Rich and the poor, the widening gap. (Los Angeles, San Francisco: apartment complex, rent)

[fastfilm]

Let's get real here.

In the U.S., we all work to enjoy more of the benefits of middle classes' and wealthier classes' rewards, whether for ourselves or for our families. Middle class and wealthy families enjoy, dare I summon the buzzword, enrichment activities at home with their families such as home entertainment, reading, writing, conversing, studies, games indoor and outdoor, etc. Many such families have at home jobs, such as consultation or some sort of brokering, and will do so increasingly more often through telecommuting, particularly as L.A.'s traffic congestion worsens. All of these activities are predicated on a reasonable amount of non-interference from the rudeness of others.

Imagine trying to earn your living with a consultation business at home with a wall of sound coming from the Staples Center p.a. systems. Yet this can found daily in less advantaged neighborhoods, wherein blasting djs and others seem to consider window-rattling seismic output of musics to be just the overcompensation for not having much else in their lives. They are heedless of others' rights to enjoy their own personal environment without that unstoppable interference, and this will never change. So much for living side by side.

[greggd]

Originally Posted by shaKEEn

jtgjr: thanks for the insight. What i want to do is exaggerate the idea of the gap between the rich and poor in order to education the public about this situation. Most of the people who live and work in Los Angeles is not known to this problem. Thanks again for your insight, its intriguing.

Chuckie D: i believe in our generation :-D...

Sorry, but I find this project a bit odd. I suspect you have recently moved here from another country and are not familiar with the City. Correct me if I'm mistaken.

I can tell you that the low income in los angeles are very much so aware of the how the upper income houses themselves and lives. And, upper income is very aware of the conditions low income accepts & perpetuates for themselves.

[BRinSM]

Obviously you couldn't actually build a structure that looks like this, but maybe you could incorporate the idea of ladder that is just out of the reach of the hands of the poor. The ladder is obviously the path to wealth and the hands reaching for it would symbolize the city of LA not being able to offer the education that the poor need to pull themselves out of poverty.

[greggd]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

Obviously you couldn't actually build a structure that looks like this, but maybe you could incorporate the idea of ladder that is just out of the reach of the hands of the poor. The ladder is obviously the path to wealth and the hands reaching for it would symbolize the city of LA not being able to offer the education that the poor need to pull themselves out of poverty.

I think LA offers the education. Its up to the parents and students to apply themselves, weed out the troublemakers with intollerance to their disruptive and wreckless ways, and assimilate to communicate. From what I can tell, there are two problems with LAUSD: 1. More children per household than what the traditional neighborhood schools were designed for 2. children where english is not their 1st language which slows everyone down.

[BRinSM]

All i know is that there are many other big cities in the world with high immigrant and poor populations that don't have the educational issues that we have here. NY comes to mind off hand. Sure there are worse as well, but LA's under 50% high school graduation is abysmal and needs to be fixed. Yes, changes need to be made at home, but we've obviously learned that staying with the status quo has changed nothing. Also, when I say education, I don't just mean education at school. It seems apparent that some people need to be educated in things other than reading and math as well.

Back to the public education system. A friend of mine is an assistant coach for a team at one of the major local universities. He was telling me a while back that they were recruiting a high schooler from one of LA's inner city pubic schools, but because that school had such a poor rating, they couldn't get him accepted into the university. He went on to tell me that regardless of whether this kid was an athlete or not, he could have got straight A's at the particular high school he went to and still had less of a chance of getting into the same college as someone who got B's and C's from a better rated high school (think OC or south bay). This makes the disconnect seem pretty obvoius to me.

[timelesschild]

Well but this is an architecture school project, not a business school or social work school study. For an architecture studio project, you take some idea and give it physical form.

The stated idea here is "missing middle class" and then expressing this idea in physical form. BR has the right idea, expressing an idea in physical terms.

It's a fun exercise.

I'd love to hear what some of you could come up with, since you know the city and its dynamics so well.

[greggd]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

All i know is that there are many other big cities in the world with high immigrant and poor populations that don't have the educational issues that we have here. NY comes to mind off hand. Sure there are worse as well, but LA's under 50% high school graduation is abysmal and needs to be fixed. Yes, changes need to be made at home, but we've obviously learned that staying with the status quo has changed nothing. Also, when I say education, I don't just mean education at school. It seems apparent that some people need to be educated in things other than reading and math as well.

Back to the public education system. A friend of mine is an assistant coach for a team at one of the major local universities. He was telling me a while back that they were recruiting a high schooler from one of LA's inner city pubic schools, but because that school had such a poor rating, they couldn't get him accepted into the university. He went on to tell me that regardless of whether this kid was an athlete or not, he could have got straight A's at the particular high school he went to and still had less of a chance of getting into the same college as someone who got B's and C's from a better rated high school (think OC or south bay). This makes the disconnect seem pretty obvoius to me.

not trying to argue.. So a kid with good grades, an athlete, and obviously athletically desirable - for the school to pursue his application, is not acceptable to a university because of this fellow classmates? That sure is a different story than what I've seen in the past..

In the mid 80s I recall there were just a handfull of students that didnt graduate from my high school. Now, I agree there is a huge % but just look at where those #s are coming from and it explains my prior post.

[BamaTex]

I think your best bet would be a loft building. And not one of those pseudo lofts all the yuppies buy. I mean mean one that is an old industrial building and hasn't been all glamored up. I guess to satisfy the upper class residents you could install top of the line appliances and other amenities though. You could have lower income artists and bohemian types living among middle and upper class. But, you'd probably have to have an application process, maybe even involving a vote among other tenants.

[Prince of Lombards]

Originally Posted by BamaTex

I think your best bet would be a loft building. And not one of those pseudo lofts all the yuppies buy. I mean mean one that is an old industrial building and hasn't been all glamored up. I guess to satisfy the upper class residents you could install top of the line appliances and other amenities though. You could have lower income artists and bohemian types living among middle and upper class. But, you'd probably have to have an application process, maybe even involving a vote among other tenants.

And in the spirit of real life in today's Post-American America, put the rich people in the top lofts, as well as toilets that open into the lower lofts.

[MaggieZ]

It's a great idea but rich and poor will never want to share space. The two groups don't have anything in common. The rich would not want to be seen with the poor and would fear that the poor would steal their stuff. The poor would probably feel out of place surrounded by all the latest stuff. And that's just one obvious difference between the two. The gap is widening because the poor get sick of trying and the rich won't bend.