Exposition Park

This neighborhood is rich in community, we see many USC students come and go, most never get beyond the basic surface of the area. There are several Farmers markets in the area, The rose garden is a place for relaxation, the coliseum is our back yard. Some USC students tend to keep to themselves and never greet their neighbors, I advise those students not to be afraid, we don't bite, we dislike the negativity as much as anyone else, yet that doesn't mean we can't have a sense of pride in our community. visit the mom and pop shops, shop locally, meet the community.

Hello,
I am a west Europe graduate student and my opinion is based on this viewpoint.
I have lived in this neighborhood (rented room in a house near Vermont at 35th st) since August 08. Uninteresting areas are: (U1) Martin Luther King between Figueroa and Vermont (crossed there two or three times on bike or walking, due to curiosity); (U2) between Jefferson and and 36th pl (biked there due to curiosity). These two locations are rather uninteresting: many degraded houses and extremely poor people. I have not been consistently in any other locations in this neighborhood, but crossed Jefferson once, at least once, on bike. I didn't see anything worth stopping my ride. Interesting areas are: (I1) USC campus; (I2) the block right south to USC where two museums are located (general science and natural history); the Los Angeles memorial coliseum and the Exposition Park park is also sited here which is a modest but quite big garden of roses that bares a name alluding to that flower; there's also an african american museum. I didn't visit any of these nor did I went to the coliseum to watch an USC game, but I think the area south to USC is interesting due to the infrastructures sited there but seems under potential usage. USC campus is pretty much an oasis in this area and has some nice architecture. Also, it is a good place to go and visit with kids (not a tematic park though) The field close to Vermont is open to general public which is very nice in bridging with local community. Overall the neighborhood does not seem good for living (no trendy cafes, bars, cinemas, theaters or other business other than local groceries or licor stores) and the reputation amongst USC students is terrible. The majority of USC students will run away from this areas as if they were running away from the devil (DPS (USC security) often sends email alerts reporting armed robberies located around campus (north and west), the perpetrator is in most cases black or latino, and students tend to identify the neighborhood with these events. Though the area as a terrible image, I have never been assaulted (but my bike as been stolen) and I get the metro 754, 204 up to Wilshire (running across Vermont) quite often; this bus works much better than everyone warned.