The first time I remember seeing a coyote in Long Beach was on a drive to work. My normal routes were impacted by street-work, so while driving west on Anaheim Ave, a major thoroughfare on the way out of town over the river and freeways, a coyote was trotting across the major street.
My first thought as I approached was Stray dog? Out here? because we don't really ever see strays. But as I got closer, the silhouette this 'dog' cut became clearer, and it was obvious this wasn't a dog-dog, it was wildlife. There was a large patch of overgrowth under the bridge over the LA river at Anaheim, in an area they'll probably be filling in with condos or apartments soon enough, that I was pretty sure was this coyote's destination.
It was a nifty encounter. Ever since college I've had a soft spot for coyotes. I've even named a character I put into two different stories Sin-ka-lip (the Salish name for coyote), who is, in case you're wondering, a talking coyote.
Anywho, a few years later, I was driving down one of our neighborhood streets and saw this sight:
So I trailed it for a while, slowly, and at a distance that kept it from taking off. I was far enough away to see who was keeping it company. Guiding, maybe...?
I was able to capture their friend finally in the frame, on top of the streetlight on the left side: a crow. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. Coyote and crow chilling together in, er, downtown Long Beach. They were literally traveling together, coyote down the middle of the street and crow flying along side, and I got that picture when crow finally perched.
Raccoons have been a staple of our downtown LB living for years. A family lived under the house next-door when we lived down the street on 3rd, and I've seen them a few times along the rocks at the marina on evening walks. Coyotes, I read, do exist in urban areas still, they're just pretty out of sight. And then I started seeing them...maybe I'm just coyote-blessed.
So, eighteen months later I'm driving to work again, and a stretch of road I drive along (Lomita Ave) has large encampments of unhoused people. Sometimes there are cops and service workers, with dumpsters, sweeping them all away, but that's not a permanent solution.
I've written about it before. That area has large-ish wilderness overgrowth area next to the north-south I-110 freeway, closed in on the west and east by the freeway and Vermont Ave, and on the south by Lomita. Check out the Google Map picture, that shows the encampment on the sidewalk:
I wasn't able to get a picture, but it made sense that the unhoused community would draw plenty of attention. A few days later, I was able to get a picture:
Sometimes I get to thinking about my Sin-ka-lip, about what kind iof sage advice he'd have for Fu-tzu, his student, if they were watching one of these camps, or how society at-large treats them.
Coyote's presence can still be felt all over, if you're
trying to feel it.
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