I’ve been able to spend a few days in LA with very special people. Old and new friends, organisers in Skid Row and Echo Park Lake, scholars whom I deeply admire – including my comrade Ananya, with whom we are cooking something up.
LA is a city that grew in me throughout time. I visit the first time in 2012, while I was working with Stewart Clegg in Sydney, Australia. Then I came back a number of times, especially in recent years, to do some research, attend and sometimes contribute to events organised by Ananya at the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy. The work these folks have done over the last 10 years is quite impressive – both in terms of scholarship and genuine community building and radical engagement with housing justice struggles.
This time, I was also able to meet my dear friends John and Henriette from the LAPD again, who are continuing their important work in Skid Row.
Not an easy city, LA. A city of cities – with plenty of injustices and raw urbanity – but also hope and resourfulness. I look forward to coming back again, hopefully soon.