I was born in Los Angeles on Easter Sunday 1947, at Queen of Angels Hospital, the beautiful one on the hill. During my 1950s childhood growing up in L.A., California was still a big part of the American dream. My mother had moved out from Nebraska via Illinois, my cousin and uncle too. My uncle married an Okie who had come out to work in the peach-packing plants. The majority of our neighbors were from the Midwest U.S.
There were streetcars going everywhere, and summer was a real summertime. The parks were pleasant and relatively safe. We went for boat rides in the man-made lake and we rode Angel's Flight downtown. The grand opening of Disneyland was a BIG deal.
I think the biggest change came in the 1980s, with the real estate boom, a mass influx of East Coasters and the infamous amnesty for illegals. L.A. has not looked back from that time and, among other things, permanent gridlock has begun.
It's a great place for foreigners, they love it. But for those of us whose hearts belong to the U.S.A. and all she stands for, it's time to move to Jesusland.
Where is JEsusland?
I was born in 1937 in L.A. and lived in the Los Feliz/Silverlake area and moved to Glendale in 66 (still have my home there) and my business was in L.A. (closed in 92) and my wife and I are both 5th generation So. Calif. and we are going to stick it out!
The gangs haven't changed in the area in 60 years that I know of except to get worse. 50 years ago they just fought and killed amongst their own when I was in high school. My office and warehouse is in Frog Town, west of Los Feliz Blvd is the Valley gang, and to the east is White Front. Where my office is in Frog Town it got so bad by 85 that I couldn't buy insurance and since I closed the business the neighborhood animals have broken in and what they couldn't steal they smashed.
I look for the S.F. Valley and South Bay to form their own cities and leave the core of L.A. with all the garbage and no tax base.