"Death Alley"

I recently watched a short film produced by a presumably wealthy and privileged British young lady of either Indian or Iranian descent that concerned itself with the "murder capital of Los Angeles County". This lady went around and talked with former gang members, teachers and principals, and other community leaders, interviewing them about, among other things, PTSD.

The rates of post traumatic stress disorder in the kids in this specific neighborhood are out-stripping the rates seen in the soldiers returning from Afghanistan as well as those home from Iraq. At least PTSD is now something the military and our national leaders are acknowledging...will the new-found interest get any attention paid back to the 'hood?

In any case, watching this little movie was an odd experience for me--it all looked so familiar. And I don't mean "familiar" in the sense of "areas of The Wire's Baltimore look just like where we lived in Bed-Stuy", but rather, "I was just there, wasn't I?"

The name "Death Alley" was given to s two-mile stretch of road in LA county that had the highest number of homicides as well as the highest homicide rate. The short movie, though, never was explicitly clear about this location.

I had to look it up later.

It turns out that the two-mile stretch was Vermont Ave, between Manchester and Imperial, which basically encompasses the Metro-Green line's stop at Vermont-Athens.

I couldn't say I was really shocked: this is precisely the 'hood that christened me "Sherweezy". Vermont is my zone, almost as much as Normandie...I've walked the mile-and-a-half walk from that Vermont-Athens stop to my Fortress of Solitude more times that I can remember. (I don't do it anymore...)

The LAPD worked with the LA Times and created a homicide locator visual program, and the following picture shows "Death Alley" and the surroundings. I've placed an arrow at that Fortress, where Sherweezy was founded:

This is the second-largest metropolitan area in the country, and unsurprisingly New York is the largest.

Somehow I've created deep and intimate experiences in this country's two largest metropolitan urban areas specifically in the heart of their murder-capitals.

Go Bed-Stuy! Go Westmont!