Our city lives inside of us. Keep breathing, Los Angeles.
J.T.
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Pandemic in Los Angeles: Day 48
Pandemic in Los Angeles: Day 45
Today marks the 45th day since Governor Newsom’s stay-at-home orders took effect on March 19th, 2020.
And for a second week in a row, protests greeted the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento, as well as in Los Angeles, as more people expressed their vexation with the ordinances, a lack of services, and burgeoning joblessness.
In the seven weeks since March 19th, 2020, over 3.7 million people in California have filed for unemployment claims, according to the LA Daily News.
But a lack of work and the call to continue socially distancing notwithstanding, it looked like a typical Sunny weekend driving past Echo Park this afternoon, with scores of people over the grass surrounding the famous Lake.
At least in Metropolitan L.A., even if the beaches are closed, city-goers have green pastures to enjoy. The fact of the matter is that as spring sunshine looms larger over L.A.’s dry interior, it will only become more difficult to keep the state’s 40 million people indoors. Californians pay taxes, after all, not to mention rent and mortgages, to be able to enjoy the outdoors here.
In L.A., 55% of the city’s residents are renters.
In all likelihood, then, in effort to fend off more unrest from the citizenry, then, Governor Newsom, along with mayor Garcetti should announce significant changes to the ordinances soon.
Since March 19th, Los Angeles’s 10 million residents have counted over 24,000 cases of the coronavirus across its population, though that number, as before, is an under-count due to lack of testing.
By contrast, halfway across the world, in Vietnam, with over 95 million people between its jurisdiction, the country has counted just 270 cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak, and zero deaths to show for it.
That statistic is one that should make every Californian–and indeed every American–pause to ask the following: As the richest economy on the planet, if not the health and future of its work-force, just what is our government invested in? And what’s it waiting for?
J.T.
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Pandemic in Los Angeles: Day 37
The summer-like heat was something fierce this day.
On this Friday the world appeared to me to return to its normal state by virtue of the summer glaze over the skyline, through the windows at home, and across the din of my eyebrows while I zig-zagged past so much of Los Angeles delivering the new Los Cuentos face-masks to the people.
Like the Los Cuentos hoodies, and the Los Cuentos caps a year earlier, the new face-masks are as much about caring for communities in Los Angeles as they are about declaring to the world of the metropolis that coronavirus notwithstanding, we are here, we are activated, and we’re not going anywhere without our cuentos still guiding the way.
I am thankful for every supporter in this next chapter for JT, and can assure them we will continue meeting the work with the same dedication and enthusiasm we show for this blog.
Let’s get covered, Los Angeles.
J.T.
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Pandemic in Los Angeles: Day 33
When my spirit is scattered and restless, as it was this evening, I take a walk through Los Angeles, trusting in the endless road’s ability to host my insatiability.
At moments, it feels like my spirit can devour the entire road. At others, like it needs to simply lay eyes on its slopes and curves, acknowledging their lonesome ranges. There are also moments during my walking when I feel like the paths I take are that of an outlier, well past the standard deviations of distances usually traveled when moving about the city on just two feet.
Then there are moments when none of it matters because I am alive and ready to take on all challenges presented by the terrain. At still other moments it’s the opposite; I need to be sensitive to every noise, brush of wind and slight of concrete facing my direction.
Finally, there arrives a moment during every one of my walks when I’m called back to work by that other movement emanating from the same spirit from which the walking journey began.
Especially as the days begin to warm, I recommend every reader to take advantage of the road in their midst in whatever fashion works best for them. If you need a cap to guard against the roar of the sunlight, or simply to show the solidarity which eludes so many of us workers during the “regular” seasons, Los Cuentos got you covered.
J.T.
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Pandemic in Los Angeles: Day 31
As for most people, 31 days through this unprecedented time have gone by far more quickly than I could have imagined. I’ve been writing as a way to document my experience, but even so much writing only begins to tell the story. And while I’d like to look at everything written through the days to piece together some explanation of it all, it’s also true that I’ve got still more writing to do.
There are serious moments when I look at the world around me as though I may be the only one who truly exists in it. I know that might seem strange, but my mind is like a great shadow, cast over everything I say and do. Writing is a way to subdue this shadow, to reflect it back, and to let my mind connect with other minds who may also exist.
This probably also explains why I take so much pleasure in reading. I can be anywhere in the world, on an airplane 10,000 feet above sea level, or at my desk in the middle of a pressing workflow, but if faced with an engrossing read in my hands, the real universe can wait. A good book makes me a part of two worlds, both of which deserve my utmost attention and courtesy in equal degrees.
In the days following this quarantine, I hope to see more libraries, and more spaces where people are encouraged to sit peaceably as they read, write, and create their day in every other way they might. For now, while the “real” library is closed, there is another library stored in these entries of mine, as well as in the precious world offline, which still exists as mightily as ever, in the pages of a million books still left to read, in a million journals still left to write, and in countless real stories still between each line.
And for the record, I do not mean to be the only one who may exist. I value immeasurably every voice and every face promising that other minds besides mine also verifiably populate the world around me just like I do. In fact, as it turns out, the very mind that leads me to wander away from reality is the same one I use to get back to that very reality. I believe this is how it works for most of us, right?
In other words, it’s becoming clearer to me that perhaps even before the quarantine many of us were already quarantined, in our minds. But just like “the real one,” I can admit the long shadow has its upsides too. Today turns out to be one of those days. What does your quarantine say?
J.T.
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