griffith park and more, more....

More explorations of LA, this past weekend, Saturday was hazy and was the day of Griffith Park, the largest Urban Park in the US, it is the one where the observatory that figures in Rebel without a cause and the HOLLYWOOD sign are located. You can walk for many hours in it, going up and down on the hills, it is left un-kept and now that is spring there were a profusions of greens from the emerald to the gray.
The best image that I have, but not a photo yet, is LA as seen from the hills north east of it, as it appeared on sunset at as I was driving on the 210. Flat green grey and brown with two set of skyscrapers. Far on the back closing in with the sky, the ocean. The 210 is really a freeway like the one you see on documentaries on LA life, 6-8 lanes on each direction, it borders the hills north of the city to take people east towards S Bernardino. It is the freeway that runs closer to where I live.
As everywhere else in order to communicate with others about a place you have to learn the various zones, and learn their position and the values attached to them. You start with North and South, rich and poor, and then West and East, a little more complicated, Westend seems to be associated with arty people and the entertainment world, Eastend I still have not grasped it.
And then the many centres, like Pasadena, Altadena, San Marino, the ones closer to where I live, each with their own distinctive identity. Echo park, Angeleno, Venice beach, the ones I've practised the last two weeks. South of Pasadena there is Rosebud, and it is an entire area, that expands toward West populated by Chinese people, 70% of the inhabitants. All the shop signs are both Chinese and English.
I wonder if, because there is no a clear centre-periphery dynamic, there is a greater symbolic autonomy of all these various centres..