[Gabriel Parks]

I am about to read a book by Mike Davis entitled "Ecology of Fear" and was just wondering if anybody else had read the book or anything else by Davis. From my previous encounters with this fantastic man, which I admitt are minimal, I have gained a great wealth of knowledge about how capital conspires to segregate through the geography and landscapes of our cities. Davis discusses how factories are planned so that they are not built within a certain radius of other major factories to prevent workers from organizing. He also deals with how cities constantly have their ghettos redifined and re segregate members of ethnic communities and lower economic classes to certain parts of a city so that they may be policed more effectively. He also discusses white americas facination with the suburb and the urban sprawl that has begun to dominate our landscapes. The more I read within this field the more it appears that there is a conspiracy by the elite white men of this world to fuck over all other people for their own purposes of accumulation. Though this is kind of a joke, I am serious at the sametime because of the amazing things that this guy uncovers. Capital has successfully been able to keep making money of the gentrification of city scapes and at the same time has recreated public space into private space and created a new area of geographical segregation and oppression.

[SirBateman]

I've never heard of this guy, but I am interested in hearing what he has to say. It really is interesting how the classes and economy are so divided by geography. Thanks in advance.

SirBateman

[DTguitarist99]

Heres a critical review of that book:

http://www.coagula.com/mike_davis.html

Look like a) this guy only lived in LA two years, and he pretends to be an expert on it.
b) even though he has tons of footnotes, much of his research is flawed.

"Not one of Davis' "facts" has any resemblance to the truth. The Committee of 25 was formed in 1952, not in 1965. It was not "secretive"--its existence was well known by anyone involved in local affairs. It was also not a landowner's association, but was a committee of the largest corporations in the city. And it was not the driving force behind the Bunker Hill redevelopment; that was the Central City Association. lastly, the riots were actually the beginning of the Committee's end as leader of the city's power structure, not it's genesis."

The review describes even more lies in that passage, and determines nearly every fact was a lie. The reviewer then looked for the source of the passage, and its none other that Mike Davis himself. Some honest researching, eh?

Also, the reviewer tried to see how far he could get in the book without running into a lie, and he couldn't get further than the first paragraph.

"In the opening paragraph of the book, Davis states that a Kona storm front hitting L.A.during an El Nino "produces rainfall of a ferocity unrivaled anywhere on earth, even in the tropical monsoon belts." He doesn't state that rainfall in L.A. approaches tropical levels. He doesn't say that it is at monsoon levels. He says that tropical monsoons don't begin to rival the intensity of rain in L.A.

The "facts" in the obscure footnote he quotes (and Davis is a master of finding that one inaccurate footnote in a sea of facts to support his claims) are that the world record for one minute of rain is .64 inches, held by L.A. County and that the former world record for decades (also in L.A.County) is 26.08 inches for a full day. Both statements are totally, completely false, and, even if they were true, would still not logically support his claim."

Theres a lot more to the article, but I think I've made my case.

[uglygoat]

how capital conspires to segregate through the geography and landscapes of our cities. Davis discusses how factories are planned so that they are not built within a certain radius of other major factories to prevent workers from organizing.

how does he explain detroit rock city? perhaps the largest automobile manufacturing town in the world... with several big, huge, monolithic automotive industry giants there?

other than that, i can dig the 'critical/radical' interpretation of sociology...