For those who actually lived in Los Angeles during the 1980s — what was it really like? How would you describe the general attitudes of people at the time, the cultural trends, and the social expectations? In what ways did materialism show up in everyday life, and how serious was gang violence?
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Lots of coke, shallow people, smog, traffic, and a police force that resembled Nazis.
Smog. Not as much gang stuff as today (actually a LOT less). Not as much traffic but there was traffic. Nothing WRT “materialism” or “cultural trends” that I paid attention to. It was no different than other cities then. Now, there is a more-Mexican influence although it was present back then. Not an issue then because they assimilated well. My aunt was Mexican FWIW. Housing was a whole lot cheaper. Now people need to be making a quarter million/year to buy the average house there.
It was much cleaner at the street level. More orderly. The air quality was shit, you could see layers of orange and brown and hazy white and you really almost never saw blue skies but there was not trash on the ground, no graffiti, everyone’s lawns were perfect. Everything seemed to go to shit, get more trashed and chaotic, more homeless, during/after Reagan.
There were lots of downtown clubs, lots of all night restaurants and diners which don’t seem to be around anymore, lots of non-fatal drugs, affordable good food, rain and mudslides. Gang violence wasn’t an issue that touched people’s everyday lives. I think people were less materialistic, people didn’t seem to care what other people wore or drove. It was still close enough to the 70’s and hippies, people were laid back, they didn’t own so much stuff. Houses were empty and orderly because nobody filled their homes with unnecessary crap.
Go watch Repo Man (1984). It’s a satire about life in the Reagan era in LA as seen by a middle-class punk. And dead radioactive aliens in the trunk of a ’64 Chevy Malibu. Every time I visited LA in the ’80s, I remember a weird, angry, tense feel in the atmosphere. Kind of like “active disappointment.” Repo Man has that feel.
>>what was it really like?
People lived, people died, all to a soundtrack by Wang Chung.
I lived there in the later part of the 80s and I recall a very corrupt police force. They were terrible at that time – no one trusted them. Shaking people down. Arrogant. Overtly racist. You really didn’t want to call them unless you absolutely had to. They’d even mess with you if you had a minor traffic accident – like bumping someone’s car and breaking a taillight. The cops would mock both parties. Bully people Rude as hell. Strutting around like they were ‘heroes’ or something. You could feel the tension – the cops hated the civilians – and the opposite was also true. Then guess what? Rodney King happens – riots break out … the cops aren’t held accountable for anything. People freaked out and when the streets got wild the cops ran away like little cowardly dogs. They didn’t help ANYONE – and placed a special emphasis on trying to pour gas on the fire esp. with people of color. The LA PD completely sucked. Even the most straight-laced ‘pro-cop’ person you might find knew the LAPD were simply bad news. You did not want them around. They were worse than criminals. Violent. Thugs. Dangerous. Angry. Looking to escalate things with any chance they got. Dirty. Liars. Just terrible.
And then there were the so-called ‘Guardian Angels’ wandering the streets at night. They were worse than the gangs. Guardian Angels would beat people up – rob them – mug them – shove them into the street and laugh. If you saw them walking down Hollywood Boulevard on one side of the street – and on the other side of the street was a tough looking group of gang-bangers = your odds of passing safely and not being attacked or hassled were better crossing the street and taking your chances with the gang-bangers. The Guardian Angels were a complete menace – a joke – a flat out lie. Those guys (it was mostly men) – they were the worst ‘gang’ on the streets.
And actually the gang-violence was mostly gang-vs-gang and they left bystanders out of it unless you were stupid and got involved or unlucky to be in the wrong place at the wrong time: or you were looking for something …. trying to score drugs – a prostitute – whatever …. then you were asking for potential trouble. If you minded your own business and just walked down the street it was likely (not always but likely) the gangs would just ignore you and leave you alone. It honestly was the f**king ‘Guardian Angels’ and the Cops themselves who you seriously wanted to avoid.
Despite all that bad vibe review – the city was mostly safe if you weren’t stupid (going down dark alleys, looking for illegal action, being stupid flashing wads of money around, the normal dumb stuff you don’t do in the inner city). LA was fairly segregated also. The Black guys might cruise or wander some in the more open streets near Downtown – Sunset – Hollywood areas – North Hollywood – but mostly they stayed in Compton or South Los Angeles or maybe Watts and Leimert Park. I am not a racist – but I am a very atypical dorky white guy – and I knew it was a bad idea to try to hang out in those areas …. so while I sometimes did (with a friend or for a reason) I mostly didn’t go there. The few times I did I honestly didn’t have much trouble – but I got some weird looks from (Black) people thinking I might be crazy.
Otherwise – well – it’s L A. Beverly Hills, Movie Stars, Santa Monica, Venice Beach – it could be safe and fun and very colorful. You’d see famous people at restaurants or at the mall or just walking down the street. It was etiquette to not bother people – but sometimes people still did. The HUGE stars lived more off the grid in gated communities in the Hills and usually didn’t wander around alone (usually). Chinatown was fun. It wasn’t all gritty street crime and danger. The Griffith Observatory was pretty cool (famous planetarium seen in many movies – most notably ‘Rebel Without a Cause’) … the rising local band at the time was Jane’s Addiction – they had just been signed – you could still catch them doing bar shows if you got lucky. It was an adventure living there in that era.
That’s a big question. I’m white. I was in my 30s then. I lived in LA. I wasn’t paying attention to most of what you are addressing. In my world, there were a lot of drugs and a proliferation of underground nightclubs and some of the best music ever recorded!
I remember a lot of “materialism” around L.A. in the 1960’s…
Lots of cheap coke everywhere. Thanks Oliver North and Reagan.
Hollywood boulevard was ghetto with Punk clubs — a 9 hole golf course at Santa Monica beach — third street before “promenade” was mostly boarded up — Hammond lumber yard Venice was Roger Cormans film studio (and don’t forget Charles band the other Roger corman) — repo man and I’m gonna get you sucka (I was working on films in those days) no fish or dolphins in Santa Monica bay — the Beverly center got built -/ padded fucking shoulders — wages paid in cocaine — Venice was a gang war zone — sunset strip was packed with hookers — I don’t remember the air being that bad by 1982 it had improved vastly — the pacific theater was open and the original Egyptian -/ also porn theaters on Hollywood blvd— silver lake and echo park were not trendy!
Air quality was AWFUL. Gave me the worst case of bronchitis I’ve ever had in my life!
Not what you asked, but addressing the environment situation in the 80s. I lived in LA county from late September 1981-1985 as a student at Cal Poly Pomona. One day during my first January, I stepped out and was like “whoa, when did those mountains get there?”. It was a twilight zone moment, snow-capped majestic peaks! I literally never saw them in the 3 months leading up to then.
The air quality in the 80s was so bad it took a significant Santa Ana wind to blow the smog out. It’s much better now.
Lived in LA in the early 70s. Riots, central burning, extreme opinions, extreme opinions acted upon, vivid characters arising from the chaos, it was great!
I moved to LA in 84. I was shocked one day it had rained, I could see the Hollywood sign when I pulled onto Culver Blvd because it was clear. We were surrounded by mountains. Lived Marina adjacent. We could hear gunfire from our balcony, even if it was miles away. Lived there during the Riots. That’s a whole other story.
Los Angeles in the 80s. San Fernando Valley became the porn capital of the world. Serial Killers were active. The club scene was pretty hard core. Surfing was territorial. Gangs were rolling around and graffiti was sending different messages. Cocaine and crack was everywhere. The police were violent and corrupt.
In other words the entire place was on vibrate
I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, North Hollywood to be specific. I was born in GA but moved to Tarzana when I was 6 in 1973. Stayed in LA til I was 30. It was always ahead of its time. I grew up around celebrities. My first job was across the street from Disney Studios. It’s was a fun place to grow up, I lived in Venice in the late 70’s right by where they filmed the intro to Threes Company. There’s so many movie and tv references that bring back memories for me. I cruised down Ventura Bl as a teenager. People were progressive even back then. Very little racism. But the materialistic vibe was strong. Most people were in same way involved in the movie industry so money was always flowing, if you weren’t affluent is was sometimes difficult. As far as gangs, I think they were worse in the 90’s, if you were their friends the only danger was getting accidentally shot in a drive by. In the SFV it wasn’t that bad, but if you went downtown you needed to go during the daytime and be gone by nightfall because they took over then.
I was 28 in 1980, my era of sowing wild oats had ended. I’d gotten married and had a kid. I was able to live a comfortable suburban life with flashes of the earlier partying still mixed in. Cars were crap, the fashions and hairstyles were weird, but life went on. I moved from the West side to echo Park, it was not the trendy place it is now. But then I have always tended to move out of places when they start to gentrify. Unlike a lot of people here, I never had any problem with the law. Maybe it was white privilege, I thought it was mostly just knowing how to behave.
You could see live music 7 days a week, for almost no money. So many legendary bands started in some of the skeevy nightclubs there. I never felt materialistic pressure, but I was into punk music. Rent was cheap, apartments were easy to find, good food was cheap, the beaches were nice, but the air was trash.
Didn’t live but visited several times. Best cocaine ever.
Numero Uno Pizzeria, Dinner for Two $5.95. Salad for two, Romano bread buffs, a bowl of Spaghetti and a small pizza.
Oh and those fries at Pup n Taco !
It wasn’t my thing at all. The whole scene was secretive and anti social. Never understood the attraction.