Perspectives and Personalities of a Primitive Utopian Society

             

The suburban memoir Holy Land written by D.J. Waldie outlines the development of California’s first suburban area. The typical structure and content of a memoir usually consists of the personal life story of the author from their perspective, but in contrast, Holy Land discusses the historical accounts of Lakewood’s beginnings. Waldie discuses the founding of the Lakewood area and the roles people assume when building a new perspective. However, this concept of living a utopian lifestyle with perceptions of how a city should look ultimately prohibits a community from developing on its own. Through the use of facts, personal observations and the attitudes of the residents, Waldie gives the audience insight to suburbanization and the affect that a desire for a utopian society has on the development of cities and personal character.

In the text, Waldie addresses how the Lakewood area was planned with a focus on the image that the society was trying to uphold, ultimately leading to decisions being made without a concern for long-term stability. In the 1950s, many young couples sought out the perfect house, and when consulting with salesmen, “Husbands and wives selected a floor plan, signed a sales contract, looked at a map of the tract, and accepted the house they were assigned” (36). These houses were built to please the customer, and without fail, many new buyers made purchases. The desire for living a high-class lifestyle outweighed all other conditions that are usually addressed when purchasing a home, such as the quality of the neighborhood or the schools in the area.  was beginning to resemble an established town, however structurally the  “foundations [of the houses] are hardly more than a foot deep. It took a bucket excavator only fifteen minutes to dig each one… The crews poured 2,113 foundations in a hundred days”(41) thus illustrating the lack of precision and time taken into building each new household. Many of these houses failed to meet requirements because of the focus on quantity over quality, which lead to issues concerning safety. Waldie humorously states how, “Houses in Southern California are built as sketchily as possible, while still able to shed rain. Walls are thin cement skin over absence. Roofs are important here, but only when it rains. The rest is for modesty” (42), blatantly stating the faultiness of rapid suburbanization. From an outward appearance the houses are “modest” yet the foundations are unstable as well as the people residing there. This image of perfection leads to a misperception of stability, both physically and socially rendering the development of the city.

 Many city planners were focused on economic and financial gain, therefore deemphasizing other social aspects, such as recreational areas, which are important when developing a residential area. With the city so focused on the amount of houses they could fit per acre, “the city built a park under the power lines, since no house can be built under the wires. The city built jogging paths, playgrounds, picnic shelters and restrooms. They planted a meadow of California wildflowers around the base of one of the transmission towers”(52). Since the city was in need of recreational space, the convenience of building parks where housing was not an option was considered economically beneficial. Waldie also humorously explains how California “wildflowers” are “planted” around the transmission tower because in a utopian society, nature and suburbanization hypothetically coexist, but this is not the case. Waldie acknowledges the parks but reveals the mindset of the city planners who lack understanding of the park’s purpose. Recreational venues are built to bring a community together rather than being used for the convenience of the space to fulfill a need. The majority of the Lakewood area started out as farmland and progressed into suburban area and when designing the city, developers imported and strategically placed trees, “because trees are thought to encourage business growth [and] the state’s redevelopment law encourages cities to plant trees with borrowed money” (26). This idea of importing and planting trees for economic benefit became popular but ironically the trees were for promoting business growth rather than being planted out of concern for the air quality of the city. Ironically, Lakewood is labeled a “Tree City” meaning that the city is commended for “replacing [trees] that die,” however; “when the city replaces the tree, some of the residents kill it again”(56). The mindsets of the residents are questionable and by noting their perspective, Waldie forces the reader to question their intentions. On the surface the facts about the trees of Lakewood have a positive appearance, yet the mentality of people is skewed.

By examining the topic of beauty, Waldie addresses how the residents of Lakewood are blinded by the concept a perfect society thus disregarding all flaws.  During his walks home from city hall, Waldie openly questions, “ What is beautiful here? The calling of a mourning dove, the others answering from yard to yard. Perhaps this is the only thing beautiful here” (13). At first glance, the area is beautiful but when given the opportunity to observe closely, the flaws are revealed. The use of this rhetorical question, “what is beautiful”, one can respond with the trees that were strategically placed, or the houses that have been built in quantity rather than quality but these are not actually beautiful.  The dove symbolizing purity and beauty in this quote is not singing but is mourning due to a loss of nature that comes with the suburbanization of these natural areas. Waldie continues with this idea of beauty and suburbanization by stating, “Every map is a fiction. Every map offers choices. Its even possible to choose something beautiful”(47). This metaphorical map addresses how the perception of a city does not always correlate with reality. In attempt to create a utopian society, developers made decisions related to an idealist perspective but were not able to execute it successfully. Although Waldie acknowledges that Lakewood was not a perfect utopian society in many ways, he still calls it his home.

Many topics noted in the memoir discuss the appearance of the town, which reveals the high focus on the idea of living a utopian lifestyle. These subjective standards, which many societies have created for themselves, lead to decisions to be made that replace quality with quantity and create a sense of superficiality. Waldie’s observations reveal the unexpressed concepts concerning suburbanization and explain the interworking of the city revealing the mentality behind many of the initial decisions made. For a city to become a utopia it must be given the opportunity to gradually grow independent of the perspective of the people and have the ability to fulfill the need of those in search for a place to call home.

Waldie, D.J. Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir. New York: Norton, 1996, 2005. Print