I was in Crenshaw last week and noticed how, in the 25 or 30 years I've known the neighborhood, the fan palms have jumped the shark a bit in the area bounded roughly by Vernon & Slauson and Van Ness & Western. The trees have gotten so tall that they have all but lost their relationship with the homes below. They are starting to look like barrage balloons hovering over the neighborhood. It's kind of a weird effect:
There's block after intact block of lovely, little, mostly un-messed-with homes, almost all single story, both single-family and duplexes.
Many have bars on the windows, but relatively few have fenced front yards:
Where broader trees have been planted too, the streetscape is stabilized somewhat
(It's excellent how the roof of the house on the right flows over to cover the granny flat too):
Gramercy Square Park and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church still make a lovely pair. It's 54th St SDA's 65th anniversary this year:
Looking south from Gramercy Square Park:
I quite like the little group of cottages on the right (W 57th & Gramercy):
St Andrew's & W 57th:
The original streetlamps are gone but the alleys are still there. The utilities are underground.
The fan palms and their shadows are strikingly graphic from above:
all images gsv