Suburbia

Suburbia, also known as Rebel Streets and The Wild Side, is a 1984 film written and directed by Penelope Spheeris about suburban punks who run away from home. The kids take up a punk lifestyle by squatting in abandoned suburban tract homes. The punks are played by Chris Pedersen, Bill Coyne, Timothy O'Brien and Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea, amongst others. Director Penelope Spheeris recruited street kids and punk rock musicians to play each role, rather than hire young actors to portray punk rockers. Suburbia was filmed in and around the cities of Downey and Norwalk in California. The abandoned housing tract was a former neighbourhood which was placed-along the west-side of I-605, around the Alondra Bl offramp; Firestone Bl CA 42 was to its north, with Alondra Bl to its south. The entire area was Eminent Domain starting in the late 1960s / early 1970s, wherein it sat mostly-vacant until its demolition in c.1990; some houses still had inhabitants up until c.1980. This was a gang-infested area; many abandoned houses were "drug houses", or, just as in the film, "crash houses". I-105 now occupies most of the property, and has since the early '90s.