So the other day I was supposed to go to an Ultimate Frisbee tournament out at CSU Northridge. As I was driving out there, it began to pour rain from the heavens, and not like a sissy southern California rain, but like a Noah’s ark Alaskan rain. Anyways, I got a phone call letting me know that due to this rain, the tournament was canceled. With this added time to my day, I decided that instead of taking the direct freeway route home, I should do a bit of exploring. So I dangerously and unwisely veered off the road just in time to make the 405 south exit and proceeded to go home in a roundabout way
As I was heading down the 405, I saw a sign that said Sunset Blvd. 3.5 miles, and thought to myself “Hey, that might be cool to go check out,” and I was right, it was pretty cool. I first passed by UCLA, and then saw a whole bunch of really big houses, then went by Bel Air (No Fresh Prince though). After Bel Air I drove through Beverly Hills and hit some of down town Hollywood. The wealth in the area astounded me, and I couldn’t help but think that the houses were pretty cool and stuff. I started thinking that if I lived here I would do so much cool stuff, like put a life size pterodactyl statue in the front yard with giant pillars of fire everywhere. Or maybe I would build a castle instead of a house and have all the guests dress up in medieval garb.
About the time that my mind wandered back into reality, I noticed that the scenery changed from super fancy to the scenery of CVS’s and run down liquor stores. Along with the change in scenery came a change in the people that I saw walking around. In the earlier area, there weren’t too many people out because of the rain, but I did see a few. One guy was dressed up in full north face garb, going on a run, which I respect, cause I love running in the rain too. But as I got further down, and more importantly to the end of my stay on Sunset, I saw some of the most broken homelessness of my life. People that were hiding under the eves of the run down liquor store just to stay out of the rain, with the closest thing he had to a warm coat was being wrapped in an old blanket and a beanie.
This sight really wrenched something inside of my belly. How can some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the world being a mere 20 minutes from one of the poorer places that I’ve ever seen. I’m all for free market capitalism, and getting what you’ve earned, and being able to use your assets, but that being said, there was still something wrong with Sunset Blvd.
