Fortress

Today I began to learn what I imagine will be one of the fundamental differences between my previous home of Madison, Wisconsin and Los Angeles, California. The movement of people here is planned. Flows are restricted and cannot be overcome without lots of time or money or both. I have little money and lots of time right now, so I spent the day walking...to blockaded barb-wired pathways, to intersections with no crosswalks, to walls of shrubs, to locked doors at the ends of staircases. I walked to these places because I don't know how to flow. Flowing in this city is an artform, and I am green to it right now. I see the canvas of the urbanscape, but have no paint. I am used to experiencing space as limitless and open, as it exists in Madison. There one can bounce from place to place, with no real anchor point. All is home. My movements here are hiccuped and awkward, and it has affectd the way I psychologically interact with the space. I feel the top-downness of the urban planner. It is clear that fear has been the motivating factor for the development of this city. It is in part its utter Americanness - fear that someone will blame you, the planner, for making a city in which bad things happen to people. I learned that here in LA you will be punished for assuming that space is free. Jaywalking is unheard of, and drivers are quick to remind you of this fact even when they are not impeded. Paths are not necessarily for public movement. To sedate the fear of bad things happening to people, like getting shot or raped or mugged, movement is controlled in a way that makes any transgression obvious and easy to prosecute. It is wholly unorganic. But it is safe. It is also wonderful for the aesthete who prefers clean and neat and tidy and polite. Where will I find transgression here?