Just so it happen we always meet for dinner at this one place.
Well hmm…Once a week at least, since it is right about middle of the way between here and there. Closer to me now that I work at the different place, but that does not matter; we still meet at this place. It is a tradition of a sort.
LA (and I mean big LA area) is certainly full of all kind of contrasts and socio-economic paradoxes. Now shouldn’t I have named this LA – the city of Contrasts? Perhaps...But it did start with us making dinner plans.
Of course the restaurant we pick is, well, very middle class decent place. After all we are uh so up there with our completed and almost-completed college degrees, house-owning, three-car-per-family-driving relatives, laptops, bikes and other toys…But where were we? Ah yes. So perfectly nice restaurant on some perfectly nice plaza.
The trick is it is probably the only such plaza in the surrounding area. Drive down the block in any direction and you are in the nearly complete ghetto or say middle of some cornfield. You can kind of feel the difference in the behavior of people around you as well. It is not Sherman Oaks you are in.
I’d say if you are not of Hispanic descent, you are recognized as someone not from around here, and kind of immediately set apart.
People there also like to drive big tracks and wear...Hmm...Well dress differently, if you know what I mean.
That could not be so strange at all if “there” was not located between two very very very snobby areas in LA area. Such kind of curious fluctuation of income levels and lifestyles, driven as a lot of things in our society are by economic demands. Wouldn’t you think someone needs to provide cheep, reliable, close-by labor for those neighboring upscale neighborhoods? The work they wouldn’t do themselves: laundry, clean, baby-sit, cook.
Now that one “bad” area makes perfect sense…And no of course we wouldn’t want to live there, but it is still nice to meet there for dinner once in a while …so far as we are going to be making it back to our nice homes safely.
Well hmm…Once a week at least, since it is right about middle of the way between here and there. Closer to me now that I work at the different place, but that does not matter; we still meet at this place. It is a tradition of a sort.
LA (and I mean big LA area) is certainly full of all kind of contrasts and socio-economic paradoxes. Now shouldn’t I have named this LA – the city of Contrasts? Perhaps...But it did start with us making dinner plans.
Of course the restaurant we pick is, well, very middle class decent place. After all we are uh so up there with our completed and almost-completed college degrees, house-owning, three-car-per-family-driving relatives, laptops, bikes and other toys…But where were we? Ah yes. So perfectly nice restaurant on some perfectly nice plaza.
The trick is it is probably the only such plaza in the surrounding area. Drive down the block in any direction and you are in the nearly complete ghetto or say middle of some cornfield. You can kind of feel the difference in the behavior of people around you as well. It is not Sherman Oaks you are in.
I’d say if you are not of Hispanic descent, you are recognized as someone not from around here, and kind of immediately set apart.
People there also like to drive big tracks and wear...Hmm...Well dress differently, if you know what I mean.
That could not be so strange at all if “there” was not located between two very very very snobby areas in LA area. Such kind of curious fluctuation of income levels and lifestyles, driven as a lot of things in our society are by economic demands. Wouldn’t you think someone needs to provide cheep, reliable, close-by labor for those neighboring upscale neighborhoods? The work they wouldn’t do themselves: laundry, clean, baby-sit, cook.
Now that one “bad” area makes perfect sense…And no of course we wouldn’t want to live there, but it is still nice to meet there for dinner once in a while …so far as we are going to be making it back to our nice homes safely.
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