Santa Monica, the place where Gunnar and his family resided at the start of the novel, was known as a predominantly white neighborhood. It was a community that fell over to gentrification, especially in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Santa Monica was a place for leisure as a home to a number of retail, dining and entertainment venues and a large beach, where Gunnar spent a lot of time with friends. It is a large tourist location, boasting its fun and sunny location.[2]
Hillside, known in the novel as the ghetto, was where a majority of African-American, Latino and Asian populations lived. The community is well known for all the wrong reasons. Their criminal gangs, high crime rate and lower-class economic bracket lend themselves to the bad reputation Hillside has. Gunnar's mother moves the Kaufman family to Hillside after her children claim that they are not like other black kids. They pack up their bags and immediately move to get a more black experience, as the mother believes.
