At the Foot of Hollywood

Nearly four million people populate the City of Angels, almost forty million in the greater Los Angeles area. Over the last several days, I drove through and around, above and below so many parts of the city, interacting with so many of its people, that I have to concede an unexpected truth. Despite the rampant homelessness, the high percentage of people living in poverty, and the undeniable, divergent heights of wealth for those with money who live in the hills of Bel Air and Mulholland Drive, I never once encountered anyone who was rude or impatient or blatantly arrogant, no one begrudging a low income job, no one idling for more than they had, no one pushing anyone around in traffic. If anything, I encountered some of the most kind and generous people in America. Across the street from one of the houses Trump owns in Beverly Hills, a woman in a food truck handed me a bottle of water and insisted I didn’t owe her anything. She was emblematic of all the people I met. Thank you, LA, for being better in person than what many may regard on paper.