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LA has adopted an officiai Nightmare, says author Mike Davis. A section of LA 2000: A City for the future considers what might happen if the city faiis to create a new 'dominant estabiishment' to manage its extraordinary ethnic diversity.
LA has adopted an officiai Nightmare, says author Mike Davis. A section of LA 2000: A City for the future considers what might happen if the city faiis to create a new 'dominant estabiishment' to manage its extraordinary ethnic diversity.
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LA has adopted an officiai Nightmare, says author Mike Davis. A section of LA 2000: A City for the future considers what might happen if the city faiis to create a new 'dominant estabiishment' to manage its extraordinary ethnic diversity.
Hak Cipta:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Format Tersedia
Unduh sebagai RTF, PDF, TXT atau baca online dari Scribd
Beyond Blade Runner: Urban Control, The Ecology of Fear
Open Magazne Pamphet Seres, Pamphet #23, Open Meda, New
|ersey, USA, december 1992. Every Amercan cty has ts offca nsgna and sogan, some have muncpa mascots, coors, songs, brds, trees, even rocks. But Los Angees aone has adopted an offca Nghtmare. Mke Davs, author of Prsoners of the Amercan Dream en Cty of Ouartz: Excavatng the Future n LA (1990) shows how ths nghtmare s sowy becomng rea. -- In 1988, after three years of debate, a gaaxy of corporate and cvc eaders submtted to Mayor Bradey a detaed strategc pan for Southern Caforna's future. Athough most of LA 2000: A Cty for the Future s devoted to hyperboc rhetorc about Los Angees' rresstbe rse as a 'word crossroads', a secton n the epogue (wrtten by hstoran Kevn Starr) consders what mght happen f the cty fas to create a new 'domnant estabshment' to manage ts extraordnary ethnc dversty. There s, of course, the Bade Runner ''scenaro: the fuson of ndvdua cutures nto a demotc poy-gotsm omnous wth unresoved hosttes. Bade Runner -'' LA's own dystopc ater ego. Take the Grayne tour n 2019: The me-hgh neo-Mayan pyramd of the Tyre Corp. drps acd-ran on the mongre masses n the teemng Gnza far beow. Enormous neon mages foat ke couds above fetd, hyper-voent streets, whe a voce ntones advertsements for extra-terrestra suburban vng n 'Off Word.' Deckard, post-apocaypse Php Marowe, strugges to save hs conscence, and hs woman, n an urban abyrnth rued by ev bo-tech corporatons... Wth Warner Bros.' reease of the orgna (more hardboed) drector's cut a few months after the 1992 Los Angees uprsng, Rdey Scott's 1982 fm verson of the Php K. Dck story (Do Androds Dream of Eectrc Sheep?) reasserts ts soveregnty over our ncreasngy troubed seep. Vrtuay a rumnatons about the future of Los Angees now take for granted the dark magery of Bade Runner as a possbe, f not nevtabe, termna pont of the and of sunshne. Yet for a of Bade Runner's gamor as the star of sc-f dystopas, I fnd t strangey anachronstc and surprsngy unprescent. Scott, n coaboraton wth hs 'vsua futurst' Syd Mead, producton desgner Lawrence Pau, and art drector Davd Synder, reay offers us an ncoherent pastche of magnary andscapes. Peeng away the overays of 'Yeow Per' (Scott s notorousy addcted, c.f. Back Ran, to urban |apan as the mage of He) and `Nor' (a the poshed back marbe Deco nterors), as we as a ot of hgh-tech pumbng retrofted to street-eve urban decay, what remans s recognzaby the same vsta of urban ggantsm that Frtz Lang ceebrated n Metropos (1931). The snster, man-made Everest of the Tyre Corporaton, as we as a the souped-up rocket-squad-cars dartng around the ar space, are obvous progenes - abet now swadded n darkness - of the famous skyscraper cty of the bourgeose n Metropos. But Lang hmsef ony pagarzed contemporary Amercan futursts; above a, archtectura deneator Hugh Ferrs, who together wth skyscraper desgner Raymond Hood and Mexcan archtect-archeoogst Francsco Mu|ca (vsonary of urban pyramds ke the Tyre tower), popuarzed the comng 'Ttan Cty' of hundred-story skyscrapers wth suspended brdge hghways and rooftop arports. Ferrs and company, n ther turn, reworked aready exstng fantases - common n Sunday suppements snce 1900 - of what Manhattan mght ook ke at the end of the century. Bade Runner, n other words, remans yet another edton of ths core modernst vson - aternatey utopa or dystopa, ve radeuse or Gotham Cty - of the future metropos as Monster Manhattan. It s a fantasy that mght best be caed `Wesan' snce as eary as 1906, n hs The Future n Amerca, H.G. Wes was aready tryng to envson the ate twenteth century by enargng the present (represented by New York) to create a sort of ggantesque carcature of the exstng word, everythng swoen up to vast proportons and massve beyond measure. Rdey Scott's partcuar 'ggantesque carcature' may capture ethno-centrc anxetes about poy-gottsm run amock but t fas to magnatvey engage the rea Los Angees andscape - especay the great unbroken pans of agng bungaows, dngbats and ranch-stye homes - as t socay and physcay erodes nto the 21st century. In my book on Los Angees (Cty of Ouartz, 1990) I enumerate varous tendences toward the mtarzaton of ths andscape. Events snce the uprsng of Sprng 1992 - ncudng a deepenng recesson, corporate fght, savage budget cuts, a soarng homcde rate (despte the back gang truce), and a huge spree of gun-buyng n the suburbs - ony confrm that soca poarzaton and spata aparthed are acceeratng. As the Endess Summer comes to an end, t seems qute possbe that Los Angees 2019 coud we stand n a dystopan reatonshp to any dea of the democratc cty. But what knd of ctyscape, f not Bade Runner, woud ths magn evouton of nequaty produce? Instead of seeng the future merey as a grotesque, Wesan magnfcaton of technoogy and archtecture, I have tred to carefuy extrapoate exstng spata tendences n order to gmpse ther emergent pattern. Wam Gbson, n Neuromancer and other noves, has provded stunnng exampes of how reast, `extrapoatve' scence fcton can operate as prefguratve soca theory, as we as an antcpatory opposton potcs to the cyber-fascsm urkng over the next horzon. In what foows, I offer a 'Gbsonan' map to a future Los Angees that s aready haf-born. Paradoxcay, the tera map tsef, athough nspred by a vson of Marxsm-for-cyberpunks, ooks ke nothng so much as that venerabe combnaton of haf-moon and dart board that Ernest W. Burgess of the Unversty of Chcago ong ago made the most famous dagram n soca scence. For those unfamar wth the egacy of the Chcago Schoo of Socoogy and ther canonca study of the North Amercan cty et me |ust say that Burgess' dart board represents the fve concentrc zones nto whch the strugge for the survva of the fttest (as magned by Soca Darwnsts) supposedy sorts urban soca casses and housng types. It portrays a `human ecoogy' organzed by boogca forces of nvason, competton, successon and symboss. My remappng of the urban structure takes Burgess back to the future. It preserves such `ecoogca' determnants as ncome, and vaue, cass and race, but adds a decsve new factor: fear. Scanscape The current obsesson wth persona safety and soca nsuaton s ony exceeded by the mdde-cass dread of progressve taxaton. In the face of unempoyment and homeessness on scaes not seen snce 1938, a bpartsan consensus nssts that the budget must be baanced and enttements reduced. Refusng to make any further pubc nvestment n the remedaton of underyng soca condtons, we are forced nstead to make ncreasng prvate nvestments n physca securty. The rhetorc of urban reform perssts, but the substance s extnct. Rebudng LA smpy means paddng the bunker. As cty fe, n consequence, grows more fera, the dfferent soca meux adopt securty strateges and technooges accordng to ther means. Lke Burgess' orgna dart board, the resutng pattern condenses nto concentrc zones. The bu's eye s Downtown. Beyond Bade Runner: Urban Contro (1) In another essay I have recounted n deta how a secretve, emergency commttee of Downtown's eadng corporate andowners (the so-caed Commttee of 25) responded to the perceved threat of the 1965 Watts Rebeon. Warned by aw-enforcement authortes that a back nundaton of the centra cty was mmnent, the Commttee of 25 abandoned redeveopment efforts n the od offce and reta core. They then used the cty's power of emnent doman to raze neghborhoods and create a new fnanca core a few bocks further west. The cty's redeveopment agency, actng vrtuay as ther prvate panner, baed out the Commttee of 25's sunk nvestments n the od busness dstrct by offerng huge dscounts, far beow market vaue, on parces n the new core. Key to the success of the entre strategy (ceebrated as Downtown LA's `renassance') was the physca segregaton of the new core and ts and vaues behnd a rampart of regraded pasades, concrete pars and freeway was. Tradtona pedestran connectons between Bunker H and the od core were removed, and foot traffc n the new fnanca dstrct was eevated above the street on pedways whose access was controed by the securty systems of ndvdua skyscrapers. Ths radca prvatzaton of Downtown pubc space - wth ts omnous raca undertones - occurred wthout sgnfcant pubc debate or protest. Last year's rots, moreover, have ony seemed to vndcate the foresght of Fortress Downtown's desgners. Whe wndows were beng smashed throughout the od busness dstrct aong Broadway and Sprng streets, Bunker H ved up to ts name. By fckng a few swtches on ther command consoes, the securty staffs of the great bank towers were abe to cut off a access to ther expensve rea estate. Buet-proof stee doors roed down over street-eve entrances, escaators nstanty stopped and eectronc ocks seaed off pedestran passageways. As the Los Angees Busness |ourna ponted out n a speca report, the rot-tested success of corporate Downtown's defenses has ony stmuated demand for new and hgher eves of physca securty. In the frst pace, the boundary between archtecture and aw enforcement s further eroded. The LAPD have become centra payers n the Downtown desgn process. No ma|or pro|ect now breaks ground wthout ther partcpaton, and n some cases, ke a debate over the provson of pubc toets n parks and subway statons (whch they opposed), they openy exercse veto power. Secondy, vdeo montorng of Downtown's redeveoped zones has been extended to parkng structures, prvate sdewaks, pazas, and so on. Ths comprehensve surveance consttutes a vrtua scanscape - a space of protectve vsbty that ncreasngy defnes where whte-coar offce workers and mdde-cass toursts fee safe Downtown. Inevtaby the workpace or shoppng ma vdeo camera w become nked wth home securty systems, persona `panc buttons', car aarms, ceuar phones, and the ke, n a seamess contnuty of surveance over day routne. Indeed, yuppes' festyes soon may be defned by the abty to afford eectronc guardan anges to watch over them. Thrdy, ta budngs are becomng ncreasngy sentent and packed wth deady frepower. The skyscraper wth a computer bran n De Hard I (actuay F. Scott |ohnson's Fox-Perera Tower) antcpates a possbe genre of archtectura ant-heroes as ntegent budngs aternatey batte ev or become ts pawns. The sensory system of the average offce tower aready ncudes panoptc vson, sme, senstvty to temperature and humdty, moton detecton, and, n some cases, hearng. Some archtects now predct the day when the budng's own AI securty computer w be abe to automatcay screen and dentfy ts human popuaton, and, even perhaps, respond to ther emotona states (fear, panc, etc.). Wthout dspatchng securty personne, the budng tsef w manage crses both mnor (ke orderng street peope out of the budng or preventng them from usng toets) and ma|or (ke trappng burgars n an eevator). When a ese fas, the smart budng w become a combnaton of bunker and fre-base. When the federa Resouton Trust Corporaton sezed the assets of Coumba Savngs and Loan Assocaton they dscovered that the CEO, Thomas Spege, had converted ts Bevery Hs headquarters nto a secret, `terrorst-proof' fortress. In addton to eaborate eectronc securty sensors, a sophstcated computer system that tracked terrorst ncdents over the gobe, and an arms cache n ts parkng structure, the 8900 Wshre budng aso has Los Angees' most unusua executve washroom: Tom Spege's offce, n addton to the buet-proof gass, was desgned to have an ad|onng bathroom wth a buet-proof shower. In the event an aarm was sounded, secret panes n the shower was woud open, behnd whch hgh- powered assaut rfes woud be stored. Free Fire Zone Beyond the scanscape of the fortfed core s the hao of barros and ghettos that surround Downtown Los Angees. In Burgess' orgna Chcago-nspred schema ths was the 'zone n transton': the boardng house and tenement streets, ntermxed wth od ndustry and transportaton nfrastructure, that shetered new mmgrant fames and snge mae aborers. Los Angees' nner rng of freeway-sced Latno neghborhoods st recaptuate these cassca functons. Here n Boye and Lncon Heghts, Centra-Vernon and MacArthur Park are the ports of entry for the regon's poorest mmgrants, as we as the ow-wage abor reservor for Downtown's hotes and garment sweatshops. Resdenta denstes, |ust as n the Burgess dagram, are the hghest n the cty. (Accordng to the 1990 Census, one dstrct of MacArthur Park s neary 30% denser than Mdtown Manhattan!) Fnay, |ust as n Chcago n 1927, ths tenement zone (where an nordnatey arge number of chdren are crowded nto a sma area) remans the cassc breedng ground of teenage street gangs (over one-hundred accordng to LA schoo dstrct ntegence). But whe 'Gangand' n 1920s Chcago was theorzed as essentay nterstta to the soca organzaton of the cty - as better resdenta dstrcts recede before the encroachments of busness and ndustry, the gang deveops as one manfestaton of the economc, mora, and cutura fronter whch marks the nterstce - a gang map of Los Angees today s coextensve wth the geography of soca cass. Trbazed teenage voence now sps out of the nner rng nto the oder suburban zones; the Boyz are now n the 'Hood' where Ozze and Harret used to ve. For a that, however, the nner rng remans the most dangerous sector of the cty. Ramparts Dvson of the LAPD, whch patros the saent |ust west of Downtown, reguary nvestgates more homcdes than any other neghborhood poce |ursdcton n the naton. Nearby MacArthur Park, once the |ewe n the crown of LA's park system, s now a free-fre zone where crack deaers and street gangs sette ther scores wth shotguns and Uzs. Thrty peope were murdered there n 1990. By ther own admsson the overwhemed nner-cty detachments of the LAPD are unabe to keep track of a the bodes on the street, much ess dea wth common burgares, car thefts or gang-organzed protecton rackets. Lackng the resources or potca cout of more affuent neghborhoods, the desperate popuaton of the nner rng s eft to ts own devces. As a ast resort they have turned to Messeurs Smth and Wesson, whose name foows protected by... on many a porch. Sumords, meanwhe, are mountng ther own prvate regn of terror aganst drug-deaers and petty crmnas. Faced wth new aws authorzng the sezure of drug-nfested propertes, they are hrng goon squads and armed mercenares to `extermnate' crme n ther tenements. The LA Tmes recenty descrbed the swashbuckng adventures of one such crew n the Pco-Unon, Vence and Panorama Cty (San Fernando Vaey) areas. Led by a sx-foot-three 280-pound `soder of fortune' named Davd Royba, ths securty squad s renown amongst andords for ts effcent brutaty. Suspected drug-deaers and ther customers, as we as mere deadbeats and other andord rrtants, are physcay drven from budngs at gunpont. Those who resst or even compan are beaten wthout mercy. In a Panorama Cty rad a few years ago, the Tmes notes, Royba and hs crew coared so many resdents and squatters for drugs that they converted a recreaton room nto a hodng tank and handcuffed arrestees to a bood-spattered wa. The LAPD knew about ths prvate |a but dsmssed resdents' compants because t serves the greater good. Royba and hs gang cosey resembe the so-caed matadors, or hred gunsngers, who patro Brazan urban neghborhoods and frequenty, whe the poce deberatey turn ther backs, execute persstent crmnas, even street urchns. Ther common coda s that they get the |ob done a ese has faed. As one of Royba's most aggressve compettors expans: //Somebody's got to rue and when we're there, we rue. When somebody says somethng smart, we body sam hm, rght on the foor wth a of hs frends ookng. We handcuff them and kck them and when the paramedcs come and they're on the stretcher, we say:// Hey, sue me. Apart from these rent-a-thugs, the Inner Cty aso spawns a vast cottage ndustry that manufactures bars and grates for home protecton. Indeed most of the bungaows n the nner rng now tend to resembe cages n a zoo. As n a George Romero move, workng-cass fames must now ock themseves n every nght from the zombfed cty outsde. One nadvertent consequence has been the terrfyng frequency wth whch fres mmoate entre fames trapped hepess n ther barred homes.The prson ce house has many resonances n the andscape of the nner cty. Before the Sprng uprsng most quor stores, borrowng from the precedent of pawnshops, had competey caged n the area behnd the counter, wth frearms dscretey hdden at strategc ocatons. Even oca greasy spoons were begnnng to exchange hamburgers for money through buet-proof acryc turnstes. Wndowess concrete-bock budngs, wth rough surfaces exposed to deter grafft, have spread across the streetscape ke acne durng the ast decade. Now nsurance companes may make such rot-proof bunkers vrtuay obgatory n the rebudng of many dstrcts. Loca ntermedate and secondary schoos, meanwhe, have become even more ndstngushabe from |as. As per capta educaton spendng has pummeted n Los Angees, scarce resources have been absorbed n fortfyng schoo grounds and hrng armed securty poce. Teenagers compan bttery about overcrowded cassrooms and demorazed teachers on decayng campuses that have become tte more than daytme detenton centers for an abandoned generaton. The schooyard, meanwhe, has become a kng fed. |ust as ther parents once earned to cower under desks n the case of an atomc bomb attack, so students today are taught to drop at a teacher's sgna n case of ... a drveby shootng - and stay there unt they receve an a-cear sgna. Federay subsdzed and pubc housng pro|ects, for ther part, are comng to resembe the nfamous `strategc hamets' that were used to ncarcerate the rura popuaton of Vetnam. Athough no LA housng pro|ect s yet as technoogcay sophstcated as Chcago's Cabrn-Green, where retna scans (c.f., the openng sequence of Bade Runner) are used to check .d.s, poce exercse ncreasng contro over freedom of movement. Lke peasants n a rebe countrysde, pubc housng resdents of every age are stopped and searched at w, and ther homes broken nto wthout court warrants. In one partcuary gang ncdent, |ust a few weeks before the Sprng 1992 rots, the LAPD arrested more than ffty peope n the course of a surprse rad upon Watts' Impera Courts pro|ect. In a cty wth the naton's worst housng shortage, pro|ect resdents, fearfu of evcton, are ncreasngy reuctant to cam any of ther consttutona protectons aganst unawfu search or sezure. Meanwhe natona gudenes aow housng authortes to evct fames of aeged drug-deaers or feons. Ths opens the door to a pocy of coectve punshment as practced, for exampe, by the Israes aganst Paestnan communtes on the West Bank. The Half!oons of Repression In the orgna Burgess dagram, the 'haf-moons' of ethnc encaves (Deutschand, Ltte Scy, the Back Bet, etc.) and specazed archtectura ecooges ('resdenta hotes', 'the two fat area', etc.) cut across the 'dart board' of the cty's fundamenta soco-economc patternng. In contemporary metropotan Los Angees, a new speces of speca encave s emergng n sympathetc synchronzaton to the mtarzaton of the andscape. For want of a better generc appeaton, we mght ca them soca contro dstrcts' (SCDs). They merge the sanctons of the crmna or cv code wth and-use pannng to create what Mche Foucaut woud undoubtedy have recognzed as further nstances of the evouton of the `dscpnary order' of the twenteth-century cty. As Chrstan Boyer paraphrases Foucaut: Dscpnary contro proceed* by dstrbutng bodes n space, aocatng each ndvdua to a ceuar partton, creatng a functona space out of ths anaytc spata arrangement. In the end ths spata matrx became both rea and dea: a herarchca organzaton of ceuar space and a purey dea order that was mposed upon ts forms. Currenty exstng SCDs (smutaneousy 'rea and dea') can be dstngushed accordng to ther |urdca mode of spata 'dscpne'. Abatement dstrcts, currenty enforced aganst grafft and prosttuton n sgn-posted areas of Los Angees and West Hoywood, extend the tradtona poce power over nusance (the ega fount of a zonng) from noxous ndustry to noxous behavor. Because they are sef-fnanced by the fnes coected or speca saes taxes eved (on spray pants, for exampe), abatement dstrcts aow homeowner or merchant groups to target ntensfed aw enforcement aganst specfc oca soca probems. Enhancement dstrcts, represented a over Southern Caforna by the 'drug- free zones' surroundng pubc schoos, add extra federa/state penates or 'enhancements' to crmes commtted wthn a specfed radus of pubc nsttutons. Contanment dstrcts are desgned to quarantne potentay epdemc soca probems, rangng from that nsect ega mmgrant, the Medterranean frut fy, to the ever ncreasng masses of homeess Angeenos. Athough Downtown LA's 'homeess contanment zone' acks the precse, f surrea, sgn-postng of the state Department of Agrcuture's 'Medfy Ouarantne Zone', t s nonetheess one of the most dramatc exampes of a SCD. By cty pocy, the spover of homeess encampments nto surroundng counc dstrcts, or nto the toner precncts of the Downtown scanscape, s prevented by ther 'contanment' (offca term) wthn the over-crowded Skd row area known as Centra Cty East (or the 'Ncke' to ts nhabtants). Athough the recesson-drven exposon n the homeess popuaton has nexoraby eaked street peope nto the aeys and vacant ots of nearby nner-rng neghborhoods, the LAPD mantans ts ptess pocy of drvng them back nto the squaor of the Ncke. The obverse strategy, of course, s the forma excuson of the homeess and other parah groups from pubc spaces. A spate of Southand ctes, from Orange County to Santa Barbara, and even ncudng the 'Peopes' Repubc of Santa Monca', recenty have passed 'ant-campng' ordnances to bansh the homeess from ther sght. Meanwhe Los Angees and Pomona are emuatng the sma cty of San Fernando (Rche Vaens' hometown) n bannng gang members from parks. These 'Gang Free Parks' renforce non-spatazed sanctons aganst gang membershp (especay the recent Street Terrorsm Enforcement and Preventon Act or STEP) as exampes of 'status crmnazaton' where group membershp, even n the absence of a specfc crmna act, has been outawed. Status crme, by ts very nature, nvoves pro|ectons of mdde-cass or conservatve fantases about the nature of the 'dangerous casses'. Thus n the 19th century the bourgeose crusaded aganst a argey phantasmagorca 'tramp menace', and, n the 20th century, aganst a haucnatory domestc 'red menace'. In the mdde 1980s, however, the ghost of Cotton Mather suddeny reappeared n suburban Southern Caforna. Aegatons that oca daycare centers were actuay covens of satanc perverson wrenched us back to the seventeenth century and the Saem wtch tras. In the course of the McMartn Preschoo moestaton case - utmatey the ongest and most expensve such ordea n Amercan hstory - chdren testfed about moester-teachers who few around on broomstcks and other manfestatons of the Ev One. One egacy of the accompanyng coectve hystera, whch undoubtedy mned huge vens of dspaced parenta gut, was the tte cty of San Dmas' creaton of the naton's frst `chd moestaton excuson zone'. Ths Twn- Peaks-ke suburb n the eastern San Gabre Vaey was sgn-posted from stem to stern wth the warnng: Hands Off! Our chdren are photographed and fngerprnted for ther own protecton. I don't know f the armes of urkng pedophes n the mountans above San Dmas were actuay deterred by these warnngs, but any mappng of contemporary urban space must acknowedge the exstence of such dark, Lynchan zones where the soca magnary dscharges ts fantases. Meanwhe, post-rot Southern Caforna seems on the verge of creatng yet more SCDs. On the one hand, the arrva of the federa 'Weed and Seed' program, nkng communty deveopment funds to ant-gang represson, provdes a new set of ncentves for neghborhoods to adopt excuson and/or enhancement strateges. As many actvsts have warned, 'Weed and Seed' s ke a poce-state carcature of the 1960s War on Poverty, wth the |ustce Dept. transformed nto the manager of urban redeveopment. The poor w be forced to cooperate wth ther own crmnazaton as a precondton for urban ad. On the other hand, emergng technooges may gve conservatves, and probaby neo-beras as we, a rea opportunty to test cost-savng proposas for communty mprsonment as an aternatve to expensve programs of prson constructon. Led by Hertage Insttute deoogue Chares Murray - whose poemc aganst soca spendng for the poor, Losng Ground (1984), was the most potent manfesto of the Reagan era - conservatve theorsts are exporng the practcates of the carcera cty depcted n sc-f fantases ke Escape from New York (whch, however, got the reatonshp of andvaues a wrong). Murray's concept, as frst adumbrated n the New Repubc n 1990, s that drug-free zones for the ma|orty may requre soca-refuse heaps for the crmnazed mnorty. If the resut of mpementng these poces (andords' and empoyers' unrestrcted rght to dscrmnate n the seecton of tenants and workers) s to concentrate the bad appes nto a few hyper-voent, antsoca neghborhoods, so be t. But how w the undercass be effectvey confned to ts own 'hyper-voent' super-SCDs and kept out of the drug-free shangr-as of the overcass? One possbty s the systematc estabshment of dscrete securty gateways that w use some bo-metrc crteron, unversay regstered, to screen crowds and bypassers. The most eegant souton, accordng to a recent artce n the Economst, s a bo-metrc that can be measured wthout the sub|ect havng to do anythng at a. The ndvduay unque cart-whee pattern of the rs, for exampe, can be scanned by hdden cameras wthout the sub|ect beng any the wser. That coud be usefu n paces ke arports - to check for the eye of a Tam Tger, or anybody ese whose presence mght make securty guards' pups date. Another emergng technoogy s the poce utzaton of LANDSAT satetes nked to Geographca Informaton Systems (GIS). Amost certany by the end of the decade the argest US metropotan areas, ncudng Los Angees, w be usng geosynchronous LANDSAT systems to manage traffc congeston and oversee physca pannng. The same LANDSAT-GIS capabty can be cost- shared and tme-shared wth poce departments to surve the movements of tens of thousands of eectroncay tagged ndvduas and ther automobes. Athough such montorng s mmedatey ntended to safeguard expensve sports cars and other toys of the rch, t w be entrey possbe to use the same technoogy to put the equvaent of an eectronc handcuff on the actvtes of entre urban soca strata. Drug offenders and gang members can be 'bar-coded' and paroed to the omnscent scrutny of a satete that w track ther 24-hour tnerares and automatcay sound an aarm f they stray outsde the borders of ther surveance dstrct. Wth such powerfu Orwean technooges for soca contro, communty confnement and the confnement of communtes may utmatey mean the same thng. The "eighbors are #atching An anxous deegaton of poce offcas from the ex-DDR recenty contacted the LA Poce Department. The former East Germans, faced wth a massve upsurge n crme and ethnc voence foowng Westernzaton, desperatey wanted to fnd out more about Los Angees' most ceebrated aw enforcement personaty. But they were not enqurng about Chef We Wams or hs predecessor Dary Gates. Rather they wanted to know more about 'Bruno the Burgar', the feonous cartoon n a mask, who appears on countess sgns that procam the borders of a 'Neghborhood Watch' area. The Neghborhood Watch program, comprsng more than 5,500 crme- surveance bock cubs from San Pedro to Symar, s the LAPD's most mportant nnovaton n urban pocng. Throughout what Burgess caed the 'Zone of Workngmen's Homes', whch n Los Angees comprses the owner- occuped neghborhoods of the centra cty as we as oder bue-coar suburbs n the San Fernando and San Gabre vaeys, a huge network of watchfu neghbors provdes a securty system that s mdway between the beseged, gun-totng anome of the nner rng and the prvate poce forces of more affuent, gated suburbs. Beyond Bade Runner: Urban Contro (2) Neghborhood Watch, now emuated by hundreds of North Amercan and even European ctes, from Rosemead to London, was the branchd of former poce chef Ed Davs. In the aftermath of the 1965-71 cyce of unrest n Southcentra and East LA, Davs envsoned the program as the anchor of a arger 'Basc Car' strategy desgned to rebud communty support for the LAPD by estabshng a terrtora dentty between patro unts and neghborhoods. Athough Dary Gates preferred SWAT teams (hs nventon) to Basc Cars, Neghborhood Watch contnued to grow throughout the 1980s. Accordng to LAPD spokesperson Sgt. Chrstopher West, Neghborhood Watch bock cubs are ntended to ncrease oca sodarty and sef-confdence n the face of crme. Spurred by ther bock captans, neghbors become more vgant n the protecton of each other's property and we-beng. Suspcous behavor s mmedatey reported and home-owners meet reguary wth patro offcers to pan crme preventon tactcs. An off-duty offcer n a Wnche's Donut Shop was more pcturesque. Neghborhood Watch s supposed to work ke a wagon tran n an od- fashoned cowboy move. The neghbors are the setters, and the goa s to get them to crce ther wagons and fght off the Indans unt the cavary - that s to say, the LAPD - can rde to ther rescue. Needess to say, ths Wd West anaogy has ts dark sdes. Who, for exampe, gets to decde what behavor s 'suspcous' or who ooks ke an 'Indan'? The obvous danger n any program that conscrpts thousands of ctzens to become poce nformers under the offca sogan Be on the Look Out for Strangers s that t nevtaby stgmatzes nnocent groups. Inner-cty teenagers are especay vunerabe to ths fagrant stereotypng and harassment. As an ustraton, et me reate what happened at a meetng of my oca Neghborhood Watch group (n the Echo Park area near Downtown). An edery whte woman asked a young poceman how to dentfy hardcore gang youth. Hs answer was stupefyngy succnct: Gangbangers wear expensve athetc shoes and cean, starched tee-shrts. The od woman nodded her apprecaton of ths 'expert' advce, whe others n the audence squrmed n ther seats at the thought of the we-groomed youth n the neghborhood who woud eventuay be stopped and searched because of ths dot stereotype. Crtcs aso worry that Neghborhood Watch does doube-duty as a captve consttuency for partsan potcs. As Sergeant West acknowedged, bock captans are apponted by patro offcers and the program does obvousy tend to attract the most pro-poce eements of the popuaton. These pro- poce actvsts, moreover, tend to be demographcay or cuturay unrepresentatve of ther neghborhoods. In poor, young Latno areas, Watch captans are frequenty edery, resdua Angos. In areas where renters are a ma|orty, the pro-poce actvsts are typcay homeowners or andords. Athough offca reguatons supposedy keep the Neghborhood Watch apotca, bock captans are generay regarded as Parker Center's de facto precnct workers. In 1986, for nstance, the poce unon routney campagned n Neghborhood Watch meetngs for the reca of the bera ma|orty on the state Supreme Court. The new 'communty pocng advsory boards' estabshed n the wake of the Rodney Kng beatng are hardy more ndependent. Athough the reform commsson headed by Warren Chrstopher crtczed the LAPD's faure to respond to ctzen compants, t faed to provde for eected advsory boards. As wth Neghborhood Watch groups, the board members serve strcty at the peasure of oca poce commanders. When the Vence advsory board, for exampe, dared to endorse a Sprng 1992 baot proposa (Proposton F) crafted by the poce commsson, but opposed by the poce unon, they were smpy fred by the captan n charge of the Pacfc Dvson. The tmorous poce commssoners then refused to ntervene on behaf of ther own supporters. Athough the rhetorc resounds wth poneer vaues fted out of a |ohn Ford Western, the actua practces of the Neghborhood Watch and Communty Pocng programs more often evoke the modes of (ex) East Germany or South Korea, where poce nformers on every bock scrutnze ther neghbors and watch for suspcous strangers. !iniCitadels and $erontocrats When I frst began to study gated communtes n Southern Caforna n the md-1980s, t was a trend argey confned to very weathy neghborhoods or new deveopments on the dstant metropotan fronter (e.g., the areas Burgess descrbed as the 'restrcted resdenta dstrct' or the 'commuter zone'). Snce the Sprng 1992 rebeon, however, dozens of ordnary resdenta neghborhoods n Los Angees have demanded the rght to gate themseves off from the rest of the cty. As one newspaper put t, The 1980s had ther boom n mn-mas; the 1990s may brng a bu market n mn- ctades. Athough crme and safety are the ostensbe ssues, ncreased equty may be the deeper motve. Some reators have estmated that 'gatedness' can rase home vaues by as much as 40 percent over ten years. As communtes - ncudng back mdde-cass areas ke Wndsor Vage and Badwn Hs Estates - race to reap ths wndfa, Burgess' 'Resdenta Zone IV' begns to ook ke a fortfed honeycomb, wth each resdenta neghborhood now encased n ts own waed ce. In most cases, the oca homeowners' assocatons aso contract 'armed response' prvate pocng from one of the severa mut-natona securty frms that specaze n resdenta securty. Obvousy ths ony further wdens the 'securty dfferenta' between the nner cty and the suburbs. 'Empty-nest' househods are especay passonate advocates of restrcted- access neghborhoods, and there s an mportant sense n whch Los Angees s not merey beng poarzed between rch and poor, but more specfcay between the young poor and the od rch. Furthermore, the 1990 Census showed that metropotan Los Angees has the greatest dscrepancy n the naton between househod sze and home sze. On the Westsde and Hoywood Hs, where 'mansonzaton' has been n vogue, oder, smaer Ango househods occupy ever bgger homes, whe n the rest of the cty arge Latno fames are beng crammed nto dmnshng foor-space. Caforna as a whoe s an ncpent gerontocracy, and any post-Bade-Runner dystopa must take account of the exposve fuson of cass, ethnc and generatona contradctons. Three of the state's eadng demographers have recenty gven us a prevew of what the near-future may hod. In ther 'worst- case scenaro', cv war breaks out n the year 2030 after the rung cass of aged, Ango Baby-boomers, vng n 'securty-patroed vages' and confscatng the ma|orty of tax revenues to support ther geratrc servces, mposes an Iron Hee on a huge undercass of young Latnos who ve n ''unt, unpaved barros. Strkes broke out n assemby pants, securty was were set afre and topped, the sae of guns, and ther prce, soared n the edery areas. The younger Latnos panted the edery as parastes, who had en|oyed a the benefts of socety when those benefts were free and now bthey contnued to tax the workers to mantan ther stye of vng. The edery panted the younger Latnos as foregners who were soakng up benefts that shoud go to the edery, as non-Amercans who were threatenng to dute Amercan cuture, as crme-rdden, dsease-rdden, and awess. Each sde prepared for a ast assaut on the other. '' At the end of summer 1992, the Caforna egsature took a gant step toward the reazaton of ths scenaro when t savagey cut the budget for schoos and soca servces. The Democrats captuated to the ntransgence of Repubcan Governor Pete Wson, who repeatedy emphaszed that the underyng ssue s not the current recesson, t s demographcs. Wson, of course, was cacuatng that agng Ango voters (st an eectora ma|orty) were not wng to support the tradtona hgh standards of Caforna pubc educaton now that the schoos were fu of Latno and Asan chdren. The budget vote, thus, effectvey ratfed two, unequa ters of ctzenshp and enttement. %arallel Uni&erses Burgess and hs students, who took 1920s Chcago as a vast research aboratory, never had any doubts about the 'raw reaty' of the phenomena that they were systematcay studyng. Emprca method was matched to emprca reaty. The mage or mythography of the cty dd not ntervene as a sgnfcant stratum n ts own rght. Nor dd the Chcago Schoo pay any attenton to the crtca roe of the Coumban Exposton as an dea-type for the cty's panned deveopment. Athough the 1892 and 1933 Chcago Word's Fars were theme parks avant a ettre, urban socoogy coud not yet make conceptua space for the cty as smuaton. Today there s no way around the probem. The contemporary cty smuates or haucnates tsef n at east two decsve senses. Frst, n the age of eectronc cuture and economy, the cty redoubes tsef through the compex archtecture of ts nformaton and meda networks. Perhaps, as Wam Gbson suggests, 3-dmensona computer nterfaces w soon aow post- modern faneurs (or 'consoe cowboys') to stro through the umnous geometry of ths mnemonc cty where data-bases have become 'bue pyramds' and 'cod spra arms'. If so, urban cyberspace - as the smuaton of the cty's nformaton order - w be experenced as even more segregated, and devod of true pubc space, than the tradtona but cty. Southcentra LA, for nstance, s a data and meda back hoe, wthout oca cabe programmng or nks to ma|or data systems. |ust as t became a housng/|obs ghetto n the eary twenteth century ndustra cty, t s now evovng nto an eectronc ghetto wthn the emergng nformaton cty. Secondy, soca fantasy s ncreasngy emboded n smuacra andscapes - theme parks, 'hstorc' dstrcts and mas - that are parttoned off from the rest of the metropos. A the post-modern phosopher kngs (Baudrard, Eco, etc), of course, agree that Los Angees s the word capta of 'hyper- reaty'. Tradtonay ts ma|or theme parks have been prmary archtectura smuatons of the moves or teevson. At the od Seg Zoo, for nstance, you coud enter the |unge set for Tarzan. whe at Knotts Berry Farm or ts Caco ghost town you coud partcpate n a typca Western. Dsneyand, of course, opened the gates to the 'Magc Kngdom' of cartoon creatures and carcatured hstorca bographes. Today, however, the cty tsef - or rather ts deazaton - has become the sub|ect of smuaton. Wth the recent decne of the mtary aerospace ndustry n Southern Caforna, the toursm/hote/entertanment sector has become the snge argest regona empoyer. But toursts are ncreasngy reuctant to venture nto the perceved dangers of Los Angees' 'urban |unge'. As one MCA offca recenty companed: There's somebody on every street corner wth a Work for Food' sgn, (and the cty) s not fun anymore. MCA and Dsney beeve the souton s to recreate vta bts of the cty wthn the secure confnes of fortress hotes and waed theme parks. As a resut, artfca Los Angees s graduay comng nto beng. In essence, t s an archpeago of we-guarded corporate cashponts where affuent toursts can reax, spend ots of money, and have 'fun' agan. A argey nvsbe army of ow-wage servce workers, who themseves ve n vrtua bantustans ke the Santa Ana barro (Dsneyand) or Lennox (LAX) barros, keep the machnery of smuaton runnng smoothy. Because these smuated andscapes compete wth one another over 'authentcty', some strange daectcs ensue. Smuatons tend to copy not ther 'orgna' (where that even exsts), but one another. Consder, for exampe, the mutpe or exponentazed hyper-reates nvoved n the corporate battes to monopoze 'Hoywood'. Holly'ood(s): %o'ers of Si*ulation For the ast seventy-fve years there has been an uneasy ft between move- made Hoywood gamour and the dowdy Hoywood dstrct. Move stars, of course, have never ved n the tenement fatands, and most of the bg studos moved ong ago to the suburbs. The actua Hoywood of the 1930s was best descrbed by Nathana West: home of the 'fea peope' the extras, aborers, grps and faed starets. The Hoywood n the magnaton of the word's move pubc, therefore, was kept tenuousy anchored to ts namesake ocaton by reguar rtuas (premeres, the Academy Awards, etc.) and the magca nvestment of a dozen or so paces (the Bow, Graumann's, etc.) as tourst shrnes. But over the ast generaton, as the rea Hoywood has become a hyper-voent sum, the rtuas have ceased and the magc has waned. As the nkages between hstorc sgnfer and ts sgnfed decayed, the opportunty arose to resurrect Hoywood n a safer neghborhood. Thus n Orando, Dsney created a stunnng Art Deco mrage of MGM's goden age, whe arch-compettor MCA countered wth ts own deazed versons of Hoywood Bouevard and Rodeo Drve at Unversa Studos Forda. Meanwhe, the eopement of Dsney and Hoywood to Forda further depressed rea-estate back n rea-tme Hoywood. After btter battes wth oca homeowners, the ma|or andowners were abe to wn cty authorzaton for a $1 bon faceft of Hoywood Bouevard. In ther scheme, the Bouevard woud be transformed nto a gated, near theme park, anchored by mega- entertanment compexes at each end. But whe the redeveopers were st negotatng wth potenta nvestors, MCA pued the rug out from under Hoywood Redux wth the announcement that ts nearby tax-dodge encave, Unversa Cty, woud construct a parae urban reaty caed 'CtyWak'. Desgned by master usonst |on |erde, CtyWak s an 'deazed reaty', the best features of Overa Street, Hoywood and the West Sde syntheszed n easy, bte-szed peces for consumpton by toursts and resdents who don't need the exctement of dodgng buets ... n the Thrd Word country that Los Angees has become. CtyWak ncorporates exampes of Msson Revva, Deco, streamned Moderne, and `LA Vernacuar' (the Brown Derby), as we as 3-D bboards, a huge bue Kng Kong hangng from a 70-foot neon totem poe, and a sherff's substaton for securty. To aevate the sense of artfcaty n ths meange, a 'patna of age' and a 'dash of grt' have been added: Usng decoratve seght of hand, the desgners pan to wrap the brand new street n a coak of nstant hstory - on openng day, some budngs w be panted to suggest that they have been occuped before. Candy wrappers w be embedded n the terrazzo foorng, as f dscarded by prevous vstors. Hoywood redeveopers mmedatey responded to constructon of CtyWak wth a $4.3 mon beautfcaton pan that ncudes pavng Hoywood Bvd. wth 'gtz' made from recyced gass. But even spruced up and gtzfed there s amost no way that the od Bouevard can compete wth the hyper-rea perfecton on Unversa's h. As ts MCA propretors have taken pans to emphasze, CtyWak s not a ma but a revouton n urban desgn ... a new knd of neghborhood - an urban smuator. Indeed, some crtcs wonder f t sn't the mora equvaent of the neutron bomb: the cty empted of a ved human experence. Wth ts fake foss candy wrappers and other decets, CtyWak sneerngy mocks us as t erases any trace of our rea |oy, pan or abor. The To+ic Ri* Where does the nghtmare end? Burgess was not greaty nterested n urban boundares. Hs Chcago dart board smpy fades nto the `commuter zone' and, beyond, nto the Corn Bet. The cty mts of Dystopa, however, are an ntrnscay fascnatng probem. In Bade Runner, t w be recaed, the dark megaopos mprobaby yeded, at ts outer edge, to Ecotopa - evergreen forests and boundess wderness. No such happy endng w be possbe n the comng Los Angees of 2019. Post-modern geographer Edward So|a has observed that Southern Caforna s aready bounded, aong an amost unbroken desert permeter, by huge mtary ar bases, bombng ranges and desert warfare reservatons. Now a second, equay omnous crcumference ceary s beng drawn around ths Pentagon desert. Chokng on ts own wastes, wth ts andfs overfowng and ts coasta waters pouted, Los Angees s preparng to export ts garbage and hazardous and-uses to the Eastern Mo|ave and Ba|a Caforna. Instead of reducng ts producton of dangerous waste, the cty s smpy pannng to 'regonaze' ther dsposa. Ths emergent Toxc Rm ncudes gant andfs at Eage Mountan (the former Kaser open-pt ron mne) and possby near Adeanto (defunct Ar Force base), the controversa radoactve waste dump n Ward Vaey near Needes, and the reocaton of such poutng ndustres as furnture manufacture and meta-patng to T|uana's maquadora bet. The envronmenta consequences may be amost catastrophc. The proposed 300,000 barres of nucear waste, for exampe, n the unned trenches of the Ward Vaey nucear dump w reman etha for 10,000 years. They w pose the perenna rsk of eakng radoactve trtum nto the nearby Coorado Rver, thereby posonng the rrepaceabe water source for much of Southern Caforna. For ts part, the mmense andf at Eage Mountan - 2.5 mes ong, 1 me wde, and 2,000 feet deep - w not ony contamnate the water tabe but aso create a toxc shroud of ar pouton over much of eastern Rversde County. Meanwhe, the fght of hazardous ndustres across the Border, eventuay ncudng a arge segment of Los Angees' petrochemca producton, w ncrease the possbty of Bhopa-ke catastrophes. In sum, the formaton of ths waste-bet w acceerate the envronmenta degradaton of the entre Amercan West (and part of Mexco). Today a thrd of the trees n Southern Caforna's mountans aready have been suffocated by smog, and anma speces are rapdy dyng off throughout the pouted Mo|ave Desert. Tomorrow, Los Angees' radoactve and carcnogenc wastes may be kng fe as far away as Utah or Sonora. The Toxc Rm w be a zone of extncton. Before 'e #a,e--- Fnay, eavng behnd a the Burgessan dagrams and anaoges, what w be the rea fate of Los Angees? Can emergent technooges of surveance and represson stabze cass and raca reatons across the chasm of the new nequaty? W the ecoogy of fear become the natura order of the 21st- century Amercan cty? W razor-wre and securty cameras someday be as sentmentay redoent of suburban fe as whte-pcket fences and dogs named Spot? A goba perspectve may be usefu. Los Angees n 2019 w be the core of a metro-gaaxy of 22-24 mon peope n Southern and Ba|a Cafornas. Together wth Tokyo, Sao Pauo, Mexco Cty, and Shangha, t w comprse a new evoutonary form: mega-ctes of 20-30 mon nhabtants. It s mportant to emphasze that we are not merey takng about arger specmens of an od, famar type, but an absoutey orgna, and unexpected, phya of soca fe. No one knows, n fact, whether physca and boogca systems of ths magntude and compexty are actuay sustanabe. Many experts beeve that the Thrd Word mega-ctes, at east, w eventuay precptate envronmenta hoocausts and/or mpode n urban cv wars. Indeed, the contemporary `New Word Order' certany offers enough grm exampes of tota soceta dsntegraton - from Bosna to Somaa - to underscore reastc fears of a mega-cty apocaypse. If Tokyo proves an excepton, despte nevtabe natura dsasters, t w ony be by dnt of extraordnary eves of pubc nvestment, prvate affuence and soca dscpne (and because |apan s cuturay a hghy urban rather than suburban socety). In the recent past, however, Los Angees has begun to resembe Sao Pauo and Mexco Cty more than post-modern Tokyo-Yokohama. It may be theoretcay possbe, of course, for a Democratc admnstraton n Washngton over the next decade to begn to reverse Amercan urban decay wth massve new pubc works. But t w reman extraordnary dffcut to secure Congressona support for renvestment n the Bos-Wash and Southern Caforna urban cores as ong as the Reagan-era defct remans the domnant ssue n domestc potcs. Indeed the prncpa egacy of the Perot movement - the most successfu eectora nsurgency n 75 years - may be precsey the fsca Gordan knot t has managed to te around any resouton of the urban crss. If hopes of urban reform, now guardedy rased by the Cnton andsde, are once agan dashed, t w ony acceerate the dystopc tendences descrbed n ths pamphet. For n the specfc case of Los Angees, where recesson has aready wped out a ffth of the regon's manufacturng |obs, there s tte prvate-sector hep n sght. Even the most tradtonay optmstc busness- schoo econometrc modes now predct a 'Texas-stye' regona sump astng unt 1997, whe forecasters at the Southern Caforna Assocaton of Governments tak about steady-state unempoyment rates of 10-12 percent for the next twenty years. As the goden dream wthers, so aso may fath n non-voent soca reform. If ast year's rots set a precedent, anomc neghborhood voence may begn to be transmuted nto more organzed potca voence. Both cops and gangmembers aready tak wth chng matter-of-factness about the nevtabty of some manner of urban guerra warfare. And n spte of a the new resdenta was and scanscapes - even the future poce eye n the sky - sprawng Los Angees s a metropos unquey vunerabe to strategc sabotage. As the exampes of Befast, Berut and, more recenty, Paermo and Lma have demonstrated, the car bomb s the weapon of anonymous urban terror par exceence (or, as one counter-nsurgency expert once put t, the poor man's substtute for an arforce). Car bombs have reduced haf of Berut to debrs, wped out a neghborhood known as 'Lma's Bevery Hs', and massacred Itay's most heavy guarded pubc offcas. If the Brtsh Army, unquey, was fnay abe to prevent car bombers from enterng Befast, t was ony after years of effort and the constructon of an mmense securty cage around the entre cty center. A comparabe preventatve effort n Los Angees - e.g. cosng the freeways and heavy fortfyng a the pubc uttes, o refneres and ppenes, and commerca centers - woud not ony cost tens of bons but aso dssove the cty as a functonng entty. The Los Angees freeway system, n effect, guarantees to the future urban terrorst what the tropca ranforest or Andean peak offers to the rura guerrero: dea terran. If we contnue to aow our centra ctes to degenerate nto crmnazed Thrd Words, a the ngenous securty technoogy, present and future, w not safeguard the anxous mdde cass. The sound of that frst car bomb on Rodeo Drve or n front of Cty Ha w wake us from our mere bad dream and confront us wth our rea nghtmare.