City and Communities of Los Angeles County
© McCormack's Guides
Zip Codes: 90209, 90210, 90211, 90212, 90213
Prestige city and communities. Famous for their wealth and their inhabitants, movie stars and producers, civic leaders and one president, Ronald Reagan, who lived in Bel Air. www.mccormacks.com
Beverly Hills and Bel Air/Beverly Crest illustrate, in an easily understood way, some of the complexities of housing choices and community life in Los Angeles County.
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Beverly Hills is a city, population 36,224. It has its own police force, planning department, code enforcement, and other municipal services.
Bel Air and Beverly Crest, census population 20,254, border Beverly Hills on its northwest side. Both are neighborhoods of the City of Los Angeles, population 3.9 million. Los Angeles also has its own police department and code enforcers and municipal services.
Beverly Hills can bring focus to its municipal projects. It has about a dozen parks and a thriving retail commercial section with many hotels. All pump tax revenues into city coffers. If Beverly Hills wants to hire more cops, it looks to its budget, which is concerned only with Beverly Hills.
Bel Air and Beverly Crest have one park. Both communities have few stores but any taxes raised must first be routed through Los Angeles city hall where other city neighborhoods compete for often meager resources. Both neighborhoods are patrolled by Los Angeles cops but this force is understaffed and often has to pay more attention to high-crime areas. www.mccormacks.com
The same with the schools. Beverly Hills also has its own school district, enrollment 5,200.
Beverly Hills district is concerned just with the affairs of its students and personnel and its six schools, including one high school. In 1994, the school district passed a bond to raise $77 million to renovate schools. In 2002, it passed another renovation bond, $90 million. Parents chip in for school programs. All of Beverly Hills regular schools score generally in the 80th and 90th percentile, with the high school scoring often in the top 5 percent of the state. This allows the district to allocate more of its resources toward demanding academics.
Both Bel-Air and Beverly Crest are part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, enrollment 727,000.
The Los Angeles Unified School District has also passed bonds for a total $14 billion but this money has to be spread over hundreds of schools.
L.A. district has many high-scoring schools, several in the area of Bel Air and Beverly Crest. Roscomare Elementary scores in the high 90s; Paul Revere Middle in the 70s and 80s. www.mccormacks.com
But L.A. district has many low-scoring schools in need of remedial programs and necessarily much of the L.A. district budget goes into remedial.
L.A. school district frequently makes the news for its problems, many of which have to do with the difficulties of its tasks. Beverly Hills school district rarely makes the news and when it does, often it's a success story. See Schools.
For Bel Air and Beverly Crest, however, shed no tears. The residents have hired, in effect, a private police force. For recreation, residents have golf courses and their own tennis courts. The kids can play in Beverly Hills parks.
Several private schools have opened in and near the neighborhoods. A few are religious, usually Catholic or Jewish, but they serve as an alternative to public schools. Some parents try to transfer their children into Beverly Hills schools, which decides outside admissions by lottery and space availability.
If city hall ever tries to push something onto Bel-Air and Beverly Crest that residents don't like, they can hire lawyers and pretty much defeat anything. www.mccormacks.com
This may give you some insight why Los Angeles civic life is often more complex than people think. Parents are always pushing the school district to install programs that benefit their children. The school district responds with a variety of programs — the magnet schools, for one — to satisfy this or that group but it's impossible to satisfy all. What works for one, often doesn't work for the other. Many parents acknowledge the shortcomings of the schools and hire tutors or send their kids to private schools.
If city hall doesn't provide enough cops, people often buy private security, a thriving business in Los Angeles. Much of the recreation — dance, art, soccer, exercise classes — comes through private groups. Homeowner associations often function as mini governments, setting and enforcing codes.
Beverly Hills is celebrated for its wealth, stars and panache. In appearance, it is as good as its reputation, a lovely looking city. Homes extremely well-maintained, lawns putting-green quality, streets immaculate, a town with a lot of pride. About seven miles to Pacific. Public art, about 35 pieces, has been placed in parks and around city.
Median age of residents is 41. Under 18 years, 20 percent. Over 55 years, 29 percent. Demographic translation: Few kids. Many singles, empty nesters. More mailboxes with Social Security checks.
Founded by Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Tom Mix, Rudolph Valentino, Harold Lloyd, Will Rogers and a few others. Pressured to annex to L.A., they voted in 1923 to form their own city. At that time, Beverly Hills had about 800 homes. Fairbanks used to step out in his backyard and shoot coyotes. Pioneer developer hailed from Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. For a rich city, Beverly Hills is diverse in housing. www.mccormacks.com
The state in 2010 counted 16,241 housing units: 5,766 single homes, 236 single attached, 10,211 multiples, 28 mobiles.
Not a gated city or a city with gated neighborhoods. They didn't do gates like this when Beverly Hills was developed and became a city. But many of the hill homes have gates or are bordered by tall hedges or walls. Nonetheless, a visually accessible city. From the street, you can see or get a peek of many of the mansions of old and new Beverly Hills.
Hill homes are positioned to command views of the Basin or the Pacific. Strict controls on signs, parking.
Santa Monica Boulevard divides the town about middle. Just about all the commercial and all the apartments are found south of Santa Monica. Many of the houses and apartments below Santa Monica Boulevard predate World War II. South of the boulevard, the land flattens or slopes gently. North of the boulevard, Beverly Hills rises into hills and large homes.
Many of homes in the flatlands and hills have been remodeled or added rooms. Many use professional landscapers. Home descriptions range from the lovely to the very lovely. It is hard to find an eyesore in this town. www.mccormacks.com
The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) is located about a mile west of Beverly Hills and is a major influence in West L.A. Beverly Hills has a speakers forum; authors and accomplished people give talks, answer questions.
Three homicides in 2005, zero in 2004 and 2003, one homicide each in 2002, 2001, 2000 and 1999. Counts for previous years are 0, 1, 0, 0, 3, 1, 0. In late 2005, a commercial painter doing a local job was stabbed to death. Attack was unprovoked, police said. Suspect fled but was captured. Beverly Hills has own police. And yes, even with the police, many homes have private security. See Crime.
Library. Three large country clubs are located near the city. First-class shopping, hotels, restaurants on Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Boulevard. Farmers market. Arts festival. Summer concerts. About 12 million visitors a year. About two miles to freeway. For those working in the movie industry, a drive of five to 15 miles to many of the studios and media facilities. Beverly Hills has its own movie-media firms.
Bel Air starts at Santa Monica Boulevard and moves into the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. Beverly Crest sits above Bel Air. At the top of the mountains, which are not that high, Mulholland Drive runs along the crest.
Three main roads serve these neighborhoods: Benedict Canyon Drive, Beverly Glen Road and Bellagio-Roscomare Drive. From these ravine thoroughfares, short, often dead-end streets spin off. All three roads wind and twist up to the top where they tie into Mulholland Drive. www.mccormacks.com
As Benedict Canyon and Beverly Glen move toward Mulholland, middle-class homes, three and four bedrooms, showing much care, appear. Sometimes the modestly rich and the super rich live within shouting distance. Many of the homes are built on mesas or shelves carved into the hills or in ravines thick with brush and trees. A good deal of the land has not been developed because it is too steep.
Although the neighborhoods are a short drive to the bustle of the city, they come across almost as country retreats, hidden among the brush, the trees and shrubs and the ravines.
Bel Air is a clearly defined neighborhood with an arch entrance. Beverly Crest kind of flows into other neighborhoods. Bel Air has gorgeous mansions on giant lots. Large hedges, manicured trees. Swimming pools. Lovely gardens. Spectacular views from some homes. Prices often start at $10 million. Beverly Crest has its beauties but most of the homes are comfortable, not opulent.
Beverly Park is a gated neighborhood of 50 plus homes that are believed to be among the largest and most opulent in California. Opened about 1990, the development subdivided about 250 acres, mostly flat, into 64 lots, a few of which were combined for estates. In 2004, one home sold for $30 million. Residents include stars of film, song, sports and business. The homes supply their own recreation — pools, tennis courts, etc. Four acres were set aside for a kiddie park. Location: off San Ysidro Drive, just north of Beverly Hills. Loads of private security.
Holmby Hills, a small neighborhood that shows up in movie lore, sits between Bel Air Estates and Beverly Hills. Harvard-Westlake, a popular private school, is located in this section. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. were members of the Holmby Hills Rat Pack, an informal group dedicated to fun. www.mccormacks.com
University of Judaism. Getty museum across the freeway to west. Lots to do.
About 14 miles to downtown L.A. Interstate 405 near by. Studios and entertainment complexes are located on both sides of the mountains. Short commute for many.
Beverly Hills chamber of commerce: (310) 248-1000.
• When the average person sells a home, nothing hits the papers, except maybe the selling price. When the stars sell their homes, it's news. The L.A. Times regularly reports on who sold what and, often, the history of the house. Frequently the homes were built or owned by the stars of the past and now they passing on to the stars of today.
• Beverly Hills-Bel Air, etc. have many homes that show up in the design magazines. Interior decorators of note work their magic around the towns, to the delight of the many who savor the beauty of homes, gardens, furniture and presentation. Every November or so, the designers, backed by the city government, get together on one home, decorate it according to their tastes and invite the public in for a viewing.
• Beverly Hills High School offers 21 classes in the performing arts, a large number but understandable given the interests of the town. www.mccormacks.com
For orientation on cities, towns and neighborhoods of Los Angeles County, see County Overview.
City web site: www.beverlyhills.org
