Paramount: cosa c’è intorno, come arrivare e quando andare · 2026

Paramount… ...This is perhaps one of the most interesting pages of our big adventure (for us personally!!) since this is exactly where we spent most of our summer! Everything started when we got a flat tire in the middle of a deserted Mexican neighborhood crawling with shady characters... as fate would have it, a Mexican guy named Rico helped us out and found us a place to stay for just 400 bucks a month for 5 people!!! in a family of Mexican COMMUNISTS!! Viva Che Guevara! But I'll tell you more about that later, as I want to briefly describe the neighborhood and what it's like! It's a small neighborhood in the south of Los Angeles, densely populated by Mexicans. You will never meet tourists here; they simply don't make it to such areas. Besides Paramount, this includes Downey, Norwalk, and the ever-present Compton (where only African Americans live). The latter is known as the most dangerous neighborhood in LA and for its famous natives, such as Dr. Dre, The Game, WC, and Beanie Man. There was a myth that Snoop Dogg was also from there, but as it turned out, he grew up in Long Beach. So, it felt more like the plot of GTA San Andreas than the real world! All neighborhoods are strictly divided by their gangs: African American, Mexican, and Latin (not to be confused with Mexicans... since these are from Latin America: Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina, etc.). One gang replaces another as you move along (everyone is terribly tattooed with their gang symbols, right up to their faces, not to mention their whole bodies). So, the whole meaning of their short lives (since few live past 30, the average age of LA gangs is 18-20, or even younger!) they see in destroying members of other gangs! Watch the video about one of these shootouts in Compton in my gallery or via the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SNBUe52zYc&feature=related We learned all this from a Mexican named Edgar (he says that 10 of his 15 friends are in prison, 3 have been killed, and 2 are wanted!), with whom we lived all summer. He himself avoided such a fate because his father is a very strict COMMUNIST!! So... neighborhoods like Paramount are like villages in Russia. No, of course, there are hypermarkets (Bestway, Super-A-Food), like everywhere in America, there are huge shopping centers (Downey Landing, Lakewood Centre), but it's a village. The ocean is an hour away by bus, although if you take the subway, you can significantly shorten the path. Finding work there is also quite problematic, unless, of course, you speak Spanish. If you do, then good luck to you))) There are very few people on the streets; in the evening, you won't meet anyone at all. Police patrols usually monitor such places, and if they see some crazy tourists wandering the streets late at night, they will definitely offer to drive them to their destination, as it is not safe. Personally, we encountered this situation very often. In Compton, it's better not to appear at all. We often had cases where black guys would harass our acquaintances, and they will definitely stare at you. It's better to get used to it right away. Such guys will try in every way to provoke you and pick a fight over something. Paramount is also a fairly dangerous neighborhood. We had an incident where some guys went at 11 p.m. for gum at the nearest store at a gas station, and their bike was taken away. They just walked up with a gun and took it. To their luck or not, the police were nearby, and one of the criminals was caught; they took statements from our guys. But the matter didn't go further than that; we were politely suggested to drop the case if we didn't want problems in the future. Of course, it wasn't hard to find us; we were the only Russians in this Mexican quarter!!! And in the neighboring district of Norwalk, we met some guys who were returning home from work on bicycles and got caught in a shootout; one of them got a stray bullet in his collarbone!! So, the conclusion is quite simple: LA is far from what we see