Socioeconomic Disparity in Altadena

As someone who has lived their entire life in the less wealthy area of Altadena, the abrupt disparity between different neighborhoods is something that has been familiar to me for as long as I can remember. From the enormous mansions that dominate the endless blocks alongside Altadena Drive to the dilapidated housing on Lincoln Avenue that takes away from the ideal white, picket-fenced American identity, Altadena has it all, poor and rich, black and white, English and Spanish-speaking, acknowledged and neglected. As a former citizen of Altadena, I know this fact by heart and because I am a part of the city. Yet, with friends who live in Pasadena or on the outskirts of Altadena, their perceptions of my city are often skewed to one extreme or the other. Many think Altadena is filled with the most entitled old-money families that live to continue their family’s legacy of wealth, while others think that Altadena is a sanctuary to those who could not afford to live in Pasadena, the microcosm of American exceptionalism. 

In reality, Altadena is a fairly diverse community, but only one part of its community members represent the community and receive the resources to improve the it. It is because of this phenomenon that there is a discontinuity within the infrastructure of cities; the poorer areas are losing financial support while the wealthier areas are gaining more and more resources. The ideal American Identity of wealth and prosperity dominates as subset of communities, encouraging city councils to support neighborhoods which benefit the city’s reputation and to neglect neighborhoods which damage the city’s ideal identity, causing a fault in infrastructure uniformity. It is this problem of inequality among infrastructure that I wanted to bring attention to in a personal project I decided to work on during the summer. 

The majority of the photos are simple; they do not evoke an emotional response when they exist solely, but when put beside one another, they represent the divide between the social and economic factors of Altadena. Very small factors like the architecture of a church or the slogans in a grocery store, when put side by side, reveal just who pertains to what infrastructure. This lack of attention to undesired neighborhoods allows for more funding for projects like the Pasadena Showcase House to show the epitome of living standards. Yet, with this same money, infrastructure could be brought up to par with the rest of the community. Children can live in their communities without the stigmas in the places where they live. Infrastructure has to exist as an equal necessity for everyone to be content, not just for the privileged and wealthy. Rather than obsessing over the identity of a city, city councils must prioritize the standard of living to maintain cities suitable for all people of all classes.