LA Extremities

My best friend spent the week with me in LA, so, to be a good hostess, I spent one afternoon (three and a half hours in the car) playing La La Land tour guide. We trekked around for as long as we could manage before we were too high strung from sharing the road with many rude, speeding drivers. On our self-made tour, we made sure to pass through the main attractions- we went from Santa Monica to Century City, Westwood to Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive up to West Hollywood, Sunset Strip, to downtown, an afternoon survey of much of Los Angeles.

Though I’ve lived here for going on four years now, and consider myself knowledgeable about and comfortable with the city, the drive was nonetheless eye opening. The city is an expansive mishmash of everything you can imagine. Between the large, distinctive inner cities, there are miles and miles of dense population, strange neighborhoods, life crammed in and streaming from every part of town. My friend was in awe as we drove for hours and never reached an end of this concrete, crowded metropolis.

What sunk in most as I weaved continuously through LA streets was the enormous range between the visible levels of wealth and poverty. Beverly Hills, a surreal dream world of extravagance and luxury, holds some of the wealthiest people in the world. The small area is filled with massive houses, cars, streets, palm trees, totally aware of its own excessiveness. Fifteen minutes of driving beyond this wealth, and we were passing extreme poverty, destitution, and filth. It suddenly struck me as repulsive that, within miles of this needy area, people could possibly be driving hundred thousand dollar cars or spending their days at the Gucci on Rodeo Drive.

Neighborhoods of Los Angeles hold a juxtaposition of extreme wealth and extreme poverty. Large amounts of homeless people find refuge in East Downtown LA, while, minutes away, people living in comfort are seemingly unaware of this drastic divide. through the endless grid of dense population, I became aware of our close proximity to areas of need; we become so secure in our own neighborhoods that we lose sight of the poverty and hardship within our own city. Expanding our vision outside our comfort zones allows for a view of this truly amazing, diverse, distinctive city, and the areas in which it could use some of our attention.

Corinna Ace