Columpio #LosAngeles
▻https://chusmachusma.noblogs.org/post/2022/07/27/columpio-l-a
As a young Mexican-American kid growing up in this city in the 80s & 90s, being in & using public space always felt like a constant war with the police (& other private security apparatuses). Any real venues or clubs were too expensive or would not cater to the Eastside punk scene I was a part of (or simply would not want us.) And in this constant war with the police over public space, spaces which were never meant to be opened-up or transformed become the places where young, especially racialized Angelenos gather.
We would gather on undeveloped hillsides, under bridges, in the Los Angeles River cement bed, downtown when it would get largely abandoned at night in the past, in abandoned houses or in empty warehouses that de-industrialization left in its wake. What is happening on the bridge is nothing new. Within Fortress L.A., there has also always been a running current Columpio Los Angeles, or “Playground Los Angeles”: racialized proles have always carved out their own spaces out of necessity . And because there is a lack of ready-made public space, time becomes a factor: the city se pone cabrón at night.