November 2009 Archives

Who knew that Inglewood has a burgeoning arts scene in the northeast corner of the city?

Of course I did, but I have to admit, I didn't give it much thought. Not nearly as much thought as I've given lately to police misconduct, development, homelessness, tagging wars or even the incidence of stray dogs that directly correlate to the rising number of foreclosures and otherwise empty houses popping up in my picturesque neighborhood like dandelions. Nearly every day, I check the curbside lawn outside my local 99-cent Store to see if people will forego throwing trash on it for once; if it's relatively free of plastic bags at the end of the day, I notch a victory. Silly stuff, overly NIMBY stuff, but in my ongoing psychological battle to keep Inglewood normal (for utter lack of a better word), these are the aesthetics I obsess about. My concern with visuals has been limited to clean lawns, paved streets and graffiti-free walls--concern with what isn't there versus what is. I feel I have no choice. Real art is lovely and welcome, but I didn't see it as a solution to anything. It could wait

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What am I missing here? What are we all missing?

At first glance, nothing. Last week marked the gentlest transition of LAPD police chiefs in my lifetime--Bill Bratton to Charlie Beck. That was partly because tensions between the cops and the black and brown neighborhoods they police (and sometimes terrorized) have eased notably during Bratton's tenure, partly because crime has dropped by many percentage points across the city.

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