The neighborhoods of Los Angeles and Manhattan’s in the lives of Coates and Rose’s experience closely compare. Both of their childhoods revolved around avoiding violence on the street. Gang violence, prostitution, and murder. They had to memorize what routes to take and which streets to avoid to stay safe. Once they each had kids, their goal was to make their kids life better than theirs was. Rose’s moved his family to Los Angeles, California in high hopes that his son will have a better life and can make something for himself. Instead their life encountered bankruptcy and poverty. Each family lived in poor housing on dangerous sides of the city with many different ethnic groups, in coates’s situation there were many african americans and in Rose’s city the population consisted of Italian citizens, however there were many other ethnic groups that surrounded each city. One big connection between the two articles is the idea of the american dream. Each article has a thought about how they imagine their life should be. Coates uses the comparison of memorial day cookout and strawberry shortcake and Rose’s uses cinderella as a comparison. He thinks that his life will be like Cinderella’s night at the ball when it’s the opposite of what his life actually is.