Here is another of
e_r's patented "mystery locations" from the 130,000+ photos at calisphere. (I don't think we're at risk of running out of subject matter).
calisphere.org
This is a Gary Leonard photo captioned "Police officers patrol a street as smoke billows out of a store on April 30, 1992." This was the day after the "not-guilty" verdicts were handed down in Simi Valley in the Rodney King police brutality case. I wondered if we could find out where was this photo taken.
The scale of the buildings seemed wrong for South Central, it looked more like downtown, especially with the "Pacific" (Hotel? Building?) bladesign and the two radio towers. But looking more closely, those towers couldn't be the KRKD towers because their base building was much too short to be the Spring Arcade Building.
I thought I could get a clue from the store at the left with display advertising. However, it seems to say "The World of Ears" which while unusual, did not seem likely to be helpful; possibly it was "The World of Bars" which made only slightly more sense. Neither could be located in the city directories.
Looking at the picture again, I thought I recognized the street lights from seeing them in Hollywood 25 years ago. Could the location be Hollywood? I found a map of riot-destroyed buildings and sure enough there were three along Hollywood Boulevard. The Googlemobile confirmed the location: Leonard's photo was taken looking east on Hollywood Boulevard just west of Hudson, the side street on the left. The "World of Ears" was something non-aural-related according to the 1987 street directory, but the shape of the roof and the dormers show it's the same building:
bing maps