The Melting Blog

The City of Angels (updated)

Is the east coast media elite finally shedding its west coast bias? It's like all of a sudden, they're casting their sights westward and discovering Los Angeles -- only the second largest metropolitan region in the U.S. mind you -- for the very first time. And they're like -- whoa! -- seeing a unique patchwork of diversity. For instance, last Sunday, the New York Times did this lengthy expose on L.A.'s vibrant Koreatown district as if it's revitalization was just a recent phenomenon (you've been scooped, folks, Le Prive is *so* played out). Until this piece, they probably wrote off K-Town after the 1992 riots as a hotbed of simmering racial tensions.

So it's a good thing that National Public Radio opened up a west coast affiliate last year. Since NPR West opened, their coverage of this corner of the country has improved exponentially. For instance, NPR's Morning Edition this week is airing daily segments on the diverse ethnic quilt that comprises the City of (multi-hued) Angels. Here's a brief rundown (with excerpts) so far:

MONDAY - Inside the Melting Pot of L.A. County

"Speaking several languages is pretty much par for the course in this area (Artesia, CA). According to the US Census Bureau, of the top 40 languages spoken in this country, 39 of them can be heard in Artesia and surrounding cities in LA County. That makes this area one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the country."

TUESDAY - Armenian Teens A Touchpoint for L.A.'s Immigrant Issues

"The school opened almost 30 years ago when the Armenian population of Glendale started to grow. In the late 1970s, war broke out in Lebanon and Iran, and the Armenians from the Middle East flooded into Los Angeles. Today's immigrants come mostly from the Republic of Armenia. They're looking for economic opportunities they can't find in the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet occupation. At Chamlian, Armenian communities that were separated for decades, even centuries, are reunited for the first time. Megan Megasarian(ph) is part of Chamlian's eighth-grade class. Her parents came from Iran. After hearing their story, she says she appreciates the freedoms of America."

WEDNESDAY - Ideology Shifts Among California's Vietnamese Immigrants

"The 23-year-old No recently moved back to Little Saigon after graduating from college. She works for Planned Parenthood and writes a column in the Viet Weekly newspaper. Like Vu Nguyen, she says communism is not her issue. As one of the hosts of a local open mike night for poets and musicians, she says she's putting her energy into creating a thriving Little Saigon.

MS. NO: For the young people who are just growing up and this is the only thing they know, there is a gap. I think that young people need to realize that they need to have a vision of the community, too.

Taylor No says Little Saigon is now reinventing itself, somewhere between an anti-Communist enclave and an assimilated Vietnamese-American suburb."

THURSDAY - Tempo Bar: A Hot Spot for L.A. Israelis

JACK: I come into Tempo since it was--conception. It was that far back.

"1977, to be exact. Years before that, in the early 1940s, Jack's father moved to Israel from Greece to help create the first Jewish state. In 1957, less than 10 years after Israel achieved statehood, Jack took off. He was looking for a wife and a job. He found them and he fell in love with something else: America. Now he's an American citizen. He says he still has feelings for Israel, but he can't love a place so far away."

And for all you NPR junkies who just can't get enough of this, here's a few more links to other similar stories from the past couple weeks. Stay tuned for tomorrow!

UPDATE: Am I prescient or what? Today's NPR segment on Los Angeles is about none other than the now officially overexposed K-Town.

Posted by thomas at August 12, 2004 01:32 PM | TrackBack