@rp2813
I live in South LA (some people say South Downtown) 1 mile west of 110 freeway, on Gage Avenue and Normandie.
My neighborhood is famous for many reasons. Some beautiful victorian and craftsman houses (now very decadent) and once in a while another house burns, like the victorian house that I saw burning tonight, making real state investors (aka gentrificators) VERY happy.
Specifically the block where i live is the "dead zone" between two huge gangs I can say I'm really lucky, it could be much worse but actually i don't have (many) problems here, except for police helicopters almost every day, a murder every now and then, those "flashmobs" with idiots making donuts with their tuned cars... Oh yes, and if you remember the 1992 riots, the epicenter was a few blocks away from here, on Normandie and Florence. Tom's Liquor Store was looted and burned, Reginald Denny (that truck driver) was beaten (and almost killed).
When writing the previous reply, when i mentioned It looks like my neighborhood was once wealthy and then decadent, i felt inspired to do some research and I found a very interesting article that shows how LA was (is) segregated.
In fact, my neighborhood was once "middle-upper class" (B), then lowered to Middle class (C) and then some years later it was red zoned (D) the infamous map was how the government and banks managed home loans. So of course, B zones were more difficult to have a mortgage loan approved, so wealthier people could afford buying homes and naturally, constructors invested more in comfort and technology, while the red zones were easier, consequently, more attractive to minorities. When I saw the map I confirmed what I always thought based on the architecture style seen in my neighborhood. Older homes were somewhat fancy (I'd say "MOL", not enormous or too expensive), newer ones were more built to be BOL.)
Very close from here a few miles north, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of victorian homes that were clearly built to impress and USC (University of Southern California) was built right in the middle of that area. Actually, many of those homes nowadays are fully restored (luckily not remodeled because they're protected) and used as dorms for the students or fraternities.
A few miles south, the "line" is very visible on 120th street. One side of the street has "humm, interesting" homes, the other side has "OMG, who had the guts to build that thing?" homes.
Right on Gage Avenue heading East, the line is the 110 freeway. West of 110 is "Humm, decadent now but interesting if we imagine those homes when they were just built" and east of 110 the scenario is "WTF? The architects intentionally used their knowledge to make one house look worse than the other"
A few miles northwest from my home, there's a neighborhood that is infamously called the "Black Beverly Hills". It's where successful african americans could buy fancy homes. The difference, until today is shocking, and again, there's an enormous discrepancy between both sides of a street. (multi million dollar mansions in one side, with a disturbing view of a horrible ghetto right across the street. Don't forget to add a oil refinery to the poor side view.
Sadly, the segregation (that officially is long gone) still exists. It became a cultural thing that is part of LA's identity. I can notice my neighbors have absolutely no proud of their homes. Actually, let me correct. It feels like they're proud to have their homes as ugly and decadent as possible. It feels like everybody follows the vision "the worse, the merrier", If I take care of my front yard, my neighbors will think I'm a "Bel Air white chick". This is ridiculous!
Nobody needs to be rich and spend fortunes to keep the house AT LEAST clean. One of my neighbors, OMG, I once almost had to report it to the authorities. His backyard was a super hoarder hell. Broken furniture an appliances, totaled cars, mountains of trash, zillions of fleas, roaches, rats.
Luckily I didn't even need to complain to my landlord about that. He came here one day and he felt the fleas climbing on his legs. He immediately talked to the neighbor (I bet he threatened to report) in 3 days everything was gone (and the fleas and the vectors were evicted, together with the trash).
The neighbor on the other side is latin, not wealthy but proud. He's always fixing one or other thing, he decorates for Christmas (very simple decoration) and all his efforts are enough to say his house is really cute. Again, you don't need to be rich or spend fortunes to make your home a nice place to live and also pleasant to the neighbors.
Overall, I can say I have great neighbors. In my block, most of them are somewhat related to the original owners and the previous generations were lucky because their kids didn't get involved with drugs or gangs. Well, except for my front neighbor that has a Mustang (not so classic and falling apart) and loves making donuts right in front of his house (consequently mine), until the day he made a mistake (more than start making donuts) and crashed against his own house. There was a police car approaching him when the collision happened and he went straight to jail. He's back and the "donut shop" is open again.
I can even use the donuts as an address reference. Just look for the donuts on the street, i live right in front of them. Even on google earth the donuts can be seen.
@launderess
Yes, the octopus furnace is clearly there since before the house was built.
Actually, I'd kill to have a basement like that. It's actually bigger than the house itself because it goes under part of the garage. I could definitely fit over 100 or more washers in there. (The speed queen ultramate wouldn't fit because of the height). Right on the corner of the house, next to the driveway there's the coal room. the walls and ceiling are still black and the chute is still there. Right next to it is the furnace and a huge tank (i think it's a coal burning water heater maybe?) There was also a bathroom (well, i know it was a bathroom because of the toilet mark and the sewer pipe on the floor (the toilet was removed). Under the kitchen there's a small laundry room and a double laundry sink (cast iron). the gas water heater that I mentioned that is beautiful (Rudd) and I seriously think it's an instant water heater because it's not a tank, but a series of spirals stacked in a round cabinet, there's also a Kenmore incinerator and tons of junk, including the clawfoot bathtub that belonged to my bathroom until very recently and I have no idea why the landlord put it there. Beautiful but ridiculously small and narrow. The rest of the basement is basically a giant open space.
I can easily imagine the nuclear bunker was built later, based on the year the house was built and the cold war. It is lower than the basement, but not exactly under it sits right in the middle of the parking patio., It's actually very small, maybe could fit 6 people laying side by side and it has a small compartment that i can imagine it's for food storage and the hatch looks like a submarine door is on the very corner of the basement. The landlord and I discovered the bunker together.
The basement has two entrances. One is in the front house living room, other entrance is in the garage, it looks like "The wizard of Oz" basement door.
I went there only twice with the landlord. It belongs to the front house so of course I wouldn't "trespass" my neighbor's property.
My neighbor actually don't use the basement. he actually had no idea there's a door to the basement right in the middle of his living room. (I don't understand how can somebody live in a house and not notice that door on the floor)
Anyway, the basement is dirty, full of spider webs. When I'm stressed out or pissed off, i tend to start cleaning everything out of control. Recently I was pissed off because my car had a serious mechanical problem and I was about to receive guests, so I grabbed my giant Ridgid vacuum and vacuumed the patio around my apartment and the driveway. My neighbor was home so I asked him to help me holding the door open and started cleaning it, but only the first 4 steps on the stairs were enough to fill the bag so I gave up.
My landlord knows that if someday the tenant decides to leave, I want to be the very first to know. The front house is much bigger than my apartment (4 bedrooms 3 bathrooms) and it has that precious basement. If that happens, the landlord first wants to update the house. (Hopefully I'll have the chance to avoid other Home Depot/HGTV design disaster.)
