Compton

Hey, I live in Compton and Compton is really changing. Some parts of Compton may be how the media describe Compton to be;however, there is another side of Compton. A side that many people dont realize is happening in Compton. My friend is going to graduate from Harvard next year, she attend Compton High School and plans to live in the good side of Compton. Also, what ghetto has its own Baseball Academy(The only baseball academy in US), what ghetto has a Casino, or a aviation school that many 11 or 12 years old have broken records flying from Compton to Canada alone. LoL

Well not really born and raised. I was born in Bellflower, California about 5 miles from Compton. But after my mommy and daddy brought me home thats where we lived for about 10 years. Compton is not too safe any more…a lot of gang fights. I worked at the compton court house for 2 years.

yes it’s not the greatest place in the world—it doesn’t necessarily have anything for tourists to see, it has perhaps more than it’s share of crime and inequalities. but this notorious side to the city perverts reality. sure i was hesistant to serve my jury duty there but it’s often forgotten that are 2 basic sides to compton, the business side and the thug side. my vegan friend works in compton and is able to go out to lunch in the city itself and order vegan meals. i bet you didn’t think there was vegan fare in compton. spend some time there and shatter the stereotypes built in your head by hyper media.

grew up in one. Was not bad at all. made me a strong person.

Nice people here- really. Went because we have some friends here. It’s not unlike many other places in LA…

Compton is my fairytale paradise
There,I feel sexy
Compton I love
NWA MUTHAFUCKAZ

N.W.A. pretty much made Compton a world-known location, albeit in a grossly hyperbolized way.

First off, most people, excepting long time L.A. residents, initially think Compton is alongside Watts or East L.A or whatever part of GTA: San Andreas in its L.A. map gets the most action for the gamer. It’s actually quite a distance from it south, in the South Bay area, not too far from Long Beach, Downey, Carson, Norwalk, etc.

I’ll admit I wouldn’t want to walk around certain parts of town at night, but I’ve drove up to Compton from O.C. during the day to go to swap meets before—on the weekends. I’ve also driven around certain areas to get something to eat. It’s not “sparkling” by any means, but it’s no more a “ghetto” than many other parts of L.A. that may deserve the term more. In fact, many parts of the city are very quaint and inviting. Then again, so are parts of Watts and east Los Angeles city proper… again, during the day, specificially.

In brief, Compton is really just another not-so-enriched South Bay city, not unlike a dozen of its neighbors. It just had the luck (whether it’s good or bad is up to you to decide) to have an extremely popular and energetic hip-hop group establish Compton as its home base (despite a number of the band members not being originally from Compton, but whatever) and have that group namecheck the city on its most popular album.

Had Eric Wright started Ruthless in another of the dozen cities in that South Bay DMZ, we could have easily been bumpin’ along to Straight Outta Inglewood, Straight Outta Lomita, Straight Outta Hawaiian Gardens, Straight Outta Bellflower, Straight Outta South Gate, Straight Outta Paramount, Straight Outta... well you know what I mean.

Personally, from experience, I found Inglewood, Wilmington, Pacoima, and parts of Santa Ana to be far more harrowing. But time has certainly passed since I’ve visited the South Bay or these remote corners of greater L.A., and I’d have no idea how Compton is doing today. But I wanted to tag this as “Worth Visiting” not for specific tourist recommendations as much as dispel a lot of myths about the city.

Hello.