Week 4 - Bel Air

Bel Air Neighborhood 

The Bel Air neighborhood is one of the most infamous wealthy neighborhoods in the country. Spread over a beautiful hill overlooking Los Angeles, the windy roads and personal security building at the front entrance make it look safe and exclusive. Known for its beautiful streets, lush landscapes and gorgeous mansions, Bel Air is one of the most desired neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area.

In lecture this week, we learned about the fourth revolution in which the metropolis city turned into the postmetropolis city - a city that has its own core, periphery and semi-periphery. The segregated areas formed in a postmetropolis city emphasize social differences through a phenomenon called the "carceral archipelago" in which wealthier areas appear "walled-off" in order to discourage the poorer populations from entering them. The carceral enclaves are formed by developing certain types of architecture like large gates and bum-proof benches, limiting public transportation options so that only individual cars can navigate successfully through the area, or staffing a large amount of security to guard the area from any unwanted disturbances.

The roads of Bel Aire have no sidewalks
and very few houses are visible from the street.

  After learning about the "Carceral Archipelago" in Professor Wilford's Lecture Wednesday, I realized how much of Bel Air's architecture made it seem policed and "walled-off." There were no sidewalks, which made it extremely difficult for pedestrians or even bikers to travel safely up and down the narrow, windy roads. The only comfortable way of getting through the neighborhood was by car - no public transportation buses came through. The only type of transportation besides car I saw were tour buses, which cost enough money to discourage any poorer Los Angeles locals from using them. Therefore, only people with enough money to afford either a car or a tour guide could navigate successfully through the neighborhood.There were also "keep out", "private property", "beware of dog" and especially alarm protection warning signs in front of the majority of the houses. Every single house had its own large personal gate in front of it, and most of the houses had either tall trees, big walls, or fences so that their house was not visible from the street.  Finally, there was an entire building at the front entrance of the neighborhood strictly for security. It also fit into "the higher the neighborhood, the more expensive" rule that we talked about in lecture on Monday. Overall, it was the perfect example of a wealthy area separating itself from the lower classes in the area of Los Angeles through architecture and security.

The view of Los Angeles from the top of Bel Air.