Reddit reviews City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles

You're asking a pretty big question because it deals with race relations and the way that the city of Los Angeles developed in part as a response to those relations.

The Death of Latasha Harlins is something that was thought to be a contributing factor. A Korean grocery owner believed Latasha Harlins was stealing some OJ. She tried to stop her, a scuffle ensued and then Harlins tried to leave. Du (the owner) got a gun and shot Harlins in the back (and the head).

She was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter which carried a max of 16 years in prison but the judge gave her 5 years of probation, 400 hours community service and a $500 fine.

It was seen as one of many double standards when it came to meting out justice. The King verdict was yet another slight to the African-American community.

You're also dealing with a region in Los Angeles that has had an incredibly complex relationship with that community from the time that the major migrations from the South occured. You have housing covenants which forbid certain homes to be sold to blacks or anyone of color. You have a history of rioting going back to the Watt's Riots in 1965 and people in the community who experienced them still being alive in 1992. Then you have the influence of the Black Panthers and the subsequent efforts by the FBI to undermine the Black Panthers and other groups for being subversive. Gang culture creeps in and changes whole communities. There's the effect that crack has on the community. That drastically changes the relationship many black communities have with law enforcement (and this is a development that has being going on for years before crack).

There are a lot of complicated socio-economic and racial issues that served as kindling for the riots and you could really take at least one course simply on Race in LA (as I did) to understand why the 1992 riots happened at all. I really gave huge broad brushstrokes because you're asking about something that spans the better part of 50 years but the point is that Los Angeles and the Black community have had a simmering and sometimes boiling tension for years and years by the 1992 riots.

This is mostly from memory but I remember one good source of info on the growth of LA and how various forces, races and interests molded the city (and thus how these forces might have impacted the black community in 1992) is City of Quartz by Mike Davis

City of Quartz by Mike Davis is a great historical and sociological look at LA.

City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles https://www.amazon.com/dp/1844675688/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_RedKDb3JTQP7E

I know that xlb place all too well. It's way better to pop in there late night than order delivery.

And, yeah, I was being a bit hyperbolic. I know that I'm not officially the problem since I don't really count here -- certainly don't vote, anyway. It just got me thinking about things. Will I be one of those guys moving somewhere like Brooklyn in a few years? I paid too much for this place. The noise and all that stuff, it's got to go. I hope not, but I understand how it starts and where it comes from, at least in that context.

I like those spots in that Hengshan alcove, but it's tough to do dinner over there for under say 140 a head. Usually we'll spend more. It doesn't feel right considering the type of people you see walking everywhere. And, of course, the security guard who stands at the entrance to keep out the riffraff. If there was ever a personification of those people not having a right to the city, it's every single one of those security guards.

I'm down in Shenzhen now (still maintaining the Gao'an spot for a few more months), so I know that FFC Shanghai doesn't have it all that bad. Talk about the fortress city... Considering how concerned we were about it in Los Angeles, it's something else to come here and see the future through a scanner darkly. (China's awfully good at that, huh?)