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Ride-Along With Officer Salcido

Originally published Sept. 7, 2010

Patrol Officer John Salcido has dreams of one day becoming a motorcycle officer, but tonight, his focus is strictly on his job: serving the people of South Pasadena and getting home safely to his 15-month-old daughter.

Officer Salcido, Photo by JournoJames

It’s close to 8 PM on a warm September Saturday night and Officer Salcido’s stereo in his police vehicle is tuned to Amp Radio. Katy Perry can be faintly heard in the background while short bursts from the dispatch operator fill the car from time to time with calls. He’s just pulled over and issued a ticket to a man for using his cell phone while driving. It’s amazing Salcido was able to see such a subtle action from across the street, three lanes away as he was driving the opposite way, but he thinks nothing of it. He’s had to do this several times today but the danger is treating it like a routine.

Thank You For Honking

Originally published Aug. 29, 2010

He’s part messenger. He’s part showman. And he’s all about the car horn.

Sharp Messenger of Love, Photo by JournoJames

Stephen Sharp, 62, a claim training instructor for Farmers Insurance during the working week, has two simple messages for the people of Los Angeles: “celebrate peace” and “spread love.” His messages are boldly written on a large homemade sign made out of aluminum, cardboard and bound with tape. When he takes his old, beat-up sign out into the L.A. streets, he only wants one thing: a simple honk of a car horn in support of his messages.

Every Friday evening at 5 PM at the bustling intersection where Sunset, Hollywood, Hillhurst, and Virgil Streets converge, this family man puts on his gloves and takes over the sidewalk on the northeast corner near the Vista Theater. This becomes his workspace. For the next two hours, he performs like a great musical conductor, attempting to create a symphony from the horns of cars he hopes to hear.

L.A. Field Trip

Originally published Aug. 20, 2010

L.A. City Hall, Photo by JournoJames

It was a provocative and memorable afternoon filled with gruesome racist public hangings, a wonderfully kitschy eatery glorifying the sporting life of the untamed west, and a glimpse of that ridiculously beautiful building from the charming movie “500 Days of Summer.” It turns out that that pervading notion that downtown Los Angeles is irrelevant is a myth as big as the metropolis itself.

I started my city trek with my fellow journalists under the warm August sun with one question: why should I care about downtown L.A.?  I have lived in Los Angeles for over 15 years, and for most of that time, I have considered the downtown area to be nothing more than a destination of bland necessities rather than interesting possibilities. I was wrong. From Chinatown to the garment district and all stops in between, I realized that, with a little curiosity and the spirit of exploration, the city possessed things, people, places, ideas and stories that made a connection with me.

Hello, World!

Welcome to my journal. It’s a work in progress. It’s 2012; it’s a new year and I promised myself to start a blog. So, here it is. Since this is like a New Year’s resolution, it’s destined to fail. We’ll see how long this blogging thing lasts. If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on “not very long.”  A quick glance around and it’s obvious that it’s not much to look at…

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