I live in Glendale. There's conflict, but it's not that apparant, as this has got to be one of the most highly policed cities I've lived in. The real conflicts are over in Hollywood. Glendale isn't really a contemporary "suburb," either -- it's one city over from Hollywood and adjacent to LA.
>"This plurality that we have is what allows us to be so creative,"
said María Contreras-Sweet, the state's Mexican-born secretary of
business, transportation and housing. "In Silicon Valley or wherever,
as you're developing a product, you're doing so mindful of the
different needs and cultural nuances of world markets."
>"The California that I love is incipiently Hawaii," said Mike Davis,
the author of "City of Quartz" (1990) and other studies of the
downsides of the California dream. "That's not to embrace
multiculturalism, everybody in their little box, but to embrace all
the leakage and the fact that the boxes don't work anymore. Here in
L.A. you have this seashore that could be Polynesian, but it's been
owned by Midwesterners for most of the 20th century who built this
Puritan city on the edge of the Pacific. For generations, Hawaii's
been trying to break out of that, and there's a real chance for that
again this generation."
It'll be Polynesia in a business park. If there's anything that immigrants can agree on, it's money. For better or worse, the left in California will have to acknowledge this cultural fact -- that you cannot demonize greed too much, because greed is what is driving people to come to California. Nor, can you focus too much on "community"and stability, because the ties here are pretty loose, and talk of community standards usually disguises statements along the lines of "these new outsiders are lowering/raising up our property values and harshing my aesthetic."
That's to say, IMHO, deeply community based movements (like helping welfare moms) have it tough, while economically motivated movements (like raising the minimum wage) can work. Addressing poverty and racism can work, but you can't go around making people feel guilty, because a lot of affluent people have roots in the working class. One potential hot issue is the fact that the management ranks are disproportionately populated by white people from other states rather than local talent. --
johnk