Camelot Way, Southeast Los Angeles

Let me begin by saying that I have only driven through this neighborhood. I have never actually gotten out of my car here. So take that into your evaluation of my review.

As you would expect for a neighborhood just to the northwest of Watts, this is a high crime area. In fact, the 28,000 residents of this neighborhood experience about 13 murders per year. That’s about a one in 2000 chance of being murdered here every year. Pretty terrible! It is one of the top ten most dangerous neighborhoods in all of LA. In the last six months there have been 5 murders, 5 rapes and over 300 robberies and aggravated assaults. There have been more than 400 thefts of other kinds (burglaries, automobile thefts etc.) In other words, it doesn’t really matter what else I have to say about this neighborhood, it is simply too dangerous to live in. If you can avoid it, do.

All the other things you might expect about a neighborhood like this are basically bourn out by looking at any other statistics about this neighborhood. It is a very poor neighborhood where most of the residents have not completed even high school. The unemployment rate is high here and it is densely packed. The streets have that dingy worn out look to them, and it is not unusual to see garbage strewn about in parts (though I hasten to mention not everywhere—I assume that even in a crime plagued area like this there are a substantial number of residents fighting to have a decent way of life).

I would like to say that there is some hope in terms of the local schools, but unfortunately that is not really the case. Fremont High, one of the main local high schools is exemplary of the kind of problems here. Fremont ranks at the very bottom of standards. It ranks a good 200 points below the California average in terms of it API. Its STAR testing is even worse. Despite supposedly having 40% of its students in advanced math, only 2.5% of students pass the math portion of the STAR test. (How can that be with 40% in advanced math?) English is little better with only about 15% passing that portion of the test. SAT scores are just as bad with students barely breaking 1000—a good five hundred below the state average. Needless to say, Fremont has missed virtually all of its No Child Left Behind standards.

All of this suggests a school and a neighborhood where things are just not functioning properly by any standard.