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People of Elysian Valley: Joel Jimenez

By Ricardo Palavecino
March 5, 2014
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They brought me from the hospital straight here. And I've been here forever. I'm 26 now and I've lived here my whole life. I don't know, I think it's getting better. I think it's a little more positive. I don't know it's been nice, like having the artwalk and there's a lot more things to do, they just set up like a pop-up coffee shop off the river, and I don't drive and things like that are incredible to be able to walk to in my neighborhood and my community.

I think there's a lot more attention on this area now so that might affect the way things are around here. Like once you have more eyes on you things start looking a little nicer I think. What was I going to say about change? I think it's changing for the better. I always hope that the people that live in the community won't have to get pushed out because of the people that are coming in. And I just think the neighborhood has always kind of been a good place... I just went to my first neighborhood watch meeting the other day and I realized that the people at the meeting were like, the people from the neighborhood. And there was this great humor in the meeting, and that to me reflected what the spirit of this place is. It's humorous and there's good people who care, and I'd like to focus on that more than anything else. I think it's changing for the better, yeah.

The above interview is transcribed and edited from the following interview:

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