Why the Space Shuttle Feels Right at Home Along L.A.'s Grand Boulevards

Christopher Hawthorne celebrates last weekend's march of the space shuttle Endeavour from the airport to the California Science Center, which was witnessed by throngs of people along crowded sidewalks and strip-mall parking lots, as "a natural expression of L.A. character."

"The cynical take on Angelenos - an idea that a surprising number of
us continue to subscribe to - is that we are somehow afraid or dubious
of public space and prefer to gather within protected, sanitized
developments like CityWalk or the Grove shopping center," says Hawthorne. "But the
truth is that we desire real interaction as much as the residents of any
big city. We just happen to live, work and drive along boulevards that
have been remade over the last five or six decades to favor cars to such
a degree that such interaction has become difficult, and in some places
nearly impossible."

"We may not have great public squares and many big neighborhood parks in
Southern California, at least not compared to more traditionally
organized cities such as New York, San Francisco and Chicago. But we
have a vast network of wide, palm-lined boulevards, which along with our
beaches and thanks to the climate - it was in the mid-80s Sunday, the
14th of October - give us a particular kind of public space that other
cities lack."