On the way home, I took a different route today. I absentmindedly stayed in the right-hand lanes on the Santa Ana Fwy. going north, and ended up getting shunted onto the Santa Monica Fwy. heading west.

It’s actually quite a dramatic approach to Downtown L.A. The Santa Ana and the Golden State Freeways loom high above, and the eastbound lanes of the Santa Monica Freeway tower over you on the left, but eventually the westbound lanes climb upwards as well, and the skyline seems to pop out of nowhere on your right.

I ended up exiting on Santa Fe Ave. This part of L.A. is mostly industrial, with warehouses and freight trains, but interestingly, it’s been one of the first parts of the urban core that have been undergoing gentrification. Interspersed between the abandoned warehouses are post-modern appearing lofts.

I was reminded by the increasing gentrification when I noticed white people actually milling around. There was a rather extensive art gallery as well. And as expected in L.A., there were plenty of production sets looking for additional crew members, in anticipation of shooting film.

One of the things about Chicago that made a strong impression on me when I first visited in 1998 was the underground areas surrounding the Chicago River, specifically, lower Michigan Avenue and the surrounding cross streets. Even though Wacker Drive was in the midst of renovation, I still got this impression of an entire subcity underneath the Magnificent Mile and the Loop, a hidden city over which another city had been built.

Mostly, this was a mash-up of my impressions of the NYC Subway system, particularly the enormous station at Times Square¹ that spans several blocks, and of the imaginary city of Midgar in the game Final Fantasy VII

But Santa Fe Avenue happens to sit on the western bank of the L.A. River, and the 7th Street, 6th Street, 4th Street, and 1st Street bridges cross overhead, as does the Hollywood Freeway overpass. Santa Fe Avenue eventually turns into Center Street, which eventually ends at Vignes St. From here, I made my way through Chinatown, turning north on Alameda St, and joining Broadway. I then turned west on Avenue 19, which brings to yet another industrial area that lies underneath the bridges of the intersection of the Golden State and Pasadena Freeways. This area and the nearby Taylor Yards have been metamorphisizing over the past decade. There are already lofts on the northeast side of the Golden State Freeway here (at this point, the 5 runs from southeast to northwest.)

But if I moved back to L.A., I’d probably want to live in one of these kinds of places. Urban grit, the hustle and the bustle of the city, but the curious desolation once nightfall comes.