Cooped Up Kids in Los Angeles
// December 3rd, 2009 // 26 Comments » // I Love LA., LA Done Me Wrong
In my apartment in Koreatown, the kids who live above us make a ton of racket leaping from their beds onto our ceiling like Kangaroos. That’s what it sounds like, anyway. Actually it sounds more like hippos or elephants. There’s running, jumping, leaping, skipping. The noise bothers the crap out of my other housemates. Not me. I say run, jump and leap free! There is no yard whatsoever for those unfortunate Los Angeles children.
Last night, coming home from work, I saw an adorable little Korean-American girl rollerblading around our parking lot. I was unloading bag after bag of groceries, carrying them up the flights of stairs. The girl rollerbladed up to me in her cute little skirt and leggings and asked if I needed help. Heartbreaking it is that she and many other Los Angeles kids don’t have land to run around in. Even the outdoor areas of the schools I’ve seen in Los Angeles are paved or have a rather tiny area of greenery. I suppose that’s the price the kids pay to have parents who want to live in Los Angeles.
In Brazil, my dad always made sure we had a huge yard where we could play in, dig in, climb trees in, splash around in the rain in, play with our animals, and plant in. Later on as a grownup in Florida before I left to move out here I was living in an apartment complex with tons of rolling greenery, lawns to walk in, with a huge lake across the street. Even the lower income residences in Florida have yards and lawns.
So I say leap away, kids, leap onto all the ceilings of all the Los Angeles apartments. I’ll just play music or put in my earphones. Or maybe your parents will wisen up and we can all go to one of the local hiking parks and run around like elephants.
