The Non-Existent Life

Los Angeles is a beautiful city with constant warm weather, sunny skies, and endless activities. The pull factors for the city are endless. The majority of the community seems fairly well off, and material goods are given high importance. Loyola Marymount sits on a beautiful bluff, overlooking Marina Del Rey and affluent homes that line the coast across from campus. The sheer cost of tuition almost guarantees a middle and upper class background of students, creating a bubble of first world problems that seem so significant. Issues involving Los Angeles outside of LMU are not very relevant unless they involve the shortage of parking or the burden of traffic on the 405 Freeway. Being apart of the bubble is somewhat inevitable. Once introduced to the extreme poverty here in LA, however, it was difficult to feel the enclosure of the bluff.

            Skid Row is one of the most dangerous areas in all of Los Angeles and even outside of the state of California. The most shocking part of Skid Row is the sheer number of homeless people that are ignored by the city and residents. The homeless don’t even seem to be considered part of the community here. If they were, thousands of people would not be able to exist in the abandoned area of downtown, which they call home. The feeling of hopelessness is thick in the air, along with the visual disturbance of humans without basic needs. Food, water, and shelter are scare, as if the inhabitants are living in the futuristic time when Earth runs out of resources.

            Yet the whole city continues about throughout the day with any thought of the homeless who are unable to function with the deep intoxication and escape that comes from drugs and alcohol. We forget that, Jesse, the homeless man who waits at the corner in a line for dinner every night is a person to. He use to have a family, friends, and a home, but is now dependent on the kindness of others in order to live a life bordering on non-existence.