In Kamala Harris' L.A. neighborhood, low-key quiet and cautious optimism

In Kamala Harris’ L.A. neighborhood, low-key quiet and cautious optimism

Lawn signs line the street in Brentwood where Vice President Kamala Harris has a home.

Staff Writer

Nov. 5, 2024 4:30 PM PT

Brentwood residents described their cautious optimism about Kamala Harris’ chances of a victory Tuesday.
Kamala Harris’ Los Angeles neighborhood was a picture of midday quietude on election day.

It was Tuesday afternoon, just a few hours before polls were to begin closing on the East Coast, and Kamala Harris’ L.A. neighborhood was a picture of midday quietude. A woman walked her dog, a doodle that knew how to heel. Workers at a construction site perched on a wooden beam and ate lunches they’d retrieved from a food truck. No one seemed to notice Harris’ house.

The scene gave little sense that this Brentwood neighborhood could soon be the site of Harris’ Western White House. The vice president, who shares the residence with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, comes here with some regularity, prompting the Secret Service to divert traffic, restrict parking and take other precautions designed to keep her safe. Some neighbors previously told The Times that they were frustrated by the attention and security that come with having Harris in their midst.

On this day, however, residents in the neighborhood, a reliably Democratic enclave, described their cautious optimism about the vice president’s chances of a victory Tuesday — even as a few wrung their hands over possible traffic headaches that would be visited on their neighborhood should Harris return here as president.

“If having her in the White House for four years means inconvenience for me, I’d happily do it,” said a sandal-wearing neighbor walking his dog. He and the others in this story did not want to be named, citing privacy concerns.

There appeared to be fewer yard signs for Harris on display than there were during The Times’ last visit to the north-of-Sunset-Boulevard neighborhood in late September, when the candidate was in town. But there were several new signs urging motorists to “Respect our neighbors & park legally.”

As previously reported, near Harris’ Kenter Canyon home, an edgy lawn sign graces the front yard of a nearly 8,200-square-foot house. “Everybody sucks / 2024,” it reads. A woman who answered the door there said the homeowner was unavailable.

A lunch truck parked just up the street from Harris’ property was finishing up its daily visit to the street around 1:15 p.m. The proprietor of Maria’s Express said that she had voted for the vice president and predicted the candidate’s victory: “Everybody voted for her — my customers and the neighbors.”

The truck, which serves Mexican food, was parked across from a two-story home under construction, where the clang of hammers and thwack of nail guns sent echoes through the canyon. Overhead, beyond a tangle of power lines, a long-winged bird made lazy circles in the sky. And around the corner, a man was quietly gardening in his front yard.

An out-of-state transplant, the resident said he hadn’t voted and wasn’t sure he would do so. But he said he wouldn’t mind if Harris were elected president, in spite of any traffic increases that might bring to the neighborhood.

“The part about being five or six houses from the president would be cool — just that little bit of connection,” he said.