Kipling Residential Hotel 2

I lived here from September 2008 to May 2009. The building's character certainly compliments the building's characters. The Kipling is in the heart of Koreatown and situated between, as my Hispanic and Latino friends informed me, the territories of the C-14 and 18th Street gangs. This was never an issue for me until one of my last weeks there when I was held up at gun point, but got out of it unscathed and only losing an Ipod. Being built in the 20's, the Kipling's classic charm creates a surreal contrast between itself and the strips of 1-level Korean storefronts and discount clothing stores. This being said, there are few times in my life that I can remember experiencing such an exuberant display of life than the many walks I took east down 3rd Street around dusk. Being a 23 year old white man from New Hampshire living in Los Angeles alone after graduating from a college no one has ever heard of with a degree in film production, I was more than a little out of place but I really embraced my time there. I became friends with the cockroaches that infested my "efficiency unit" and the wannabe hustlers and drug addicts that drifted down the hallways. Every night I fell asleep to the muted wailing that escaped the Korean karaoke bar next door and woke up to my downstairs neighbor hitting every note of a recognizable Chopin or Bach tune. I went out there to write, but I wrote very little. Looking back, I was only gaining experiences to write about in the future. A great place if you can appreciate it for it's dark and haunting beauty. Koreatown is so Los Angeles and so not Hollywood.