List of districts and neighborhoods of Los Angeles

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Image:DowntownLosAngeles.jpg
Downtown Los Angeles skyline

This is a list of districts and neighborhoods of the City of Los Angeles

Contents

[edit] Overview

Image:LA in LA County map.png
Map depicting boundaries of Los Angeles city
Image:Los angeles National Atlas.jpg
Map of Los Angeles in 1970

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, Silver Lake 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. Angelino Heights, for example, with its 1880s-era Victorian houses, was within view and walking distance (although a long one) from downtown Los Angeles, while distant Playa Vista is the city's newest manufactured neighborhood, conceived and birthed by developers. Chinatown was originally an ethnic-based community whose population and businesses were forced to move wholesale from a few miles away when L.A.'s newly built Union Station displaced Old Chinatown in the 1930s. San Pedro was once an independent city that voted to be annexed to Los Angeles: San Pedro got L.A.'s water and the larger city got access to San Pedro's harbor.

The City of Los Angeles is divided among several telephone area codes. Downtown is area code 213, the areas of Hollywood and Mid-Wilshire fall within area code 323, West L.A. is area code 310 and the San Fernando Valley is area code 818.

[edit] Downtown Los Angeles

Image:Los angeles chinatown0001.jpg
Chinatown gate

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.

Main article: Downtown Los Angeles

[edit] East and Northeast Los Angeles

To the east and northeast of Downtown Los Angeles 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. 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, Mount 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.

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Moonrise over Eagle Rock; the rock itself is visible in the bottom right
Main article: East Los Angeles (region)
See also: East Los Angeles, California (Unincorporated area)

[edit] Echo Park & Westlake

Image:Macarthur park LA 01.jpg
MacArthur Park, with the Westlake Theater and downtown in the background

Immediately west of Downtown Los Angeles 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, 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
The world-famous Hollywood sign
See also: West Hollywood and Universal City, California

[edit] Harbor Area

Following the Harbor Gateway south to the port leads to the Harbor area, an 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.

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Satellite image of the Harbor area
Main article: Harbor Area

[edit] Los Feliz & Silver Lake

Image:Griffith Observatory south elevation 2006.jpg
Griffith Observatory in Los Feliz.

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 and now Sunset Blvd 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
Gateway to Jefferson Park
Image:Highsmithwattstowers.jpg
Watts Towers

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.

Main article: South Los Angeles
See also: View Park-Windsor Hills
See also: Compton, California
See also: Inglewood, California
See also: Willowbrook, California

[edit] The Valley

Image:San Fernando Mission 025a.jpg
Mission San Fernando Rey de España is the only California Mission located in Los Angeles. It is in the community of Mission Hills.
Image:Lake Balboa.jpg
Lake Balboa, namesake of the neighborhood
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Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys
Image:Woodland Hills vista.jpg
View of Woodland Hills with Warner Center in the foreground

The largest region of the city is "the Valley," which includes the San Fernando Valley and 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.

Main articles: San Fernando Valley and Crescenta Valley
See also: Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Burbank, Glendale, and San Fernando

[edit] West Los Angeles (The Westside)

Image:Santa Monica Palm Trees.jpg
A palm-lined boulevard in West Los Angeles
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The Getty Villa Museum in Pacific Palisades
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Century City skyline
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Venice Canals

West 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.

The term Westside, though often debated, refers to both the western parts of the city of Los Angeles as well as adjoning cities, such as Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and West Hollywood. West L.A. or West Los Angeles also refers to a specific neighborhood south of Brentwood and east of Santa Monica.

Main article: West Los Angeles (region)
See also: Beverly Hills, Culver City, Santa Monica, and Malibu, California
See also: West Hollywood, Marina Del Rey, and Topanga Canyon

[edit] Wilshire

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Carthay Circle

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.

Main articles: Mid-City West and Mid-Wilshire
Image:Canters.jpg
Canter's Deli in the Fairfax District
Image:Highsmithmaycompanywilshire.jpg
This Streamline Modern building at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax houses part of the L.A. County Museum of Art

[edit] City Map & Data

[edit] Other areas in Los Angeles County

v • d • e
City of Los Angeles
TopicsHistory · Transportation · Culture · Landmarks · Maps · Notable people · Mayors · Other elected officialsImage:Flag of Los Angeles, California.svg
RegionsDowntown · Eastside · Harbor Area · Greater Hollywood · Westlake/Silver Lake/Los Feliz ·
San Fernando and Crescenta Valleys · South Los Angeles · Westside · Wilshire
es:Barrios de Los Ángeles

fr:Liste des quartiers de Los Angeles

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