Philippe Haeringer

an introduction to city diversity

Cities as seen from the street:

looking at the street, from the outskirts to the city centre,provides a good point of entry for examining the tissueand dynamics of a city, grasping its internai diversity, uncoveringcontrasts and convergences between cities, and exploring thesignificance of the urban .transformation from town to metropolis,to 'megacity'. Despite trends in globalization generating multipleslrnilarities, differences still remain considerable. Each city possessesits secret fabric, identir,able in a unique residentiat pattern, adaptingitself to the changing ti~es. The form of a street is reflectedin horizontal and vertical spatial expansion; juxtaposed residentialand commercial space; buildings which look inwards or outwards;street life and activities; street surface, vegetation and green areas;as weil as a degree of 'enclosure' for reasons of security.Ali provide good indicators in discovering and deepening the studyof city diversity (diversité citadine).

A game of actorsThe role of the Srate is evidently, evenby default, primordial. Could one reallyconfuse exarnples where over-anxiousplanning zeal becomes obsessive to the

The imprint of the terrainLocalfactors can be a powerful counter­balance to the difficulties encounreredin growing megacities. This is mostevident in the Third World, whereurban management leaves a lot of roornfor informal 'popular' problem-solving,innovation and vision in the shaping ofan urban way of life. Conditions ofextreme economie precariousness andinrerdependence place demands on themajority of people ta make a place forthemselves in a 'micro-locale' within alocal nerwork, develop creative survivalstrategies to manage or exploit thesmaUerfragments of the rnerropolis andadapt, as best possible, to the terrain intheir locality or neighbourhood.

A city represents a more or lesscoherent combination of a number ofsocialand physical paramerers, The nat­ural constrainrs of a site, such as soiltype, vegetation and micro-clirnateremain important, even in a moderncity. Relief berween high and lowground, for example, can influencetechniques chosen for construction andreflecrissuesof social stratification, evenradical segregation, surprisingly accu­rately. A site flush with warer will notengender the same urban settlements asanother in a dry desert. Access ro cleanwater, in alrnost every case, will be acrucial determinant for residenrialstrategies.

Similarly, the rural substrare anddensity of population surrounding acity is not insignificant. Urban expan­sion inro cultivated or appropriaredlandscapes, inro small or large proper­ties, inro the perceived latifundia! ofthick forests or stony deserts, willstrongly determine the type ofeventualproperty arrangements. Yet, on theground, the social and political historyof a country bear a considerable weight.We find traces, for example, of regula­tions and urban norms right the wayinto the mast illicit of plots.

For their part, Sao Paulo's youthbecame impassioned with volleyball ata time when, with urban insecurity onthe rise, home-owners began to enclosetheir properties with protective metalrailings. Every Sunday, when traffic issparse, it was simple to stretch a net outacross the street by attaching it to themetal railings. Thus, Brazil went on tobecome the Olympie champions in vol­leyball ... In the same period, the ver­dant streets of western Los Angeles, incontrast, have inspired adults to go outjogging.

Yet the street informs us about agreat deal of other elements in theurban system. From its perspective, onecan notice, for exarnple, the relationshipberween the horizontal and the vertical,berween the individual and the collec­tive, berween interior and exrerior,berween private and public space,berween organic and concrere, betweenlocal resident and passer-by, betweenliving spaces and orher funcrions of thecity. From all of these influences, fromthe mixing together of universal trends,along with the components of localcul­tures, a patina is formed and a particu­lar atmosphère is created and released.

Over and above any initial impressionsofdéjà vu, common to all the large citiesof the world (above all, besides biginternational hotelsl), an attentive walkthrough the streets of the living urbantissue is enough to be persuaded of thesingularity and uniqueness of every city.Quite quickly, it becomes impossible ta

confuse Naples with Amsterdam,Johannesburg with Nairobi, OsakawithShanghai,Lima with Caracas.

A coherence exists which links what isobvions in the street with the ensembleof an urban system. This coherence issuch thar even a srreec's minor dues,such as children's games, can often berepresentativeof a wider whole. Footballcan be played in many Mrican streers,whose ample widrh, inherited fromcodesof urban colonialism, remain unfirfor vehicles, In contrasr, the pedestrianprecinctsofJakarta, which mirror a highhuman density in rural areas, Ieave only .enough space for games played in acrouching position astride a gurter ­gamesofchessor tiddly-wïnks.

FROM THE STREETTO THE URBAN SYSTEM

Philippe Haeringer is a Research Director at the Frenchlnstitute ofScientific Research in Co-operation for DEffelopment (ORSTOM). A geog­rapher and anthropologist by training, since 1988 he liasbeen the animator

and director of a series of meetings 'Megapolization of the World and CityDiversity', His address is: Social Sciences Laboratory, Centre ORSTOMd'ile-de-France, 32 Avenue Henri Varagnar,93143 Bondy Cedex, France.

NATURE & RESOURCES Vol. 32, No. 2, 1f96 Cities as seen from the street - Haeringer 23

1J

Shanghai, confiscated space. In the caseof this Chinese city, the individual has been largelyexcluded from the initiative of setliement, and the settle­ment unit is bath an expression of the present politicalsystem, as weil as being a function of an earlier. socialsystem. While the city periphery is currently the domainof collectivist urbanism, the majority of the city's fabricis comprised of fi/ongs: small nucleated c1usterings, built

,,,Jakarta, alveolar space. Capiral ofan immense extended country that is financially more con­strained. Jakarta cannat go about things like its neighbour,Singapore. Modernism in Jakaru follows the city's majorarteries and big highways but stops short of spreading ailthe way through the branching alveolar structure sten-cilled on the land by the budding pattern of develop-ment. At these interstices, one enters into therealm of the semi-autonomous urban villages,where each community member lives in a Iittlehouse with red tiles, tightly bound ta ail theothers in a labyrinth of small pedestrian alley­ways. Rules exist with neighbourhood chiefs,organized curns of guard duty and a remarkabledomestic peace reigns in the heart of a metrop­olis which, on a number of other fronts, con­

tinues ta be beset by irrirations.

The street in perilFinally, rhrough numerous systems ofsigns, srreets are testaments ra every­

thing that a ciry has witnessed with thepassing of time - as much in thedomain of ongoing aetivities as in thequirky and rhe unexpecred. One cirywill highlight a certain theme which,in another, will have bare1y surfaced. At

the same time, a multitude of interna­tional influences are consranrly reinter­preted, incorporated and Daturalized. lnthe face of irrepressible iconoclastieforces, rhe street is also a locus of mem-

tends co enhance and caricarure profilerypes. lt is by rheir abiliry, therefore, coeither dampen or to exalt cultUral

diversity that cities can be marked aparrfrom one another.

oine that the State considers thar ir isle sole eneity capable of constructingle city, with instances of regions where

o tradition exisrs in the centralizedlanning ofciries) Megapolizarion, ir is

ue, arrenuates rhis disrincrion: onceader way, rransformarion inro alegacity' means that rigorous plan­

ng ambitions often become a forlornJpe, which give way CO more or lesssguised abandon.

Wherher or nor rhe Srare plays aid cole in rhe consrruction ofa ciry, anfinire diversiry in the games of aetors

n be observed. The greatest differ­ces may depend on whether or not:lividuals, rhe bedrock of the ciry, area situarion where they themselves

1 be the iniriarors of rheir own habi­. The spirit of a ciry will not be the

ne welling up from everyone, as it islen parachured down from a fewIgnates, a dominant class or a catego­of informai 'enrrepreneurs'; nor will:ompare when lodgings are rentedher than owned.

Ethnicity is another important fac­, both in the effervescence of behav­rai codes, as muc-h as in a game of

lbolic differentiation, cross-ferriliza­1 of ideas and the sharing of roles orcrions, even co 'gherro' phenomena.

ive culturallife is often vividly pre­t wi thin and between differenters. Unlike assimilation at a narion­

:ale, city life does nor always subdueerences. ln fact, merropoliran life

Cities as seen from the street - Haeringer NATURE & RESOURCES Vol. 32, No. 2.1996

ory and long afterwards, rhose whoknow where ro look, can unearch ailmanner of vestiges and clues.

The street is, nonetheless, a rhrear­ened concept. Emblematic symbol of

life in the ciry, ir is uncertain if ir willremain in rhe merropoliran exisrence ofromorrow. The face rhar rhe srreer isincreasingly being 'museified' in pedes­

trian and proreered zones is not a good

slgn.The dimensions of a megaciry dis­

qualify the pedesrrian, wirh access [Q

the sueer rending [Q be reduced [Q an

immediare vicinity. Generally, one nowcrosses a ci ry in caprive sysrems ofuansporc along blind corridors. City

centres are becoming more and mOreinsecure and rhe bourgeoisie flee alongwith rhe qualiry commerces. Ar besr,

internarional business takes control,pounding rhe historic rissue wirhbunker towers before, in turn, ir rooemigrares leaving disorder in irs wake.

The general trend seems ro be

by the former dominant class (and today, ramshackledand severely overcrowded), these 'mini-cities' lookinwards and are closed to the outside. Informai mecha­nisms do not exist ta take possession of new land in theperipheral districts, so informality is expressed in aninfinite series of subdivisions on the inside of these cir­cumscribed lodgings.

rowards rhe concentration of commer­cial aceivity in giant shopping centres,as kinds of 'bubbles' escaping from the

aggravations of rhe metropolis, yer

where sociallife is progressively findingshelrer in rhese bubbles. Contemporaryarchirecture, similarly, continues roo

often (following rhe rheoreticians of rhecharter of Arhens) ro deny the street.

Suburbia, often uiwnphanr, concedesto the street on.l.y a minimwn funerion.In a nwnber of ciries, finally, streers are

'out of bounds', shutring themselves offcompletely from rhe passer-by; whilesometimes enrire disrricrs may wallthemselves in, some ro protect them­selves againsr rhieves, orhers ro keepout of reach from rhe pouce.

The metropolitan horizonWhile the streer is rhreatened wirh a

loss in its social funcrion, a differenrkind of menace hangs over rhe ciry: irsdilution and dissiparion in space. In rhecity thar has become a megalopolis, areadjustmenr ro a new SOrt of geogra­

phy is necessary.In a classic city, everything used [Q

gravitare rawards the centre whereas in

the megalopolis rhe dynamic iscentrifugaI. Mororized movements are

Singapore, planned space. Plannedspace par excellence. In this prosperous islandcity state, the traditional urban fabric, steepedin diversity with Chinese, Malay and Indian eth­nic groups, has been almost totally refashionedby a capitalist State seeking national unity.Nine out of ten Singaporians are lodgedthrough the care of the State, in an immaculatenetwork of mod­ernist satellitehousing develop­ments, made upof tall towers andlandscaped lawns,interlaced by aremarkable fly­over metro sys­tem. Each urbanfunetion is metic­ulously separatedfrom the others(neighbourhoodcornershops areabsent) and thedifferent ethnicgroups are care­fully mixedtogether.

parr of the reason bur so is the veryprocess of megapolization irself, precip­iraring a phenomenon of fragmentation

and polycentrism. Inhabiranrs of theciry rhus grasp for paramerers at an

appropriare level ofperceprion, makingir possible ra speak of rhe formarion ofnew 'urban villages'. Uhfortunately,

rhis proliferaring urbanizarion is, onrhe whole, poorly controlled, scram­bling our references berween rawn and

counrry and throwing up numerousinrervening 'non-places'.

This ruprured urban continuiry alsocontribures ra rhe impoverishment ofthe concept of the srreer, which loses irsprivileged position as rhe link berweenpart and whole. Still, diversiry does not

disappear in the metamorphosis. Tak­ing inro accounr ail rhar has gonebefore, each city has irs own particularway of fragmenting. Jusr as much as anexplorarion of the sueer, rhe diversityin modes of fragmentarion offers anoth­er excellent introduceion ra rhe srudy ofciry diversi ry. l

PORTRAITS OF CITIES

Below, a briefseries of portrair glimpsesare presented ra provide perspectives on

rhe diversiry in urban systems. Theflash portraits sketch out a sort ofgener­ic map, which identifies the mosr char­acrerisric threads of the urban tissue. Inberween rhese threads, the warermarkof a ciry as seen from the srreer shouldappear.

! .

l,

:1i

NATURE & RESOURCES Vol. 32, No. 2, 1996 Cities as seen ITom the street - Haeringer 2S

Abidjan,shared space. Around

the capital of the Côte d'Ivoire,

the court is the key ta an

undersranding of the popular

habitat. Parcels of land, distrib­

uted by the colonial adminis­

tration, were large enough ro

accommodate an entire ext­

ended family but came ta be

rapidly organized during con­

ditions of growing demand,

into a system of rented courts.

Gradually, the model of an

open-plan family court rook

shape, with eight ta ten

domestic units grouped aro­

und a single mango tree. After

independence, public habitat

programmes then promoted a

more modern model of smaller individual courts. Over the last ten years, the [wo

models have been merging: court areas have been compartmentalizing, the com­

mon mango tree has disappeared but the street, convivial as ever, remains the

setting for quiet games of ludo, draughts or the popular game of table football.

Dakar, divided space. In the 1960s and 1970s, the city of Dakar decid­

ed to rid itself of the precarious shelters which had spread through ail but the

ciéy's tiniest cracks. In order to rehouse the displaced population, cursory plots .

were allocated 30 km away in

Pikine, whose identity was cast

as Dakar's surrogate shadow.

Today, the Senegalese capital

is suffocating from a malaise

even more intense with the

generalized propagation of the

informai economy: Not built

with this in mind, Dakar is

being stifled, while Pikine

seems to be drawing in ail the

vitality of a big city. A sweet

revenge?

26 Cities as seen from the street - Haeringer NATURE & RESOURCES Vol. 32, No. 2,1996

II1II Cairo,prohibited space. With

its back right up against harsh

desert plateaux, Cairo is con­

tinually edging ever further imo

the agricultural lands of the

Delta, where new roads roll

out over the lines of irrigation

ditches. Yet, paradoxically,

these pieces of land are pro­

tected twice over: once by a

State, keen to preserve them

and tyylce by the high costs of

land. The desert, traditionally

reserved for bu rials, can only

attract insufficient public

investmenc. The end result for

the wetter areas is the profu­

sion of an extraordinarily dense

human habitat of narrow

streets lik~ vertical canyons,

where ail the urban functions

rub shoulders with each other.

Manaus,pioneer space. Capital of Amazonia, Man­

aus is at the centre of a vast green mosaic. Here,

the 'founding aa' for any locale must therefore be

the staking out of land by chopping and clearing.

This pioneer experience, even when it is orches­

trated by illegal plot-holders, instils a powerful

feeling of ownership and belonging. Lower-Iying areas are prone ta periodic f1ooding, however, so Man­

aus advances like a flea, 'jumping' between interiluvial higher ground. large swathes of tropical forest

are ignored in the process and, as a consequence, latecomer migrants will nonetheless popufate the

folds of the tawn with impermanent shelters on stilts.

Nouakchott, exposed space. Thirty years

ago, Nouakchott did not even exist: the outpost had only

just been made the capital of the Mauritanian Desert.

Today, Nouakchott has some 600,000 in habitants, plucked

from a nation with a population of fewer than two million

people, who ho Id no previous experience of urban living.

Around the administrative districts, the desert is bare and

the arrivais to the city are impoverished nomads who have

congregated together in encampments of canvas and loose

planks. Every now and then, the Government sends

out a team of land surveyors ta skirt around

the huts and trace out the streets.

Thus grows the city.

Sao Paolo, laminated space. Not so long ago, sao Paulo became one of the world's largest cities.

With over 20 million people, its demographic momentum has cut imo traditional residential patterns like a deep

blade. Cultural acr:achments to the ideal of a detached house are put under strain. Many of the rich escape the

nuisances of the city in

the 'third dimension',

upwards in one of the

18,000 tower blocks

which punctuate Sao

Paulo's heritage of

baroque villas. The

poor are solicited

more and more by

those poorer still to

lease their courtyards

or add another floor.

Laundry dries on cem­

ent roofs forever on

the verge of another

elevation. Roof tlles

and gardens disappear.

Recife, undulating space. The suburbs of old Pernambouc resemble rolling waves on the ocean sur­

face. In this desolate region of the Nordeste, the majority of the poor (both black and white) construa small

clay and tile houses. a1ways surrounded by a garden, on the f1anks of the undulating hills. Access is by foot, up long

flights of steps scaling each hill, or morro. The steps, rising vertically Iike zebra's stripes from the main street which

stretches the length of each val­

ley depression, go up to anoth­

er street running along the

crest of the hills. Inhabitants

idemify themselves ta their

morro and the single main street

that services neighbourhood

shops and outlets. Buses come

ta a hait at the end of each of

these streets, turn around and

go back: an example of frag­

mentation moulded by a public

transport system.

Cities as seen from the street- Haeringer 27

Berlin, liberated space. Redesigned in the midst of the classic period, Berlin

is the most generous of the European capitals in its share of open spaces, avenues and

visCls. However, the nineteenth century practice of leasing Mietskasernen - rented

accommodation in apartment blocks overlooking a courtyard, with one courtyard giv­

ing way to another on the same plot of land - led to an excessive dividing up of the

'islets' planned as living space. From 1945 onwards, West Berlin broke down the sub­

divisions and aired out the residential tissue by injeeting light, colour, trees. gardens and

games for children into the islets. Since the collapse of

the Wall. this work has been carried through to

the East Reunification equally has opened

up vast areas of no man's land

which, roday, are the targets

of ambitious new pro­

jeets in urbanism.

Sofia, frayed space. At the hearr of the Balkans, the Bulgarian capitalillus­

trates weil the fate of a late adept to West European urban models, swept up almost

straight away by a Soviet urban mould and now proceeding to reflect on its situation.

Stalinist architecture has marked the city centre only moderately but the spoliation

left the post-Haussmanian bourgeois buildings considerably run down. The balance

sheet is most serious in the periphery's komplex, which ought perhaps to be torn

down, yet remain indispensable lodgings for the majority. Green spaces are only

indefrnite patches where, roday.

improvlSed boutiques floumh.

The most enterprising of the

city dwellers live in the pavil­

ioned suburbs where, on Sun­

days, they build and rebuild, and

in their square of garden, plant

potatoes and lettuces behind a

few tulips.

Li ma, heroic space. Basking in an oasis. Lima

once proudly cultivated its Andalusian and Creole tradi­

tions. Yet, since 1950. a megalopolization of the city has

precipitated a pauperised Andean population, unable to

find a place inside the oasis. Most of the eight million

Andeans are confrned ro the outer fringes and Lima has

become a metropolis of the desert. Still, behind the

extreme desolation of the barriadas, authentic urban

projects. both individual and community-based, can be

made out. The lack of water is confronted with heroism.

The unique advantage of the situation, the inexpen­

siveness of this unproductive land, has been

exploited ta the full: everyone has a

spacious plot and sports areas

are plentiful.

NATURE & RESOURCES Vol. 32, No. 2, 1996

• Rio de Janeiro, inaccessible space. It

would be wrong ro reduce Rio de Janeiro ro a cliché post­

card image of the close proximity of miserable (avellas

overshadowing the rich along the beach. The bulk of the

population is engaged in a never-ending patchwork of inva­

sions and re-allocations of plots, blurring constantly the

nuances bet'Heen poor and median classes. However, it is

true that the corioco siums are the stereotype, c1inging ta

the near-vertical siopes of the sugar loaf rocks around the

bay. Yet it does not seem ta be the disparity in wealth that

fascinates but rather the menacing atmosphere of intangi­

ble reminders, in che very hearr of the city, which drug

gangs have sown in Rio for the last t'Henty years.

Milan, circular space. Milan spreads out in three (almost perfectly

concentric) rings, passed down from the thirteenth, sixteenth and nineteenth cen­

turies, with the Pi=a dei Duarno at the centre. Beyond the third ring, this regularity in

the metropolitan ambiance breaks down, yet the genius of Milan is to have known

how to retain the fragile f10wer of its bourgeoisie within its innermosc circle. Nerther

the miniature palaces, coiled

around central courcyards, nor

the living quarters which look in

on closed gardens and courtS,

have succumbed to becoming

office blacks or towers. This

taste for an introverted city life

is retraced in the wider dis­

tricts, where individu al pavilions

are rare and where collective

housing estates are grouped

upon themselves, for example

around a central internai space.

CONCLUDING REMARKS: THE IMPLICATIONS OF CITY DIVERSITY

NATURE & RESOURCES Vol, 32, No. 2,1996

1. For further informarion on rhe approaches andconcep" flagged in rhis arriele, see (a)Haeringer, P (ed.). 1983. Abidjan au Coin tU /a

Rue. EUments tU la Vie Citadine dam la MélYopole

Ivoirienne. üRSTüM, Paris. (b) Haeringer, P.1989. Abidjan: a colourful kaleidoscope. The

UNESCO Courier, Augusr 1989: 22-5. (c)Haeringer, P. 1990. Mais commenc faut-il doncle dire' Les solutions de demain som inscriressur le sol depuis des lusrres. In: Amis, P.; Lloyd,P. (eds.). Housing A/rita', Urban Poor, pp.273-85. Manchesrer Universiry Press, Man­chester. (d) Haeringer, P. 1991. Modèles rési­dentiels et: jeux urbains, ou comment les srruc­rures de la ville s'expriment dans les jeux desenfams er des vieux. In: Grand" Métropole,

d'Afrique et d'Amérique Latine, pp. 170-lCNRS, Toulouse. (e) Haeringer, P. 1992 SaoPaulo. La fragmencarion sécuritaire d'une méga­pole. L'Homme et la Société, 104: 85-92 (f)

Haeringer, P. 1992. Trois regards sur Berlin.DiaglJ1lales EII-Ouest, 5 23-7. (g) Haeringer, P.1993. La mégapolisarion du monde: du cooceprde ville à la réaliré des O1égapoles. Goographie el

Cultures, 6: 3-l4. (h) Haerioger, P. 1993 Ladiversiré des situ.arions péri-urbaines dans lemonde. Cahier, du CREPIF, 42: 89-103. (i)

Haeringer, P. 1993. Aujourd'hui dans (em ans.Essai sur les rnégapoles du Sud. 10: Pro,peaive deID6kjuilibres MlJ1Idiaux. Rapport ,ur l'Évo!JJtion du

Monde, pp.354--74. CPE/GRET, Mi nisrère de laRecherche er de l'Espace, Paris. (j) Haeringer, P.1995. La petire ville face au procès de mégapoli­sarion. Villes en parallèle, 22: 58--66. (k)Haennger, P. 1996. La mégapo1isarion o'esr pasune crise. Esquisse de mise au poiot sémanriqueer problémarique. ln: Villes du Sud Sur la Roure

d'IIlanbul, pp 5-24. üRSTOM, Paris.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

enough derail may, in facr, consrirurerhe besr insurance we have againsr rhernrear of imminenr collapse menacingmany ciries. Rarher rhan al ways rum­ing anenrion rawards far-away inrerna­rional experrise, decision-makers havejusr as much ro learn from creariveénergies rhar are much doser ra home.

Furrher, diversiry also represenrs areassurance: faced wirh profound ques­tions raised by rhe phenomenon ofworldwide globalizarion, experiencedra a grearer or lesser degree by aU coun­rries alike, rhe diversiry in urbanresponses exisrs as a restimony ra rhehealrhy crearive capaciry presenrrnroughour rhe social corpus. Alrhoughlarge ciries are, osrensibly, rhe over­

grown offspring of an increasinglyhomogenized parenr planer, rhere liesbenearh rhe surface ofeach merropolis a

secrer fabric ofirs own.Ciry diversiry, neirher sufficienrly

raken inra aCcounr nor srudied in

Like biodiversity, city diversiry repre­senrs a parr of our world's herirage. Thehisroric cenrres of rowns, vulnerable asprimary rain foresr, are already recog­nized as one such parr. Anorher parr,

permearing merropoliran growrh andcoasranrly remoulded by rne world'sdiverse rerrirories and peoples, is rruly

inexringuisnable. This diversiry, evi­denr in rhe above selecrion ofciries pic­rured ar srreer level, celebrares rhe

uniqueness of each ciry's armosphere,emphasizes rhe singulariry in each

urban model and highlighrs an irre­placeable 'social railoring' processshaped by local condirions.

Meeting point in Los Angeles. Paradise for some, for others Los Angeles has become a

nightmare conurbation sprawling out over hundreds of kilometr.es, from Santa Barbara to the Mexican bor­

der. Envisaged for couples with a private house, an automobile or a mobile-home, ewo-thirds of the built

environ ment in Los Angeles is dedicated ta the system of roads and parking (as opposed to one-third in

Paris and one-tenth in Jakarta). The distances can be exhausting for the inhabitants and associative activities

(e.g. relating ta neighbourhood or leisure aetivities) fail ta conceal the hollowness of much of this diffused

urban tissue: added to shortages ofwater, air pollution, seismic aetivity and eruptions of violence, there has

been the recent transformation of the Californian economy, resulting in thousands of homeless people liv­

ing in the streets out of a shopping trolley. And yet this westernmost tip of the West continues (Q feed the

dreams of America. The race to the West is still on - redoubled, in face, by an insatiable quest for the sun

from people retiring from the colder climes of the North. Simultaneously, however, a steady increase

of folks coming up from the South forecasts an increasingly significant Latin culture, while the Asian Far

East continues (Q in­

vest heavily in prop­

erty and capital. In

Los Angeles, it is the

rich that occupy the

hills, where it is left

ta them ta contem­

plate the meeting

point of three conti­

nents giving rise (Q a

distinctly intriguing

megalopolis.