A View from the Hood

Anyone who has ever lived in Los Angeles can tell you how parts of the city transform every ten years or so. I found this street up on a hill in a residential neighborhood near downtown. I was trying to take a photo of the skyline from the street but the fence was blocking my shot. There was a neighbor preparing a barbecue for his family and he invited me up to his porch. He said the view was much better from up there. Man, he wasn’t kidding. You can see the complete LA skyline from his front porch. From the Disney Hall in the north all the way to the new Ritz Carlton on the south. He told me this used to be a pretty rough neighborhood back in the day. Now its been transformed with a beautiful new park right past the fence that is used by Hollywood film crews and an elementary school right next door. And they have brand new condo buildings that have been built in the neighborhood. It’s not exactly Beveryl Hills but it’s nice to see the progress being made. He said he had been living there his whole life and didn’t feel nostalgic at all about growing up in the hood.