Driving along VanOwen last night, between Kester and Woodman, it was amazing to see how crowded it was: there were people on the streets, tons of traffic, a car accident with police and ambulences. There were teeming taco stands, and the busy corner of Van Nuys and VanOwen, with riders waiting for the MTA bus to arrive.
Along the street are those two and three story apartment buildings, with balconies full of furniture, laundry, bicycles, toys, boxes. Like the NYC fire escapes from the early part of the last century, VanOwen’s outdoor ledges are part of the living area in these overcrowded slums and a place to breathe in the hot, smoggy air on a summer evening.
I wondered how many of these people were here illegally, and if even asking the question begs a racist response? Yes, there is no reason in the world that the United States should allow people to just come in here and start a life without regard for our laws. But there probaly isn’t an immigrant here who doesn’t think that his life and situation is justification for escaping to Los Angeles.
Van Nuys has changed in remarkable ways from 1945 until 2007. What were once orange and walnut groves became new housing and hopes for returning veterans and their families. They worked at GM or at the Van Nuys Airport and those kids grew up and moved away.
Now we are poorer and more crowded, but still they pour into Van Nuys, in search of a better life…but testing the ability of our society and our nation to devise a way to control what is a flood of unimaginable proportions. What is the price of freedom and are we paying too high a price for it?
Here in Van Nuys 