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| Excerpt from INNER CITY BLUES
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When Baldwin Hills was developed, a lot of the streets
were given Spanish names—maybe to honor the Mexican landowners
who sold the property to real estate speculator Lucky Baldwin
in the early 1900s, maybe to sucker the early Anglo buyers
into thinking they were part of some exotic, early California
past. So the streets were christened with names like Don
Lorenzo and Don Zarembo. Don Diablo and Don Quixote. There
were so many that by the time black folks integrated Baldwin
Hills in the sixties everybody just called the whole area
"the Dons."
Lance Mitchell lived in a fifties-style ranch house at the
end of a cul-de-sac on Don Alegre. Happy was not the word
I would have used for the tired one-story structure with
its faded paint job, white burglar bars on the windows,
and crime tape stretched across the driveway.
If you would like to read more of INNER CITY BLUES check
it out in the Books
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