The ethnic neighborhoods of Los Angeles are unlike those of most cities around the world. We have cultural hubs that are unique to certain groups, such as Greek Americans, Salvadorans, and Japanese Americans, but in most cases these hubs overlap and share space with each other. . We are a positive example of his one answer to the important question of how to live among people with cultural differences. Here, diverse communities live together and maintain their identities, rather than the exclusive enclaves found in many other large cities.
One unusual way to explore the patchwork cityscape is by signposting.
Angelenos are familiar with the cultural sites officially recognized by blue signs throughout the city. They name districts such as Little Tokyo, Little Ethiopia, and Little Armenia. But there are many more signs around town that mark places and locations where the community gathers for ceremonies, shopping, eating, and just hanging out.
An invitation to dance is painted in multiple languages on a utility box on the sidewalk in Glendale, the unofficial Little Armenia.
(Annette M. Kim)
As a professor of urban planning and director of the Spatial Analysis Lab at USC, my team and I have generated data on the millions of words found on store signs, banners, flyers, posters, and more across LA. With little regulation, these signs provide a unique lens into the words and places people choose to mark as their own.
When we categorized words by language and culture, we found that 97 groups express cultural identities in LA County. When they mapped them out, they found that 58 of the groups occupied areas so densely packed that their locations could be considered cultural centers. This means, for example, that while Los Angeles has a formal Chinatown downtown, there are much larger informal Chinatowns in the San Gabriel Valley and suburban Rowland Heights, and a new Chinatown is forming in the San Fernando Valley. I found out that it is.
Importantly, this map shows what demographers have previously noted. Unlike other major American cities, racial and ethnic groups in Los Angeles are more likely to encounter each other because they do not cluster solely around their own race or ethnicity. And it's not just because they happened to be next door. we talk to each other We found that 18% of properties in LA had more than one language or cultural expression on their signage. It is not uncommon to see three or more languages listed on a single sign.
Los Angeles’ sprawl allows different cultures to have their own hubs, rather than generic international districts like Seattle or pan-Asian Flushing in New York. And considering that more than 64% of Angelenos are renters and that Americans move an average of 11 times in their lifetime, these hubs serve as important “third places” – community gathering places outside of home and work. In many interviews about personal geography, it’s common to hear stories of people commuting, sometimes for hours, to reach a place of cultural belonging. We spoke to people who drove from Porter Ranch to Little India in Artesia, or from the desert in Lancaster to the African-American neighborhood of Leimert Park. They go to such lengths because Los Angeles’ cultural hubs are special, distinctive places that fulfill a human need for place, especially given the city’s history of gentrification and forced displacement.
What makes LA special is that these cultural locations are not exclusive. Our map shows that they are usually scattered. Traditionally, immigrants have tended to live, work, and interact in ethnic enclaves that can be cut off from the mainstream economy. The pattern we see in LA is one where people from different cultural backgrounds meet and become close to each other.
We haven't always been this way. For example, in the 1980s and 1990s, California struggled to stave off a demographic cultural shift similar to what we see today in states like Texas and Florida. Citing the federal government's failure to protect its borders, California tried to enforce its own immigration policies with Proposition 187 and banned bilingual education with Proposition 227. Additionally, in the 1980s, three Monterey Park city council members tried to declare English the city's official language and enact an English-only commercial sign ordinance in response to the growing Chinese-American population in the San Gabriel Valley. The issue tore the city apart into ethnic coalitions.
Similarly, in 1980, the City of Pomona passed an ordinance requiring all non-Roman commercial signs to include an English translation in the same font size, in response to the increase in Korean signs in the area. did. In 1989, an Asian American business group filed a precedent-setting lawsuit that resulted in the ordinance being overturned as a violation of free speech and association rights. Importantly, the U.S. District Court also noted that Pomona did not take issue with the Italian and French language signs that unfairly target non-European immigrants.
Public opinion in Los Angeles has changed since then. The existence of multiple languages was increasingly seen as an advantage rather than a threat. Prop. 227 was effectively repealed in 2016 with the passage of Prop. 58. The growth of dual language immersion programs has become an effective strategy for increasing enrollment in the Los Angeles Unified School District and elsewhere. Parents are responding to research showing that learning multiple languages is beneficial for cognitive development.
Still, voter turnout at the state and city level across the country shows that debates over the role of language in public life continue. Statistics show that 32 states and more than 40 local governments have enacted “official English” statutes that ban or restrict other languages.
LA shows that cities don't have to participate in the farce of a color-blind melting pot society or horse-trading between interest groups. Angelenos have come to understand that a unique place of belonging is important to all of us and that our futures are intertwined. Anyone here can see this. Just look at the signs.
Annette M. Kim is an associate professor at USC's Roski School of Art and Design and Price School of Public Policy.
