Nice prose paeon to LA. It is a fascinating city of distinct neighborhoods, sprawling over miles. Unlike compact SF, and its unique neighborhoods. Thanks for the history. I did not know there was a "French quarter". Union Station is an architectural treasure. Coming out of it and being right in front of a Chinatown is perfect cosmopolitan juxtaposition. Thank you for this.
Interesting take. You got ya some writerly chops for sure. But some of it reads like a treatment you’re pitching. And ‘Displaced’? You mean like brown Vikings displaced the good people of merry old Chatsworth? C’mon dude. You know as well as I do that after Joe and Mary went to that assisted living facility the kids sold the $25k tract home they grew up in for a bundle and moved to Arizona. Saw ‘em there yesterday.
The usual suspects cheer anytime a new wave of third worlders arrive: “We’re going to have a 😍Little Somalia!😍 neighborhood!”
Anyone showing the slightest tendency towards NIMBYdom gets a stern talking to. After all, it’s only NATURAL that they want to live in the same neighborhood. They need community and the safety of being surrounded by people that look like you!
But if a white man, even for a minute starts entertaining similar beliefs, that it’d be NICE to live near other white people? Woah buddy!
What are you, a NAZI?! Don’t you know that this is how the Holocaust started?
And then the nagging and kvetching starts, and the threats of implicit de-personhood and administrative (or physical) violence. And the patronizing reminders that we NEED brown people (what?! You’re going to cut your own lawn?!) and that America wasn’t really America until tacos were sold on every street corner by people who don’t pay taxes.
Pure poetry, pal.
We’re still here, bitterly clinging to what we remember this great city was.
Saying it without saying it, undercurrent of new beliefs
Nice prose paeon to LA. It is a fascinating city of distinct neighborhoods, sprawling over miles. Unlike compact SF, and its unique neighborhoods. Thanks for the history. I did not know there was a "French quarter". Union Station is an architectural treasure. Coming out of it and being right in front of a Chinatown is perfect cosmopolitan juxtaposition. Thank you for this.
Interesting take. You got ya some writerly chops for sure. But some of it reads like a treatment you’re pitching. And ‘Displaced’? You mean like brown Vikings displaced the good people of merry old Chatsworth? C’mon dude. You know as well as I do that after Joe and Mary went to that assisted living facility the kids sold the $25k tract home they grew up in for a bundle and moved to Arizona. Saw ‘em there yesterday.
Come to Riverside county. Close enough to visit LA, with no need to live there. I'll buy you a taco.
Yum
I haven’t lived there since 1973 but my parents grew up there and I’ve never been able to shake the hope that the place could somehow be saved.
Amazing timing with this piece.
How so?
I assumed you wrote it before this weekend?
No I wrote it this morning.
I wish I was that prescient🤣
What gets to me is the hypocrisy.
The usual suspects cheer anytime a new wave of third worlders arrive: “We’re going to have a 😍Little Somalia!😍 neighborhood!”
Anyone showing the slightest tendency towards NIMBYdom gets a stern talking to. After all, it’s only NATURAL that they want to live in the same neighborhood. They need community and the safety of being surrounded by people that look like you!
But if a white man, even for a minute starts entertaining similar beliefs, that it’d be NICE to live near other white people? Woah buddy!
What are you, a NAZI?! Don’t you know that this is how the Holocaust started?
And then the nagging and kvetching starts, and the threats of implicit de-personhood and administrative (or physical) violence. And the patronizing reminders that we NEED brown people (what?! You’re going to cut your own lawn?!) and that America wasn’t really America until tacos were sold on every street corner by people who don’t pay taxes.