse”, as Elaine eloquently put it.  The gravedigger must go to the family and explain each step in the burial process because some of the machines they use to compact the dirt make loud noises.  If the family appears to be uncomfortable, they will stop the machines and fill the grave with shovels just to make it easier on the mourners. She has had no experiences with the supernatural in the cemetery.  She has heard a couple stories about his from employees at other parks, but not at Forest Lawn Glendale. 

            The last thing I asked her was if there was anyway to relate working for Forest Lawn to Anthropology.  She said that knowing about all the different cultures here is extremely important and part of the training process.  She gave me one example of a woman who was enraged about someone littering on a tombstone near where her loved one was buried.  Elaine briskly went over to the location with the woman and realized that the person was not littering it was a cultural practice of leaving gifts for the dead.  Apparently, in this particular culture, the family will leave cigarette butts on sticks and pour beer and soda on the grave and leave the cans there as a gift offering for their loved one to use in the afterlife.  Knowing these things is very important for employees to understand.

            I thanked her for her kindness and willingness to spend so much time with me.  She assured me that it was her pleasure and she really enjoyed our time together.  We shook hands and she walked with me to the door.  She said if I needed anything else or needed any more information that she would be more than willing to talk again.  Its no wonder Forest Lawn is such an amazing place; amazing people are creating this environment behind the scenes.     

Analysis

When comparing my project to the work of other scholars that have done anthropological research it is interesting to find a number of similarities.  The two best works I have found to compare my project to are: Walter Benjamin’s “The Arcades of Paris”(1999) and Marina Peterson’s “Sound, Space, And The City”(2010).  These two works bring a new spin to looking at my project. 

In the book “Sound, Space, And The City” (2010), Peterson discusses how Los Angeles created a space to unite its diverse cultures through music.  This space is called the Grand Performances located in the California Plaza.  She points out many of the avenues at which Grand Performances has advertised this location in hopes of sparking the interests of the surrounding communities.  By having several music and dance artists perform that represent all different cultures and ages it is the hope of Grand Performances that people will return to observe other shows that might not be part of their culture.  She noted that many people made comments that signify the need for more places like this in Los Angeles.  Little do they know that a place has already been created that brings the diverse groups of Los Angeles together, Forest Lawn Glendale.  This social space doesn’t bring people together through music but through death.  Many people from all walks of life gather together in death.  Family and friends of loved ones all over the park congregate for many social events held at Forest Lawn such as Easter services and candle lighting services. 

Another difference between Grand Performances and Forest Lawn is that Forest Lawn doesn’t have any advertising.  The idea of a “tastemaker” is an audience development project in which advertising is done by word of mouth (Peterson, 2010:60).  This project was put together on the statistic that over 60 percent of all people who attend Grand Performances say they heard about it by from someone else.  This project never ended up taking off for Grand Performances but this idea is the reason why Forest Lawn doesn’t have to do any advertising.  The “tastemakers” are the guests that visit the park daily and share their experience with others. 

While these two spaces have different functions they serve the same purpose, they unite people from different races, ages, and genders in one location.  While at these spaces the cultural and gender differences are overlooked for a time.  Both spaces are free to visit, both spaces provide a form art and both spaces bring people together whom otherwise might not interact at all.     

Walter Benjamin’s article “The Arcades of Paris” states that “an arcade is like a city, a world in miniature, in which customers will find everything they need (Benjamin 1927: 873).”  The arcades, by today’s standards, can be compared to beautiful malls where the living can purchase anything they need.  The cemetery Forest Lawn in Glendale, in contrast, is like a mall for the dead.  This cemetery provides customers with everything they need when they are preparing to die, actually die, and even help loved ones with grief after their death. By reading this article I have been able to look at Forest Lawn Memorial from another perspective.  It has helped bring to light a part of the park that I had not put too much focus on.  While I was focusing on the movements of people and the parks many uses, I had almost forgotten that the main purpose for this place, a final resting place for the dead.  This cemetery is here because the deceased and their families have paid for them to be here.  When you get right down to it, the arcades and this cemetery exist because these places are trying to sell something, the target audience is much different but the idea is the same.

Conclusion

I learned a lot from doing this research project.  I learned a lot of history about Forest Lawn that I had not known prior such as the pure fact that purchasing a cemetery plot ahead of time was a new idea.  In reference to my research topic I learned a lot about how a cemetery is used as a social space.  From my observations cemeteries can be used as a tourist attraction, a place to watch movies, observing art and history, finding a date, smoking marijuana, and of course visiting those that have past on.  From Beverly and David Rios I learned that Forest Lawn has been used as a place to find peace, to get married, to feed the ducks and get chased by them, and a place to worship God.  From my interview with Elaine Williams I learned that Forest Lawn is a one-stop-shop for all your burial needs and helping loved ones recover afterward.  They hold special activities for the community such as civil war reenactments on Memorial Day.  She has observed daily visitors, walkers, bikers, and many more activities that were most don’t think about when visiting a cemetery.

Death is a part of life; rich, poor, famous, or nameless, no one can escape it.  It is important to not fear the unknown, cemeteries are not scary; they can be fun.  It is amazing to me to see that Forest Lawn has not changed much at all since my early youth.  The pond is a bit smaller due to health codes and water preservation, new graves are obviously added on a consistent basis, yet the smell of the park and the peace that I get remains the same.  While my project may not focus on a social space that is specifically important to youth in L.A., memories from my childhood provide the initial clues in understanding how diverse spaces contribute to public life in a city.  Beverly Rios continues to visit this space because she was introduced to it when she was four years old and fell in love.  I continue to visit this space because I came to Forest Lawn often as a youth and this space brings me peace.  When we think of public spaces most think of plazas, parks and malls yet cemeteries should be included on this list. There is much more research that can be done concerning cemeteries and how they are used as social spaces, particularly at Forest Lawn Glendale, however I feel that this is a good start.

Work Cited

Benjamin, Walter, 1999, “The Arcades of Paris” in The Arcades Project. Cambridge, MA:            Harvard University Press. Pp. 873-44

Kath, Laura, 2006, Forest Lawn The First 100 Years.  Bozeman, MT:  Red Bird Publishing.

Low, Setha, 2000, On the Plaza: The Politics of Public Space and Culture. Austin, TX:  Texas      University Press.