Our Oasis

THINKING of Los Angeles as a booster city is almost hard to believe; that people were led to the city on false pretenses for the purpose of creating a metropolis leaves me slightly confused. Through my understanding of Starting Points, many ideologies of LA are presented through the history of the great city. The concept of Los Angeles being attributed to as “the New Italy, the New Spain, and the New Athens” seems so cliché in that LA cannot have one cultural disposition, nor can it be defined in any such instance. In regards to that notion, it is a bizarre point to explore because in its early stages of life, the city was illustrated as the great civilizations of said European nations.

Having traveled to many places in Europe while predominantly living in the Southern California area, I have found that this reference to LA having any Mediterranean appeal is completely false and most likely did not emulate any of the aforementioned identities in any of its previous history. Los Angeles has its own culture; more than likely because it was established on an artificial reality. The allure to Los Angeles referred to within the article depicted the city as “the New Eden” which provokes the images of an oasis; a place where everything is perfect yet the irony of temptation and corruption insinuates more of the stereotypes of Los Angeles present today.

In one of the last passages within the text of Starting Points, it is said that since the booster era, over a century has passed and LA is still a destination of settlement and migration. This appeal of Los Angeles began over one hundred years ago, and is still highly present today. At what point in time will people no longer want to venture to the highly polluted city-at what point will people come to the region, see the overwhelming lifestyle, and want to turn back in hopes of finding a new place to call home? It seems as though Los Angeles will, literally, be the “New Rome”. The city will build on top of itself for years to come, and people will flock to the renowned city to live in the oasis and drink from the fountain of youth. Because LA is purely that- LA is a legend. Whether or not the legend is true, well, that’s for us to figure out on our own.

-Chelsea Vogt

photo via publicartinla.com