Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles is that popular girl in high school that the guys loved to love and the girls loved to hate. I was that girl in high school, so I deeply relate to everything LA represents. Although San Francisco is my favorite city in the United States, LA is my soul city. It’s the city that I will eventually settle, and it’s the city I most relate to, with an exception to its philanthropic progress (that’s a topic for another post). For this post I will give you my take on the city as a former resident, as a frequent traveler to the city, and from the black perspective.
Before I describe LA let’s get one thing clear. Los Angeles is not Hollywood. It’s marketed that way but they are actually two different cities. Of course both are in LA County, but there are other differences as well. LA county has several major cities, I’ll name a few for you: Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Santa Monica, Culver City, Marina Del Ray, Playa Del Ray, Inglewood, Burbank, Malibu to name a few. Los Angeles is a sprawling city, and it’s currently the second largest city in the United States.
From a travel perspective, I’d tell you to venture out and experience the following: I’d say start your trip with the tourist goodies; the tour of the Hollywood walk, the Hollywood Sign, go see Melrose Street, the Chinese Mann’s Theater. From a black perspective you could also take a drive off of Chanenga and see the Edmonds Entertainment Building. You’ll see the big “E” on top of the building. The company is now defunct, I believe, and has been replaced by Our Stories Films; nevertheless, you can ride by the building to see where black Hollywood has made proven moves. Right around the corner from Edmonds, on Hollywood Blvd, you can find Casting director Robi Reeds office. Unless you are an actor you’ll probably have no concern for this information, yet, it’s worth to know that the building is where many major black actors auditioned or got their big break! For food in Hollywood, I say do the famous hot dog place, called “Pink’s”. This is where actor Sean Penn proposed to Madonna. Every time you roll up to this place it will be crowded! The hot dogs are great. I’d also say if you’d like you can swing by Roscoe’s to get you some chicken and waffles, yet you’d be better off by finding another soul food place in LA. My favorite soul food pot is actually located in Marina Del Ray, it’s called ” Aunt Kizzy’s Back Porch”.
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