The Process of the City: The Evolution of Space in Merced, California

Abstract

The Process of the City: The Evolution of Space in Merced, California T.R. Salsman 1 G enerally speaking, we view space as an objective fact fundamental to the physical configuration of objects. We are confident that places like California, The San Joaquin Valley, the city of Merced, and the nice but affordable neighbourhood of apartments on R Street exist. However, those spaces are not objective, but instead subjectively projected onto the physical world. There is no natural law that dictates whether a piece of land falls under the jurisdiction of Merced or Atwater, nor where California should be separated from Nevada. Certainly, there is no reason why a given neighbourhood must, by nature, be rich or poor, integrated or segregated, or well-maintained or dilapidated and litter-strewn. The unique characters and distinct spaces we consider immutable are all subjectively created by the interactions, activities, and visions of the human populations who live in and around them. Although we tend to agree on spatial demarcation at the level of cities, states, and geographical regions, the more minutely we examine a space, the more clearly we see that one space has at least as many ways of being organised as there are people to observe it. Far more often, there are many more ways of mapping a space than simply one per person. In her atlas of San Francisco, Infinite City, Rebecca Solnit attempts to tackle that very issue. She writes, “Every place is if not infinite then practically inexhaustible… Any single map can depict only an arbitrary selection of the facts”. 2 Even preposterously detailed maps cannot depict every aspect of a space, and even an inconceivable number of such maps could never show all of the intricate relationships between those aspects. She therefore sets out to create a variety of maps, which, taken together, form a cubist view of the ideal form of a map of San Francisco. If we are willing to set aside the pursuit of the perfect map that truly shows the world as it is in all of its intricacies, we can construct maps that make useful arguments about how space is divided, what defines the character and purpose of those divisions, and what is important both to the inhabitants of a space and to the cartographer. It is with that goal in mind, that I commenced this project. My project is relatively straightforward. In order to better understand the city of Merced, I have explored the city, mapping my discoveries from memory and a few basic field notes. As the maps developed, I began to understand the different districts of the city, how they fit together, and what makes them stand out as individuals from the rest of the city. As my sense of Merced became more concrete, I began researching the city more closely to understand not only what the districts of Merced are, but also how and why they came to be. In my work, I have come to the conclusion that Merced is best understood in terms of three districts: The Administrative District to the south of Bear Creek, the Commercial District defined by the area between Bear Creek and Yosemite Avenue, and the UC Campus District defined by UC Merced. These three spaces each have distinct personalities and purposes in The author, being also an editor, recused himself from the editing process regarding this article. It received no special treatment and was required to conform to all standard requirements. Rebecca Solnit, Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, (Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 2010), 2.