Gnarly

By all accounts, there are some really gnarly areas of LA. An LA Times story today about a gang who rolled up on a guy who owed them money, doused him with gasoline and tossed a lighter on him. Nice guys.

It happened on the 3500 block of Cesar Chavez, which sounded close by to my old Silverlake-Echo Park haunts. But a quick google map search show it to be best considerably east and south...east of the 5 and south of the 10 in a weird area I can't say I've ever been to...

It reminded me of the time I thought I'd be clever and use Slauson to get over to Century City from USC. Holy shit! Drive 2-3 miles South on Figueroa and you enter gangland hell, a place scary to drive. It's weird to think about these areas...because sure, we're all used to seeing shit or rough patches of the city...from downtown to echo park, but gang-infested areas such as these seem to me, on a whole other level of awfulness, where no "normal" business would bother setting up shop. Where the tone and architecture of the ares makes the message clear - "human life is not worth as much here."