30th Street Fortification

I know wealthy neighborhoods fortify too, sometimes more discreetly, with electronic paraphanelia or fences of wood rather than concrete block and spiky metal. (Sometimes less discreetly with guard gates and abundant security patrols.)

Even in areas where a decrease in crime is strongly "trending", fortifications can occur or persist, and as they do so, neighborhoods begin to lose their coherence, punctuated by an assortment of isolated bunkers, buildings that resemble power stations, duplicating-machine replacement-parts wholesale distribution warehouses, or the pokey. Frequently, windows are sealed or downsized, as the building's interior is effectively separated from its' exterior.

Perhaps intimidated by law and order demagoguery, the King riots, or a burglary, the process of fortification (not to be confused with the means of adding nutrients to food), and its dehumanizing face, claimed an outpost on 30th Street. Softened a tad by twin, un-tended, Birds of Paradise, and limp, patchy grass



Incidentally, violent crime, both in the city and in the local reporting district, is expected to show a statistical decline for the fourth straight year. Excitingly, Los Angeles may claim its lowest homicide rate since 1971, at which time the city had a million fewer residents!