I guess I'm spoiled. I mean when I visit a place that has dubbed itself "Gallery Row", well I guess I'm expecting galleries. Well, to be fair there are a few interspersed between the crack whores, 49 cent taquerias, and the local "Burgers N Shit" (no, I'm not kidding), but for the most part, my halcyon englazed visions of a sparkling downtown LA arts district ("could it really be?") have come crashing down in a cournicopia of illegal immigrants, public urination, and drug dealing ganstas named "biggie dee". No folks, it's not real. Downtown LA is as trashy as ever. It's a great place to hand out food to the homeless if that's your bag, but art has definitely not arrived, even if the subway has.



Maybe I'm not giving downtown los angeles a fair shake, but then again I'm not sure it deserves one. Between the high school kids demonstrating Mexican pride (and consequently for illegal immigration since they seemed to have been sparked by the illegal immigration bills in the congress) and the smog-tinged air, LA's downtown is definitely not deserving of anything but it's very own trashed reputation.