Identity, Civic Engagement, and Common Fate

While exploring the community of Highland Park, we were able to find and interview people who identified themselves as life-long members of the community. Two people that we interviewed were real estate broker Michelle Harnsberger that was mentioned in a previous entry and fire Captain Sanfelippo, who both grew up in Highland Park and continue to give back to their community through various forms of civic engagement.

Fire Captain Sanfelippo grew up in the community of Highland Park and continues to live in and serve his community. He explained to us that many of the same issues that he faced growing up in Highland Park are the same issues that many of today’s youth continue to face. For example, there are many different gangs in Highland Park, some of which include the Avenues, 18th street, and Florencia. Sanfelippo explained that many of these gangs seek to protect the community, which they feel is theirs. In addition to this he also explained that in recent years there have not been numerous amounts of crimes related to gangs, but rather, he explained, that the gangs pose no harm for some members of the community and actually serve as a form of protection for them.

We also encountered the following evidence of civic engagement and a sense of identity in Highland Park:

1. A street banner on York Blvd. hung outside a popular supermarket encouraging citizen participation in a joining venture between the Neighborhood Watch and the Highland Park Chamber of Commerce. The website mentioned shows monthly "Town Hall" type meetings that residents can join in on.
   
2. Various murals reflected a Latin-American identity, depicting Aztec culture and God, for instance, and Spanish words or phrases. We saw a lot of other graffiti art as well. Some businesses had signs in graffiti style. It seems that there is a move towards institutionalizing tagging, so that it becomes part of a city-guided discourse about what constitutes art. The city has commissioned a number of stunning murals (one in particular, behind the library, is a vast critique of power and literacy in Los Angeles) as well as “official” walls for tagging. There is a sense that certain community members and city officials are creating a common agenda for what civic engagement is, as well as what it is not.