I grew up near the Paseo Arts District, with my middle school, Harding, being only a hop, a skip, and for the most part, a jump away on Shartel.
Living in that somewhat rundown part of town, the greater Paseo area was a real dramatic horrorshow that most parents turned a blind eye to; for example, one day, my class saw a guy on a motorcycle rob somebody only to be struck by a car in the opposite lane.
As you can imagine, the gory scene played out with dumb witnesses and dumber cops.