On Sunday morning in Van Nuys, at the beginning of another very hot July day, the streets are barely travelled, and people are just getting up. At the do it yourself car wash on Kester and Sherman Way, customers are happily cleaning their cars.

The churches along shady and wide Sherman Way are well attended. Stores along Van Nuys Boulevard, north of Sherman Way are still closed, but seem to be thriving.

At the Hummer storage facility on Arminta, east of Van Nuys Boulevard, the menacing guard in his Lincoln Navigator asked this photographer “What are you doing?” as I stood on the public street and aimed my lens at the SUV’s. “I’m standing on public property that’s what I’m doing!” He answered, as I rode away, “Just remember this is private property!”

Even standing on a public street and taking photos is dangerous these days.