Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 8

Old Town Pasadena

Over the weekend, I visited an area I've grown quite fond of over the past several years while visiting my aunt and uncle who live in Pasadena: Old Town. Old Town Pasadena boasts a shopping mall, upscale restaurants, a movie theater, night clubs, outdoor cafes, pubs, and comedy clubs. The architecture is attractive (lots of brick), and there are cute courtyards within Old Town, which gives the area an inviting type of vibe. Every time I go to Old Town, I find that everyone is very happy and friendly as well. Overall, Old Town Pasadena is an appealing place for nearly anyone to go for whatever reason they desire. The following few pictures show the nice architecture of the buildings in Old Town, on Colorado Boulevard specifically.

Due to its many attractions, Old Town Pasadena a popular destination for both tourists and locals. Because I know that shopping can be quite busy in this area, I used SimplyMap, a web-based mapping application for geographic research, to get some data from the 91102 zip code based on "Clothing and Accessories Store Sales". In my research, I found that LA County had the highest value of money spent on clothing and accessories out of all US counties:

I found it interesting that California has three counties out of the top ten highest monetary values regarding clothing and accessory sales in the United States, while states such as New York and Texas have just two counties each, and Illinois, Florida, and Arizona have one county each for high values. Another way to look at this data is within a map, which shows the map of the US in different shades of color to demonstrate the amount of money spent on clothing and accessories in stores in each county:

The map above shows once again that California, as a whole, spent the most money per county in 2011 on clothing and accessory sales (demonstrated by the darkest shade of red). The reflection of this had been my thought going into the research, and the data I found confirmed my theory. However, when I went to Old Town Pasadena, a place that is highly esteemed for its shopping, I was surprised at how few people were making purchases in the stores I went in to observe. I figured that mostly wealthy people go there to shop (or at least people who are willing to spend money on clothing and accessories) and that there would be plenty of people enjoying themselves in the area. But when I went in various stores to observe the amount of people buying clothing/accessories, I didn't find many at all, which was very surprised to me. I assumed that since we are nearing the holidays, it is a new season, and because it was over the weekend, that it would be very crowded. Below are pictures I took in several clothing and accessory stores, demonstrating the small shopping crowd.

J. Crew cash register counter

Small group of people shopping in the women's section at J. Crew

Very few shoppers in Kate Spade

Kate Spade

Very few people in Kenneth Cole

Clearly shown above (I apologize for the messy-looking array of photos; I'm having formatting issues), there were not many people making any purchases in any of the stores I went into in Old Town; it seemed that there were just a small amount of window shoppers and such. After being confused for quite a while (walking in and out of stores) I realized that Black Friday is right around the corner, and that many people are waiting until then to do major holiday shopping. 

As far as types of people go, there is a good amount of diversity in the area: as usual in the LA area, there are homeless people along the streets, asking for money and the occasional performer. For the most part though, the people that frequent the area seem to be middle to upper class that can afford to maintain the lifestyle held in Old Town Pasadena: shopping at high-end stores and eating at nice restaurants, as well as entertainment. Some ideas from lecture tie into my experience in Old Town Pasadena: axes of difference. Social difference has a lot to do with class, and this is evident in Old Town, as class has to do with socially stratified groups, and the main stratified group here seems to be mostly from the same class. According to Marxian definition, classes are determined by what they own. While by this definition, Marx is referring to the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, a more contemporary meaning of "what people own" can be applied to Old Town Pasadena (or any city for that matter), in that people flaunt their wealth by wearing expensive clothing and accessories, as well as shopping in high-end stores and eating at nice restaurants.

Another idea from lecture that relates to Old Town Pasadena has to do with the Marxist view as well, with regard to factories that are now a thing of the past, where offices have taken their place ("pastoral capitalism"). Above several of the stores and restaurants that line the streets here, are offices and apartments. As stated in class, factories still exist today, just updated and nicer-looking (and these offices are nice looking, as stated and shown previously in this post, the architecture is very attractive). We also discussed the city as a tool for reproducing labor, in which employers strive to make their workers think their lifestyle is sufficient in order to keep them working. The apartments above stores is a perfect way to add convenience to workers' lives, as well as keeping employees entertained with the many things to do in the area. Marx's ideas from lecture were based on factories and capitalism in the past, but the concepts still apply today, in a more contemporary and seemingly less-exploitve way.