This is a classic case of overwriting, the author had our sympathy up to the 2/3rds mark of Part 1; lost support for disclosing that his sympathetic character acted as much out of disdain as outrage by the bragging comments at the end about Americanos being in the 1% minority.
Had he ended the piece with the last line in Part 2, he would have had this reader on essay judging, but no, he had to drag it on for another whole page and allow the writing to spoil like an old, smelly bacon-wrapped hot dog cast aside in the dusty sunset twilight of what once was L.A.’s showcase streets.
Whew, that's a nice piece of writing. Hat tip.