People of Elysian Valley: Ban Luu

My name is Ban Luu. B-A-N L-U-U. I've been living here for about 23 years in this area.

Actually, this neighborhood was rough, there's a couple of years it was kind of rough because of the gangs that were around here, but they've left and ever since then it's been pretty peaceful, it's nice.

You know, like who would've thought there's a river here. I mean, if you look at this place it looks a little like a river. Where you have to drive like, maybe 45 [minutes] to an hour to get to a spot like this, but for me it's in my backyard. And, and that's the best part of it. You don't have to drive anywhere, you don't have to take the bus anywhere, you just walk out your door, you walk maybe like, 15, 20 feet and boom. You got a river, you got a bike path, you got nice scenery, you know?

There's regular fishing people that come out on the weekends and, and they're here for four or five hours just relaxing with their kids. I even seen parents bring their kids down and let them play in the river.

You see different types of birds, different types of ducks. And you're in Downtown L.A. I mean, like right now at this moment do you hear any cars? And we're next to the five freeway. We're next to the one-ten freeway and do you hear anything? I mean, it's so peaceful here. How can you not like it here?