July 22, 2009
It's been three weeks since I moved back home and obviously I'm still trying to get the lay of the land.
Tonight's topic for consideration: What happens when my parents find out that I'm riding transit late at night?
And by late, mind you, we're talking about 9:30 p.m., which to me, is still really early.
The situation: I have never owned my own car. I never needed to. And I've gotten by these past two years by borrowing Zipcar or Juancar when necessary. So when I agreed to move home, I committed myself to driving alone as little as possible.
There was a screening of Julie and Julia in downtown Burbank this evening. Downtown Burbank is 8.6 miles away and accessible from our house via the 165 Vanowen Street bus. The last Vanowen bus came by at 9:30, which I missed. Another option, the 164 Victory Boulevard bus, was scheduled to arrive at 9:45, but never showed up, which meant I had to wait an hour for the next bus.
My mother also insisted on coming to pick me up from the bus stop. The bus stop was roughly 1 mile away, and a very reasonable distance to travel on the Xootr Scooter. My mother feared for my safety. I feared for my safety... while waiting to be piacked up. In the ten minutes it took for her to show up, I got heckled four times and offered a ride by one guy, whom I yelled at for being creepy.
I'm divided on this. On one hand, I think I would have felt a lot safer had I been able to Xoot home and not stuck out with my running shoes, bike helmet and Xootr at the 7-11 by the bus stop. My mom thinks that someone could have followed me, but my dad knows well that I can beat him home while driving in a car (as I've done it twice already.) I also think I would have been a lot safer had they been there to meet me as soon as I arrived.
But what was she really trying to say?
Although Valley Glen is one of the most socioeconomically diverse in the LA area, it is intensely racially segregated along land use. The multi-family housing is occupied primarily by the poor, and by Hispanics. There is gang activity in the area, but I'm not aware of any on-going turf wars that necesitate my changing my way of life.
I'm trying to rationalize my mother's fears. Are they born out of a mother's wariness of her daughter Xooting in the dark past delerict apartment housing?
Or, more seriously, were they born out of something I really need to be aware of? I've been so privileged all this time that I have been away, living in places like Westwood and Adams Morgan, where there was street activity at night and young, educated adults had claimed the rights to public space and sidewalks. These are things I must consider.
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