Most people enjoy seeing a small-town atmosphere in movies or TV shows. However, in the crazy world of today, not many people have the privilege of experiencing it firsthand. Biola students may just get that experience, at least during their college years.
enhancing the community
The city of La Mirada just launched its very own app called “My La Mirada” in order to enhance the community and assist local businesses. The app will allow residents to preview and review local businesses, report disturbances and road repairs, and update people on the daily happenings in town.
“It’ll get people to go to new places that they wouldn’t have gone to before and it could be a new place where people get to meet each other,” said Marissa McCauley, junior business administration.
Due to the technological age of today, many businesses have begun advertising through the internet in order to increase customer flow. Smartphone applications tie into this and often aid local businesses. Many people have speculated that the new La Mirada application will increase customer traffic for the small businesses in town.
“I think it will just help their name to be known because there are a lot of businesses around here that not a lot of people know about and mostly just word of mouth,” McCauley said. “So having an app that is specifically geared towards La Mirada it’ll show the businesses off more.”
Making local business popular
Freshman biology major Hope Patane thinks the new app could make local businesses more popular since it covers a smaller area than popular apps like Yelp do.
“My La Mirada would narrow it down so that people in the vicinity of La Mirada would have easier access to those businesses,” Patane said.
Yelp and other widely used apps often do not list smaller businesses, so the La Mirada app could prove rather useful if it lists all of them.
“I think [the app] would also be great, like I know there is a taco place in town that isn’t on Yelp, so maybe it could be on this app,” said Morgan Stickney, freshman biology major.
On the website for the app, it states that the app will help create closer community. While Biola students feel this could be true, they also think it could simply prove unimportant.
positive change for the La Mirada community
“It could create community in a way that people would be able to share their feeling about a certain place with other people and you can create trust or something within that, but I think it could just stay neutral, too,” Patane said.
While Biola remains a large part of the La Mirada community, students seem unsure as to whether or not they will get the app. Some might prefer to use more popular apps to go to places outside of La Mirada, while others might simply to stay on campus to complete their duties as students.
“Maybe I would get the app, but it depends because I don’t go off campus much because I’m always studying,” Stickney said.
Overall, students believe the app will prove a positive change for the La Mirada community.
