Whose City? Public Art, Power, and Representation in Urban Landscape Blog 2

Phase 1: The Site Site:  San Tan Valley / Queen Creek, Arizona  Why this site? A Note on My Site Selection For context, I'm an online student who lives between two states — I split my time between Beaumont, CA (the Inland Empire) and Queen Creek, Arizona, due to family reasons. This makes site selection a little unconventional for a class centered in Los Angeles. I reached out about the possibility of exploring the Queen Creek / San Tan Valley neighborhood in Arizona as my site, and I wanted to be upfront about why: this is a community I genuinely inhabit, know, and care about. While it falls outside the LA focus of the course, the questions this project asks — Whose city is this? Who is represented? Who is ignored? — apply just as urgently here. San Tan Valley and Queen Creek are rapidly growing suburban communities in the East Valley, and that growth raises real questions about what stories get told in public space, and whose. I've been slowly involving myself in this com...

Fig. 1. Historical mural collage at Taylor Ranch Park in Montebello, California. PHASE 1: THE SITE For this project, the focus is on the city of Montebello, California. This site was chosen because it is a community that has recently become part of my daily environment. Since moving to the area within the past year, I have become more familiar with its public spaces, neighborhoods, and overall environment. This familiarity makes it a practical location for conducting the field research. The site reflects a suburban setting where public art may be less visible but still contributes to identity of the community. Studying this location will help me develop a clearer understanding of how public spaces function and how art exists within everyday life. Montebello has a history that dates back into Indigenous Tongva communities and later Spanish missionary settlement associated with the founding of the nearby San Gabriel Mission in 1771. The area later developed into an agricultural t...