1. We read about many of Los Angeles' problems. What do you think is the largest problem and what steps should be taken in order to solve it?
2. Los Angeles is one of many urban cities, all with similar problems. What makes Los Angeles different? For example, New York is known for crime, Los Angeles is overlooked and seen as a place that people want to live in not just visit like most urban cities. What do you think the reason is for the overlooking of problems in Los Angeles?
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Answer to question 2:
People tend to overlook crime rates in Los Angeles because of surrounding sites like Hollywood, Santa Monica and the movie industry. New York has a high crime rate and is more densely populated than Los Angeles, but New York is laid out in a much more compact area, rather than the sprawled layout of L.A. L.A brings nice weather, beautiful scenery, close contact to other major cities like San Diego, Long Beach, San Jose and San Francisco. L.A is the focal point of the Film Industry which is very important to many people. L.A consists of neighborhoods like Krenshaw, Inglewood, Compton and Watts which would entice people to leave the city. But, L.A also consists of neighborhoods like Bell Air, Brentwood, Westwood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, and South Pasadena which only draw people into the city. These high crime rate areas tend to be on one side of L.A while the more expensive neighborhoods tend to be on the opposite side of L.A. The reason that people choose to live in L.A is because of the close commute from suburban neighborhoods to the big city. The nice weather draws people in from around the United States, let alone the world. The "Heart" of the Film Industry is located in Hollywood, which is a sub-city of L.A, and that by itself brings people in who hope to get their "15 Minutes of Fame". The location near the beach is another factor that draws people into L.A and surrounding suburbs. Although being located in the middle of the desert and having an extreme water shortage, L.A would appear to be Paradise.
Los Angeles is overlooked because people look at the other things besides crime. People come here for the sites and the weather. In LA there is Disney Land, Universal Studios, the beach, Hollywood, Santa Monica. There is everything to do in LA. It is a big city but it is not compact like New York. Its a different type of city life compared to New York; everyone drives in LA and there is a lot more scenery. In LA sure there is crime like in all urban cities but really people over look those parts of LA that have the major crime problems and look at the nice parts of LA such as beverly hills and laguna beach. People just like the nice things of LA and dont want to believe that there are bad parts of LA.
I think that LA's problem is education. It has the highest dropout rates in the state and probably some of the highest in the country. People will pull their children out of the district in order to put them somewhere else if they can afford to. This leaves the district with the poorest kids, usually minorities. Their schools are under-funded and they don't seem to have much to look forward to in terms of a future for their education and they give up. They may feel pressure by their families to work to help support each other or they feel like an education won't get them anywhere or isn't for them. This mindset should be changed for some positive things to come out of this. Schools should be better funded, although that probably won't happen in CA during this time, and students should have more experienced teachers and encouraging adults to get them more motivated.
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