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Los Angeles is a city of borders, of hard-drawn boundaries. It is a city whose expanse both daunts and amazes longtime residents and first-time visitors alike.
Although one of the most photographed, discussed and eagerly glimpsed destinations, L.A. is probably one of the most misunderstood.
It's just part of why, at the twilight of summer vacation, Jan Lebow has assembled a couple dozen students and curious others in an alley behind UCLA's International Student Center on Galey Avenue.
Reading off a roll call studded with names from distant, disparate places-Israel, Spain, Iran, Japan, Thailand-Lebow then shepherds her crew away from the familiar Westwood campus. They pile into a bus painted Bruin blue and gold, and head off toward the concrete mesh of freeways.
"Our first stop," Lebow shouts over the roar of the engine, "is First A.M.E. . . . Now read your notes." She waves the red-and-green photocopied handouts above her head for illustration.
Lebow's project, Discover L.A.! is just one strategy the International Student Center uses to help acclimate students to their new environs by alleviating deeply entrenched fears, often the product of myth and misinformation.
Although glitz-and-glamour city tours abound, disgruntled Angelenos who have grown weary of over-the-top media depictions of their neighborhoods have taken to explicating the city on their own terms. Lebow and others see tours as a way to create bridges and blur borders.
As the bus pushes southward, Lebow jumps up from her seat, her body swaying in rhythm with the pitching vehicle. Without the aid of a microphone, her strong voice shades the picture.
"OK, you guys, this is Western Avenue. . . . It reflects the diversity of Los Angeles. It's a stopping-off point for newly arriving immigrants to Los Angeles. So it changes every year."
"Is this the heart?" asks one student taking in the stretch of beauty shops, storefront churches and boarded-up facades.
But before Lebow can answer, the bus takes the curve of Harvard Boulevard. The street opens up onto sprays of flowers, strips of green, rambling California Craftsman homes, trees, birds-no danger, no nightmare.
What they will learn by tour's end, Lebow hopes, is that what people call "South-Central" is made up of many hearts, many essential organs, all interconnected and alive.