It's summer, school is out, the temperatures are in the 90s, and I get to do one of the things I love doing the most: exploring the city of Los Angeles and its many different neighborhoods that compose the core of what it means to be an Angeleno.
This evening, I took a short drive down Crenshaw Blvd. to where it crosses King Blvd. Nestled snugly within the confines of what is pejoratively known as "South Central", the community known as Leimert Park exhibits a regional character that is rarely found in other LA neighborhoods I've been in. As I cross 43rd St. and the smell of Phillip's BBQ reaches my nose, I immediately pull over and get in line for an amazing beef rib dinner, complete with macaroni salad and cole slaw. Wow...amazing. Afterward, I walked over to the park (the actual Leimert Park) and sat in the waning hours of sunlight as a djembe ensemble echoed their rhythms and beats in the evening air. As I sat, I observed the sights and sounds of mothers walking their children through the park, bystanders joining in the music of the drummers with dance, at least two entrepreneurs hawking the latest bootleg CDs and DVDs, all with the droning hum and bustle of the busy Crenshaw Blvd. in the background. The park, the neighborhood, remind me that Los Angeles is a city of communities, rather than a city of isolated individuals as it generally feigns itself to be. Yet this is not the first time I've been to Leimert Park. I actually considered moving into this neighborhood three years ago, and if ever forced to move, I would definitely consider it again.
1 comment:
Kyle, your description of Leimert Park and the South Central community is terrific! I could actually hear the sounds, smell the smells and see the scene in your descriptive writing.
I hope you are capturing this blog into some hardspace "journal" on your PC for posterity. Amazing writing at 2:15am! :)
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