estevan: yeah, the ones that you want to see your car, you know? anthony: it s a slow-moving piece of art. and you treat the car like a piece of art, acutely aware of the dangers cops, for whom you are a target, potholes, other cars. in east l.a., you see people ooh and ah. you see expressions change from, who the is that? to, nice ride. estevan: that was, like, a full-fledged gang member. anthony: yeah. estevan: you know, giving us, like, props, giving us respect, you know? first you build a car for yourself. but at the same time you re building it for the streets, you know? you re building it for the people. you want them to appreciate it. anthony: within the borders of koreatown, it s not just koreans. there are new arrivals every day. there is, in fact, an official little bangladesh right in the middle of k-town.
[ sigh ] it s bring your own phone, not pony. so i could ve taken the bus? yeah. bring your phone. switch your carrier. save hundreds a year with xfinity mobile. call, click or visit a store today. anthony: something dave cho and roy choi have in common is that, they may be korean-american, but they are also very much creatures of l.a. and what is l.a.? l.a. is mexican, central american, filipino, vietnamese, thai, samoan, bangladeshi. everybody who s left their mark continues to shape the town, determine its character. k-town exists right upside its latino neighbors, and i guess it s natural that both cho and choi identify very much with
found something good in this beautiful world i felt the rain getting colder sha, la, la, la, la, la, sha, la, la, la, la, la, sha, la, la, la, la, la, sha, la, la, la, la, roy choi: all i knew was that this town was going down, and no one was showing up. and so we, as koreans, figured that out really quickly. there s a point where you and i look at each other and say anthony: they re not coming. roy choi: they re not coming, anthony. you know? like, it s you and me. anthony: right, the choppers will not be here anytime soon. roy choi: yeah, i mean, so that s when all the stuff started to go down. anthony: roy choi is a second-generation korean american. he lives in los angeles. he s the owner/operator of four
groundbreaking and much loved food trucks, among the first to harness the strange and terrible powers of social media to alert customers to where to find delicious food. roy choi: this was the command post. from here, you know, you could look, and you could see if fires were going on. anthony: when the los angeles riots happened in 1992, roy was 22 years old. and this plaza s rooftop played a central role for koreans defending their town. but let s back up a bit. after the immigration act of 1965, thousands of koreans began arriving in l.a. the first to arrive were mostly middle-class, college-educated, hoping to make a lateral move into american society. but unless you had a medical or engineering degree, that turned out to be tough. they found work as merchants, store owners, opened liquor stores, groceries, massage studios, dry cleaners. they did that in an area that was, as it s called, underserved.
was no response. anthony: did cops come at all? roy choi: i was here all three days. i didn t see any cops. anthony: well, where did they set up their front line? roy choi: rodeo drive. anthony: where did the forces of law and order set up their perimeter? not here. koreatown was left to its own devices. the official borders are third street on the north end, olympic boulevard to the south, vermont avenue on the east, and western avenue to the west. that s three square miles left pretty much to burn or fend for itself. this rooftop quickly became the command post for rapidly improvised korean defense forces. they armed themselves, set up crude but effective command and control communication, and patrols. roy choi: we weren t going around just slugging and, and capping people. all that was happening was, just don t break down my store. making sure our parents, our uncles, our families, these stores, this town, stays alive.