Blogging Social Difference: Week 2

On Tuesday, I went to  3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica with a couple of friends. I’ve been there on several occasions during my time at UCLA, but I’ve never paid particular attention to the aesthetic details of the area before. In the center of the street (or walkway), there are several large dinosaur bush sculptures that are also fountains. The whole street is paved and blocked off from cars driving through. The buildings are quite diverse; there are a few newer buildings built around the old ones (like the old movie theater). There are a variety of businesses: sit-down restaurants (with types of food that range from hamburgers to frozen yogurt to crepes), clothing stores, shoe stores, a movie theater, etc. And on top of all of that, there are kiosks selling even more all down the center.

The types of people I saw there are also pretty diverse. I noticed that most of the people shopping in clothing stores were women, a lot of them probably between the ages of fifteen and fifty (I was among them). There were families, groups of friends, individuals. I saw a few homeless people sitting in the shade or lying next to a wall to get away from the cool wind. There were people of several races and ethnicities. One group of people that I’m always interested to see when I go to 3^rd Street is the street performers. A lot of times I find myself impressed by their musical or physical talents and want to watch their performances.

Something I thought about while I was in Forever 21 shopping for clothes was specialization. After the class in the Metropolitan LA class I took last quarter where we talked about how much money goes into (or out of) each stage of production, I found myself doing a little analysis of how much the shirt I bought cost and what went into making it. It’s interesting to think about how (knowingly or not) we need the people who sew the clothes we buy and wear. And following that idea, our little definition of “division of labor” came into mind. In order for these shops and restaurants to stay in business, they need people to operate the place (i.e. waiters, hosts, cashiers, sales associates), but they also need us: the consumers. We all have “different, but integrated” roles in keeping a business, or business district even, alive.

Santa Monica really is an interesting place to visit. Once you hit the end of the promenade (opposite the end that touches Santa Monica Blvd.), there’s a fairly new 3^rd Street mall. I ate lunch in the food court there and noticed the difference in the kinds of people I saw in the mall compared to those I saw walking around the promenade. The mall is full of high-end stores like Burberry, Louis Vuitton, and Tiffany & Co., so the clientele sort of fits that. Most of the people were white, and were dressed up a little more. The whole atmosphere of my surroundings literally changed just from crossing the street between the mall and the promenade. It was almost strange.

Anyway, I think a place like the 3^rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica is a neat place to observe today’s culture. You can find people there who are looking to make some money (the employees, the street performers, and even the occasional beggar), and those who are looking to spend some money (the shoppers and the eaters). There is a mix of ages, ethnicities, and financial backgrounds. It’s remarkable to find so many different people in one place.