Secured Inside or Stuck Outside

 Jesse Ernst

2/2/21

GEOG 101

Secured Inside or Stuck Outside

There is an obvious landscape portrayed in this article, those with privileged space with privatized security and those who are walled out.  The excluded “-predominantly black or Latino-have in turn been sealed off by the police with barricades and checkpoints” (Davis, p. 154).  If this isn't enough, there has been an intentional relocation of the poor and the most needy, low income families. 

Politicians and investors are constantly portraying an image to help the less fortunate and those living in ghettos, but their actions show the exact opposite.  Not only do they not direct resources that would be of great gain to low income areas for parks and suitable housing, they look for ways to capitalize on the poor or remarket slum lands as high security malls where large profits can be made by pushing out the lower income neighbors. Clearly this is not just the white collar politicians to blame. For even the Davis article brought to light how outside investors, globalists, are pushing the economy and the planning commission to encourage confiscation of the lower income areas and capitalize on real estate.  As we discussed in class, that is what capitalism does.  It often wants what others have for less, giving the existing owner little in return or leaving the area with long term environmental casualties.   

Los Angeles, as well as other American cities, has many examples of places where “fortified cells” and “social polarizations” have formed, leaving a “brutal divide” and “places of terror where police battle the crimalized poor” (Davis, p. 155).  Although my personal example is insignificant in comparison, I do recall living near a gated community north of Anchorage with mansion style homes and secured driveway.  I found that it was always awkward walking our dog nearby, wondering if we would be sued or accused of trespassing if our dog squeezed through the fence.  Also, I have heard of homeless camps in Anchorage in city parks being cleared out, and all their tents and possessions thrown into dumpsters.  The people that lived there were for whatever reason were not able to join society in a way that others expect them to.  Driving into Anchorage, people can often see the homeless pushing their stolen grocery carts with their living survival items as mentioned by Davis on page 164.  “The police, lobbied by Downtown merchants and developers, have broken up every attempt by the homeless and their allies to create safe havens or self-governed encampments” (Davis, 164) causing them to have to carry the possessions that they don’t want confiscated.

As I read “Railroad Space and Railroad Time” (Schivelbusch, 1978), I was reminded of how the British Empire was able to colonize almost the whole known world through the new and improved ships and roads. I saw a similarity of how people living in the secure gated communities can now travel quickly from one secured place to another connected to the world while isolating from people in their region.   The ability to cover large distances in a short amount of time and the standardization of time allows people to pick and choose the environments they will participate in.