Rainn Wilson, the actor best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on NBC's The Office, tweeted this afternoon: "I am in Lawndale, CA and believe me when I say there are no lawns here."Do any of you readers have any guesses about what brought Wilson to the so-called Heart of the South Bay? Yeah, me neither.
I lived in Lawndale for 15 years and now reside in Encino. When I lived in Lawndale, I always felt that the city was bullied by other South Bay cities. Reasons for this have varied from crime to lack of culture, and so on. As far as crime being a factor, most Lawndale neighborhoods are safer than many neighborhoods in Torrance, Gardena and even the Redondo 13 neighborhoods of Redondo Beach. Redondo 13 is by far a much more violent and powerful gang than Lawndale 13.
The real issue is culture; it's different from the culture in Redondo, Manhattan and Torrance. Lawndale is a city made up mostly of working class hispanics. When the people of Redondo, Torrance, and Manhattan wake up and see all the little brown people from Lawndale driving to work on the same streets they travel on it upsets them. There is no point in ignoring the elephant in room. We KNOW why the other cities bully Lawndale.