Neighborhoods, City of Los Angeles
© McCormack's Guides
Zip Codes: 90013, 90014, 90015, 90017, 90021, 90029
Heart of the City. Turning into a desirable address, thanks to a short commute, revived and new businesses, and the construction of two striking buildings — the Disney Concert Hall and Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Cathedral — and apartments and condos. www.mccormacks.com
Another major force, under construction in 2006, L.A. Live — condos, hotel, movie complex, night clubs, concert theaters, more.
Westlake is the neighborhood to immediate west of downtown. It includes MacArthur Park, backdrop to many movies. Census 2000 put the population at 106,710.
Boyle Heights, population 86,735, is located just east of the downtown and blends into the unincorporated neighborhood of East Los Angeles.
North downtown, population 24,071, includes a Chinatown. Many Chinese restaurants and stores. A few guidebooks will break out a “Little Tokyo,” a few blocks south and east of the civic center.
Some neighborhoods in L.A. start out as the first home for a particular group, win a name designation and then many residents and their descendants move on, leaving behind some compatriots, the neighborhood tag and a focal point for celebrations, restaurants, cultural centers. www.mccormacks.com
Downtown L.A. frequently gets slighted because many argue that L.A. is so big, so sprawling, so diverse that it really doesn't have a downtown, a place that all recognize as the heart of the metropolis.
There is some truth to this because the county has at least seven major job centers and much of what is celebrated and talked about originates in the entertainment towns, particularly Beverly Hills, Hollywood-West L.A., and Burbank, where the stars live or the studios are located.
Also for several decades the downtown saw many of its department stores close as middle class residents moved away and were replaced by poor immigrants (the downtown has always had its low-income neighborhoods, especially on the east side).
But any visitor to the downtown will immediately comprehend that this is the economic center of the county. No other community comes remotely close in number of skyscrapers and major buildings.
As for the middle-class flight, the downtown is close to many middle class and affluent neighborhoods. www.mccormacks.com
Beverly Hills is located about 12 miles west of downtown L.A. Also within or close to 12 miles are Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena and South Pasadena, all affluent or fairly affluent towns.
Hancock Park, rich, and the Hollywood Hills, affluent, are within 10 miles and so are several middle class neighborhoods or cities — Silver Lake, Alhambra, Monterey Park.
Within 2 to 5 miles of the downtown are large educational institutions that elevate property values. These include the University of Southern California, Los Angeles State University and Los Angeles Community College. Their neighborhoods house thousands of college students.
So it's not like the rich and the middle class abandoned the downtown. Rather, they are sitting right on the downtown borders or close to them.
The news is that the middle class and affluent are moving back to the downtown in greater numbers. Why? www.mccormacks.com
• The downtown for decades has had first-class cultural attractions, including the main library, the symphony halls, the theaters and Olvera Street, the old Spanish village. Chavez Ravine, where the Dodgers play, is a few miles north west of the downtown.
• Many downtown jobs are in government — courts, cops, city, county, state and national offices — and keep on chugging along, no matter what the state of the economy.
• In the 1980s and 1990s, the downtown, piece by piece, did a good deal of overhauling that included the construction of sports arena (Lakers and Clippers, basketball) and hockey Kings) and a convention center.
And the downtown won the backing of the Catholic Church and the business and arts leaders to build a cathedral and Disney Concert Hall, an edifice so remarkable that it has become a symbol of the new downtown and in some minds the whole city. Frank Gehry was the architect.
• In the 1990s, the impossible came to pass: Los Angeles, a fool for cars, opened a subway that connected the downtown with Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. If you live in the downtown, you can work in the downtown but if you work in Burbank or the San Fernando Valley, where many of the media studios are located, you now reach these jobs without suffering along the congested freeways. www.mccormacks.com
• If the rest of California is any indication, downtowns were overdue for a revival. Many studies show that commute times are getting longer, that the distant suburbs, no matter how low their prices, are exacting a heavy penalty in time and energy. More people are coming to appreciate the great benefit of a short commute.
By and by, housing projects that were languishing on drawing boards moved to pick and shovel and thousands of condos and apartments were built in and near the downtown.
This brought in more restaurants, movies and clubs and made the place even more popular with young professionals. The construction continues and includes more commercial, including media studios, another incentive to live in or near the downtown.
The result: a more diverse neighborhood, middle-class and rich and toward the east and south side, poor and low income.
For crime, big-city rules apply. Take care. The new condo complexes employ guards and security devices (cameras, special locks, etc.) See Crime and city profile on Los Angeles.
Served by L.A. Unified School District. Sample rankings: Ann Street Elementary and Berendo Middle, 10th-20th percentile; Roosevelt High, 20th-30th percentile. See Schools.
Two schools are under construction and may open by 2008. www.mccormacks.com
Buses travel all around these neighborhoods. Served by three freeways and many arterial streets. Also served by light rail and subway, commute train and Amtrak. See Commute.
Regarding Westlake and Boyle Heights, many apartment buildings and single homes. These neighborhoods were developed mostly before World War II and historically have served as transition housing to people moving into the middle class.
Chamber of commerce: (213) 580-7500.
• Frank Gehry is returning to the downtown with designs for two towers, 47 stories and 24 stories, near the Disney Concert Hall. The buildings are part of a project that will ultimately include eight office and condo towers.
• Although Disney Concert Hall stands as a separate building, it is grouped under what is called the Los Angeles Music Center. The center also includes, at different locations in the downtown, the Ahmanson Theater, the Mark Taper Forum and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. These buildings and the Disney Center are the “homes” of the region's major art companies — music, theater, opera and chorale. They also host the Broadway shows and dance companies and sponsor talks and other activities. And they draw frequently from the “Hollywood” talents: playwrights, actors and actresses, conductors, musicians, etc.
• The University of Southern California (USC) and the downtown, the L.A. Times opines, are dancing toward each other because each has what the other wants. www.mccormacks.com
USC sees the downtown supplying housing, shops, activities and a night life for its students. The downtown sees many of its visitors heading for USC to take in the sports and the cultural offerings.
In 2006, the university, on its downtown side, opened the Galen Center, a basketball-volleyball-sports arena that seats 10,258.
The downtown, on its south side (toward USC), plans to build more high-rise housing.
And it’s building L.A. Live, near the Staples Center and the convention center.
L.A. Live, which covers six blocks, is aimed at visitors and convention attendees but it will attract, its backers believe, the college students. www.mccormacks.com
For orientation on cities, towns and neighborhoods of Los Angeles County, see County Overview.
