Coliseum Area Is Too Filthy for Sports Fans

If anyone in this city is wondering why the NFL doesn’t want to put a football team in the Coliseum, they can take a walk around that area. We attended the USC football game with some friends from out of town and I was appalled, sickened and embarrassed on a walk we took after the game. Our friends commented that they don’t care if they ever come to downtown Los Angeles again.

We took a walk after the game with the intention of going to Julie’s Restaurant for dinner. We walked through the park that surrounds the Coliseum and over along Figueroa and took the tunnel that takes you under that busy street. The whole area is awful, but going through the tunnel was worse than many third world countries I have visited. There was trash, graffiti, garbage, feces and smells that make your stomach turn. We never stopped at the restaurant, but returned to the USC campus where our car was parked and got out of the area as fast as we could.

As a USC alumni, I have been attending events in this area over the years, but this is the first time in several years we have actually walked around the area. We had friends from out of the country that we took into that area during the 1984 Olympics and even though it was bad then at least there was an attempt by the city to clean it up for the games. The whole area has deteriorated severely since that time. I love LA, but this certainly is not an area in the future that I want to take my wife, family or friends to attend an event in the future.

I don’t like to make a complaint without a suggestion for a solution. Why not use criminals, preferably those who live in that area, who are sentenced to public service time to keep the area clean and continually remove the graffiti. Maybe if they are from the area, they will develop some pride in their neighborhood and become protectors after they have put in the hard work to clean it up and help keep it clean.