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What is Street Scenes?
Southern California is a vast land of neighborhoods. Drive Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles, for example, and you'll encounter industrial blocks, the garment district, Koreatown, West L.A. bungalows and the burgeoning entertainment district at the eastern end of Santa Monica. But most of us don't spend time driving from neighborhood to neighborhood--so L.A. Times photographers have done it for us, highlighting a variety of neighborhoods, ranging from the Fairfax District to Newport Harbor.
STREET SCENES
Tucked away in an alley at the dead end of West 131st Street in unincorporated South L.A., a horse is getting washed down and Gregory Jackson is boasting of the stable's past.
STREET SCENES
If you're cruising Coast Highway in search of the Fun Zone Ferris wheel, remember to turn seaward at the bridge. Otherwise, you'll end up at Fashion Island in a universe where "Newport Coast" means mustard-and-terra-cotta-tinted mega-mansions and "Newport Harbor: The Real Orange County" is a show on MTV.
STREET SCENES
A pearly gazebo next to City Hall sits atop a pristine lawn along a stretch of Las Tunas Drive dotted with quaint mom-and-pop businesses, noodle houses and Asian bridal stores.
STREET SCENES
Dogs and their people stroll the Strand of Hermosa Beach, taking in the panorama of land and sea, cyclists and sunbathers. Welcome to the Hermosa life.
STREET SCENES
In the hot sun, Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood spreads out wide and flat, the granite fronts of office buildings glistening in the light. Austere sentinels of palm trees tower over the street.
STREET SCENES
It is a mélange of colors and sounds and smells. Among the diverse mini-cultures in and around Los Angeles County, the pocket of Indian businesses clustered mainly on Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia in the southeast part of the county is among the most distinctive of the area.
STREET SCENES
Along Fairfax Avenue, storefronts stand crunched together, the traditional adjacent to the trendy. At Solomon's Bookstore, golden menorahs glisten on display and yarmulkes, a sign advertises, can be imprinted. Just steps away, the store called "A Life" displays T-shirts and sneakers in knife-straight rows behind glass, hip-hop music blasting.
STREET SCENES
Stand still in the crush of sticky, sun-screened bodies on the Venice Beach Boardwalk and you'll experience a feast for the senses.
STREET SCENES
Koreatown can feel like a visual din of symbols. Signs outside tea houses, restaurants and beauty shops are mostly in Korean, mystifying English- and Spanish-speaking commuters idling on car-clogged Western Avenue.
STREET SCENES
Today, the urban avenue, with its colonial red-tile architecture, has the settled feel of a Mexican Mayberry. It passes the Centro Maravilla county offices, auto parts shops, and East L.A.'s only heated indoor pool, where aging women perform aqua aerobics.
STREET SCENES
Those who have never seen Riverside may picture it in the language of L.A. drive-time radio: Triple digit heat. Foreclosures. Traffic. But unlike some cities on the coast, its 312,000 residents started long ago to transform their downtown rather than dismantle it.
STREET SCENES
Broadway's fortunes have fallen and risen, but landmarks remain. The Grand Central Market is awash with the scent of fish, tortillas, barbecue and ripe vegetables. Outside the International House of Music, an old RCA Victor dog statue stands with its head cocked to hear the music.
STREET SCENES
The square-mile Old Towne is California's largest historic district. The barbershop is "circa 1955." The Coba Academy beauty school sign boasts "Creating a World of Beauty Since 1965."
STREET SCENES
On what was once farmland at the foot of the Baldwin Hills sits the core of black Los Angeles, where African drums beat, jazz drifts from eateries and Afrocentric boutiques invite passersby.