Post on 13-Feb-2020
Philippe Haeringer
an introduction to city diversity
Cities as seen from the street:
looking at the street, from the outskirts to the city centre,provides a good point of entry for examining the tissueand dynamics of a city, grasping its internai diversity, uncoveringcontrasts and convergences between cities, and exploring thesignificance of the urban .transformation from town to metropolis,to 'megacity'. Despite trends in globalization generating multipleslrnilarities, differences still remain considerable. Each city possessesits secret fabric, identir,able in a unique residentiat pattern, adaptingitself to the changing ti~es. The form of a street is reflectedin horizontal and vertical spatial expansion; juxtaposed residentialand commercial space; buildings which look inwards or outwards;street life and activities; street surface, vegetation and green areas;as weil as a degree of 'enclosure' for reasons of security.Ali provide good indicators in discovering and deepening the studyof city diversity (diversité citadine).
A game of actorsThe role of the Srate is evidently, evenby default, primordial. Could one reallyconfuse exarnples where over-anxiousplanning zeal becomes obsessive to the
The imprint of the terrainLocalfactors can be a powerful counterbalance to the difficulties encounreredin growing megacities. This is mostevident in the Third World, whereurban management leaves a lot of roornfor informal 'popular' problem-solving,innovation and vision in the shaping ofan urban way of life. Conditions ofextreme economie precariousness andinrerdependence place demands on themajority of people ta make a place forthemselves in a 'micro-locale' within alocal nerwork, develop creative survivalstrategies to manage or exploit thesmaUerfragments of the rnerropolis andadapt, as best possible, to the terrain intheir locality or neighbourhood.
A city represents a more or lesscoherent combination of a number ofsocialand physical paramerers, The natural constrainrs of a site, such as soiltype, vegetation and micro-clirnateremain important, even in a moderncity. Relief berween high and lowground, for example, can influencetechniques chosen for construction andreflecrissuesof social stratification, evenradical segregation, surprisingly accurately. A site flush with warer will notengender the same urban settlements asanother in a dry desert. Access ro cleanwater, in alrnost every case, will be acrucial determinant for residenrialstrategies.
Similarly, the rural substrare anddensity of population surrounding acity is not insignificant. Urban expansion inro cultivated or appropriaredlandscapes, inro small or large properties, inro the perceived latifundia! ofthick forests or stony deserts, willstrongly determine the type ofeventualproperty arrangements. Yet, on theground, the social and political historyof a country bear a considerable weight.We find traces, for example, of regulations and urban norms right the wayinto the mast illicit of plots.
For their part, Sao Paulo's youthbecame impassioned with volleyball ata time when, with urban insecurity onthe rise, home-owners began to enclosetheir properties with protective metalrailings. Every Sunday, when traffic issparse, it was simple to stretch a net outacross the street by attaching it to themetal railings. Thus, Brazil went on tobecome the Olympie champions in volleyball ... In the same period, the verdant streets of western Los Angeles, incontrast, have inspired adults to go outjogging.
Yet the street informs us about agreat deal of other elements in theurban system. From its perspective, onecan notice, for exarnple, the relationshipberween the horizontal and the vertical,berween the individual and the collective, berween interior and exrerior,berween private and public space,berween organic and concrere, betweenlocal resident and passer-by, betweenliving spaces and orher funcrions of thecity. From all of these influences, fromthe mixing together of universal trends,along with the components of localcultures, a patina is formed and a particular atmosphère is created and released.
Over and above any initial impressionsofdéjà vu, common to all the large citiesof the world (above all, besides biginternational hotelsl), an attentive walkthrough the streets of the living urbantissue is enough to be persuaded of thesingularity and uniqueness of every city.Quite quickly, it becomes impossible ta
confuse Naples with Amsterdam,Johannesburg with Nairobi, OsakawithShanghai,Lima with Caracas.
A coherence exists which links what isobvions in the street with the ensembleof an urban system. This coherence issuch thar even a srreec's minor dues,such as children's games, can often berepresentativeof a wider whole. Footballcan be played in many Mrican streers,whose ample widrh, inherited fromcodesof urban colonialism, remain unfirfor vehicles, In contrasr, the pedestrianprecinctsofJakarta, which mirror a highhuman density in rural areas, Ieave only .enough space for games played in acrouching position astride a gurter gamesofchessor tiddly-wïnks.
FROM THE STREETTO THE URBAN SYSTEM
Philippe Haeringer is a Research Director at the Frenchlnstitute ofScientific Research in Co-operation for DEffelopment (ORSTOM). A geographer and anthropologist by training, since 1988 he liasbeen the animator
and director of a series of meetings 'Megapolization of the World and CityDiversity', His address is: Social Sciences Laboratory, Centre ORSTOMd'ile-de-France, 32 Avenue Henri Varagnar,93143 Bondy Cedex, France.
NATURE & RESOURCES Vol. 32, No. 2, 1f96 Cities as seen from the street - Haeringer 23
1J
Shanghai, confiscated space. In the caseof this Chinese city, the individual has been largelyexcluded from the initiative of setliement, and the settlement unit is bath an expression of the present politicalsystem, as weil as being a function of an earlier. socialsystem. While the city periphery is currently the domainof collectivist urbanism, the majority of the city's fabricis comprised of fi/ongs: small nucleated c1usterings, built
,,,Jakarta, alveolar space. Capiral ofan immense extended country that is financially more constrained. Jakarta cannat go about things like its neighbour,Singapore. Modernism in Jakaru follows the city's majorarteries and big highways but stops short of spreading ailthe way through the branching alveolar structure sten-cilled on the land by the budding pattern of develop-ment. At these interstices, one enters into therealm of the semi-autonomous urban villages,where each community member lives in a Iittlehouse with red tiles, tightly bound ta ail theothers in a labyrinth of small pedestrian alleyways. Rules exist with neighbourhood chiefs,organized curns of guard duty and a remarkabledomestic peace reigns in the heart of a metropolis which, on a number of other fronts, con
tinues ta be beset by irrirations.
The street in perilFinally, rhrough numerous systems ofsigns, srreets are testaments ra every
thing that a ciry has witnessed with thepassing of time - as much in thedomain of ongoing aetivities as in thequirky and rhe unexpecred. One cirywill highlight a certain theme which,in another, will have bare1y surfaced. At
the same time, a multitude of international influences are consranrly reinterpreted, incorporated and Daturalized. lnthe face of irrepressible iconoclastieforces, rhe street is also a locus of mem-
tends co enhance and caricarure profilerypes. lt is by rheir abiliry, therefore, coeither dampen or to exalt cultUral
diversity that cities can be marked aparrfrom one another.
oine that the State considers thar ir isle sole eneity capable of constructingle city, with instances of regions where
o tradition exisrs in the centralizedlanning ofciries) Megapolizarion, ir is
ue, arrenuates rhis disrincrion: onceader way, rransformarion inro alegacity' means that rigorous plan
ng ambitions often become a forlornJpe, which give way CO more or lesssguised abandon.
Wherher or nor rhe Srare plays aid cole in rhe consrruction ofa ciry, anfinire diversiry in the games of aetors
n be observed. The greatest differces may depend on whether or not:lividuals, rhe bedrock of the ciry, area situarion where they themselves
1 be the iniriarors of rheir own habi. The spirit of a ciry will not be the
ne welling up from everyone, as it islen parachured down from a fewIgnates, a dominant class or a categoof informai 'enrrepreneurs'; nor will:ompare when lodgings are rentedher than owned.
Ethnicity is another important fac, both in the effervescence of behavrai codes, as muc-h as in a game of
lbolic differentiation, cross-ferriliza1 of ideas and the sharing of roles orcrions, even co 'gherro' phenomena.
ive culturallife is often vividly pret wi thin and between differenters. Unlike assimilation at a narion
:ale, city life does nor always subdueerences. ln fact, merropoliran life
Cities as seen from the street - Haeringer NATURE & RESOURCES Vol. 32, No. 2.1996
ory and long afterwards, rhose whoknow where ro look, can unearch ailmanner of vestiges and clues.
The street is, nonetheless, a rhrearened concept. Emblematic symbol of
life in the ciry, ir is uncertain if ir willremain in rhe merropoliran exisrence ofromorrow. The face rhar rhe srreer isincreasingly being 'museified' in pedes
trian and proreered zones is not a good
slgn.The dimensions of a megaciry dis
qualify the pedesrrian, wirh access [Q
the sueer rending [Q be reduced [Q an
immediare vicinity. Generally, one nowcrosses a ci ry in caprive sysrems ofuansporc along blind corridors. City
centres are becoming more and mOreinsecure and rhe bourgeoisie flee alongwith rhe qualiry commerces. Ar besr,
internarional business takes control,pounding rhe historic rissue wirhbunker towers before, in turn, ir rooemigrares leaving disorder in irs wake.
The general trend seems ro be
by the former dominant class (and today, ramshackledand severely overcrowded), these 'mini-cities' lookinwards and are closed to the outside. Informai mechanisms do not exist ta take possession of new land in theperipheral districts, so informality is expressed in aninfinite series of subdivisions on the inside of these circumscribed lodgings.
rowards rhe concentration of commercial aceivity in giant shopping centres,as kinds of 'bubbles' escaping from the
aggravations of rhe metropolis, yer
where sociallife is progressively findingshelrer in rhese bubbles. Contemporaryarchirecture, similarly, continues roo
often (following rhe rheoreticians of rhecharter of Arhens) ro deny the street.
Suburbia, often uiwnphanr, concedesto the street on.l.y a minimwn funerion.In a nwnber of ciries, finally, streers are
'out of bounds', shutring themselves offcompletely from rhe passer-by; whilesometimes enrire disrricrs may wallthemselves in, some ro protect themselves againsr rhieves, orhers ro keepout of reach from rhe pouce.
The metropolitan horizonWhile the streer is rhreatened wirh a
loss in its social funcrion, a differenrkind of menace hangs over rhe ciry: irsdilution and dissiparion in space. In rhecity thar has become a megalopolis, areadjustmenr ro a new SOrt of geogra
phy is necessary.In a classic city, everything used [Q
gravitare rawards the centre whereas in
the megalopolis rhe dynamic iscentrifugaI. Mororized movements are
Singapore, planned space. Plannedspace par excellence. In this prosperous islandcity state, the traditional urban fabric, steepedin diversity with Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnic groups, has been almost totally refashionedby a capitalist State seeking national unity.Nine out of ten Singaporians are lodgedthrough the care of the State, in an immaculatenetwork of modernist satellitehousing developments, made upof tall towers andlandscaped lawns,interlaced by aremarkable flyover metro system. Each urbanfunetion is meticulously separatedfrom the others(neighbourhoodcornershops areabsent) and thedifferent ethnicgroups are carefully mixedtogether.
parr of the reason bur so is the veryprocess of megapolization irself, precipiraring a phenomenon of fragmentation
and polycentrism. Inhabiranrs of theciry rhus grasp for paramerers at an
appropriare level ofperceprion, makingir possible ra speak of rhe formarion ofnew 'urban villages'. Uhfortunately,
rhis proliferaring urbanizarion is, onrhe whole, poorly controlled, scrambling our references berween rawn and
counrry and throwing up numerousinrervening 'non-places'.
This ruprured urban continuiry alsocontribures ra rhe impoverishment ofthe concept of the srreer, which loses irsprivileged position as rhe link berweenpart and whole. Still, diversiry does not
disappear in the metamorphosis. Taking inro accounr ail rhar has gonebefore, each city has irs own particularway of fragmenting. Jusr as much as anexplorarion of the sueer, rhe diversityin modes of fragmentarion offers another excellent introduceion ra rhe srudy ofciry diversi ry. l
PORTRAITS OF CITIES
Below, a briefseries of portrair glimpsesare presented ra provide perspectives on
rhe diversiry in urban systems. Theflash portraits sketch out a sort ofgeneric map, which identifies the mosr characrerisric threads of the urban tissue. Inberween rhese threads, the warermarkof a ciry as seen from the srreer shouldappear.
! .
l,
:1i
NATURE & RESOURCES Vol. 32, No. 2, 1996 Cities as seen ITom the street - Haeringer 2S
Abidjan,shared space. Around
the capital of the Côte d'Ivoire,
the court is the key ta an
undersranding of the popular
habitat. Parcels of land, distrib
uted by the colonial adminis
tration, were large enough ro
accommodate an entire ext
ended family but came ta be
rapidly organized during con
ditions of growing demand,
into a system of rented courts.
Gradually, the model of an
open-plan family court rook
shape, with eight ta ten
domestic units grouped aro
und a single mango tree. After
independence, public habitat
programmes then promoted a
more modern model of smaller individual courts. Over the last ten years, the [wo
models have been merging: court areas have been compartmentalizing, the com
mon mango tree has disappeared but the street, convivial as ever, remains the
setting for quiet games of ludo, draughts or the popular game of table football.
Dakar, divided space. In the 1960s and 1970s, the city of Dakar decid
ed to rid itself of the precarious shelters which had spread through ail but the
ciéy's tiniest cracks. In order to rehouse the displaced population, cursory plots .
were allocated 30 km away in
Pikine, whose identity was cast
as Dakar's surrogate shadow.
Today, the Senegalese capital
is suffocating from a malaise
even more intense with the
generalized propagation of the
informai economy: Not built
with this in mind, Dakar is
being stifled, while Pikine
seems to be drawing in ail the
vitality of a big city. A sweet
revenge?
26 Cities as seen from the street - Haeringer NATURE & RESOURCES Vol. 32, No. 2,1996
II1II Cairo,prohibited space. With
its back right up against harsh
desert plateaux, Cairo is con
tinually edging ever further imo
the agricultural lands of the
Delta, where new roads roll
out over the lines of irrigation
ditches. Yet, paradoxically,
these pieces of land are pro
tected twice over: once by a
State, keen to preserve them
and tyylce by the high costs of
land. The desert, traditionally
reserved for bu rials, can only
attract insufficient public
investmenc. The end result for
the wetter areas is the profu
sion of an extraordinarily dense
human habitat of narrow
streets lik~ vertical canyons,
where ail the urban functions
rub shoulders with each other.
Manaus,pioneer space. Capital of Amazonia, Man
aus is at the centre of a vast green mosaic. Here,
the 'founding aa' for any locale must therefore be
the staking out of land by chopping and clearing.
This pioneer experience, even when it is orches
trated by illegal plot-holders, instils a powerful
feeling of ownership and belonging. Lower-Iying areas are prone ta periodic f1ooding, however, so Man
aus advances like a flea, 'jumping' between interiluvial higher ground. large swathes of tropical forest
are ignored in the process and, as a consequence, latecomer migrants will nonetheless popufate the
folds of the tawn with impermanent shelters on stilts.
Nouakchott, exposed space. Thirty years
ago, Nouakchott did not even exist: the outpost had only
just been made the capital of the Mauritanian Desert.
Today, Nouakchott has some 600,000 in habitants, plucked
from a nation with a population of fewer than two million
people, who ho Id no previous experience of urban living.
Around the administrative districts, the desert is bare and
the arrivais to the city are impoverished nomads who have
congregated together in encampments of canvas and loose
planks. Every now and then, the Government sends
out a team of land surveyors ta skirt around
the huts and trace out the streets.
Thus grows the city.
Sao Paolo, laminated space. Not so long ago, sao Paulo became one of the world's largest cities.
With over 20 million people, its demographic momentum has cut imo traditional residential patterns like a deep
blade. Cultural acr:achments to the ideal of a detached house are put under strain. Many of the rich escape the
nuisances of the city in
the 'third dimension',
upwards in one of the
18,000 tower blocks
which punctuate Sao
Paulo's heritage of
baroque villas. The
poor are solicited
more and more by
those poorer still to
lease their courtyards
or add another floor.
Laundry dries on cem
ent roofs forever on
the verge of another
elevation. Roof tlles
and gardens disappear.
Recife, undulating space. The suburbs of old Pernambouc resemble rolling waves on the ocean sur
face. In this desolate region of the Nordeste, the majority of the poor (both black and white) construa small
clay and tile houses. a1ways surrounded by a garden, on the f1anks of the undulating hills. Access is by foot, up long
flights of steps scaling each hill, or morro. The steps, rising vertically Iike zebra's stripes from the main street which
stretches the length of each val
ley depression, go up to anoth
er street running along the
crest of the hills. Inhabitants
idemify themselves ta their
morro and the single main street
that services neighbourhood
shops and outlets. Buses come
ta a hait at the end of each of
these streets, turn around and
go back: an example of frag
mentation moulded by a public
transport system.
Cities as seen from the street- Haeringer 27
Berlin, liberated space. Redesigned in the midst of the classic period, Berlin
is the most generous of the European capitals in its share of open spaces, avenues and
visCls. However, the nineteenth century practice of leasing Mietskasernen - rented
accommodation in apartment blocks overlooking a courtyard, with one courtyard giv
ing way to another on the same plot of land - led to an excessive dividing up of the
'islets' planned as living space. From 1945 onwards, West Berlin broke down the sub
divisions and aired out the residential tissue by injeeting light, colour, trees. gardens and
games for children into the islets. Since the collapse of
the Wall. this work has been carried through to
the East Reunification equally has opened
up vast areas of no man's land
which, roday, are the targets
of ambitious new pro
jeets in urbanism.
Sofia, frayed space. At the hearr of the Balkans, the Bulgarian capitalillus
trates weil the fate of a late adept to West European urban models, swept up almost
straight away by a Soviet urban mould and now proceeding to reflect on its situation.
Stalinist architecture has marked the city centre only moderately but the spoliation
left the post-Haussmanian bourgeois buildings considerably run down. The balance
sheet is most serious in the periphery's komplex, which ought perhaps to be torn
down, yet remain indispensable lodgings for the majority. Green spaces are only
indefrnite patches where, roday.
improvlSed boutiques floumh.
The most enterprising of the
city dwellers live in the pavil
ioned suburbs where, on Sun
days, they build and rebuild, and
in their square of garden, plant
potatoes and lettuces behind a
few tulips.
Li ma, heroic space. Basking in an oasis. Lima
once proudly cultivated its Andalusian and Creole tradi
tions. Yet, since 1950. a megalopolization of the city has
precipitated a pauperised Andean population, unable to
find a place inside the oasis. Most of the eight million
Andeans are confrned ro the outer fringes and Lima has
become a metropolis of the desert. Still, behind the
extreme desolation of the barriadas, authentic urban
projects. both individual and community-based, can be
made out. The lack of water is confronted with heroism.
The unique advantage of the situation, the inexpen
siveness of this unproductive land, has been
exploited ta the full: everyone has a
spacious plot and sports areas
are plentiful.
NATURE & RESOURCES Vol. 32, No. 2, 1996
• Rio de Janeiro, inaccessible space. It
would be wrong ro reduce Rio de Janeiro ro a cliché post
card image of the close proximity of miserable (avellas
overshadowing the rich along the beach. The bulk of the
population is engaged in a never-ending patchwork of inva
sions and re-allocations of plots, blurring constantly the
nuances bet'Heen poor and median classes. However, it is
true that the corioco siums are the stereotype, c1inging ta
the near-vertical siopes of the sugar loaf rocks around the
bay. Yet it does not seem ta be the disparity in wealth that
fascinates but rather the menacing atmosphere of intangi
ble reminders, in che very hearr of the city, which drug
gangs have sown in Rio for the last t'Henty years.
Milan, circular space. Milan spreads out in three (almost perfectly
concentric) rings, passed down from the thirteenth, sixteenth and nineteenth cen
turies, with the Pi=a dei Duarno at the centre. Beyond the third ring, this regularity in
the metropolitan ambiance breaks down, yet the genius of Milan is to have known
how to retain the fragile f10wer of its bourgeoisie within its innermosc circle. Nerther
the miniature palaces, coiled
around central courcyards, nor
the living quarters which look in
on closed gardens and courtS,
have succumbed to becoming
office blacks or towers. This
taste for an introverted city life
is retraced in the wider dis
tricts, where individu al pavilions
are rare and where collective
housing estates are grouped
upon themselves, for example
around a central internai space.
CONCLUDING REMARKS: THE IMPLICATIONS OF CITY DIVERSITY
NATURE & RESOURCES Vol, 32, No. 2,1996
1. For further informarion on rhe approaches andconcep" flagged in rhis arriele, see (a)Haeringer, P (ed.). 1983. Abidjan au Coin tU /a
Rue. EUments tU la Vie Citadine dam la MélYopole
Ivoirienne. üRSTüM, Paris. (b) Haeringer, P.1989. Abidjan: a colourful kaleidoscope. The
UNESCO Courier, Augusr 1989: 22-5. (c)Haeringer, P. 1990. Mais commenc faut-il doncle dire' Les solutions de demain som inscriressur le sol depuis des lusrres. In: Amis, P.; Lloyd,P. (eds.). Housing A/rita', Urban Poor, pp.273-85. Manchesrer Universiry Press, Manchester. (d) Haeringer, P. 1991. Modèles résidentiels et: jeux urbains, ou comment les srrucrures de la ville s'expriment dans les jeux desenfams er des vieux. In: Grand" Métropole,
d'Afrique et d'Amérique Latine, pp. 170-lCNRS, Toulouse. (e) Haeringer, P. 1992 SaoPaulo. La fragmencarion sécuritaire d'une mégapole. L'Homme et la Société, 104: 85-92 (f)
Haeringer, P. 1992. Trois regards sur Berlin.DiaglJ1lales EII-Ouest, 5 23-7. (g) Haeringer, P.1993. La mégapolisarion du monde: du cooceprde ville à la réaliré des O1égapoles. Goographie el
Cultures, 6: 3-l4. (h) Haerioger, P. 1993 Ladiversiré des situ.arions péri-urbaines dans lemonde. Cahier, du CREPIF, 42: 89-103. (i)
Haeringer, P. 1993. Aujourd'hui dans (em ans.Essai sur les rnégapoles du Sud. 10: Pro,peaive deID6kjuilibres MlJ1Idiaux. Rapport ,ur l'Évo!JJtion du
Monde, pp.354--74. CPE/GRET, Mi nisrère de laRecherche er de l'Espace, Paris. (j) Haeringer, P.1995. La petire ville face au procès de mégapolisarion. Villes en parallèle, 22: 58--66. (k)Haennger, P. 1996. La mégapo1isarion o'esr pasune crise. Esquisse de mise au poiot sémanriqueer problémarique. ln: Villes du Sud Sur la Roure
d'IIlanbul, pp 5-24. üRSTOM, Paris.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
enough derail may, in facr, consrirurerhe besr insurance we have againsr rhernrear of imminenr collapse menacingmany ciries. Rarher rhan al ways ruming anenrion rawards far-away inrernarional experrise, decision-makers havejusr as much ro learn from creariveénergies rhar are much doser ra home.
Furrher, diversiry also represenrs areassurance: faced wirh profound questions raised by rhe phenomenon ofworldwide globalizarion, experiencedra a grearer or lesser degree by aU counrries alike, rhe diversiry in urbanresponses exisrs as a restimony ra rhehealrhy crearive capaciry presenrrnroughour rhe social corpus. Alrhoughlarge ciries are, osrensibly, rhe over
grown offspring of an increasinglyhomogenized parenr planer, rhere liesbenearh rhe surface ofeach merropolis a
secrer fabric ofirs own.Ciry diversiry, neirher sufficienrly
raken inra aCcounr nor srudied in
Like biodiversity, city diversiry represenrs a parr of our world's herirage. Thehisroric cenrres of rowns, vulnerable asprimary rain foresr, are already recognized as one such parr. Anorher parr,
permearing merropoliran growrh andcoasranrly remoulded by rne world'sdiverse rerrirories and peoples, is rruly
inexringuisnable. This diversiry, evidenr in rhe above selecrion ofciries picrured ar srreer level, celebrares rhe
uniqueness of each ciry's armosphere,emphasizes rhe singulariry in each
urban model and highlighrs an irreplaceable 'social railoring' processshaped by local condirions.
Meeting point in Los Angeles. Paradise for some, for others Los Angeles has become a
nightmare conurbation sprawling out over hundreds of kilometr.es, from Santa Barbara to the Mexican bor
der. Envisaged for couples with a private house, an automobile or a mobile-home, ewo-thirds of the built
environ ment in Los Angeles is dedicated ta the system of roads and parking (as opposed to one-third in
Paris and one-tenth in Jakarta). The distances can be exhausting for the inhabitants and associative activities
(e.g. relating ta neighbourhood or leisure aetivities) fail ta conceal the hollowness of much of this diffused
urban tissue: added to shortages ofwater, air pollution, seismic aetivity and eruptions of violence, there has
been the recent transformation of the Californian economy, resulting in thousands of homeless people liv
ing in the streets out of a shopping trolley. And yet this westernmost tip of the West continues (Q feed the
dreams of America. The race to the West is still on - redoubled, in face, by an insatiable quest for the sun
from people retiring from the colder climes of the North. Simultaneously, however, a steady increase
of folks coming up from the South forecasts an increasingly significant Latin culture, while the Asian Far
East continues (Q in
vest heavily in prop
erty and capital. In
Los Angeles, it is the
rich that occupy the
hills, where it is left
ta them ta contem
plate the meeting
point of three conti
nents giving rise (Q a
distinctly intriguing
megalopolis.