NO PLACE LIKE L.A. IS OUR SERIES THAT ASKS L.A. TRANSPLANTS AND IMMIGRANTS: "WHEN WAS THE MOMENT YOU FELT THAT LOS ANGELES WAS TRULY HOME?"
THIS IS THE STORY OF Michelle Kemmer in Woodland Hills WHO'S ORIGINALLY FROM Minnesota.
I moved [here] in 1987 to go to school, but the primary reason was to escape winter and just kind of going along like you do when you're young – trying to figure out what you're doing with your life.
But then in 1992, the L.A. riots happened.
I had been at work. I knew there was something going on.
But I didn't really quite know. I was poor at the time, so I just had a teeny television that was barely black-and-white. It was mostly static, kind of trying to watch this to figure out what was going on.
I thought, you know, I'm going to drive up to Mulholland. There's a nice view of the city from up there and kind of see what's going on.
There was a whole crowd of people up there just watching the city burn.
And I just felt so sad. I get choked up now even talking about it so many years later.
I grew up in Minnesota, but I never felt like home.
Los Angeles didn't really feel like home until the L.A. riots.
That was kind of when I realized that this is my city, that I was actually a part of it, a part of something, a part of a community.
What are we doing to each other?
