Interviews & Surveys
Interview Project
Adrienne Adams, Rai Haynes-Venerable, Olivia Landon Gemma Lurie, Magda Wittig
While dominant news sources such as NPR Marketplace and KCET may have dictated the framing and mode of understanding the complex community dynamics within Highland Park, our class’ work seeks to facilitate, rather than overdetermine, the complicated personal narratives of the people involved. In this section, the interviews are intended to engage local anti-gentrification activists and long-time residents in authentic, meaningful conversations regarding the potential opportunities to shift the prevalent narrative of gentrification in Highland Park and generating a productive institutional relationship between Occidental, community partners and long time local businesses. Our questions are based on a draft generated by Professor Maeda’s First Year Writing Seminar titled “Representing Los Angeles: Imagined Spaces, Living Places.” Our narrators include:
- John Urquiza, Photographer and Northeast Los Angeles Alliance Organizer
- Celestina Castillo, Long-time Resident of Highland Park and Director of the Occidental Center for Community-Based Learning
- Angelica Preciado, Latino/a and Latin American Studies major at Occidental, and life-long resident of northeast Los Angeles.
- Carolina Cardoza, Long-time resident of Highland Park and Critical Theory & Social Justice major at Occidental
Interview Questions
Survey Project (Draft)
Cecilia Brawley, Michael Cao, Earl Park, Eden Mekonen, Karen Romero EstradaThis survey is part of a larger project undertaken by CTSJ 352: Spatial Justice (Spring 2016). With this survey, we hope to document the both the visible and invisible aspects of gentrification, displacement, and banishment; more specifically, this work explores the aforementioned issues in Highland Park. In addition, areas of focus in this questionnaire include the following: demographic questions, interactions with Occidental College, consumer habits, and nontraditional questions. Some of the demographic questions require scales or categories. All of our thoughts are written in italicized font to contextualize our questions and format choices. The scales that we provide are suggestions and may be changed. We also included non-traditional or unconventional questions that are typically not asked in traditional surveys that seek to understand gentrification and overall neighborhood dynamics. The purpose of these non-traditional questions is to examine the aspects of gentrification that is often overlooked in traditional survey formats and methodology. The survey was not implemented during this semester. The draft provides the basis for future implementation; it can be revised in collaboration with a community partner as more specific purposes for the survey are determined.
Survey Draft