Long Beach is a highly heterogeneous community. According to the 2000 census, 36% of the population was Latino or Hispanic, 15% were African-American, 12% were Asian, and 45% were White/Caucasian. Since that point, Latinos have edged out non-Latino "Caucasians" for the majority. For a recent paper that will be presented at IAMCR 2010, I sought to locate several communication hotspots where residents of various ethnicities congregate and share neighborhood stories. My study looks at the communication ecologies and motivations of the two dominant ethnic groups in Long Beach (Hispanic and Anglo) for vaccinating (or not) against the recent H1N1 flu. Following from Holley Wilkin’s upcoming ICA paper, I decided that this was a good example of a time when participants who are difficult to locate through the storytelling network can be found by looking at the communication action context, or CAC. Therefore, my goal was to find communication hotspots of activity where these two groups would be present.
I started at the Healthy City website, which has a useful feature for mapping demographic data over geographic area, such as zip code or city. Latino populations are most prevalent in central Long Beach in an area to the southwest of Signal Hill, but also throughout the city with the exception of the southeast and northeast. Next, I considered the how green spaces and other features of Long Beach created places where people congregate. I started with parks, because they are easily visible on a map, and I found them to be areas where residents don’t mind being approached (as compared with bus stops or stores, which have more specific purposes, as residents are en route from one place to another).
It’s important to consider how much of a role time played in the type of activity occurring at communication hotspots. A few hours (or the same time on a Sunday vs. a Saturday) can be the difference between a quiet, subdued atmosphere and one that is packed with families grilling, playing sports, and celebrating cultural milestones (e.g. birthdays, quinceañeras). For instance, the Veteran’s Pier is quiet during the week, but on the weekends it becomes a hub of activity for athletes, beach-goers, families, fishermen, and tourists. A similar type of transformation can be seen when late at night, an open, friendly area can turn into a place that elicits fear of residents because it’s where gang tensions are played out. One surprise to me about the pier was the sheer variety of residents of differing ethnicities that use it, even ones that are not dominant in the immediate area.
The second street shopping area (1/2 mile away from the pier) is busy but more homogenously Anglo. I had much less luck running surveys here; maybe it was because Anglos are more used to being polled, or there were other people-with-clipboards in the area at the time (Greenpeace), so residents readied their stock declining response as soon as I was in range. Even with a good introductory pitch and appearance (I always snap my student ID on) it was tough going. The most useful hotspots for me were the ones that were not centered around the spending of money. Rather, they were nondenominational destinations with a range of uses, none officially prescribed. For instance, Recreation Park (at 7th and Park) serves as magnets for larger gatherings, which would be far more difficult and expensive to organize in private spaces. It’s in a liminal zone between more Latino-heavy areas and those that are Anglo-dominant. From my frequent visits with my daughter, I would say 90% of visitors there are either Asian or Latino. Gatherings tend to peak in mid-afternoon and go until dusk, while mornings are still quiet.
One aspect of community hotspots that I came away thinking about is how they are connected through cheap and easy transportation. Long Beach is a relatively (for southern California) bike-friendly community, and the path along the beach connects Latino-heavy areas with areas such as downtown and the pier. Groups are connected through mobility, which makes them particularly difficult to speak with, and makes timing all that more important. Previous Metamorphosis investigations have not found very much neighborhood talk on busses, but I remain optimistic that the unseen pathways of busses, bike paths, and walking routes serve valuable purposes in the creation of diverse neighborhood spaces.
I had much better luck in recruiting Anglos from two street fairs, one a monthly “art walk” and the second on 4th street, tied in with Bike Week. I quickly found that it was easier to get people to fill out surveys if they are already not in motion (how Newtonian), such as those waiting in line or watching a musician. This unfortunately affected the type of person I could engage with, but it seemed to be a necessary trade-off. I recruited two bilingual students from the Latino community to help administer the Spanish-language version of the survey. They were able to get similar response rates as I was, around 8 – 10 per hour for a short 10-question survey.
