“Gregory took a long, slow bus ride down La Brea and got off at West Adams.

He passed, on foot, the surviving remnants of the dying hood: auto body shops, crosses and churches, student murals, liquor stores and lottery signs, steel gated store windows, shop fronts in plywood and poster.

Mr. Obama painted like an icon with the words HOPE and CHANGE and YES WE CAN on a red brick wall.

At Hillcrest, he turned right and walked south past the silent windows and empty pews of the Southern Missionary Baptist Church, where he had once sung in choir and prayed in earnest.

Hillcrest was bright and treeless, lined with old stucco apartments and small houses. Neglected and aging African-Americans churched, worked and lived here, but lately the XXXL black-shirted Latinos had taken over. ”

– Excerpt from “Lush Life” by Andy Hurvitz