"Fortress Los Angeles" from "City of Quartz"

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the writer's reading of "Fortress Los Angeles", an excerpt from Mike Davis' book, "City of Quartz". The paper explains the main points that Davis makes and the issues he brings up about the urbanization of Los Angeles. The paper also discusses some of the terms Davis uses when describing the parks and playgrounds in Los Angeles and the homeless population. In the conclusion of the paper, the writer offers her opinion of the book and notes that Davis places strong blame on the city and even more so on the LAPD for the urbanization of Los Angeles.

From the Paper:

"General Harrison Gray Otis is implicated as the first spatial militarist in Los Angeles. In the 1890's his Times building was the first building rebuilt as somewhat of a fortress in Los Angeles, fully outfitted with turrets and a bronze eagle. As an emphasis of his aggression General Otis added a functional cannon on the hood of his Packard. In 1910 the building was destroyed by an explosion, blamed on union subversives. To date, the martial spirit of Otis has permeated throughout the downtown area. Parks and playgrounds have been leveled to make way for skyscrapers. Towering buildings are connected by suspended walkways so that white-collared society doesn't have to concern itself with the blue-collared world in which it has invaded. Most days those people don't breathe the outside air until they exit their hermetically sealed offices to go to their company cars. "The goals of this strategy may be summarized as a double repression: to obliterate all connection with Downtown's past and to prevent any dynamic association with the non-Anglo urbanism of it's future".

Sample of Sources Used:

• Davis, Mike. "Fortress Los Angeles." Writing Analytically with Readings. Ed. David Rosenwasser, et al. Massachusetts: Wadsworth, 2008. 506-512.

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