There Are Two L.A.s: Blame the 405

WATCHING THE FILM Falling Down, I found the portrayal of Los Angeles quite interesting in that all areas are exposed (geographically, psychosocially, sociologically), yet inevitably linked to specific stereotypes and connotations that reinforce it’s realities as well as its myths.

As a third generation Angeleno, I feel overqualified to argue that there are two LA’s, east and west, divided by the 405. West of the 405 you’ll find, Malibu, Santa Monica, “Hollywood”, UCLA, palm trees, organic farmers markets, and last but not least convertibles to go with your sunglasses. East of the 405 you’ll find deserted buildings, homelessness, gentrification, riots, threatening minorities, and dirty streets governed by territorial gangs.

We have all seen these images at some point and have never seen any good come of the two sides meeting. As much as I want to deny the separation, and follow alongside the popular image that we all do run into stars everyday, the fact of the matter is that we don’t and the separation exists.

The popular images of Los Angeles cover nowhere near the actual size of LA, so we have managed to elect the smallest community as the ambassador of our Los Angeles. The reality is there are more communities living in poverty than there are ones that are not. In fact, the images, in my opinion, cause these realities of isolation and division to persist.

We have now grown comfortable with the fact that there are areas, specifically east of the 405, that you should not associate with, and therein lies one of the many problems these images reinforce.

Isolation and exclusion are by no way a means of solving problems, especially as in relation to members of a society. This causes the members of these societies as well as others, to buy the myth that this is the way LA is "supposed to be" -- divided by a line supported by class, stratification, and race.

Obviously the popular perception is that of west of the 405, and the reasons why many people come to Los Angeles in the first place -- for their dreams of stardom to come true, or at least walk amongst those whose dreams are coming true. This is supposed to be the place where opportunity resides, alongside success, and the carefree lifestyle California is most often associated with. If this popular image is the stronger of the two, then the true Los Angeles is largely underrepresented.

Why not, as neighbors, be alarmed by this division and push for some sort of unity? In my own experience I have seen many people disappointed when they come to visit Los Angeles. often it is not what they ‘pictured’, whether they are referring to the fact that Hollywood is not as glamorous as it’s made out to be, or the fact that the parts shown in the popular images are not nearly the size of the rest of Los Angeles.

For now we will have to at least recognize the fact that there are two very different LA’s. One LA that will continue to be the enticing yet false face of Los Angeles, and the other darker side, which might never get the recognition associated with its magnitude.

-- Erin Golightly

photo caption: the 405 Freeway from the Getty tram
photo credits, kinga-san, omar, omar,flickr creative commons)

Waiting for the Rainbow Sign: L.A. April 29, 1992

TIME PLAYS tricks.

It's impossible to believe that almost 20 years has passed since the L.A. Riots of 1992. This week we will look at a set of essays that look at what was brewing under the surface of airbrushed, nip-and- tucked L.A. for decades.

I found a bit of my piece I wrote for L.A. Weekly online over the weekend and it brought it all back in a rush...


from: "Waiting for the Rainbow Sign"

By midnight, no one phoning long-distance bothers with hello. Instead, they just ask, ‘Is it as crazy as it looks?’ I want to say, ‘It started long before all this . . .’ Long before this afternoon’s bewildering decision left me less astonished than strangely numb. Long before George Holliday ran tape capturing Rodney G. King’s struggle and submission. Long before Latasha Harlins, Eulia Love and Marquette Frye became cautionary symbols. Long before Watts shouted its existence into the sky in ’65, sending up searchlights in the form of flames...

Everything felt different for a long time after that: The way people interacted with one another -- or didn't. The texture of the city changed for some time after -- much like the way it feels after you've been in an argument with someone whom you love dearly yet are not what sure the first sentence out of your mouth might or should be.

Years later, essayist Richard Rodgriguez wrote of those three days in April 1992:

"It was the worst moment for Los Angeles. It was also the first moment, I think, when most people in L.A. realized they were part of the whole. The city that the world mocked for not being a city, for lacking a center, having only separate suburbs, separate freeway exits -- L.A. realized that it was interconnected. In fear, people realized that what was happening on the other side of town implicated them.”

A Letter from the Future -- Fifty Years After the L.A. Riots (Jinn Magazine 4/28/97)
-- by Richard Rodriguez

Rodriguez was right, though only partially. Three days after, the first day of "clean-up" community volunteers crossed the region attempting to pick up the mess as if one would be cleaning a negligent child's messy room. But it was a powerful symbol watching people working together. Eerily, however, there were little pods of town that seemed to be operating as if nothing happened: people near the water meeting for their lattes and such talking about work, childcare, and maybe, the "bad air" that the smoke, curling into the sky, was creating -- while others, not so far away, were digging through ash, rubble and worry.

But I guess that's L.A. -- a swirl of stories, a cacophony.

-- L.G.

photo caption: watching l.a. burn on t.v.
photo credit: dan graves, flickr creative commons