Culver City Farmer's Market

For my public place, I chose the Culver City Farmer’s Market. In my experience, I found that this space was extremely public because of the variety of people that flocked to this market place. From ancient times to about thirty years ago, market places were extremely public places where all types of people would converge to buy necessary items, mostly food. Recently, however, malls and up scale food markets have been catering only to the rich, creating limited diversity. The Farmer’s Market, on the other hand, had stalls and attractions for almost every social and racial group locating in Los Angeles. There were food stalls from Japan, Germany, Mexico, and Italy for different races while lavender and expensive cheese stalls catered more to the upper class. I saw families with children, couples, and friends in the farmer’s market. Some people went strictly for food shopping while others were wandering around tasting different food and being social. The circulation around the market was very straightforward but the movement around each stall was different creating a unique feel. Overall, the farmer’s market was a highly personal and social experience, one that made me feel more connected to a city that many call detached.

Why be different?

The conflict between public and private space is most prevalent in Los Angeles. Since Los Angeles is a very car and highway based city, public space is often over looked while citizens drive in their own private cars to their own sepratated houses. People believe that it is safer to be in excusive space and are afraid of change. Most people barely interact with each other which creates a highly stratified society even though the city is very diverse. It is hard to find a public place in LA that combines all different circles of society. The beaches are closest thing LA has to a central public place but even they are separated with different sterotypes. Some beaches are considered only for the rich and others are considered to be more working class. LA needs a more public places because some citizens are losing touch with the heart of the city. They are also losing the compasion and pride in the city that they once had. Since LA is also very spread out, people are not exploring other areas of the city. If there was an interesting or exciting public place, I believe that people would travel to places they have never been to expirence something new.

College is still important

My opinion about college changed slightly after information was presented on the topic. The stats that were presented were very interesting because they were opposing my original ideas about finding a job after college. After writing this paper i found that people do not have to have a college education to succed. Having a degree makes life much easier but people are able to teach themselves skills which they can use to find jobs. Some of the readings were quite depressing because the percentage of successful college graduates did not seem very high, constrating the popular belief. Although this information is important to be aware of, it did not change my ideas about the importance of college.