CARNE ASADA & KARAOKES: LA's KOREATOWN

Step into the arcade at Wilshire & Alexandria in Los Angeles' Koreatown to see the new face of the Pacific Rim. Black, Latin & Asian kids take turns dancing on the new interactive video game "Dance Station 3DDX."

     Step into the arcade at Wilshire & Alexandria in Los Angeles' Koreatown to see the new face of the Pacific Rim.  Black, Latin & Asian kids take turns dancing on the new interactive video game "Dance Station 3DDX."                     

     Electronic music plays while the panel of plastic pads below their feet lights up to indicate which place to step next.  In 2001 these kids go to the arcade to get exercise.  Virtual reality has arrived.  The latest games straight from Asia allow players to work up a sweat playin' percussions, riding a motorbike or dancing.  Skater kids, breakdancers & graffiti artists cluster at arcades & cybercafes in the Koreatown streets. Koreatown is a microcosm where much of LA's complexity crystallizes in one district.                           

HOLLYWOOD MEETS THE  ORIENT
 
    Everybody mixes in the dense Koreatown streets: Catholic schoolchildren, Korean grandparents, Armenian businessman, corporate Africans, grungy art students.  It's hot on the stained concrete.  Technology meets decay, the 3rd world meets the 1st world, Hollywood meets the Orient, immigrants meet old citizens and old abandoned landmarks are used for filming.  The patchwork of buildings moves from impoverished to prosperous and back again.  Sweet Latin women sell tamales below skyscrapers.  Mini-malls with signs reading in 3 languages sit across from epic religious structures like the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.                            

The area is also known for its electric quilt of historic neon signs like the peacock color-wheel of the terracotta green Wiltern Theater.  More vintage neon can be found in the rooftop signs of grand old apartment buildings like the Gaylord, the Talmadge and the Langham. Their classic splendor is a monument to old Hollywood.  William Randolph Hearst allegedly kept his mistress in the penthouse of the architectural gem the Los Altos.  Many of LA's greatest art deco buildings like Bullock's Wilshire, the I Magnin and the Wiltern line Wilshire.  

      The postmodern streetscape is further accentuated by Korean letters lining the storefronts almost exclusively with no English for blocks and blocks on end... blocks of neon blend...
giving a visual phantasmagoria as if we were on the other side of the Pacific Rim.   
                                     

SEOUL IN LOS ANGELES                           

         Many of the establishments are hidden in the stealth streetscape.  A whole world exists that remains unknown to most LA residents.  Clubs called cafes like the BearCave, Mecca, Bohemia, Palm Tree LA and 4A's serve soju drinks all night.  Many have special theme features like Stone Age 2000 with it's red rock interior.  Korean nightclubs can be like Las Vegas with the range of architecture.   
                             

      Many of the Koreans in K-Town are immigrants.  It makes an easy transition because they don't even have to learn English.  They just slip right in like it was Seoul.  They learn about the available jobs from family networks.  The established community helps new people get on their feet. 
   
      The Korean's have control of businesses in the area in spite of the Latino residential majority.   Many Latinos and Blacks have felt longstanding disrespectful treatment from Korean shopkeepers. 
Another exacerbating factor is that immigrant Koreans are flashy even if they aren't rich.  They may live in a cramped apartment but own a Lexus.  This illusion fuels the resentment because they see Koreans in expensive cars and clothes, confirming their perceived class difference.                      

      This tension came to a boil in the '92 Riots.  Many inner-city residents took out their animosity against Korean businesses.  Interethnic hostilities between Koreans, Blacks and Latinos had been building.                            

A BOTTLE OF JUICE IS NO EXCUSE                           

      The straw that broke the camel's back was the Latasha Harlins shooting by a Korean shopkeeper, Soon Ja Du over a stolen bottle of orange juice.   The videotape of this brought Korean-Black tension out in the open.  
      Mass media took over fueling public rage.  By the time Rodney King's verdict happened people were waiting to go wild.   Photos from the Riots show Korean storeowners standing guard with semi-automatic weapons.  The LAPD was nowhere to be found leaving the area open season.                             

      The thousands of adjacent poor residents living nearby in Pico-Union used this opportunity to get diapers, milk and other necessities.  Looters from South Central just drove down Vermont or Western to loot in K-Town.  Although there were many racial issues for the Riots, much of it was pure economics.  Many looters targeted Korean businesses because they were the closest.
    
      Businesses were burned and some deaths resulted from the civic unrest.     
      Consciousness of these atrocities is making aware citizens from all walks become more culturally educated.  The objective is to avoid misunderstandings in communication.  Conflicts and differences between people can often be traced to cultural practices specific to each group.  
     
   DAYS OF DIALOGUE                           

       Greater cultural awareness within the community can reduce conflicts and differences.  Culturally specific behavior can be understood before anything becomes misinterpreted.  There are now Korean-Latin-African groups having days of dialogue to promote awareness.                             

People are understanding the importance of knowing the other members of their community.  
  
        Being such a diverse area creates the ultimate laboratory for future inner-city relations in the emerging multicultural metropolis.  When considering that Latin and Asian immigration have been the major trend in the shifting demographics of California over the last 30 years, it is easy to see how Koreatown represents the new face of California, the Pacific Rim and beyond.  
                                   

        There have been different results from the trials of the early 90's.  Starting with more ghetto bird helicopters and LAPD visibility.  Black and Latin kids can be seen ollieing up steps on their skateboards in baggy pants just like white kids in the suburbs.  Korean grandparents keep their heads down & walk slowly.  Thug kids still walk the streets with baldheads and wife beaters.  Mixed couples of every race hold hands waiting for the bus.                               

         Nonetheless when you walk into a Koreatown liquor store you will mostly likely see the owner standing behind some large bulletproof glass barricade that has a small opening to pay for merchandise.  Only the future knows if Koreatown's collective residents will ever come together or if they will remain locked in ethnocentrism?                           

  BACK TO THE FUTURE                           

       After the riots many old tenants left the area because of paranoia.  This led LA historian Mike Davis to call the Mid-Wilshire corridor in Koreatown "a high-rise ghost town."  9 years later the once empty skyscrapers are beginning to fill up.  Local business owners have recently been calling the stretch of Wilshire from Western to Vermont "Internet Alley."   High-speed lines and fiber optics under Wilshire make the area desirable for Internet start-ups and other high-tech firms.  Many companies have relocated from the Westside because Mid-Wilshire's rent is lower.                           

       Internet Alley is nowhere near the Mission District in San Francisco.  Despite the business owners attempt to gentrify the area, most of the district is still jam-packed multifamily housing filled with immigrants.  Internet Alley is a marketing trick designed to regenerate interest in the area.    While there are some Internet companies present, it's not the Silicon Valley.

       The crown jewel of the revitalization efforts is undoubtedly the new Aroma Sporex complex.  The just-opened 5-story building at Wilshire and Serrano includes a golf driving range, racquetball courts, Korean mudroom, aromatherapy, Starbucks, shops, eating establishments and the only video billboard in the city of Los Angeles, cleverly named Aroma Vision.  Messages of news and weather flash on the massive screen with Korean writing.                            

BLADE RUNNER ON WILSHIRE                           

      Aroma Vision is a welcome sight for all the science fiction buffs that love futuristic images of Los Angeles.  The bright images make it very kindred to Times Square, Tokyo or Las Vegas. 

      Larger than a stadium scoreboard this piece of Hi-Tech media is straight out of Blade Runner.  My only question is if Aroma Vision is the only video billboard in Los Angeles, why don't they leave it on for 24 hours? 

      The driving range at Aroma Sporex is as impressive as the Technicolor screen.  Massive nets almost 10 stories tall tower high above the street.  Although there are many similar developments to Aroma Sporex in Asia, there is nothing quite like it in Los Angeles.    

      These futuristic developments blend perfectly with the area's classic concrete buildings and palm trees.  Technology and decay make stimulating eye-candy. Brick buildings with fire escapes make up many of the 70-plus apartments with neon signs on their roofs.  These art-deco artifacts stand as monuments to the glamour of early Los Angeles.  These apartments have been popular with many people moving back to the area.  With the housing shortage in urban cities like New York and San Francisco, Los Angeles is only going to continue to grow.                       

        The new wave of migrants to LA includes not only immigrants and actors, but also recent college graduates, bohemians, artists and others who can no longer afford other urban areas.  The relatively low rent, multicultural mix; public transportation offered by the subway below Wilshire and great old buildings around Koreatown makes it perfect for these migrants.                                 

DOT-COMS TO DIVE BARS                           

        Popular nightspots like HMS Bounty, Brass Monkey and Frank'n'Hank's are doing better business then ever.  What were once old dive bars are now trendy.  Artsy bohemians can be seen drinkin' with old Koreans.  Barflies that look like Archie Bunker sit next to pierced lipstick lesbians.  USC frat kids sing their hearts out at the Brass Monkey.  Fly Korean girls talk on their cell phones laughing loudly.  Dot-com kids with an edge smoke cigarettes outside talking to homeless about the Lakers. 

        Driving along 8th Street on the south side of the Ambassador Hotel property, you see numerous taco trucks -- also known as roach coaches -- selling handmade Latin food like burritos and mariscos.   This is the underbelly of Koreatown.  8th Street is a gritty streetscape packed with storefronts nothing like Wilshire with 99 Cent stores, karaokes, massage shops, nail salons, zapaterias.  Mariachi music echoes out of open windows.  Will the arriving tech head demographic embrace 3rd World Los Angeles just south of Wilshire? 
                                   

         One thing is certain: whether it's bright yellow flames of a burning liquor store or interracial lovers kissing in a crosswalk, Koreatown contains the range of emotion that keeps the world watching Los Angeles.   10 years after Rodney King the future of new America begins to settle into the 21st Century..