In the video featured in the last post you hear Squared telling me “they are up there” during the recording, referring to some of our friends who up at our spot on top of the bridge. All while he and I are still lingering below, before going up to the topside of the bridge ourselves. So let me tell you a little bit about it.
The choicest spot on the classic Sixth Street Bridge has always been the northwest observation point: a spot called “Nowhere.” For the past few years it the favorite spot for my circle of friends to hang out at.
The spot we call “Nowhere.”
You can follow several paths to how the name came to be… and Zero most certainly does. Though the name has stuck because of one reality; the bridge is nether here nor there. It’s nowhere.
You see this spot where we congregate, high upon the bridge and just to side of it’s western arches is the exact point were this classic bridge transitions from downtown’s Sixth Street to the eastside’s Whittier Blvd. So this spot, it seems nether here nor there.
And this is especially true in the way that this spot has long been regarded by the city and police. Being located right in between to LAPD stations, Downtown Central and Hollenbeck, with the midpoint of the bridge being considered the division. Resulting in the top of this bridge being generally neglected by both. Each insisting they shouldn’t have to cross.
A reality which know all too well after often finding it near impossible to describe this place to the 911 emergency responders after accidents and crashes, because of the lack of a defining address.
This spot is nowhere.
And I guess some of these reasons also explain as to why my friends and I have gone mostly undisturbed in our years of occupying this spot.
And so day after day, evening after evening, we have made this place our destination. Here telling stories, listening to music, drink beer and blazing the hours away. Observing how the bridge seems to have a culture all of its own.
Now we really don’t know what we are going to do without it.
Here are some old videos we have taken at this place which is most special to us.
Believe it or not, I don’t have as many videos with them on camera as you would expect. They seem to be camera shy. Or more precisely, they shy away from a camera which they aren’t holding. Very Penelope Spheeris of them. LOL
See a related blog by my friend Zero-Renton Prefect, titled “Tales from Nowhere.”
Related Articles about our bridge exploits:
- “Havdalah as a Light to the Community” – Reflections and Lessons from the Havdalah Circle of Boyle Heights. Rekindling Jewish culture on top of the Sixth Street Bridge
Barrio Boychik 