South Central LA hardly ranks on the tourist circuit, but it's a large and integral part of the city, whatever wealthy white LA might prefer to think. The population has historically been mostly black, but is increasingly Hispanic and Asian, joined here and there by poor and working-class whites. It doesn't look so run-down at first sight, mostly made up of detached bungalows enjoying their own patch of palm-shaded lawn, but just about all its residents get an abysmal deal in schooling and employment, and have little chance of climbing the social ladder and escaping. If you pass through, every block for twenty-odd miles looks much like the last, littered with fast-food outlets, noxious liquor stores and abandoned factory sites, and burned-out, vacant lots still undeveloped a decade after the 1992 riots following the Rodney King verdict.

A crumbling reminder of the old days of black LA can be found along Central Avenue running south from downtown, where hot jazz clubs and fine hotels and restaurants once thrived. Only a few spots enliven the general gloom, including the wildly Streamline Moderne Coca-Cola Bottling Plant , 1334 S Central Ave, in the form of a giant white ocean liner, and the Dunbar Hotel , 4225 S Central Ave, the first US hotel built specifically for blacks and patronized by almost every prominent African American from the 1930s to the 1950s. Although you can only see its restored lobby and facade - the structure is now used for elderly housing - the hotel is the site for the Central Avenue Jazz Festival in August (tel 213/847-3169 for details) and you can find out more about the building from the nearby OASIS senior center, at no. 4207 (tel 323/231-6220).

The district of Watts , on the southernmost fringe of downtown, achieved notoriety as the scene of the six-day Watts Riot of August 1965, which left 36 dead and innumerable buildings in charred ruins, and of the 1975 gun battle which put an end to the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) kidnappers of publishing heiress Patti Hearst. It's also the site of the Gaudíesque Watts Towers , striking pieces of folk art which stand alongside railroad tracks at 1765 E 107th St. The towers are usually open on Saturdays, but the schedule can be erratic; call the adjacent Watts Towers Arts Center, 1727 E 107th St (Wed-Sun 10am-4pm, free; tel 213/847-4646, artscenecal.com/WattsTowers.html), for more details. Recently celebrated as the former home of tennis phenoms Venus and Serena Williams, Compton is renowned as the "crib" of many of LA's rappers , but outsiders should not attempt to sniff out the local music scene.

South Central LA

• South Central LA

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