City, Los Angeles County
© McCormack's Guides
Zip Codes: 90001-90068, 90070-90096, 90101-90103, 90189
Diverse and changing city, housing for rich, poor and middle class. Population 4,045,873. Median age of residents is 32. Under 18 years, 27 percent. Over 55 years, 17 percent. Rounded demographics. www.mccormacks.com
Click for regional or detailed map
School scores high in some neighborhoods and low in others. Many children transfer out of their neighborhood schools. Crime low, high or middling, depending on location. Fewer homicides in recent years.
For ease of understanding, Los Angeles should be split into two regions: the Basin and the San Fernando Valley, also known as the Valley. The two are divided by the Santa Monica Mountains. See maps. The Basin covers the south, the Valley the north.
Some cities have neighborhoods or districts; Los Angeles has “towns.” Some guides will call them “villages.” When some event or crime happens, rarely will reporters say ... “In Los Angeles today ....” Rather they will say, “In Hollywood (or Silver Lake or Van Nuys or Northridge)....” All are towns of the City of Los Angeles and are broken out as profiles by McCormack's Guides. Search under name.
Basin towns include San Pedro, Wilmington, Watts, South Central L.A. (also called South L.A.), Southeast L.A., Hollywood, Hancock Park, Venice, Mar Vista, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Bel Air Estates, the downtown, Boyle Heights, Crenshaw, Leimert Park, Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Los Feliz.
The Valley towns include North Hollywood, Studio City, Northridge, Encino, Sherman Oaks, Toluca Lake, Van Nuys, Reseda, Woodland Hills, West Hills, Chatsworth, Porter Ranch, Granada Hills, Sylmar, Pacoima, Sunland-Tujunga, Sun Valley and Panorama City. www.mccormacks.com
In its formative years, the City of L.A. got control of the water and told outlying towns that if they wanted any, they would have to join the City of L.A. Much grumbling but they did. The grumbling remains. L.A. and its towns are forever arguing about how power should be divided and in 2002 a vote was held to split off the San Fernando Valley into a new city. It failed.
Like other cities in the county, Los Angeles about World War II started to boom in residential construction. The 2000 census counted 1.3 million housing units in Los Angeles. Of these, 17 percent were built before World War II, 34 percent between 1940 and 1960 and 18 percent in the 1960s.
To say this a different way, about seven of every ten housing units in Los Angeles predate 1970 — a lot of old and fairly old suburbia. In these eras, among single homes, the two- and three-bedroom models were the most popular.
In apartment complexes, two- and three-story buildings were favored. Los Angeles has its high-rise residential but very little as dense as, say, what's found in Manhattan. In housing styles, it is very much a suburban metropolis.
In the 1980s, housing starts fell sharply, from 201,000 in the 1970s to 148,000. In the 1990s, they fell again, to 82,000. Los Angeles now, especially in the downtown and near some subway stations, is replacing the old or filling in empty lots with high-rise condos and apartments often mixed with retail stores. www.mccormacks.com
Los Angeles has opulent housing — Bel Air, Brentwood, Hancock Park — and it has old and small housing, Watts, South Central.
The great majority of the housing was built for the middle class, and the favored models were the two- and three-bedroom homes. Neighborhood quality is often defined by quality of care and by age of house. A tract built in the 1970s may have homes slightly larger than a tract built in the 1960s. This doesn't sound like much but if you drive the neighborhoods the differences show themselves clearly.
Many neighborhoods present the same “look” because the housing came within a short time and the developer limited the models.
In some neighborhoods, however, the home construction was spread over several decades and developers and the designs were many, not few. And the market shifted while the housing went up. In one decade singles homes might have been in high demand, in the next, condos.
Hollywood is loaded with two-and three-story apartment buildings, many of them showing their age. On its south side, Hollywood is bordered by Hancock Park, one the most opulent neighborhoods in the county; on its north by the Hollywood Hills, middle-class plus to affluent single homes. www.mccormacks.com
Where there are steep hills — north of the downtown — and great views, the housing will often be striking and upscale. At the bottom of the hill or nearby, the homes will sometimes run to low- and middle-income tract.
The state in 2008 counted 1,399,309 housing units: 530,708 single homes, 88,450 single attached, 771,063 multiples, 9,088 mobiles.
For public education, Los Angeles children attend the Los Angeles Unified School District, second largest in the nation, about 726,000 pupils. Since 1997, the district has passed four construction-renovation bonds totaling almost $14 billion, a large amount that speaks well for public support of education. The state has also put up building and renovation money.
On the down side, the pace of construction has been slow. Land is expensive in L.A. and the school district often has to secure parcels already occupied — and this takes time. Complicating matters, the lower grades are losing students and the upper grades are crowded. www.mccormacks.com
When schools are opened or closed, attendance boundaries are changed. For a variety of reasons, many parents don't like their neighborhood schools and seek transfers. See Schools.
Homicides in 2005 totaled 489, a decrease from the 2004 number of 518. The counts for previous years are 515, 654, 588, 545, 425, 426, 576, 709, 849, 845, 1,076, 1,094, 1,027, 983. Los Angeles has its own police department. For a breakout of homicides by neighborhood, see Crime.
Personal safety is a big issue in L.A. and a complicated one. Big-city rules apply: take care, be wary, install good locks and security doors, if you think them necessary. Avoid neighborhoods and situations that you think unsafe.
But don't cross off L.A. because of its reputation. If you went by security doors, which are in wide use, L.A. would appear to be the most crime-ridden city in the nation. But its overall crime rate runs suburban average. L.A. homicides slightly exceed everyday suburbia but they're lower than what's found in such cities as Chicago, Little Rock, Washington D.C. and Atlanta.
In 2007, analyzing preliminary data from the FBI, the New York Times said Los Angeles was the second safest big city in the U.S. (but in a later article it noted that L.A. had serious gang problems.) New York was the safest.
Many parts of Los Angeles are quite safe, many in range of suburban safe, a few unsafe. Besides security devices, many residents, especially in the high-income sections, subscribe to security services. One problem, long recognized: the police force needs more cops. Lacking them for decades, many people have turned to private security. In 2006, garbage fees were raised to increase the force by 1,000 cops. www.mccormacks.com
Recreational offerings plentiful. Libraries, parks, playgrounds, beaches, museums. Big-city energy, big ideas, big buildings, including recently the Getty Museum, Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral, and Disney Hall (music and performing arts). Many sections of city being renovated. Big projects on the horizon: overhauling and expanding port, building high-speed rail service to port, expanding and remodeling L.A. International Airport.
City government is run by a mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, and 15 council members, elected by district. Council members are strong in determining policy for their districts. The city has been steadily upgrading traffic lights to keep things moving.
Villaraigosa wants the city to take over the school district. Not going to happen but 2006 legislation, if it survives a legal challenge, gives the mayor more influence in school district affairs.
Chamber of commerce: (213) 580-7500.
• Frequent sight in L.A. neighborhoods: Hollywood shooting movie or television scenes or commercials.
For orientation on cities, towns and neighborhoods of Los Angeles County, see County Overview.
City web site: www.ci.la.ca.us
