List of districts and neighborhoods of Los Angeles
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Image:DowntownLosAngeles.jpg This is a list of districts and neighborhoods of the City of Los Angeles
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[edit] Overview
Los Angeles neighborhoods display a degree of diversity well befitting the second-largest city in the United States. Much of this is an artifact of the city's history of growth by annexation and horizontal development, which allowed distinct environments to arise in many areas; indeed, many Los Angeles neighborhoods, such as Venice, Hancock Park and Boyle Heights are fairly close-knit, culturally distinctive communities.
Many communities do not have defined or commonly accepted boundaries. Yet there is a broad consensus that they belong in particular larger district-wide groupings.
The city is oddly shaped--surrounded and punctured by unincorporated areas, other cities and state parklands. The city began in downtown, in what had first been a Tongva village named Yang-na located in what is now the Los Angeles State Historic Park near Chinatown. It later became a Spanish pueblo and eventually grew to a metropolis based on manufacturing, aerospace, and entertainment industries. The city, and indeed the county, radiated outward from downtown, and geographic names referencing cardinal points or relative directions tend to be determined by their relationship to downtown rather than directions proper. For example, East L.A. is not all of the city east of West L.A., but rather the portion of the city east of downtown (and the Los Angeles river in its proximity).
The origins of L.A. neighborhoods are varied. Playa Vista, for example, is the city's newest manufactured neighborhood, conceived and birthed by developers. Chinatown is an ethnic-based community with an identity defined by the ancestry of its residence. San Pedro was once an independent city annexed by Los Angeles to access its harbor and ports.
The City of Los Angeles is divided between several area codes. Downtown is area code 213, the areas of Hollywood and Mid-Wilshire fall within area code 323, Western Los Angeles is area code 310 and the Valley is area code 818.
[edit] Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown proper contains the Civic Center, a central business district, multiple large industrial districts, and some, but by no means all (or even a majority), of the city's cultural institutions. Downtown is the smallest of the city's regions.
- Artist District
- Bunker Hill
- Chinatown
- Civic Center
- Fashion District
- Financial District
- Furniture and Decorative Arts District
- Gallery Row
- Historic Core
- Jewelry District
- Little Tokyo
- Skid Row
- South Park
- Old Bank District
- Toy District
- Wholesale District
[edit] East and Northeast Los Angeles
To the east and northeast of Downtown LA and the Los Angeles River is Eastern Los Angeles, which is not very large in terms of the city proper, but quite large when including adjacent independent cities like Montebello or East Los Angeles, California. The entire region houses a significant Latino community, although this varies by neighborhood.
East of downtown lie mostly working class majority Latino neighborhoods, an example being Boyle Heights. North and northeast of downtown are a mix of similar neighborhoods but also genteel, older neighborhoods that abut Glendale and Pasadena. The major neighborhoods of this area include Atwater Village, Glassell Park, Mt. Washington and Eagle Rock. The communities of northeast Los Angeles sit on higher ground than the rest of the region and are characterized by a mix of middle and working class neighborhoods as well as rapidly gentrifying ones.
- See also: East Los Angeles, California (Unincorporated area)
- Aliso Village
- Atwater Village
- Arroyo Seco
- Cypress Park
- Boyle Heights
- Eagle Rock
- El Sereno
- Garvanza
- Glassell Park
- Hermon
- Highland Park
- Hillside Village
- Lincoln Heights
- Montecito Heights
- Monterey Hills
- Mt. Washington
- University Hills
[edit] Echo Park & Westlake
Immediately west of Downtown is a collection of some of the city's first suburbs. Angelino Heights and Echo Park were the locations of some of the first film studios west of the Mississippi. Now mostly populated by Latino immigrants and some bohemians, they still possess distinctive architecture from the early 20th century when they were the most desirable neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Of these, the restored Victorian homes in Angelino Heights are an excellent example.
[edit] Greater Hollywood
Formerly a religious colony then an independent city, Hollywood was annexed by Los Angeles in 1910. Its name is synonymous with the motion picture industry, yet, much of movie production has moved out to neighboring cities. Tourists flock around Hollywood Boulevard and gaze up to the mountains to see the Hollywood sign. The last decade has brought in new life to the once-struggling parts of the Hollywood district with various developments taking advantage of the subway stations built within the past decade. The wealth of the neighborhoods here are strongly influenced by elevation with some of the wealthiest tracts in the country are up in the Hollywood Hills and gradually lessen to pockets of large working-class and transient populations further southeast. Image:Hollywood sign2.jpg
- See also: West Hollywood and Universal City, California
- Hollywood
- Beachwood Canyon (also called BeHo, Below the Hollywood Sign)
- Cahuenga Pass
- Hollywood Hills
- East Hollywood
- Outpost Estates
- Spaulding Square
- Melrose District
- Melrose Hill
- Sierra Vista
- Yucca Corridor
[edit] Harbor Area
Following the Harbor Gateway south to the port leads to the Harbor area, a enclave of L.A. surrounded by independent cities and annexed so the city would have full right-of-way to the port. The leading neighborhood of the harbor area is San Pedro. Image:118.29561W 33.73203N.png
- Harbor City
- Harbor Pines
- Harbor Gateway
- San Pedro
- Palisades
- Point Fermin
- South Shores
- Vista del Oro
- The Gardens
- Rolling Hills Highlands
- Vinegar Hill
- Terminal Island
- Wilmington
[edit] Los Feliz & Silver Lake
Image:Griffith Observatory south elevation 2006.jpg Nestled between Hollywood and the Los Angeles River are a group of the city's older residential neighborhoods that house Griffith and Elysian Parks, the city's largest public parks.
Similar to most of the city, communities in this area are significantly wealthier closer to the hills. In this fashion, Los Feliz retained its expensive reputation while other districts further south and closer to Westlake were plagued by gang wars or crime. In the last decade, the area particularly around the Silver Lake Reservoir has become closely associated with gentrification, a process which has pushed working class families out due to high housing costs. This is also the location of Chavez Ravine, a focal point of local history where the Latino neighborhood was demolished to make way for the Dodger Stadium in the 1950s.
[edit] South Los Angeles
Image:Jefferson Park South.jpg Image:Highsmithwattstowers.jpg South Los Angeles, formerly called South-Central, includes most of the city directly south of downtown, the I-10, and Wilshire, but not those areas as far south as the Harbor Gateway, Harbor Area or the Port of Los Angeles. Most noted for its modern legacy of crime, and urban decay, South Los Angeles still harbors struggling areas. An example of this is Watts. More genteel communities are situated near USC in West Adams/University Park, as well as in the westernmost part of the region in districts like Crenshaw and Leimert Park.
- See also: View Park-Windsor Hills
- Athens on the Hill
- Baldwin Hills
- Canterbury Knolls
- Chesterfield Square
- Crenshaw
- Exposition Park
- Gramercy Park
- Hyde Park
- Jefferson Park
- King Estates
- Leimert Park
- Manchester Square
- Morningside Park
- View Heights[1]
- Vermont Knolls
- Vermont Park
- Vermont Square
- Watts
- West Adams
- West Alameda
[edit] The Valley
The largest region of the city is "the Valley", which traditionally implies the San Fernando Valley but also includes portions of the Crescenta Valley. It is mainly suburban, and houses a wide-range of socioeconomic groups. About forty percent of the city's area and population are located in the Valley. Mulholland Drive in the Santa Monica Mountains forms its southern boundary. It has gone through periodic clashes with the rest of the city over policy, culminating in a failed effort to become an independent city in 2002.
- See also: Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Burbank, Glendale, and San Fernando
- Arleta
- Balboa Park
- Canoga Park
- Chatsworth
- Encino
- Granada Hills
- Hansen Hills
- Knollwood
- Lake View Terrace
- Lake Balboa
- La Tuna Canyon
- Mission Hills
- North Hills
- North Hollywood
- Northridge
- Olive View
- Pacoima
- Panorama City
- Porter Ranch
- Reseda
- Sepulveda
- Shadow Hills
- Sherman Oaks
- Studio City
- Sun Valley
- Sunland
- Sylmar
- Tarzana
- Toluca Lake
- Toluca Woods
- Tujunga
- Valley Glen[3]
- Valley Village
- Van Nuys
- Ventura Business District
- Warner Center
- West Hills
- West Toluca
- Winnetka
- Woodland Hills
[edit] Western Los Angeles
Image:Santa Monica Palm Trees.jpg Image:Getty Villa.jpg Western Los Angeles is the part of the city encircled by Beverly Hills and Wilshire on the east, and Santa Monica and the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Santa Monica Mountains on the north, and Culver City and El Segundo on the south.
While the area is inhabited by a wide range of socioeconomic groups, it undoubtedly houses the largest concentration of wealth in the city. Attracted by its rolling hills on the north end, and close proximity to the ocean, early developers succeeded in establishing some of the most upscale residential districts in the city and the county. Pre-eminent among these are Bel-Air and Pacific Palisades. Yet further south, pockets of working class areas remain in those areas closest to former industrial areas like those near South LA and Culver City.
- See also: Beverly Hills, Culver City, Santa Monica, and Malibu, California
- See also: Ladera Heights, Marina Del Rey, and Topanga Canyon
Image:CenturyCity 2006 02 19.jpg Image:20050412venice06pano.jpg
- Bel-Air
- Beverly Crest
- Beverlywood
- Brentwood
- Century City
- Cheviot Hills
- Crestview
- Del Rey
- Mar Vista
- Pacific Palisades
- Palms
- Playa del Rey
- Playa Vista
- Rancho Park
- South Robertson
- Venice
- Westchester
- West Los Angeles
- Westwood
[edit] Wilshire
The Wilshire area is north of the I-10, east of Beverly Hills, west of Downtown LA and south of Hollywood.
It is a collection of wealthy, middle, and working class neighborhoods that cluster around Wilshire Boulevard. Unlike other parts of Los Angeles the wealthier neighborhoods are set not in the hills, but rather on leveled land north of Wilshire Boulevard, east of Beverly Hills such as Larchmont, and Hancock Park. On the lower end, Koreatown is an example of a somewhat struggling neighborhood undergoing a revival.
- Carthay
- Carthay Circle
- Carthay Square
- South Carthay
- Little Ethiopia
- Fairfax District
- Olympic Park
- West Pico
- Picfair Village
- Pico Del Mar
- Pico Park
- Wilshire Highlands
- Wilshire Vista
Image:Highsmithmaycompanywilshire.jpg
- Arlington Heights
- Country Club Park
- Greater Hancock Park
- Brookside Park (or just Brookside)[7]
- Fremont Place
- Hancock Park
- Larchmont
- Larchmont Village
- Windsor Square
- La Brea-Hancock
- Ridgewood-Wilton
- St. Andrews Square
- Wilshire Park
- Longwood Highlands
- Park Mile
- Windsor Village
- Harvard Heights
- Lafayette Square
- Wellington Square
- Miracle Mile
- Miracle Mile North
- Miracle Mile South
- Park La Brea
- Wilshire Center
[edit] City Map & Data
- Map - Individual Communities within the City of Los Angeles (Detailed View)
- Southern California Association of Governments analysis of 2006 census data
[edit] Other areas in Los Angeles County
- Other cities in L.A. County
- Other areas of L.A. County, which are census-recognized but unincorporated
