BURBANK
Home Sweet Home
(Week 2)
This past week I took a car ride over to Burbank, CA which is approximately eighteen miles away from UCLA. I decided to start off my first trip around L.A. in Burbank because it is where I was born and raised. Considering the fact that I grew up in Burbank, one could say that I know the ins and outs of the city, which may be true. But truth of the matter is, even though I grew up in Burbank, it doesn't necessarily mean that I know every statistic there is about it.
I like the fact that I chose to visit my hometown for the first trip outside of Westwood because every place I visit after this week I will be comparing the differences between that place and Burbank.
This time around, visiting home was a different experience because I usually don't pay attention to every detail around the neighborhood since I am just so used to seeing everything that is going around in the neighborhood.
Driving around Burbank, which is approximately 17 square miles, there is quite a variety of things to see. From first view, it seems like a typical suburb with the streets aligned with house after house and cars parked along the streets. There is a variety of cars from the expensive to less expensive that result to Burbank seeming like the typical middle to upper-middle class suburbia. What makes it even more like a suburb is the way the neighborhood is set up. First off, Burbank has its own public services. Where other neighborhoods or cities share public transportation, police stations, and one school district (for example, L.A. school district), Burbank has all of these services to itself. Burbank has its own school district, police stations, fire departments, and own public transportation. While driving around I see a blue bus/van that transports people around Burbank (mostly kids or elders) for a small fee.
There are the public schools that expand from the bottom to the top of the hill (which includes the two rival high schools, one on the hill and the other on the bottom of the hill). On the flatlands of the neighborhood, there is a running/bike path that runs along Chandler Blvd. Driving along and past the pathway, I see people walking along the pathway, talking with their friends, people jogging, and people riding their bike. This picture seems like a typical scene from any suburb, as people meet up on the pathway for their exercise as a daily routine. As I drive up the hill over Burbank Blvd. I head into what we call "Downtown Burbank", which consists of the mall, movie theaters, shops, and restaurants. This appears to be the hangout spot for the weekends. A little further up there are the town's golf courses De Bell 18-hole and Par 3 courses as well as the driving range and clubhouse. At the very, very top I drive up to the Castaway which is a popular restaurant and venue for big events such as weddings. This offers one of the greatest views in Burbank of the sunset and the city lights down below. Or, if you're not up for a formal affair, there's also a place to hike up the mountain and visit the nature center which also offers some gorgeous views. (On a clear day you can even see the ocean miles away.)
While Burbank appears to be a neighborhood of a close-knit group, there is much more than the homes and the downtown area. Burbank has its own airport, the Bob Hope Airport, which transports all the visitors in and out of the city if LAX is just too big of a trip for them. Since the airport is named after Bob Hope there has to be a reason why Bob Hope is associated with Burbank. Yes, Bob Hope, himself, worked and lived in Burbank (Toluca Lake which is a smaller community inside of Burbank, which is/has been also home to many other celebrities such as George Lopez, Steve Carell, and Miley Cyrus). Burbank is home to many studios such as ABC/Disney, NBC, and WB. Burbank is right in the center of the entertainment industry with shows constantly being taped such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno or The Ellen Degeneres Show. Burbank natives are used to seeing film crews working on the streets filming movie after movie on the streets or on the studio lots within the city. With Burbank being home to the studios, this makes that part of Burbank seem less like a suburb and more of a city-like landscape, but nowhere near the style of Downtown L.A.
Driving back home, I realize the things I have been offered in Burbank and how sheltered I may have been growing up compared to other cities that I will face in the future. Burbank is very structured and built for the needs and/or luxuries of its residents and visitors. The streets, schools, and parks are all clean and there is a great sense of community that you can feel when you enter the neighborhood. From the places I visited in Burbank, it appears that there's a little something for everyone to enjoy from entertainment to relaxation. With that, Burbank will always be my home and hold the memories of growing up. So, in the words of Bob Hope, "Thanks for the memories."
Downtown Burbank
....Oh look, there's Jay Leno driving one of his many cars down Magnolia Blvd. (Something very common I see on the weekends since his car garage is located in Burbank.)
Hi, I responded to your post, so if you feel like reading my response here is a link! Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeletehttp://bloggingcityblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/blogging-social-difference-in-la-week-2.html
It is week 3 and I was not able to visit any particular area due to my little sister’s 15th party and midterms for other courses (not like anyone needs to know but informing), so like what many others have done, I’ve decided to post upon someone else’s post. Erica Joy Santoyo's Blog! was the post I chose because I’ve heard about the city of Burbank yet have never once visited it before, even though I have lived in the LA area my whole life.
ReplyDeleteErica stated that Burbank was her home town and I think that’s a great place to start this assignment because it allows her to do her best on the first assignment since she knows her hometown so well. The ideas and concepts she observes from other cities are going to be her comparisons with her hometown, which is a great idea as well, in order to identify similarities and differences amongst surrounding cities. I sort of wish I would have thought about that and perhaps will do this after this week. From her post, it seems that Burbank is seen a lot better than my hometown of Pomona, my reasoning behind that is the variety of types of cars from both towns, because in Pomona (my hometown) there’s few variety, most lower end cars, but yet a few amount of higher end cars. After hearing her blog about Burbank, it seems close to a utopian city, while I also agree with the other person who commented on the blog, that perhaps Erica speaks so well of Burbank because it is her hometown. I believe every town has good sides and bad sides, that is why I feel that Erica should have include some of the negative sides of Burbank, perhaps it may not be many, but there is still a few.
Also, my last supervisor used to live in Burbank and he would say that there are not many lower class locations, however, I feel as if Erica did not speak of the economic differences at all in her post and I think that information would greatly help in analyzing her own hometown and the comparisons she could do with other places she may visit. I do understand, that perhaps in Burbank, it may not portray any, if little, lower class areas, which stating that would make the blog a bit more complete as an overview of the city, but of course in my perspective.
Overall, her post was great! Informative, makes me want to visit the city, and even more because it accomplished what I believe is needed for the course! If I were to visit Burbank I could possibly compare it to my hometown, and in result we can both better understand the different cities. Perhaps a little discussion over our hometowns and can help us find many similarities that link us to the LA metropolitan area, and also identify the difference in location, social class, economic class, and many other factors of each city in order to understand one another.