Nichole 2-1

Baldwin Park: We all know of these complexes in and around our own towns and we all know what these communities are attempting to do but who REALLY likes them.

When I interned at Naples Illustrated, a fashion and society magazine, this summer I was sent out to write my first article on Ave Maria, a new town built by Tom Monahan, the inventor of Dominos Pizza. The concept is similar to that of Baldwin Park with a town center, a retail and grocery section, and a place where residents are encouraged to walk everywhere. There is also a new college currently being built called Ave Maria University. The only difference is that this town is based around the Catholic church. The center of the town has an oratory and the convenience stores aren’t allowed to sell contraception or pornography magazines or films. I find this all moderately creepy but what I have an even bigger problem with is that someone can step into any town and shoot up an entire town.

Aren’t these neighborhoods a sad attempt at re-creating the Italian Piazza, which includes small streets and open air cafes and the true sense of the meaning know thy neighbor actually stands true.

AND SO, the reason I bring all this up isn’t to express my strong opinion on this topic, but rather to explore the new concept of double coding: two signifiers working at the same time that represents one thing but is another. So can an entire town be double coded? I ask because the Baldwin Parks and Ave Maria’s of the world are trying to encode this sense of community by shooting up town centers and different styles of living based upon family income. In reality, to me at least, these towns represent a fake re-incarnation of European towns that will never succeed in the sense of community because it is all too forced. So I pose this to the rest of the class: can an entire town be double coded??