One of the great modern American 'bazaars', LA's skid row has it all: drugs, prostitution, gangs, violence, civic impotence, etc.

Offers a chance to come face to face with the American police state - just don't get mistaken for a terr'rist. Or a tour'ist.

Safer in daylight, more colourful at night.

4th, 5th, and 6th Streets between Central Ave and Broadway, Downtown LA

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Los Angeles? I have lived here for 12 years and it’s a great place to be; it has more theatres per capita than anywhere I know, more book shops, coffee shops and is the capital of world cinema.

Because it is the cinema capital – not counting Bollywood of course – there are many great movie houses with the latest screens and sound systems; you usually see movies here before anyone else on earth too.

My favourite cinemas are the ArcLight on Sunset Blvd at Vine and Laemmle’s Sunset 5 which is an ‘art house’ – you will see British movies like ‘Layer Cake’ and ‘Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ there and the latest blockbusters at the Arclight.

Weekend conversations and news bulletins report the movie box office like the football results and there are many programmes on the radio about money; the stock market, insurance and 'nine eleven' – but that’s only on National Public Radio which is the equivalent to the BBC – except it’s not run by licence fees; they have fund drives twice a year and if you are ever subject to a fund drive you would beg for the BBC and the licence system.

On the TV News nearly every day in Los Angeles they mention a murder – most of them are gang related so the best thing you can do is not go to South Central LA or even east LA; stay on the west side; it’s safer. But there are lots of guns here so don’t be too complacent. Apart from the police, who carry holstered pistols and some security guards at stores who sometimes carry guns, I have seen one gun in 12 years; that was shown to me by a fellow immigrant in the privacy of a house – oh yes there was that time when I was driving up Fairfax Avenue and I saw someone lying in the gutter with a policeman standing over him with a rifle – but I’d nearly forgotten about that!
I compare gun incidents to roads accidents in the UK; they are on the news, in the newspapers and you hear about them all the time but most of them are over by the time you arrive.

Los Angeles is full of crazy people – crazy in the nicest possible way; there is the guy who runs backwards everywhere: one day it rained so he called his run off but instead of going home forwards to get out of the rain quicker he ran backwards; now that’s dedication; there are people who like their coffee half caffeine and half decaff with a dash of mocha and a dash of vanilla – coffee is important to them and is a way of life.

I go to the Farmer’s Market every day on the corner of 3rd and Fairfax for my large decaff and a doughnut from Bob’s – right next to Patsy’s Pizza where James Dean took his last bite before heading off to become a legend on September 30th 1955; there are loads of places like that where something famous and infamous happened years ago.

I live around the corner from the hotel where Janice Joplin died from an overdose, I viewed an apartment where Devine died – in fact you will see mock hearses driving the tourists around showing them where so and so died.

Of course because I have that doughnut each day I have to go to the gym and there are plenty of those – only here you are not allowed to use mobile (cell) phones in the changing rooms; with so many celebrities around you never know who is in there getting changed and what part of their anatomy might be getting photographed.

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On my last trip to LA (staying at the Beverley Hilton) I decided to go for a walk thru Beverley Hills. I ended up having a chat with 2 cops who pulled up next to me in a 'black and white'. They escorted me back to the hotel coz' no-one walks in that part of LA. Run or jog maybe but definitely do NOT walk in Beverley Hills. And for safety sake, do not walk around parts of downtown LA after dark .

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