After 20 years of a life in LA, only in the past few months have I also started riding the bus and trains.
I'm feel like I'm making more than a concerted and strained effort to make public transit in addition to biking my main mode of travel. My transition from car driving to bus riding and train-hopping in LA has been leeched with plenty of growing pains.
-The first time I took the bus in about year was on a trip from the Valley to LA Union Station. I thought I could buy a $5 all-day Metro Pass.
Nope!
I had to buy a TAP Card...not at all available at any bus station cause that would be too convenient. I had to pick one up at Ralphs. A public pass via a private vendor!
-A week ago was the first time I tried to use the bus and trains for something important.
That morning I had to go to a meeting in Compton from the Valley. I biked to the Red Line in North Hollywood, transitioned to the Blue Line in Downtown, and got off in Compton.
Taking the red line, the underground subway from North Hollywood down to LA seemed like punishment because I couldn't actually contact anyone while underground.
The inspectors on the Blue Line were giving me shit for the bike being in THEIR way. So I had to stand up in the handicapped section of an empty ass bus.
-On Parking Day LA, September 18th, 2009, as a full-fledged newly-initiated biking enthusiast, I was fumbling with the bike rack on a Metro bus, holding up the bus for 2 minutes, and ultimately failing to pull down the bike rack correctly. The bus driver, (on the 233 Bus on Van Nuys going south at about 7:30), made a gesture to quit it and rudely told me to get on the next bus. I waited about 2-3 minutes for a Rapid line and thankfully correctly put my bike on the bus.
One of my main concerns with using the bus and trains from the experience of driving has been losing the flexibility and mobility I have with my car. With my car, I could get into almost any nook and cranny in LA at any time of the day I want.
Having a car in LA is like having a mobile phone in that it offers you the ability to connect with other people, places, things on your own terms and you can act more quickly and/or be more spontaneous with such a tool.
In contrast to this flexibility and mobility offered by the personal vehicle is the public transportation infrastructure of Los Angeles. It's like limiting my usage of the phone to pay phones.
Biking in Los Angeles, a Noob's Perspective
For years I had been entertaining the thought of not having a car. My fantasy has been to avoid paying car insurance, gas, and parking.
Instead, all my transportation needs would go towards biking.
With the help of a special friend, I took step one towards this, and am now biking for the first time since my 2nd year of college, when my mountain bike got unceremoniously stolen.
While my personal reasons for biking are entirely practical, I feel like my personal transition to biking in LA is an more of an impractical achievement fretted with inconvenience as opposed to an actual, practical solution.
Here are some of the little annoying hurdles obstructing my daily use of a bicycle as a form of commute throughout Los Angeles:
1) The fact that I can't really take both hands off the wheel yet to signal for turns
2) The bike is very greasy to handle, which means my hands get really dirty. If I had to wear a suit to work or some interview, unless there were a shower at the place of employment, it'd kinda suck
3) Wouldn't know what to do if I got a flat or got any other malfunction, leaving my biker noob butt stranded in the middle of nowhere
4) In comparison to the car, would not be able to travel all that practically and reliably from the Valley to South LA
Th first one and third points I WILL eventually get over with more time behind the wheel and on the streets. Perhaps, there could be better supportive biking infrastructure for the third point, like a patch kit at every stop.
The second one I MIGHT be able to get over with practice. Maybe I'll get good at finding a shower, or place to wash my hands and/or shower in public, if there isn't any private establishment to provide that.
The last point however, is one problem that might be unfixable and due to the nature of Los Angeles.
With that last point I have in mind a very specific situation that actually happened: From my house in the Valley,, I wouldn't be able to make it that comfortably on bike to a job interview in Huntington Park. Obviously, I'd need to take the bus and trains, meaning I'd need to plan well in advance and everything about the trip...not too fond of having to pre-emptively strike and shell out $62 on a bus pass for one month, which seems kinda high and like I'm saving on nothing.
For an individual to be biking on Los Angeles streets with cars, you need a youthful, bodily fearlessness and extremely sunny, but fierce resolve. I cringe everytime I think about having to carry on through narrow streets and sidewalks where there are no bike lanes. I don't want to slam into a person, a car door, another biker, or into some driver. You need some nerve to ride into the middle of the street with alongside anxious LA drivers only see bikers as obstructions to clear lanes.
If biking is to be done and used by lots of people, then it has to be practical for the lots of people. Maybe if the biking networks available address the transition for new riders there'd be more infrastructural change in LA transportation that could eventually address that fourth point.
Instead, all my transportation needs would go towards biking.
With the help of a special friend, I took step one towards this, and am now biking for the first time since my 2nd year of college, when my mountain bike got unceremoniously stolen.
While my personal reasons for biking are entirely practical, I feel like my personal transition to biking in LA is an more of an impractical achievement fretted with inconvenience as opposed to an actual, practical solution.
Here are some of the little annoying hurdles obstructing my daily use of a bicycle as a form of commute throughout Los Angeles:
1) The fact that I can't really take both hands off the wheel yet to signal for turns
2) The bike is very greasy to handle, which means my hands get really dirty. If I had to wear a suit to work or some interview, unless there were a shower at the place of employment, it'd kinda suck
3) Wouldn't know what to do if I got a flat or got any other malfunction, leaving my biker noob butt stranded in the middle of nowhere
4) In comparison to the car, would not be able to travel all that practically and reliably from the Valley to South LA
Th first one and third points I WILL eventually get over with more time behind the wheel and on the streets. Perhaps, there could be better supportive biking infrastructure for the third point, like a patch kit at every stop.
The second one I MIGHT be able to get over with practice. Maybe I'll get good at finding a shower, or place to wash my hands and/or shower in public, if there isn't any private establishment to provide that.
The last point however, is one problem that might be unfixable and due to the nature of Los Angeles.
With that last point I have in mind a very specific situation that actually happened: From my house in the Valley,, I wouldn't be able to make it that comfortably on bike to a job interview in Huntington Park. Obviously, I'd need to take the bus and trains, meaning I'd need to plan well in advance and everything about the trip...not too fond of having to pre-emptively strike and shell out $62 on a bus pass for one month, which seems kinda high and like I'm saving on nothing.
For an individual to be biking on Los Angeles streets with cars, you need a youthful, bodily fearlessness and extremely sunny, but fierce resolve. I cringe everytime I think about having to carry on through narrow streets and sidewalks where there are no bike lanes. I don't want to slam into a person, a car door, another biker, or into some driver. You need some nerve to ride into the middle of the street with alongside anxious LA drivers only see bikers as obstructions to clear lanes.
If biking is to be done and used by lots of people, then it has to be practical for the lots of people. Maybe if the biking networks available address the transition for new riders there'd be more infrastructural change in LA transportation that could eventually address that fourth point.
This Is Why Sherman Oaks Will Never Bike or Walk
Came back from an eventful visit to the Bay Area this weekend. My mode of transportation, the Greyhound! The cheap and gritty way of travel. I always make sure to never shower, less I want some 6'9, 485 lb coughing bum closing me into a window seat.
Equally cheap was the method of transportation I chose to get from the Greyhound station in North Hollywood on Magnolia Blvd. to my casa back in Panorama City on Nordhoff.
I walk/ran 8 miles in the dark. West on Magnolia, North on Woodman.
I was planning on taking the bus once I hit Woodman, but I wasn't sure where the 158 bus would take me. It said Devonshire...but me remembering the lessons they tell engineers...if you don't know what to do, don't do anything.
On that string of conservatism I ran/walked West on Magnolia for about 2 or 3 miles
I was pretending this was a military drill, as I had my backpack full of crap, a water canteen, and cargo pants.
The thing that I couldn't but notice, that is relevant to this blog?
A nice chunk of that route is unwalkable/unrunnable. I felt like I was fighting for my life just running and walking through in the dark, as I stepped different terrains from mud, to cracked sidewalks, unkempt lawns, to phantom, disappearing sidewalks.
Perilous isn't it.
Try and locate a sidewalk one of these streets.
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
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Don't see any sidewalks?
Well, neither did I.
I was stuck running/walking those paths from 6-8 on a November night.
There are some plots of land where there's no sidewalk, but just dirt or manicured lawns. Imagine having to cross these at night where there are no street lights and only cars are passing through at 50 mph.
View Larger Map
What exactly do you do when there is no sidewalk and you're just on people's grass?
Is that their fault, or yours? City of LA's?
View Larger Map
Beneath that big tree is a great place to dump a body at night.
View Larger Map
If I wasn't a fit male who likes running and saving tons of money with keen awareness, there would be no way I'd walk from the station to my house.
Pictures posted in case anybody ever wanted visual, physical proof of the utter unwalkability of the San Fernando Valley, particularly in Sherman Oaks.
And why is unwalkability so bad again?
Unwalkability generally means not safe. Not safe means insecurity. Insecurity means borders and fences. Borders and fences mean disconnection. Disconnection means a lack of continuity and community. A lack of continuity and community means less attachment, less personal meaning to residents, less investment in city infrastructure.
Equally cheap was the method of transportation I chose to get from the Greyhound station in North Hollywood on Magnolia Blvd. to my casa back in Panorama City on Nordhoff.
I walk/ran 8 miles in the dark. West on Magnolia, North on Woodman.
I was planning on taking the bus once I hit Woodman, but I wasn't sure where the 158 bus would take me. It said Devonshire...but me remembering the lessons they tell engineers...if you don't know what to do, don't do anything.
On that string of conservatism I ran/walked West on Magnolia for about 2 or 3 miles
I was pretending this was a military drill, as I had my backpack full of crap, a water canteen, and cargo pants.
The thing that I couldn't but notice, that is relevant to this blog?
A nice chunk of that route is unwalkable/unrunnable. I felt like I was fighting for my life just running and walking through in the dark, as I stepped different terrains from mud, to cracked sidewalks, unkempt lawns, to phantom, disappearing sidewalks.
Perilous isn't it.
Try and locate a sidewalk one of these streets.
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
Don't see any sidewalks?
Well, neither did I.
I was stuck running/walking those paths from 6-8 on a November night.
There are some plots of land where there's no sidewalk, but just dirt or manicured lawns. Imagine having to cross these at night where there are no street lights and only cars are passing through at 50 mph.
View Larger Map
What exactly do you do when there is no sidewalk and you're just on people's grass?
Is that their fault, or yours? City of LA's?
View Larger Map
Beneath that big tree is a great place to dump a body at night.
View Larger Map
If I wasn't a fit male who likes running and saving tons of money with keen awareness, there would be no way I'd walk from the station to my house.
Pictures posted in case anybody ever wanted visual, physical proof of the utter unwalkability of the San Fernando Valley, particularly in Sherman Oaks.
And why is unwalkability so bad again?
Unwalkability generally means not safe. Not safe means insecurity. Insecurity means borders and fences. Borders and fences mean disconnection. Disconnection means a lack of continuity and community. A lack of continuity and community means less attachment, less personal meaning to residents, less investment in city infrastructure.
The User Illusion, LACMA, Cleanliness, and Power
I finished Tor Norretranders' User Illusion about 2 months ago. A book ostensibly about consciousness that bleeds into physics, math, biology, and neuroscience.
One of the central themes of the book is that to receive/get/retrieve information, you must constantly "eliminate" information. You must constantly cut other things out to get your so-called bits of information.
When you calculate 2 + 2, you have to cut through the information of 2, the plus sign, and the other 2 to arrive at your desired bit of information. The answer, 4, means nothing in itself, but in the context of calculating 2 + 2, it's the answer.
And usually the answer is the only thing that is valued in this current socio-politico-economic context/"the real world." Your boss is not going to care if you "show your work." Essentially the problem 2 + 2 is just waste to your boss, but it is the very thing which creates any meaning as to why you want the number 4 in the first place.
The metropolitan urbanized societies in the so-called "West" seem to be built upon this notion of having all the answers.
If you're hungry, you can go to a restaurant or buy your meats, fish, vegetables, fruits at the supermarket. If you are lonely, buy your way to a club, a sports event, or some sexin'. If you're sick, go buy your medicine at a drug store, or a street corner.
Your answers are there for YOUR problems, ready for YOUR consumption.
However, what I'm intrigued by is that we don't really see the problems in creating those answers. We do not see the work that is gone to catch those meats, those fish, the farming involved in growing veggies and fruits. I don't see how long they took to build any of the apartments, houses I lived in, nor the clubs, or stadiums. I'll be damned if I ever have to build my own house. I don't see the process of mining done to make metals that are used in my computers, my vehicles.
Basically, we don't see the 2 + 2's. Via public discourse in form of billboards, television and internet ads, public education via school were almost wired to not see problems. We become suffused with this idea that things are easy. We just see the 4's as they are, take them, use them for our own problems, but we don't know how we produced that 4 in the first place. Subsequently, we become entirely dependent on the system that produced that 4, because we don't know how we arrived at it in the first place.
It takes a lot of work to make things look easy. What we discard of is a measure of depth, complexity, involved in
Now what does this have to with the LACMA?
Like any other museum, it's damn clean place. I could probably roll my tongue on the cement ground there and be cured of cancer or something.
Museums are places of power.
The LACMA makes simplicity look really easy. But could you imagine dealing with all the trash that about 700,000 visitors put in your spot all day? Could you imagine all the electricity needed to make visitors' food, and throw some light on art?
It seems to take a lot of power to generate this illusion, this aura of cleanliness, richness.
In the spirit of this Barnes & Noble book I bought with a gift card called the Works, which showed the consumption patterns inherent in New York City infrastructure, I think it would be a good idea to show how much an institution of power like a museum consumes.
One of the central themes of the book is that to receive/get/retrieve information, you must constantly "eliminate" information. You must constantly cut other things out to get your so-called bits of information.
When you calculate 2 + 2, you have to cut through the information of 2, the plus sign, and the other 2 to arrive at your desired bit of information. The answer, 4, means nothing in itself, but in the context of calculating 2 + 2, it's the answer.
And usually the answer is the only thing that is valued in this current socio-politico-economic context/"the real world." Your boss is not going to care if you "show your work." Essentially the problem 2 + 2 is just waste to your boss, but it is the very thing which creates any meaning as to why you want the number 4 in the first place.
The metropolitan urbanized societies in the so-called "West" seem to be built upon this notion of having all the answers.
If you're hungry, you can go to a restaurant or buy your meats, fish, vegetables, fruits at the supermarket. If you are lonely, buy your way to a club, a sports event, or some sexin'. If you're sick, go buy your medicine at a drug store, or a street corner.
Your answers are there for YOUR problems, ready for YOUR consumption.
However, what I'm intrigued by is that we don't really see the problems in creating those answers. We do not see the work that is gone to catch those meats, those fish, the farming involved in growing veggies and fruits. I don't see how long they took to build any of the apartments, houses I lived in, nor the clubs, or stadiums. I'll be damned if I ever have to build my own house. I don't see the process of mining done to make metals that are used in my computers, my vehicles.
Basically, we don't see the 2 + 2's. Via public discourse in form of billboards, television and internet ads, public education via school were almost wired to not see problems. We become suffused with this idea that things are easy. We just see the 4's as they are, take them, use them for our own problems, but we don't know how we produced that 4 in the first place. Subsequently, we become entirely dependent on the system that produced that 4, because we don't know how we arrived at it in the first place.
It takes a lot of work to make things look easy. What we discard of is a measure of depth, complexity, involved in
Now what does this have to with the LACMA?
Like any other museum, it's damn clean place. I could probably roll my tongue on the cement ground there and be cured of cancer or something.
Museums are places of power.
The LACMA makes simplicity look really easy. But could you imagine dealing with all the trash that about 700,000 visitors put in your spot all day? Could you imagine all the electricity needed to make visitors' food, and throw some light on art?
It seems to take a lot of power to generate this illusion, this aura of cleanliness, richness.
In the spirit of this Barnes & Noble book I bought with a gift card called the Works, which showed the consumption patterns inherent in New York City infrastructure, I think it would be a good idea to show how much an institution of power like a museum consumes.
Native Guns are Back!
At least for one night.
At the grand opening of Beatrock on 4158 Norse Blvd in Long Beach.
On October 25th.
Bambu, Kiwi, and DJ Phattrick.
This new space on Norse Blvd. is a fusion of a museum space and store. A space that morphed into a concert space and a packed house. I truly hope it becomes relevant to the immediate and broader community. It's my inspiration to open up A space one day. The type of space it will be, I'm not sure.
As of October 25, 4158 Norse Blvd, Long Beach, CA is already the historic site of the mini-re-union of the Filipino hip-hop trio, Native Guns.
At the grand opening of Beatrock on 4158 Norse Blvd in Long Beach.
On October 25th.
Bambu, Kiwi, and DJ Phattrick.
This new space on Norse Blvd. is a fusion of a museum space and store. A space that morphed into a concert space and a packed house. I truly hope it becomes relevant to the immediate and broader community. It's my inspiration to open up A space one day. The type of space it will be, I'm not sure.
As of October 25, 4158 Norse Blvd, Long Beach, CA is already the historic site of the mini-re-union of the Filipino hip-hop trio, Native Guns.
Popular Discourse on Watts
The view of Watts that I originally had, which I still have, presupposes that people are generally good. It wasn't there in my particular context this past Sunday.
However, once in a while that positive view of places like Watts re-surfaces when pitted against an outsider view that carelessly slaps tired old stereotypes on those places like Watts, the people of Watts, the things of Watts. Places, people, things that they are disconnected from and more than likely don't understand but will poke fun at it from a safe distance.
My original view woke up in response to a careless throwaway post on LA Metblogs.
There are jokes. And then there is nervous laughter which desperately tries to act like a joke.
There was no reason that I targeted him, just his post as a representative of typical blathering white guy speech.
Sure, he speaks snarkily to A "reality", that no one will want to live where a Housing Project was.
However, location with ties to "bad" pasts never stopped The Belmont Lofts on Lucas St. in Downtown LA from going up.
Developments, urban design, and the way communites are set up are a purely artifical "reality." One completely started up, fabricated by people. By definition that means people can change it.
What bugs me is that he speaks to a determinism, a hegemony, which he has no idea of, but only to judge from afar like good old father white boy.
He jokes as if it's some kind of unspoken law of nature that nothing positive is ever bound to happen in Watts: no one will ever buy homes in Watts, not at a former housing development, and not at market rate. The whole joke is exactly that...redevelopment won't succeed. Why? It's not really clear why, but there's absolutely no reason to expect it to. Ever. According to the logic that pervades such a thoughtless post.
I like how he throws in this gang like he's on the inside of what's happenin'.
Granted, I don't know anything, but I don't and won't pretend I do. Whatever Watts is, and/or will become is dependent on people. Not individuals, mind you, but people in the community, people controlling the developments around. The milieu of people in and around Watts.
However, once in a while that positive view of places like Watts re-surfaces when pitted against an outsider view that carelessly slaps tired old stereotypes on those places like Watts, the people of Watts, the things of Watts. Places, people, things that they are disconnected from and more than likely don't understand but will poke fun at it from a safe distance.
My original view woke up in response to a careless throwaway post on LA Metblogs.
Today, Antonio Villaraigosa announces his $5-billion plan to build housing for the poor and middle class. The Times gives us a quick rundown of what this plan will include, like more mixed income housing along the Metro Gold and Expo Lines.
It will also include this nugget:
Redeveloping the Jordan Downs housing project in Watts into a mixed-income housing development with some units for very poor people and some units of market-rate housing.
If you happen to be one of the candidates looking for market-rate housing, and should you decide to relocate to a swanky new loft at the Jordan Downs projects development, might I recommend an affiliation with the hometown 103rd Grape Street Watts Baby Loc Crips?
There are jokes. And then there is nervous laughter which desperately tries to act like a joke.
There was no reason that I targeted him, just his post as a representative of typical blathering white guy speech.
Sure, he speaks snarkily to A "reality", that no one will want to live where a Housing Project was.
However, location with ties to "bad" pasts never stopped The Belmont Lofts on Lucas St. in Downtown LA from going up.
Developments, urban design, and the way communites are set up are a purely artifical "reality." One completely started up, fabricated by people. By definition that means people can change it.
What bugs me is that he speaks to a determinism, a hegemony, which he has no idea of, but only to judge from afar like good old father white boy.
He jokes as if it's some kind of unspoken law of nature that nothing positive is ever bound to happen in Watts: no one will ever buy homes in Watts, not at a former housing development, and not at market rate. The whole joke is exactly that...redevelopment won't succeed. Why? It's not really clear why, but there's absolutely no reason to expect it to. Ever. According to the logic that pervades such a thoughtless post.
I like how he throws in this gang like he's on the inside of what's happenin'.
Granted, I don't know anything, but I don't and won't pretend I do. Whatever Watts is, and/or will become is dependent on people. Not individuals, mind you, but people in the community, people controlling the developments around. The milieu of people in and around Watts.
The Milieu of Watts: Imagination or Reality?
Three times I've gone to Watts, three different images in my consciousness.
I've had education in anthropology. Basically, I see people as humans subject at any time to streaks of idiocy or genius, villain or heroes, bad or good.
In areas of low-income residents, I always want to see the best in people. Folks are mostly good. So perhaps folks in Watts would mostly be good.
One of my favorite local rappers was from there. My godsister teaches there.
First time I went to Watts was to see the Towers. Right after the underwhelming re-opening of the Griffith Park observatory. The two ladies who accompanied me were scared shitless. I spent the half-hour we were there trying to convince them of the humanity and normality of the Watts Towers and the Watts milieu.
Second time I went to Watts was earlier this year to pick up my mom from some kind of nurse's convention at Jordan High School. I passed through some public housing that reminded of the departed TV show...The Wire. The school looked like an example of a police state school.
Yesterday comprised the third time I went to Watts in anticipation of the Day of the Drum Festival. This was by far the most nervous I had ever been in any area of Los Angeles.
The tension started with car problems or the fear that I was going to run out of gas. My tank was already lit up, and I felt a lag on the vehicle.
Phew! Thank god for that Central Ave. Shell Station off the 105.
Saw essentially the same brown and black people at the gas station that I might see in Panorama City, but this was Watts!
I parked really far from the festival site, about 4 or 5 blocks over, thinking that this was going to be like the Central Ave. Jazz Festival in South LA.
Big mistake (or not, depending on what you think I gained).
I ended up parking near another recreation Center over on 109th street. What was odd is that this recreation center with a basketball court, tennis courts, green open space, playground, was empty. Not a single soul in that public area. I could hear the drosophila getting their groove on.
This was very strange for a Saturday afternoon, least for me. I'm used to seeing coming from Bellevue Rec Center in Silver Lake, Panorama's Rec Center, or even Macon St. basketball in Glassell Park.
OK...
I walked down past a school, and the metrolink tracks. However, not before I went through another Watts oddity.
A group of teenagers and/or young adults sitting on the street with a foldable chair. One kid had a crowbar in hand and was wacking a tree.
Nothing wrong with a group of young adults hanging out in front of an empty school...if they had skateboards, I wouldn't have made a deal of anything.
Instead, they all looked on as the kid was taking hard swipes at the tree.
I didn't want to show my fear, so I walked right in the middle between the tree whacker and the group of teenagers. The guy could've wacked me with his crowbar if for no reason than for pure enjoyment or for crossing where I wasn't "supposed" to cross. I did this quickly and unconsciously.
A Latino guy passing me by muttered something to me to which I said I didn't know.
When I crossed through this area back from the Festival, I went across the street from the school.
Someone called out ominously "Do you want to die?" I looked forward and didn't see who said it.
I've had education in anthropology. Basically, I see people as humans subject at any time to streaks of idiocy or genius, villain or heroes, bad or good.
In areas of low-income residents, I always want to see the best in people. Folks are mostly good. So perhaps folks in Watts would mostly be good.
One of my favorite local rappers was from there. My godsister teaches there.
First time I went to Watts was to see the Towers. Right after the underwhelming re-opening of the Griffith Park observatory. The two ladies who accompanied me were scared shitless. I spent the half-hour we were there trying to convince them of the humanity and normality of the Watts Towers and the Watts milieu.
Second time I went to Watts was earlier this year to pick up my mom from some kind of nurse's convention at Jordan High School. I passed through some public housing that reminded of the departed TV show...The Wire. The school looked like an example of a police state school.
Yesterday comprised the third time I went to Watts in anticipation of the Day of the Drum Festival. This was by far the most nervous I had ever been in any area of Los Angeles.
The tension started with car problems or the fear that I was going to run out of gas. My tank was already lit up, and I felt a lag on the vehicle.
Phew! Thank god for that Central Ave. Shell Station off the 105.
Saw essentially the same brown and black people at the gas station that I might see in Panorama City, but this was Watts!
I parked really far from the festival site, about 4 or 5 blocks over, thinking that this was going to be like the Central Ave. Jazz Festival in South LA.
Big mistake (or not, depending on what you think I gained).
I ended up parking near another recreation Center over on 109th street. What was odd is that this recreation center with a basketball court, tennis courts, green open space, playground, was empty. Not a single soul in that public area. I could hear the drosophila getting their groove on.
This was very strange for a Saturday afternoon, least for me. I'm used to seeing coming from Bellevue Rec Center in Silver Lake, Panorama's Rec Center, or even Macon St. basketball in Glassell Park.
OK...
I walked down past a school, and the metrolink tracks. However, not before I went through another Watts oddity.
A group of teenagers and/or young adults sitting on the street with a foldable chair. One kid had a crowbar in hand and was wacking a tree.
Nothing wrong with a group of young adults hanging out in front of an empty school...if they had skateboards, I wouldn't have made a deal of anything.
Instead, they all looked on as the kid was taking hard swipes at the tree.
I didn't want to show my fear, so I walked right in the middle between the tree whacker and the group of teenagers. The guy could've wacked me with his crowbar if for no reason than for pure enjoyment or for crossing where I wasn't "supposed" to cross. I did this quickly and unconsciously.
A Latino guy passing me by muttered something to me to which I said I didn't know.
When I crossed through this area back from the Festival, I went across the street from the school.
Someone called out ominously "Do you want to die?" I looked forward and didn't see who said it.
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