The Press:

Bus route from Santa Monica Beach to Downtown LA on Wilshire Blvd.  We will travel through residential high rises and a few blocks from UCLA in Westwood.  We will proceed thru business districts for Beverly Hills, Miracle Mile, Mid Wilshire, and Koreatown. Churches, synagogues and places of worship are sprinkled throughout the route with places to eat.  This street supports businesses and the residential neighborhoods right off Wilshire.  Banks, grocery stores, pharmacies and doctors are woven in the tapestry so whether business person or resident you can get what you need on Wilshire. Our destination is an hour away; historic Filipinotown.

In my mind:

Boarding time is 11:41AM beginning of the lunch hour for the businesses.

I am sitting up front as a wheelchair rider which gives me an advantage to see everyone enter but separates me from my friends.  As we move thru this space, I'm reminded that it has already become a “place” and is now becoming another “place”. We hit a pothole!  What a bumpy ride!  People of all ethnicities and classes are boarding.   There are two African American gentlemen in the disabled/ senior section who appear to be homeless.  They have many suitcases and bags.  I am afraid to stare as I have doubt about their mental capacity.  Why am I suspect?  Why am I leary of them? They are older men looking 50+ or maybe just a hard life has aged them.  I am afraid of a violent outbreak.  Am I BH? Where are the business people and the students as advertised?

3. Bus Ride

The Press:

Once we leave Westwood’s residential high rises it is all businesses, including places of worship and places to eat. and once we leave Miracle Mile we are in Koreatown.  Bilingual signage is visible on the businesses, not the streets.

In my mind

Are churches a business?  Mostly Latino/as and some African Americans, all of whom are dressed in uniforms and professional attire respectively,  board the bus once we leave Westwood and particularly in the eastside of Beverly Hills.  They look like workers, janitors, cleaning crews, and low level clerks.  As we get to Mid Wilshire, there are younger people, with skateboards and one with a dog named Petunia.  They are not dressed in business attire.  Are they in school or just hanging out?  I think to myself where are the books or the job?

Historic churches, Wilshire Bullocks department store building and the oldest synagogue, the Wilshire Blvd. Temple are preserved here.  I wonder if many people worship here or are they open for the tourist?  Do they run tours as in Europe?  Why so many Asian banks?  Crowded bus but still mostly Latino/a’s with a few African American”s.  Although we are passing thru Koreatown unlike the people on the street there are not many Asians on the bus at all?

1. Historic Filipinotown