In "Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space", Mike Davis outlines the trends of affluent urban areas towards aggressive militant structures and the elimination of accessible public spaces, with the outcome of segregation both by ethnicity and class. Davis points out systems of anti homeless planning in which areas are made unusable for sleeping by through police harassment, seating construction, and aggressive sprinkler systems. The denial of public restrooms, access to clean water, or facilities for cleanliness has been adopted as policy in the seeming war on homelessness, as they both deny homeless people the necessary functions of life, but put them in reach of legal punishment.
The mentality of public planners in LA is reflected in the spaces they create: buildings with increasing and worrying levels of security, the decline of truly public spaces and the increasing catering towards "white collar workers", architecture that embodies archaic classism with turrets and towers. These things are troubling as they convey the hatred and bigotry of post-liberal urban spaces. The people who are affected by gentrification are often the victims of other injustices: intersectionality in a nutshell. In a cruel and humorless way, the working class and the poor who are negatively affected by the aggressive city planning are the ones who make the comfortable life of affluent Urbanites possible.
The piece was both engaging and troubling. Davis highlighted the insidious ways a classist, capitalist mindset can consume a space, translated into aggressive architecture and city planning. It made me rethink the way I view the urban space I live in, and the places I've visited. This is not only a historic issue, this is ongoing. As well as reconstructing areas of prejudice, we must prevent new areas from embodying these prejudices.
I liked how you summed up your last paragraph. It included a small way we can start to make a change. Well said.
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