How Is or Isn't Los Angeles a Global City - Essay Example

? Los Angeles Globalization The word Globalization is a component of a monolithic procedure of sequential, policy and policy changes, with a number of linked dependencies. This makes it exceptionally hard to separate the effects of globalization from any sector of a country, particularly information technology. In addition, the current period of globalization in Los Angeles would have remained inactive and stale, had it not been for the blazing streak of new initiatives that took place in the IT sector. This revolution opened a new path for production activity, and for the first time in many years, the educational institutions of LA revived. In short, globalization has affected all sectors of LA, including its industry, society and education. Currently Los Angeles is claimed to be the most globalized city in the world. where it lacks in actual numerical population, it makes up for it through its largest non-native population shares. This is the key to the huge impacts that take place globally. Hollywood and everything in between it got hit by globalization. The former historiographer Kevin Starr claims that all sectors in LA impact globally as well. Mike Davis claims that it is the branched income statistical distribution which is the main outcome of globalization. The moving industry picture is a significant aspect of the L.A. economy, which has captured a noticeable part of global control. However, John R. does not consider this as an important fact to declare Los Angeles a global city position, and according to him Northern California has more prominent multimedia graphics impacts. He believes the foreign investment in L.A. has more attention towards low paid, unskilled labor, and is highly focused on the poor state of L.A schools. Globalization has become a turning point for the educational sector in the LA. So much is the impact that now the educational systems in the LA are utilizing new and cutting edge technology in teaching practices. It has utilized the services of both public and private parties, a system called the active social educations. These initiatives are in fact becoming an inspiration for educational systems of the emerging countries, and how educational systems can be improved in spite of the staleness of the system. In this way, globalization is serving as a new initiative for reforms of the various social, industrial and educational sectors in LA. Many authors believe LA fits the picture of a global city for all its attractions, business and tourism facilities. No doubt, Los Angeles is a globalized city, having all necessary ingredients of being one of the great cities of its region. Rodolfo analyzes the position of the three biggest metropolises in the United States to explore what consequence the global economy has had on them. He states that each city, apart from being the largest in the region, each was formulated during a different but significant historic economic construction. New York was therefore known as the "mercantile city," Chicago was an "industrial city," and Los Angeles was known as a "post-industrial city". He then analyzes a number of facts highlighting the height of prominence in the frame of global economy. On the broader context, he considered population and pointed at ethnic diversity, air freight, shipping and foreign trade, the height of control exercised by corporate headquarters, the part of producer and corporate services and the presence of transnational investments as contributory to the process of globalization (John 23). He analyzes that all three cities presented a global significance. Having all fundamentals of enough assiduity of global occasions to equally specify as a global city, he guessed that globalization has fostered or highlighted racial bias and discrimination. His findings highlight the importance of various historical events in making globalization a final process of development of a city. He analyzes that both Chicago and Los Angeles are acutely separated spatially along interracial lines, New York is noted by a checker board consequence and holds a more typical racial composition that is more immune to polarization (VALLE, Victor, & TORRES, Rodolfo 15). Having a look into the past years of the different localities, he ponders that their race differences derived from their political systems. He hints that New York's disposition toward "wheeling and dealing, politics" have employed to race links as well, on the other hand, Chicago's large unions gave confrontational politics, which may have been implemented in ethnic contexts. On the same node, he analyzed that for Los Angeles, the deficiency of political feel protects the dominant class from disarming conflicts before they burst. Should John and Victor be vindicated for not accepting Los Angeles a global city? Is John & Victor actually in error about their opinion? Both sides have their own sets of views and proofs to share. They question the economic structure of the city and its place in the global economy, even if it is called a postindustrial city. Here the other are in a fight with supporters of Los Angeles, who say that the city is a model for postindustrial geography. The critics ask, is it Los Angeles that is causing global economic changes or is the world causing Los Angeles to change? There is evidence to support the critics’ claims as well. Some of the most significant incidences include the 1993 riots, the end of Cold War and the aftereffects of it on the military aerospace industry, the collapse of the real estate market, and the famous cases of O J Simpson and Rodney King. Others include the loss of the two National Football League teams and Rupert Murdoch becoming the new owner of the Dodgers baseball team. Kenny and Curry ask, how come a city with a global influence is so powerless in its own turf? And if Los Angeles is indeed a global city, where is the evidence to support it? First and foremost, they state that Los Angeles was not able to change with times and adapt its aerospace industry to the modern commercial productive capacity, unlike Seattle. The aerospace industry of Los Angeles has been sliding downwards ever since the Cold War, and has provided no significant contribution towards technological advancements in this sector. The same problems were found in the automobile industry, which still work as a branch operation the Midwest. Thus as production is moved overseas, the automotive industry has diminishing effects in Los Angeles. Los Angeles never truly recovered from the effects of the Cold War, and since the nineties a downward spiral has ensued. LA still has a very weak economic hold and control. Los Angeles has again shown extreme lack of interest in some of the most advanced technologies in the world such as computers, semiconductors, software, computer networks and pharmaceuticals respectively. In contrast, San Francisco has retained the financial functions for the West Coast. Finally, the city is suffering from lack of educated class with emphasis on the less educated and poorly paid people. The social services are in decline, and schools and colleges are not in good shape anymore. With such levels and velocity of self destruction, LA will soon resemble a large version of Mexico City, rather than Tokyo or London. Still LA economy has been thriving on the basis of media firms. Local media branches with control outside of the city are not the main concern. What is needed to be recognized is the amount of investment media firms such as Disney is applying. Disney is currently creating its own image through strategic real state buying in all global cities, and has recently acquired the ABC network, thus gaining a very huge share of the television industry. Disney however, is renowned for providing cheap labor to the people which may explain poor city financial statistics. Based on the information, it seems very hard to accept LA as a global directing agent. LA needs to revive its image as well as its economic structure in order to come back in the quest for a global city. LA has in the past decades lost more due to poor planning and insight. It has done very less in trying to improve its state, which is leading to its downfall in social fabric. Only through concentrated effort can LA restore itself. REFRENCES John R. (2006) Urban Theory: A Critical Assessment. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN-10: 1403906599. VALLE, Victor, & TORRES, Rodolfo D. (2000) Latino Metropolis. Minnesota: Univ. of Minnesota Press. ISBN-10: 0816630305 Read More