Holidays in Cosmopolis: Licking the Edges of the Melting Pot

by Tony Chavira

My brother is an actor and other actors can't believe that he grew up in Los Angeles. He told me once that his friend literally said "What? No one is from LA!" My brother, bless his soul, replied "I am, you transplant moron!" and made sure to make fun of the place that his friend was from. Nebraska, I think it was ...

El Pueblo

But my brother knows that he's a homegrown resident of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula, and much like me he's pretty proud of it. But, of course, that doesn't just limit his identity to L.A. He's also Californian, and American. I mean, he couldn't really say that he knew anything about the way people lived day-to-day in Bombay or in Beirut. But L.A.'s just as cool. It's the cultural melting pot.

But I can't understand people who refer to themselves as "Cosmopolitans." It's almost like they've officially decided that local issues are no longer important, and that their "citizen-o-the-world" status supersedes caring about the welfare of their communities.  The word "cosmopolitan" almost gives you the impression that every city in the world is exactly the same, so it's no big deal for cosmopolitan people to transition from one of them to the other. Calling Los Angeles, Geneva, Hong Kong and Nairobi all "global cities" is basically saying that I could move to any of them and continuing being "Cosmopolitan Tony" in any of them ("Cosmopolitony," for short). Although in reality it's more than likely that I'd be deported for assuming that borders didn't exist and still trying to vote in local elections.

I guess that I'm really just ranting and raving about cultural identity because I can't make heads or tails of the rhetoric to turn Los Angeles into a "Global City." What does that mean? Does it mean that the design of buildings in Los Angeles will all be an IndoChine/Spanish-Moroccan combo? That the city will be laid out like a strange combination of Seoul, Rio de Janeiro, Oslo and Johannesburg? That everyone living here will eventually become a non-specific sort of beige color speaking Esperanto?

Maybe all of those things. But who says that we want to be a Cosmopolis? Maybe we want to care about local issues! Maybe we want to work slowly at developing our local schools and communities and maybe we want to vote in local elections for officials who'll care more about fixing the problems of the people! Maybe we just want teachers who know our cops who know our city officials who know their neighbors really really well. Maybe we don't need to be a global city.

This is why I like to write for FourStory. I feel like this website is a great way for all of the much more respected and talented writers like Jim Washburn, Nathan Walpow, Rebecca Schoenkopf, Donna Schoenkopf and Gary Phillips to let me tag along and try to help people understand why "having a good, safe home" isn't an issue of the American past. When I first asked Jon Webb if I could submit an article to the site, I wasn't thinking about meeting the awesome people or doing the awesome research. I was just thinking about how passionate I am (and my company, RACAIA is) about good design and civic responsibility in Southern California. If we're able to help a few good people live in a good house because of few good policies and practices, hundreds and hundreds of articles will be totally worthwhile.

So don't just enjoy your holidays. Enjoy your community: children laughing, people passing meeting smile after smile; and on every street corner you'll hear silver bells in Los Angeles.