The suburbanization of California’s deserts

Abstract

ABSTRACT California’s deserts have been a frontier for Los Angeles for well over a century. Their exploitation by the “suburban metropolis” for resources, spatial fixes (externalities, such as undesirable land uses, waste and pollution, and unwanted residents), and investment of surplus capital has resulted in their dramatic growth and change. I argue that the most recent process of the deserts’ colonization is best understood as their suburbanization, a historical and contemporary process of exploitation and assimilation into the suburban metropolis. My goal is to analyze the process of suburbanization of the deserts, focusing both on their changing role as the frontier and spatial fix, and their shifting internal/local processes. I reviewed academic literature on U.S. and LA suburbs to understand the historical, social, and political contexts that produced desert suburbanization. I conducted primary and secondary source research, including interviews with desert residents, and descriptive statistical analysis of the desert suburbanization processes. I found that there are specific suburban processes and characteristics that have been exported to the deserts from LA, including balancing growth and quality of life, spatial and social segregation, and technocratic governance. I conclude that suburbanization of California’s deserts reproduces the same economic, political, social, and environmental inequalities plaguing LA and other U.S. cities.