The Contested Nexus of Los Angeles Koreatown

In Park’s article “The Contested Nexus of Los Angeles Koreatown”, he argued that ethnic Americans and new immigrants are both influenced by and affect urban development differently in a new era of globalization. He also mentioned the races, ethnicities, classes, and genders issues that have been brought up with the shaping of Koreatown. Lin’s “Encountering Chinatown”, however, focused on the tourism, voyeurism, and the Cinema.

Park and Davis both used specific building in the place they are interested in as examples to support their argument, such as the shopping mall and sport center. I found this method very inspiring, so I going to pay attention to specific spot when I take the field trip.

Also, they discussed the problem of race in both of their article. Park focused on the conflict between Asian and non-Asian. He also mentioned that Korean Americans are a minority (20 percent of the population) in this multiethnic neighborhood. David, on the other hand, focused on the black and Latino’s presentation at downtown LA. The reason why they concentrate on the certain race is that the different characteristic of the place they had picked, which remained me to find my chosen place’s specialty when I do my research.  

Polarization between the rich and the poor is other hot topic that all three authors had mentioned. The idea of physical security systems is a tool to keep wealthy in and poor out in the “City of Quartz” is happen to have a same view with other’s theory. A lot of public places are created to serve the “elite”. They make middle class and lower class feel underdressed, asocial and uncomfortable in those places in order to make this certain group feels superior.

In contrast, unlike the “City of Quartz” and “Encountering Chinatown”, Park’s article used a big proportion to provide the history and background of Koreantown. The essay include the time period of 1970s to 1990s, witch are its expansion, depression, redevelopment and displacement. Since the 1990s, Los Angeles Koreatown has been subject to an influx of South Korean capital producing analogous social and economic conflicts to Lin’s NYC Chinatown.