My Obama Neighborhood

This is the stretch up and down Sunset Blvd 3 block in either direction from my apartment on Super Tuesday. My polling place was 3 blocks away at the Sleep EZ mattress store. Surrounded by mattresses were 6 polling booths -- 4 Democrat, with lines in front of 'em, and 2 Republican, which were empty. I understand this story was repeated all over this part of town.





Between my polling station at Sleep EZ and my work 5 blocks away were two other polling stations -- one in the alley behind the Sumi Ink Club studio and another 2 blocks further down and across the street in the Salvation Army hospice and women's shelter.









My neighborhood is traditionally a Hispanic neighborhood although it has become rather hipster infested and the houses on my side of Sunset are not cheap. Census data has it 62.5% Latino, median income $28,651, 28% below the poverty line. Unemployment is at 7% (that would probably be the hipster musicians).





Barack Obama has not been polling well with Latinos, which is why Hillary won by the margins she did here in So Cali. Nevertheless, Echo Park seems very much like an Obama neighborhood. There are Latinos for Obama posters everywhere. I stopped to take a shot of the Hope poster on the electrical box outside the Lavanderia, and the burly Mexican guy who runs it came out and told me that it was better from the other side where the door handle didn't chop off the "H" in hope. All four sides of the box had the Obama poster; he'd proudly festooned his corner of Sunset and Coronado.



The guy at the fish taco joint with the Latinos for Obama poster behind the register wouldn't take my money when I tried to pay for my tacos because I was wearing my Obama button and told him I was photographing all the Obama stuff I could find in the neighborhood that day.

The only Hillary sign I spotted was a xerox flyer on a lamppost outside the liquor store reminding us that she'd voted for the war. The next lamppost down, next to the Escrow sign, reminded us that Obama didn't.





Here are a couple of important stats: about 71% of Obama voters indicate they'd be happy to vote for Clinton, and vice versa. And Obama and Clinton each won about 5 million votes yesterday. John McCain, who basically swept the Republican primaries, won about 3 million votes. The Democrats are voting in record numbers this year. That is a great thing.

The fact that Hillary polls so much better with Latinos than Obama is a bit disturbing if you are an Obama supporter because McCain also polls well with Latinos (he wants to recruit more for his proposed 100 year war in Iraq). But Obama handily won a number of traditionally red states yesterday, states that used to be democrat in the pre Reagan days, and the Democrats need those states to win a general election. Obama also does really well with independants, as does McCain, and Hillary does not. The independent voters have decided the last few elections, and they've picked Bush.

Whether it's Barack or Hillary, the next administration is going to have a lot of cleaning up to do.