Inverted Quarintine (Week 5)

This week, I went to walk to visit my friends house at night. As I went to my friends house in Huntington beach, I had to walk through a couple of blocks to get to his home. The walk wasn't bad per se, the sidewalk was rather stable and not bumpy but kind of narrow (wide enough to fit 3 people walking side by side). Cars were blazing by in the night setting, brushing wind chills up against my body as I venture to my friends house. The sidewalks were poorly lit and there were no other people on the sidewalk beside me for the entire 3 block walk.To be honest, I didn't feel quite safe walking to his neighborhood even though the area isn't know to be high crime rate area and I frequent this walk but only during the daytime. Orange county is not much of a walking community, there are side walks but most people prefer their own automobile or the local transportation train.

When I approached his neighborhood, I waited for him as he went outside to open the community gate for me. This was one of two gates that allowed entry into his neighborhood. then it hit me why is there even a gate? whats he afraid of? A speeding gasoline tank running into his neighborhood of  condos and bursting his whole neighborhood in flames?


It wasn't that. the white gate was served more than a practical value, it was also a symbolic value. Asides from protecting outsiders from getting into their high end neighborhood, it also stood for the high class that this neighborhood is.

This was an example of carceral Archipelago. How the urban planning was build to prevent public access and protect urban order for the home owners in that neighborhood. However i feel like this is such an unnecessary measure because regardless of how they construct their gates, they are still part of the bigger community, the town. And they should engage in their community and not allow the difference in class affect their relationships with others in the community.

I did feel much safer inside his neighborhood though. haaha. And i took pictures of his neighborhood as i walked around, and even though it was dark, I felt relatively safe.

The town of Huntington beach also reminds me of the Postsuburban California article in the fact that it is made as a utopia that is marketed as a middle class suburban utopia (like Irvine) and is known to be a Caucasian community that is pretty well off.