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The significance of zones and boundaries in the urban community with special reference to the Los Angeles Area
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The significance of zones and boundaries in the urban community with special reference to the Los Angeles Area
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Content
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF
ZONES AND BOUNDARIES IN AN URBAN GOMIIUNITY
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE LOS ANGELES AREA
A The s i s
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of Sociology
University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
by
Kenneth LeRoy Holst
May 1935
UMI Number: EP71189
All rights reserved
INFORMATION TO ALL USERS
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a note will indicate the deletion.
UMI
Dissertation R jblishing
UMI EP71189
Published by ProQuest LLC (2015). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author.
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unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code
uesf
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T his thesis, w ritte n under the d ire ctio n o f the
candidate’s F a c u lty C om m ittee and approved by
a ll its members, has been presented to and ac
cepted by the C oun cil on G raduate S tu d y and
Research in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t of the require
m ents fo r the degree of
Master of Arts
Dean
Date Ju n e* ..! .? .? .? .
Faculty Committee
man
TABLE OF GONTEÎÎTS
Part I
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE APPROACH..................... . . . . 5
II. NATURAL AREAS. . ..................... 9
III. THE NEIGHBORHOOD . ............. 20
IV. THE COMWNITY............... 29
Part II
V. THE DETERMINATION OF ZONES AND BOUNDARIES
OF PUBLIC OPINION. . .................... 39
VI. CONCLUSION ........ ........... ... 43
PART
CHAPTER I
THE APPROACH
The definition of ecology has been given as "that
phase of biology that considers plants and animals as they
exist in nature, and studies their interdependence, and
the relation of each kind and individual to its environ
ment." This definition, however, is not sufficiently
comprehensive to include all the elements that logically
fall within the range of human ecology. Human ecology may
be defined as a study of the spatial and temporal relations
of human beings as affected by the selective, distributive,
and accommodative forces of the environment# Human
ecology is fundamentally interested in the effect of posi
tion, in both time and space, upon human institutions and
human behavior. "Society is made up of individuals spa
tially separated, territorially distributed and capable of
2
independent locomotion." These spatial relationships of
human beings are the product of competition and selection.
1
R. D. McKenzie, "The Ecological Approach to the
study of the Human Community," R. E. Park, et* al., The
City, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1925)
pp# 63-64.
2
R. E. Park and S. W, Burgess, Introduction to the
Science of Sociology. (Chicago : University of Chicago
Press , lW^4T p. 509.
4
and are continuously in process of change as new factors
enter to disturb the competitive relations or to facili
tate mobility. Human institutions and human nature itself
become accommodated to certain spatial relationships of
human beings. As these spatial relationships change, the
physical basis of social relations is altered, thereby
producing social and political problems.
The human community has its inception in the traits
of human nature and the needs of human beings. Man is a
gregarious animal; he cannot live alone; he is relatively
weak and needs not only the company of other human asso
ciates, but shelter and protection from the elements as
well.
The size and stability of the human community is,
however, a function of the food supply and of the role
played in the wider ecological processes of production
and distribution of commodities. When man makes his living
from hunting or fishing, the community is small and of but
temporary duration; when agriculture becomes the chief
source of making a living, the community is still small,
but assumes a more permanent character; when trade and
commerce develop, larger communities arise at points of
break in conveyance; that is, at the mouths of rivers,
junctions of streams, at waterfalls, and shallows where
4V"
streams «afforded. As new forms of transportation arise.
new points of concentration occur and old points become
accentuated or reduced. Again, as goods for trade are made
in communities, still other points of concentration come
into existence, determined largely by sources of power and
raw material.
Prom the standpoint of ecology, communities may be
divided into four general types : first, the primary ser
vice community, such as the agricultural town, the fishing,
mining, or lumbering community which serves as the first
step in the distributive process of the outgoing basic
commodity and as the last stage in the distributive process
of the product finished for consumption.
The next type of community is that which collects
the basic materials from the surrounding primary communi
ties and distributes them in the wider markets of the
world. This may be called the secondary service community.
Conversely, it redistributes the products coming from other
parts of the world to the primary service communities for
final consumption.
The third type of community is the industrial town.
It serves as the locus for the manufacturing of commodities.
In addition^it may combine the functions of the primary
service and the commercial types. It may have its local
trade area and it may also be the distributing center for
6
the surrounding hinterland.
The fourth type of community is one which is lack
ing in a specific economic base. It dravirs its economic
sustenance from other parts of the world, and may serve
no function in the production or distribution of commodi
ties. Such communities are illustrated in recreational
resorts, political and educational.centers, communities of
defense, penal or charitable colonies.
In. the process of community growth there is a de
velopment from the simple to the complex, from the general
to the specialized; first to increasing centralization and
later to a decentralization process. In the small town or
village, the primary universal needs are satisfied by a
few general stores and a few simple institutions such as
church, school and home. As the community increases in
size, specialization takes place both in type of service
provided and in the location of the place of service.
The "axial or skeletal" structure of a community is
determined by the course of the first routes of travel and
traffic. Houses and shops are constructed near the road,
usually parallel with it. The road may be a trail, public
highway, railroad, river or ocean harbor^ but in any case,
the community usually starts in parallel relation to the
first main highway. With the accumulation of population
and utilities the community takes form, first along one side
7
of the highway, and later on both sides. The point of junc
tion or crossing of two main highways, as a rule, serves as
the initial center of the community.
From this point residences and institutions spread
out in centrifugal fashion, while business concentrates
more and more around the spot of highest land values. By
the time the community has reached a population of about
ten or twelve thousand, a fairly well differentiated struc
ture is attained. The central part is a clearly defined
business area with the bank, the drugstore, the department
store, and the hotel holding the sites of highest land value.
Industries and factories usually comprise independent for
mations within the city, grouping around railroad tracks and
routes of water traffic. Residence sections become estab
lished, segregated into two or more types, depending upon
racial composition of the population.
But more of this development will be discussed in
Part I, under the chapter headings: "Natural Areas", "The
Neighborhood" and "The Local Community". In this study we
have used the connotation "city" to apply to the urban area,
with special reference to the Los Angeles area. The city
is made up of the smaller communities, which have been des
ignated as such.
Part I of this thesis consists of a theoretical
8
study of the ecological problem, while Part II presents the
findings from a study of the Mobility of Public Opinion in
certain sections of the area which "cut across" established
zones and boundaries. Our findings are presented herewith.
CHAPTER II
NATURAL AREAS
To the one who is philosophically minded, the city
has often seemed to be the most colossal product of man*s
creation. Prom the towering sky scrapers of a New York or
a Chicago with their palatial banking houses, the stock
exchange where millions are made and lost over night, its
ceaseless streams of automobiles and busses, shops and
hotels, to their underground tubes with their roaring trains
or elevated railroads with their eternal racket, miles of
canyon-like streets lined with tall apartments, magnificent
park and boulevard systems, water works that would make the
Roman aqueducts look like irrigation streams--all in all,
the city seems but an artificial flower, a product not alone
of man * s brawn, but of man's brain and man's will.
But as the years have come and gone there have been
studies made of the city, which studies arrived at the con
clusion that the city is a natural phenomenon, and that it
has a natural history. Meantime realtors, public utilities,
city planning and zoning commissions, and others interested
in predicting the future of the city were discovering much
about the way in which the city grows. Recent statistical
studies of the American Bell Telephone Company and other
utilities for the purpose of extension, in anticipation of
future service, are most instructive. The city is discover-
10
ed to be an organization displaying certain typical pro
cesses of growth. Knowledge of those processes makes
possible prediction of the direction, rate and nature of
its growth.
In an address in 1922, before the meeting at which
the Russell Sage Foundation's proposal for a regional plan
for metropolitan New York was first outlined, Elihu Root
recognized the fact of natural organization when he said,
"A city is a growth. It is not the result of political
decrees or control. You may draw all the lines you please
between counties and states; a city is a growth responding
to forces not at all political, quite disregarding politi
cal lines. It is a growth like that of a crystal respond
ing to forces inherent in the atoms that make it up."
In the ten years that have elapsed since Elihu Root
wrote these words, a mass of material about the city has
been gathered and analyzed that enables us to describe
these "atoms" to which he referred.
Studies of the expansion of the city have shown
that all American cities exhibit certain typical processes
in their growth.
To begin with, they segregate into broad zones as
they expand radically from the center--a 'loop' or
central business district, a zone of transition be
tween business and resident^ an invasion by business
and light manufacturing, involving physical deteriora
tion and social disorganization; a zone of working
men's homes, cut through by rooming house districts
11
along local lines of transportation; a zone of
apartments and restricted districts of single family
dwellings; and farther out, beyond city limits, a
commuter's zone of suburban areas. Ideally, this
gross segregation may be represented by a series of
concentric circles, (as illustrated in Chart I) and
such tends to be the actual fact where there are no
complicating geographical factors.
Such is a general description of the gross anatomy
of the city— the typical structure of a modern Ameri
can commercial and industrial city. Of course, no
city quite conforms to this ideal scheme. Physical
barriers such as rivers, lakes, and rises of land
may modify the growth and structure of the individual
city, as is strikingly demonstrated in the cases of
New York, Pittsburgh and Seattle, Railroads, with
their belts of industry, cut through this generalized
scheme, breaking the city up into sections; and lines
of local transportation, along the more travelled of
which grow up retail business streets, further modify
the structure of the city."
The structure of the individual city, then, while
always exhibiting the generalized zones as described above,
is built about this frame work of transportation, business
organization and industry, park and boulevard systems, and
typographical features. All of these may be broken up into
smaller areas, which we will call natural areas, in that
they are the unplanned, natural product of the city's
growth. Railroad and industrial belts, park and boulevard
systems, rivers and rises of land acting as barriers to
movements of population tend to fix the boundaries of
1-----: —
H. W. Zorbaugh, "The Natural Areas of the City",
in E. W. Burgess, The Urban Community. (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, T^2y7 pp. 221,
12
Factory zone\
LOOP
(^one in transitif)
ZoneNof working men*s iibmes
Residential Zone
Commuter*s Zone
CHART I
Illustration of Urban Zones
13
these natural areas, while their centers are usually inter
sections of two or more business streets. By virtue of
proximity to industry, business, transportation, or natural
advantages, each area acquires a physical individuality
accurately reflected in land values and rents*
In the intimate economic relationships in which all
individuals find thismselves, everyone is, in a sense, in
competition with everyone else. It is a competition not
only for values represented by money, but of other values,
one form of which is competition for position in the com
munity* Not all of the factors involved are known, but
each individual influences the ultimate position of every
other individual*
In this competition for position, the population is
segregated over the natural areas of the city. Land values,
which characterize the various natural areas, tend to sift
and sort the population. But at the same time segregation
re-emphasizes trends in values*
The nature of * value* in city land is a more com
plex problem than the average text on economics admits.
Other cultural factors so condition the economic as to
make the process of *value * — for it is a process--one
difficult to analyze and state in abstract terms as it
applies to city land.^
4
Ibid*. p. 223
14
Other factors which also play a part in this seg
regation are the cultural, creating repulsions and attrac
tions. From the mobile competing stream of the city’s
population, each natural area of the city tends to collect
the particular individual "predestined" to it. These
individuals, in turn, give to the area a peculiar character.
As a result of this segregation, the natural areas of the
city tend to become district cultural areas as well--a
"black belt" or a Harlem, a Little Italy, a Chinatown, a
"stem" of the "hobo", a rooming house world, a "Towertown"
or a "Greenwich Village", a "Gold Coast", and the like-
each with its characteristic complex of institutions,
customs, beliefs, standards of life, traditions, attitudes,
sentiments and Interests. The physical individuality of
the natural areas of the city is re-emphasized by the cul
tural individuality of the populations segregated over them.
Natural areas and natural cultural groups tend to coincide.
A natural area is a geographic area characterized
both by a physical individuality and by the cultural
characteristics of the people who live in it. To quote
Robert E. Park, referring to studies made in various cities,
which studies have shown that "every American city of a
given size tends to reproduce all the typical areas of all
the cities, and that the people in these areas exhibit from
city to city, the same cultural characteristics, the same
15
types of institutions, the same social types, with the same
opinions, interests and outlook on life". That is, just as
there is a plant ecology whereby, in the struggle for exist
ence, like geographical regions become associated with like
"Communities" of plants, mutually adapted, and adapted to
the area, so there is a human ecology whereby, in the com
petition of the city and according to definable processes,
the population of the city is segregated over natural areas
into natural groups. These natural areas and natural groups
might be termed the "atoms" of city growth, the units we try
to control in administering and planning for the city.
But there are boundary lines that cut across these
lines which mark the natural area, determining another area
termed "administrative". The city is broken up into admin
istrative units, such as the ward, the school district, the
police precinct, and the health district, for the purposes of
administrative convenience. The object is usually to appor
tion either the population or area of the city into equal
units. The natural area, on the other hand, is a unit in
the physical structure of the city, typified by a physical
individuality and the characteristics, attitudes, sentiments,
and interests of the people segregated within it. Admin
istrative areas and natural areas may coincide, but in
practice they rarely do. Administrative lines cut across
the boundaries of natural areas, ignoring their existence.
16
Students of municiple affairs are coming to appre
ciate the relationship of the cultural Individuality of the
natural areas of the city to the problems of city govern
ment. For one thing, the theory and practice of American
municipal government, evolved to meet the need* of village
communities, makes no allowance for the existence of
district areas within the city, each with an individuality,
and unequally adapted to function politically under our
present system. For example, on the Lower Worth Side of
Chicago is a rooming house area which provides living
quarters for 25,000 people. This population is exceeding
ly mobile, turning over every four months. There are no
permanent contacts in such an area and no one knows anyone
else. Neither are there permanent interests nor public
opinion. The population does not consist of "citizens" of
the locality. There are few votes and many of these are
sold. Local self government is a myth. The area is ad
ministered by the social agencies and the police, though
this fact is not perfectly recognized by these agencies.
The situation should be faced frankly and a disfranchize-
ment should be made, permitting the administration to come
from the city hall. Natural areas are unequally adapted to
function politically under our present system of city
government.
17
There have been numerous extra-political attempts
to solve the problems of local self-government in the city.
Among these is the community organization movement. Look
ing to the village as a "golden age" of social life, and
believing that if the neighborliness of the village could
be restored in the city, the city’s problems would take
care of themselves, the community organizers have set out
to make "villages" of areas within the city. But in select
ing the areas for the experiments they have usually but
substituted one administrative area for another, totally
oblivious of the existence and significance of natural
areas and natural groups. The Lower North Community Coun
cil of Chicago set out to make a "community" of a section of
the city including a colony of 15,000 Sicilians, a colony of
6,000 Persians, some 4,000 Negroes, a colony of 1,000 Greeks,
a rooming-house population of 25,000 "Towertown"--Chicago *s
Greenwich Village--and Chicago’s much wanted "Gold Coast".
A further complicating factor is introduced by the
fact that the natural areas of a city are only relatively
stable, either in respect to values or in respect to the
cultural segregation upon them. Particularly is this true
in a new or growing city. In older cities residence is more
permanent, a historical sentiment enters in to stabilize
residence, inclining people to cling to the old community.
And in a city that is not growing, competition for position
18
tends to cease and values and groupings of the population
tend to reach an equilibrium. But in the growing city, ex
panding as it grows, natural areas are only relatively
stable. They seem to change in a predictable manner, suc
cession like that observable in plant communities. The laws
of this succession are imperfectly known, however.
These ecological facts— natural areas within the
city, competition for position, segregation over natural
areas, succession— are facts which must be taken into
account by those who would control the city’s growth as well
as by those who would administer the city’s government. We
are interested here not in cities planned from their origin—
though there seems to be limits to what can be done in such
instances.
The experience of the Chicago Zoning Commission af
fords an interesting example of an attempt to control the
growth of a new, rapidly growing, unplanned city. Data from
this Commission would seem to indicate that it is futile to
impose a plan upon a city which involves the attempt to
control land values and the natural groupings of the popula
tion. Where use districts cut across the natural areas of
the city there is a constant pressure upon the board of ap
peals, which invariably necessitates revision. That is, use
districts are merely another form of administrative area
19
where they ignore natural area.
In Part II of this study we shall deal with one
phase of the administrative area exclusively--that of the
precinct. A comparison of voting results and natural area
will present interesting findings.
CHAPTER III
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
The general effect of the continuous sifting and
sorting of a city’s population results in a patchwork of
local areas differentiated from one another by cultural,
racial, or linguistic peculiarities. In common speech
such areas are referred to as localities, districts,
colonies, or neighborhoods. Since the neighborhood is one
of the oldest social institutions and since it is coming
into the focus of attention of writers on urban questions,
let us examine its applicability to local life in the city
environment.
The word neighborhood has two general definitionsî
Physical proximity to a given object of attention; and
intimacy of association among people living in close prox
imity to one another. On the flat plains of the agricul
tural states, there are no objective marks by means of
which one may distinguish one rural neighborhood from
another, yet almost any individual approached can give a
very definite answer as to what constitutes his neighborhood;
it simply embraces the area round about his home in which
reside those families with whom he has intimate and direct
personal relations.
In the city, on the other hand, there are very
distinct objective differences between the various residen-
21
tial areas, but little or no personal acquaintance or group
association among the families of any particular area.
Because of these peculiarities of city life we find many
different usages of the term neighborhood. Some students
use the word to imply mere physical proximity to a certain
institution or topographical feature. Others refer to the
neighborhood as a cultural area, sufficiently differentiated
from the surrounding territory to be considered as a unit,
while others again use the word in its traditional sense as
implying intimacy of association and personal acquaintance.
And another has this to say partly by way of defi
nition:
The neighborhood is large enough to include in
essence all the problems of the city, state and the
nation; and in a constantly increasing number of in
stances in this country it includes all the fundamental
international issues. It is large enough to present
these problems in a recognizable community form, with
some beginnings of social sentiment and social action in
regard to them. It is large enough to make some pro
vision for the whole variety of extra-family interests
and attachments, which in the fully developed community
are ever more and more obscuring the boundary line that
closes the family in upon itself. It is large enough
so that the facts and forces of its public life, rightly
considered, have significance and dramatic compulsion;
so that its totality can arrest and hold a germinating
public sense.
On the other hand, it is small enough to be a com
prehensible and manageable community unit. It is in
fact the only one that is comprehensible and manageable;
the true reason why city administration breaks down is
22
1
that the conception of the city breaks down.
The concept of neighborhood has come down to us
from a distant past and therefore has connotations which
scarcely fit the facts when applied to a patch of life in
a modern large city. As far back as we have record human
society seems to have been composed of a vast number of
small intimate groups more or less definitely attached, to
fixed localities.
The group forming habit of human beings is, of
course, a biological inheritance from our prehuman ances
tors* As one author says;
The tribal habit of man is not an invention made
by him. It evidently was inherited from his ances
tors of the lower life, for among all the Quadrumana
clearly to be reckoned his collateral but near organic
and psychic kinsmen, this social habit prevails. The
creatures usually dwell in groups which are evidently
held together by a sympathetic bond, and are in more
or less hostile relations to other groups of the same
or diverse species, so that we may regard the tribal
motive as even more affirmed than it could have been
by human experience.
But bringing it down to modern times, it would be
interesting to see how city dwellers themselves define the
term.
1
Robert A* Woods, "The Neighborhood in Social
Reconstruction," American Journal of Sociology> XIX (1914)
p. 579.
2
N. S. Shaler, The Neighbor, (New York: Houghton
Mifflin Co., 1904) pp."32-53.
23
In order to get an impression of the common-sense
conception of the neighborliood within the city, I had
the students in my class at Ohio State University, who
were residents of Columbus, write answers to the follow
ing questions: "Draw a map of that part of your city
which you consider to be your neighborhood. Indicate
on the map the location of your home, and state the
number of years you have lived there. Give your reasons
for bounding your neighborhood as you do." The follow
ing statements are typical of the fifty-seven replies
analyzed: (1) These are the streets I traverse oftenest#
(2) On these streets live the people with whom I am
acquainted and associated. (3) When we get in this part
of town we feel that we are getting near home. (4) I
consider this my neighborhood because it includes the
houses nearest my home and because I know most of the
families residing here. (5) These are the streets that
I used to play in and I gtill know most of the families
very intimately. (6) To my mind the word neighborhood
includes the people right around my house ; it is the
vicinity very near. (7) We speak of anything happening
within a square of our home as being in our neighborhood,
but we do not know half of the people who live there. We
have lived on this street for six years. (8) I used to
play with the children from most of these families (that
is, families within an area of about a block and a half
on the same street); my small brother made me acquainted
with others. I lived here nine years. (9) Neighborhood
to me means the people living in the small block we live
in, those across the alley in the rear, and those living
in the block across the street. (10) I consider the
cross streets as the boundary of our neighborhood, the
streets being so wide, especially where I live, that we
do not recognize the people on the other side. I have
lived here fourteen years. ....
Prom a consideration of these statements and from an
examination of the maps which accompanied them, it is
clear to me that the conception which the average city
dweller holds of his own neighborhood is that of a very
small area within the immediate vicinity of his home, the
limits of which seem to be determined by his personal
observations and daily contacts.^
--------— 3--------
R. D._ McKenzie, The Neighborhood. (Chicago: Univer
sity of Chicago Press, 192è) pp. 350-3ol.
24
Prom this same survey we note another very inter
esting fact about the neighborhood:
But in referring to neighborhoods in general in
Columbus, much larger areas seem to be implied, spatial
proximity to some central focus of attention being the
determining feature. For example, it is local custom
to speak of 'Indianola', * Glen Bcho*, * The Hilltop*,
*West Side*, etc* as various neighborhoods within the
city, although each of these areas embraces many streets
and contains thousands of people. What, then, is the
city neighborhood? For certain administrative purposes
it is important to consider these larger geographical
expressions as units of neighborhood interest, while for
other purposes, where intensity of social opinion counts,
the smaller nuclei of common life may prove more effect
ive units. The segregation of the population within a
city along racial economic, social and vocational lines,
tends to give to different local areas at least an ex
ternal coloring which enables one to draw more or less
definite lines of demarkation between them. In the
course of time these different areas acquire a sort of
homogeneity and a historical continuity which develops
a rudimentary sense of self-consciousness. This self-
consciousness is usually enhanced if the area acquires
a name designating its chief feature of attention, such
as Niggertown. Plytown. Little Italy, etc. Such areas
are, as a rule, in a constant process of change, but
since their selective influences attract about the same
class of people from year to year, their external as
pects maintain a somewhat regular form. While districts
of this sort vary greatly in size and in social solidar
ity, and while they may possess but few of the character
istics of the traditional neighborhood, nevertheless they
possess sufficient significance from the standpoint of
social selection, sind have sufficient importance in
community organization to warrant some such characteriza
tion as the term neighborhood
In order that the neighborhood may be located in its
city setting, once more we refer to chart I, page 12. We
have said that studies of urban growth reveal that the city
“ 3
Ibid.. pp. 351-352.
25
grows outward from its central business district in this
series of expanding zones. Within these zones of urban
growth are to be found local districts or communities, and
these in turn subdivide into smaller areas, which desig
nates the neighborhood* In the long run, geographical fac
tors and the process of competition fix the boundaries and
the centers of these areas#
The centers of local communities are to be found at
the point of highest land values in the intersection of two
business streets. These local community centers are also
characterized by the concentration of retail business, of
banks, of restaurants, and of the large and magnifleant
palaces of amusements, like motion picture houses and public
dance halls# If high land values indicate the center of the
community, the lowest land values generally define its
periphera#
But if the intersection of two business streets
determine the trade centers, these same streets divide it
into neighborhoods# (See chart II, page 26)
Various classifications may be made of neighborhoods*
First, there are three grades of economic level, poor, middle
class and wealthy residential sections; second, racial and
national groups where the chief elements in population
selection are consciousness of kind, common language and
traditions; third, industrial neighborhoods, in which reside
26
A
B
D
CHART II
Schematic diagram of the division of a community into neigh*
horhoods by the intersection of two business streets*
27
the employees of a large industry, (which neighborhoods
usually represent a mixture of racial and national groups);
and fourth, according to the statistics of their historical
development,into nascent, self-consciousness, and disinte
grating neighborhoods. Referring to the latter, like other
social groups, neighborhoods are ever in a process of change.
Fluctuations in rental and land values, due to the vacilla
tion of city life, produce continuous movements of population
from one section of the city to another, thus changing the
economic and racial complexion of neighborhoods within a
comparatively short space of time.
The city neighborhood differs considerably from its
traditional prototype in that it represents a much more
selected social group. Economic, racial, and cultural
forces, by distributing the population into different resi
dential sections, give to the city neighborhood an external
appearance of homogeneity that is not frequently found in
small villages or rural neighborhoods,— a homogeneity,
however, which is more apparent than real. Racial preju
dice, national clanishness, and class conflict all function
as social forces to give the city neighborhood what self-
consciousness or solidarity it may possess.
The neighborhood is a vital public arena to the
majority of men, to nearly all women and to all children;
in which every one of them is a citizen, and many of them,
even among the children, are statesmen — as projecting
and pushing through plans for its total welfare.
28
It is in the gradual public self-revelation of the
neighborhood — in its inner public values, and in its
harmony of interest with other neighborhoods — that
the reverse detachments of citizenship are to be swung
into the battle of good municipal administration and
good administration of cultural association in the city
at large; it is this process which will turn the balance
definitely and decisively "in the direction of a human
ized system of politics, of industrialism, and of moral
ity.
I am inclined to think that on the whole there is a
certain dignity in the sentiment of the neighborhood
about itself which is not equaled in fact by any of our
other forms of social self-consciousness. The family
may be abject; the neighborhood is never so. The city
may admit itself disgraced; the neighborhood always
considers disgrace foisted upon it. The nation may have
its repentant moods; the university and the church may
be apologetic under attack; but the neighborhood will
tolerate no criticism from without and little from
within.^
Modern conditions of industrial specialization, the
mobility of population, and easy intercommunication have
brought a degree of disintegration to neighborhood life; but
with the exception of some of the downtown sections of the
great cities, this disintegration has not proceeded so far
as is ordinarily thought. The time has come for a great re
newal of confidence in the vitality of the neighborhood as
a political and moral unit.
---------- 5--------
Robert A m Woods, The Neighborhood in Social Recon
struction, American Journal of Sociology. XIX (1914) p. 580.
CHAPTER IV
THE COMimNITT
The local community and the neighborhood in a
simple form of society are synonymous terras. In the city,
however, where specialization has gone very far, the group
ing of the population is more nearly by occupation and
income than by kinship or common tradition. Nevertheless,
in the large American city, in particular, we find many local
communities made up of immigrant groups which retain a more
or less strong sense of unity, expressing itself in close
proximity and, what is more important, in separate and common
social institutions and highly effective communal control*
The communities may live in relative isolation from each
other or from the native communities. The location of these
communities is determined by compétition, which can finally
be expressed in terms of land values and rentals. But these
immigrant communities, too, are in a constant process of
change, as the economic condition of the inhabitants changes
or the areas change, in which they are located.
But vdiat is community and what is community organiza
tion? The simplest possible description of a community
is this, ". . . . a collection of people occupying a more
or less clearly defined area. But a community is more
than that. A community is not only a collection of
people, but it is a collection of institutions. Not
people, but institutions are final and decisive in dis
tinguishing the community from other social constella
tions*"^
6
R. E. Park, "Community Organization and the Romantic
Temper, in R. E. Park et. al.. The City. (Chicago: Universi
ty of Chicago Press, 1925) p. lTF7
3 0
Among the institutions of the community there will
always be homes and something more: churches, schools,
playgrounds, a communal hall, a local theatre perhaps, and
business and Industrial enterprises of some sort. Commun
ities might well be classified by the number and variety of
the institutions— cultural, political, and occupational—
which they possess. This would indicate the extent to which
their communal functions were mediatized, so to speak, and
incorporated into the larger community, or the city.
There is always a larger community. Every single
community is always a part of some larger and more
inclusive one. There are no longer any communities
wholly detached and isolated; all are interdependent
economically and politically upon one„another* The
ultimate community is the v/ide world.'
Within the limits of any community, the communal
institutions— economic, political and cultural--will tend
to assume a more or less clearly defined and characteristic
distribution. For example, defining the position of each
single community to every other. Within the area so defined,
the local populations and the local Institutions will tend
to group themselves in some characteristic pattern, de
pendent upon geography, lines of communication, and land
values. This distribution of population and institutions
is called the ecological organization of the community.
1
Ibid.. p. 115.
31
Town planning is an attempt to direct and control
the ecological organization. Town planning is probably not
so simple as it seems. Cities, even those like the city of
Washington, B.C., that have been most elaborately planned,
are always escaping control. The actual plan of a city is
never a mere plan of man, for it is always quite as much a
product of nature as of design. But a plan is one factor of
communal efficiency.
Within the limits of the ecological organization, so
far as a free exchange of goods and services exists, there
inevitably grows up another type of community organization
based on the division of labor. This is what might be
called the economic occupational organization of the com
munity.
The occupational organization, like the ecological,
is a product of competition. Eventually every individual
member of the community is driven, as a result of competi
tion with every other, to do the thing he can do rather than
the thing he would like to do. The struggle to live
determines finally not only residence, but occupation.
The number and variety of professions and occupations
carried on within the limits of a community would seem to be
one measure of its competency, since in the wider division of
labor and the greater specialization--in the diversities of
interests and tasks— and in the vast unconscious cooperation
52
of city life, the individual man has not only the opportu
nity, hut the necessity, to choose his vocation and develop
his individual talents.
Nevertheless, in the struggle to find his place in
a changing world there are enormous wastes. Vocational
training is one attempt to meet the situation; the proposed
national organization of employment is another. But until
a more rational organization of industry has somehow been
achieved, little progress may be expected or hoped for.
Competition is never unlimited in human society.
There is custom and law which always sets some bounds and
imposes some restraints on the individual. The cultural
and political organization of the community rest upon the
occupational organization just as the latter, in turn,
grows up in and rests upon the ecological organization.
It is this final division of segment of the communal
organization with which community-center associations are
mainly concerned. Politics, religion and community welfare,
like golf, bridge, and other forms of recreation, are
leisure-time activities, and it is the leisure-time activi
ties that should be organized.
Aristotle, who described man as a political animal,
lived a long time ago, and his description was more true of
man then than it is today. Aristotle lived in a world in
which art, religion and politics were the main concerns of
35
life, and public life was the natural vocation of every
citizen*
Under modern conditions of life, where the division
of labor has gone so far, the situation is entirely differ
ent* The individual now, during the major portion of his
waking hours, is so busy on some minute detail of the common
task that he frequently loses sight altogether of the
community in which he lives.
On the other hand, his leisure is now mainly a rest
less search for excitement. It is the "romantic impulse",
the desire to escape the dull routine of life at home and in
the local community, that drives him abroad in search of
adventure. This "romantic quest" which finds its most
outrageous expression in the dance halls and the jazz par
lors, is characteristic of almost every other expression
of modern life.
Art, religion and politics are still the means
through which man participates in the common life, but they
have ceased to be his common concern. As lei sure-time
activities they must now compete for attention with livelier
forms of recreation.
This, then, is our community. How it will be
possible to measure its efficiency still must be learned.
This simple and most elementary way of estimating
the competency and efficiency of a community, as something
34
different from the competency and efficiency of the indi
vidual men and women who compose it, is hy a comparative
study of that community’s social statistics* Poverty,
disease and delinquency have frequently been called social
diseases. They may be said to measure the extent to which
the community has been able to provide an environment in
which the individuals who compose it are able to live, or,
to state it from the opposite point of view, they measure
the extent to which the individuals who compose the com
munity have been able to adapt themselves to the environment
which the community provided.
One of the most interesting forms of community life
is that established by the immigrants. The immigrant
communities are likely to include within the circle of their
interests and organizations, all the interests of life.
Every immigrant community will have a religious organization—
a synagogue, a temple or a church--with its related, often
dependent, mutual aid and welfare organizations. It will
have also its own business places, and a press. Every im
migrant community is likely to have its press in America even
if it did not have one in the home land. The immigrant
colony is frequently nothing more than a transplanted village,
for America actually has been colonized not by races or
nationalities, but by villages.
55
For obvious reasons we could not here present a
detailed report of all immigrant communities. But to
illustrate the situation regarding one of these nationali
ties which is found in most cities, we submit the follow
ing:
Although the Jew has always been obliged to organize
his community life in a self-sufficient way in the
different European states, and consequently brings to
this country the habits of organization, the conditions
of industry in Europe were so different, the American
melting pot has so powerful effect on the old ritualis
tic and communistic attitudes, the mass of Jews is so
great in New York City, the Jev/s so strange to one
another, that the problem of organization has been as
great for Jews as for the other groups. The Jews,
however, have the settler psychology. They bring their
intellectuals, professionals, business men, as well as
their revolutionists and workers, and have, more than
other groups, the elements for a complete society.
Other immigrant groups are usually defective in
leadership and creative individuals; few intellectuals
come, and those who do come are usually only intelligent
enough to exploit the simpler members of their own group,
not to compete with intellectual Americans. Consequent
ly it is in general true that the immigrant leader is
able and willing to organize his people just sufficiently
for his own good, but not sufficiently for their good.
The Jews, on the contrary, are conspicuous as
creators and organizers in different fields--economic,
scientific, artistic, etc. — and their superior members
not only live without exploiting their own people, but
sincerely devote their abilities and resources to the
improvement of the mass of the race. Furthermore, for
the first time since the dispersion, the Jews have found
in America a toleration which has made it possible for
them to show an open interest of their status and the
realization of their ideals.
For these reasons, the Jews, far more than any other
immigrant group, are resorting to reflective social
activity and supplementing the old social forms, sponta
neously reproduced, with new, conscious organizations.
56
The organization of the Kehillah in New York City was,
in fact, the beginning of a scientific study of the Jews
by the Jews themselves. Their primary aim was : (1) To
secure exact, systematic, comprehensive knowledge con
cerning the Jewish community of New York City, and the
Jewish problem in all its phases; (2) to engage upon as
many experiments as possible through first hand ex
perience of the various phases of the problem; and (3)
to point out paths along which the community might
develop in order to become in fact a conscious, organ
ized, united community.^
Beside taking action to meet a large number of
specific needs, emergencies, and abuses, the Kehillah has
established a number of co-ordinating, standardizing, and
research institutions. Among them are: A Bureau of Jewish
Education — ; A Bureau of Industry -- ; a School for
Communal Work, a Bureau of Philanthropic Research, etc.
From the standpoint of organization, the Jews are
the most interesting of the immigrants. There is among
them, indeed, a great variety of disorder and personal
demoralization--gambling, extortion, vagabondage,
family desertion, white slavery, ordinary and extra
ordinary crime--as a consequence of the rapid decay in
America of the Jewish traditions and attitudes; there
are divisions and animosities among them, and quarrels
about opinions — the mere statement that the Jews are
a national rather than a religious community was suf
ficient to convoke the recent Jewish Congress at
Philadelphia for more than an hour -- and Jewish lead
ers realize that the systematic activities we have
mentioned have had as yet little effect on the great
mass of Jewish life. But in our examination of the
Jewish type of organization we gain an impression that
the experiments of this community upon its own problems
contain an interest not limited to the Jewish community,
but extending to American society as a whole. Our
8
R. E. Park and H. A. Miller, Old World TraiJis Trans-
planted. (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1921) pp. É34-237.
37
interest in the organization of other immigrant com
munities is limited to the possible discovery of
devices which may assist these groups until they are
able to enjoy the benefits of American institutions.
In the case of the Jewish group, we find spontaneous,
intelligent, and highly organized experiments in
democratic control which may assume the character of
permanent contributions to the organization of the
American state. In this respect, the Jewish organ
ization differs completely from the Japanese which is
the most efficient organization of the immigrant
groups, but one based on^the military principle of
ordering and forbidding.^
The Japanese and the Chinese have organized what
might be called "control organizations" to deal at once
with disputes arising among themselves and with the larger
community outside. The Japanese Association is organized
to keep their nationals out of court. But it is more than
a court of arbitration, and conciliation. Its function is
not merely to settle disputes, but to maintain the morale
of the local Japanese community and to promote in every
practical way mainly by education, the efforts of the
Japanese people to make their way in the communities in
which they live.
The peoples who are making, or who have made in
recent years, the most progress in America today are the
Jews, the Negroes and the Japanese. There is, of course,
no comparison to be made between the Jew, the Japanese and
the Negro as to their racial competence. Of all the
9
Ibid.. pp. 237-238.
38
Of all the immigrant peoples in the United States, the Jews
are the most able and progressive; the Negro, on the other
hand, is just emerging, and is still a little afraid of the
consequences of his newly acquired race-consciousness,
llhat is alike in the case of the Jew, the Negro and
the Japanese is that their conflict with America has been
grave enough to give the sort of solidarity that grows out
of a common cause. It is the existence in a people of the
sense of a cause which finally determines their group ef
ficiency.
In some sense these communities in which our immi
grants live their smaller lives may be regarded as models
for our own. We are seeking to do, through the medium of
our local community organizations, such things as will get
attention and interest for the little world of the locality.
PART I I
CHAPTER V
THE DETERMINATION OP ZONES AND
BOUNDARIES OF PUBLIC OPINION
Heretofore in this discussion mention has been
made of those zones and boundaries which are usually dis
cernable for a fairly long period of time. The boundar
ies of a neighborhood may be set down on a city map and in
all probability wi^.1 remain authoritative for a period of
five to ten years. This period of time depends upon the
growth or decline of the city’s population and other
ecological factors. Within these defined boundaries are
business zones in which are found the stores furnishing
many of the wants of the neighborhood, the school, the
library, the moving picture show, etc., as has been indica
ted in Part I. By close observation it is possible to
predict changes in these boundaries, although that change
is usually gradual.
But this study has to do with a study of a factor,
the zones and boundaries of which cannot be determined for
long periods of time, nor are they predictable - that factor
called Public Opinion. This great force cuts across legal,
political, neighborhood, and all other boundaries of the
city and establishes boundaries of its own, which shift and
change many times - usually rather quickly. It is upon a
study of the zones and boundaries of Public Opinion that the
40
second part of this Thesis is based.
So that this study would be both definite and in
teresting, the trend toward the Democratic party leadership
in the last three Presidential elections was selected as a
working basis* The central voting district of Los Angeles
was selected as the territory to be studied. As the Repub
lican party has long regarded Los Angeles as one of its
strongholds, much surprise was evidenced when the returns of
the 1932 election indicated that the swing was overvdielming-
ly toward the Democratic candidate. Here the question arises,
was this swing sudden, or was public opinion gradually chang
ing over the eight-year period? The results of this study
seem to indicate the latter.
A study of the city’s 1836 precincts was begun, for
the results therein recorded represent an infallible indica
tion of expressed public opinion. The total vote and the
Democratic vote of each of these zones was obtained, for the
years 1924, 1928 and 1932. Because the study had for an
objective an analysis of the Democratic trend, no attention
was paid to votes for any of the other candidates. Plate I
represents a group of precincts selected from the larger area.
The next step concerned itself with the degree to
which each precinct was Democratic, so the percentage (Demo
cratic vote of the total vote) was then computed and the
results divided into five equal parts, or quintiles.
41
Precinct maps were obtained, a letter and a color assigned
each of the five quintiles, and the corresponding color
placed upon the maps. This first step is illustrated by
Plate II.
From this point precinct lines tended to disappear
and other boundaries became evident which made larger or
smaller zones, depending upon the quintile placement of
the immediate area. By the use of tracing paper, work
maps were made which included only the new zones and
boundaries of those precincts with the same quintile place
ment.
After these new zones were determined on each of
the three maps representing the three elections, a compari
son was made of the 1924 and 1928 maps, and another of the
1928 and 1932 maps. Three classifications were made at
this point, as follows: the zones of no change; the zones
whose trend was toward the Democratic leadership; or to the
"left"; the zones whose trend was away from the Democratic
leadership; or to the "right". These results were placed
upon maps as indicated by Plate III. There were twenty-five
possibilities illustrated as follows, the trend toward
Democratic leadership indicated above the line of no change,
and the trend away from that leadership below that line:
42
B - A G - A D - A E — A
A - B B ——B_ C - B D - B E - B
A - G B - C —8_ - C E - C
A - D B - D G - D _
_E - D
A — E B - E C - E D - E ^ & No change
Once more zones and boundaries changed, still
larger and still smaller areas appearing.
The fourth step was exceedingly interesting for
there was discovered the consistency, or lack of consist
ency, of this mobile public opinion. Once more the maps
(1928 and 1932) were compared and new boundaries recorded
for those zones which did not change; for those which
changed consistently from "left" to "right", or vice versa;
and for those which changed inconsistently, "left" to "right"
then "right" to "left", or vice versa. Plate IV indicates
this last step.
To begin at this point of the discussion to set
forth methods of study to determine trends of mobility of
public opinion, would seem to be nothing more than a
rationalization. No doubt there are other possibilities,
yet this method has proven valuable in discovering those
hidden zones and boundaries which, even now, are in the
process of change.
CHAPTER VI
CONCLUSION
In many studies, after the work has been completed
and the findings recorded, it is possible to arrive at very
definite conclusions. These conclusions are presented as
definite statements of fact and are accepted accordingly.
But in this study, this is not possible. These findings
are but the bases for the discovery of further possibili
ties of study in the field of public opinion. Therefore,
instead of statements, this conclusion is suggesting a
series of questions which may open the doors upon untouched
fields of study.
The concluding step of this thesis classified
zones as to their degree of mobility. /What would be the
results if these areas were contrasted with other zones
such as zones of transition; zones of economic levels;
and cultural and racial groups?
In these zones of high mobility, are the residents
mostly transients or do they own their homes? Are these
zones a part of a larger area of disintegration? Is this
high degree of mobility characteristic of these zones, or
will the 1936 election reveal a consistency?
Following a study of the results of this next
election, what is characteristic of the zones which will
remain unchanged throughout the twelve years?
44
Lastly, what are the characteristics of the zones
with a high mobility?
No doubt other questions will arise as these are
answered. Zones and boundaries of an urban community are
interesting to study when they change slowly, but the
zones and boundaries which have been revealed by this study,
which change rapidly and which are not seen superficially,
are still more interesting.
The map of the Los Angeles area with the final
results of the study, appears as the last page of this
thesis.
ILLUSTRATIVE PLATES
PLATE I
A Group of Precincts
11
‘ ■ 4 À * ■ ■ ' < -
A
} ®
m 3
"E
PLATE II
Precincts classified according to qulntlle placement
Ill
No change Change to the "right"
Change to the "left"
PLATE III
Zones classified according to mobility of vote
i v
No change
/ ^ y Consistent change
Inconsistent change
PLATE IV
Zones classified according to consistency of mobility
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anders on Nels, The Hoho, Chicago î University of
Chicago Press, 1 9 ^ 3 7
Sociology, Hew York:
Daniels, John, America via the Neighborhood#' New York*
Harper and Bro thers7~T9^ü7
Dttnn, Arthur W,, The Community and the Citizen* Boston:
Heath and Company^ 10O8#
McKenzie, R, D*, The Neighborhood. Chicago: Universitv
of Chicago Press,“ "T9‘ So«
McKenzie, R. D#,"The Ecological Approach to the Study of
the Human Community# Park, R. E#, etl al#, The City#
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1926#
Park, R* S., "Community Organization and the Roâiantic
Temper"# Park, R* E#, et# al#, %e City# Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1925#
Park, R# E# and Burgess, E. W#, Introduction to the Science
of Sociology# Chicago: University of ChTcago Press,
IÏÏ24#
Park, R. E. and Miller, H# A#, Old World Traits Transplant
ed# New York: Harper and Brothers, 1921#
Shaler, N# S#, ^e Neighbor. New York: Houston Mifflin
Company, 19Ü1T
Woods, R. A#, The City Wilderness# New York: Houghton
Mifflin Company, Ï809#
Woods, R. A#,"The Neighborhood in Social Reconstruction."
American Journal of Sociology, XIX, 1914#
Zorbaugh, H. W., The Cold Coast and the Slum# Chicago:
University of" "Chicago Press, 1929# '
Zorbaugh, H. W#, "The Natural Areas of the City". Burgess,
E. W#, et# al.. The Urban Community. Chicago: Univer
sity of Chicago FresW% T92V%
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
In many studies, after the work has been completed and the findings recorded, it is possible to arrive at very definite conclusions, These conclusions are presented as definite statements of fact and are accepted accordingly. But in this study, this is not possible. These findings are but the bases for the discovery of further possibilities of study in the field of public opinion. Therefore,instead of statements, this conclusion is suggesting a series of questions which may open the doors upon untouched fields of study.
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Holst, Kenneth LeRoy
(author)
Core Title
The significance of zones and boundaries in the urban community with special reference to the Los Angeles Area
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Department of Sociology
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Master of Arts
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Sociology
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University of Southern California
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Community,human ecology,natural areas,neighborhood,OAI-PMH Harvest,Population,racial composition,Social Sciences,spatial relationships
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economic regions: Los Angeles
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Young, Erle J. (
committee chair
), Bose, Clarence Marsh (
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human ecology
natural areas
racial composition
spatial relationships