On Wednesday, June 11, I attended a not-for-profit board meeting downtown in a building on Alameda Street near Union. This is near where the Waymo autonomous vehicles were set on fire a few days earlier.

Normally, it takes me about an hour and 15 minutes to drive there, but on that morning, traffic was light and I made the journey in only 45 minutes. I took the Pasadena Freeway, getting off on Hill Street in Chinatown. The place was deserted. As I made my way to Alameda Street it was clear that, although there was a high police presence, it was not a high-profile presence. It was similar to the traffic cop who hides in the bushes waiting to catch speeders — you can’t see him, but you know he is there.

Alameda Street is commonly clogged with homeless people living in tents. There were none. There were some pedestrians walking about, but for the most part it was like a normal day with fewer people. What was conspicuous was the police helicopter hovering overhead at a low altitude. The other thing that amazed me was the sheer amounts of graffiti everywhere. Everything that........

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