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Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization Of Urban Space

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Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization Of Urban Space
Mike Davis’ essay “Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space” talks about an “Urban renaissance” in Los Angeles. What does he mean by this? What effect has this had on the city’s poor and working class? How does Davis’ essay connect with Barry Lopez’s “Caring for the Woods?”

Scheleen. Grant
English 112
Prof. Hatchet

In Mike Davis “Fortress Los Angeles the Militarization of the Urban Space,” he talks about an “Urban renaissance”, in Los Angeles. The “Urban renaissance,” is the, “city of the future.” It is the renewal of the empty spaces and lots in downtown Los Angeles. Mike Davis speaks on how it affected the poor and the working class by excluding them from the downtown Los Angeles area. In Barry Lopez’s “Caring for the Woods,” he talks about a development and destruction of the woods and its effects on the environment. In “Fortress Los Angeles the Militarization of Urban space,” by Mike Davis’ and “Caring for the Woods,” by Barry Lopez’s both authors talk about the
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Mike Davis “Fortress Los Angeles the Militarization of Urban space,” examined the destruction of “public places” in Los Angeles, because of the “Urban renaissance,” which benefited the middle class. Mike Davis says, “In Los Angeles once a paradise of free beaches, luxurious parks, and cruising strips genuinely democratic space is virtually extinct” (pg.294). In Barry Lopez’s “Caring for the Woods,” he also talks about the destruction of environment by developers and land owners who logged and bought property in the area. The animals and trees in the area were becoming extinct because of these activities, which have taken over their home. Barry Lopez’s says, “The number of Chinook on the red, though it fluctuates, has fallen off in recent years. And I have taken hundreds of dead animals off the road along the river-raccoon, brush rabbit, even Steller’s jay and mink.”

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