I’ve always loved the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles. It sits below Exposition Blvd. with Crenshaw to the west and Western to the east. Like most old neighborhoods in Los Angeles, it’s been through lots of changes over the years. Leimert Park is predominantly an African American neighborhood — although that too is changing, with gentrification looming. It’s filled with modest single family homes, wide streets. It’s tidy.
I was always kind of curious about the amount of topiary in Leimert Park. I’d asked around a lot why so many of the houses had such ornately trimmed shrubbery, but never really got an answer. I wanted to know why Black people were so into the art form. I could’ve googled, but I’m lazy. I finally asked the right person who told me that at one point the area was home to the largest concentration of Japanese Americans in the continental United States. Apparently a local Japanese realtor set up shop there in 1947, one year before the landmark Shelley v. Kraemer ruled state enforcement of racial covenants unlawful. Leimert Park became a safe place for Japanese families to settle down. All these years later, there might be a few Japanese folks still in the neighborhood, but mostly it’s just the topiary that serves as a reminder of their presence in historic Leimert Park.