This week, I responded to Laiza Rodriguez's Week 8 post on busing from UCLA to the San Gabriel Valley:
I read your comment on perspective on an area and realised how true it is. Those of us that come to UCLA are familiar with Wilshire and generally know it to be a safe street to be on, even at night, at least the stretch near UCLA. However, I know people who are from somewhere else and they're intimidated by how big and wide the streets are and how many cars there are. Growing up in LA where cars are such a big part of life, we never really stop and think about how people could see it as something really dangerous and threatening. I realise that I react much the same way as you when I'm somewhere I consider a bit "sketchier". I don't ever usually go out and walk around, but even driving through a bad neighborhood sometimes make me nervous and I check to make sure my windows are up and all my doors are locked. I pay a lot more attention to my surroundings. These are things that I barely give a second thought to when I'm at or near home. It's hard for me to imagine people finding places like, for example, my hometown, a scary place, but like you said before, it's all a matter of perspective. But there's no way to generalise how a person will perceive something based on a single factor such as gender or race.
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