West Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
West Los Angeles is a district in western Los Angeles, California located within the larger region often referred to as the "Westside".
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[edit] Geography and transportation
The district is bordered by Santa Monica on the west, Brentwood on the northwest, the unincorporated Sawtelle VA Complex on the north, Westwood on the northeast, Rancho Park on the east and southeast, and Mar Vista on the south and southeast. Its major thoroughfares are Olympic, Santa Monica, Pico, Wilshire, and Sawtelle Boulevards, Barrington and Centinela Avenues, and Bundy Drive. Its generally accepted boundaries are the San Diego Freeway on the east, the Santa Monica Freeway on the south, the city limits of Santa Monica on the west, and Wilshire Boulevard on the north.
This district contains an area of Japanese-American culture along Sawtelle Boulevard which is sometimes called Sawtelle.
[edit] History
After the area's conquest by the Spanish, most of what is now West Los Angeles became part of the Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica. With the arrival of Anglo settlers after the Mexican-American War, the original Californio grandees sold, or were forced from their holdings, and by the turn of the 20th century the area was mostly bean and wheat fields. Since the region was in an unincorporated area (somewhat analogous to East Los Angeles), many Japanese—barred from purchasing land within the boundaries of the City of Los Angeles—settled in the district, establishing many orchards and nurseries in the process. (Some of these nurseries are still in business today, along the stretch of Sawtelle Boulevard between Olympic and Santa Monica Boulevards.) The core of what is now West Los Angeles (including the Civic Center Area at Santa Monica & Purdue) was originally incorporated as the City of Sawtelle. In the 1920s, the area was annexed by the City of Los Angeles, but in keeping with custom, most street addresses within the district are listed by the United States Postal Service as being in the “city” of West Los Angeles.
[edit] The neighborhood today
As with most parts of the West Side, West Los Angeles is an affluent neighborhood. Its central location has made it a locus of commercial development, with several high-rise office buildings along Olympic, Santa Monica, and Wilshire Boulevards. It also contains a large number of Japanese-owned businesses. A satellite congregation of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, one of the most prominent Reform Jewish congregations in Southern California, occupies the northeast corner of Olympic and Barrington.
Housing in West Los Angeles is a mixture of low-rise apartment buildings, mostly inhabited by young professionals and working-class families, and single-story tract house developments built between 1930 and 1960. Two of Los Angeles' tallest residential towers are at the neighborhood's northern edge, at the intersection of Wilshire and Barrington. There is a trend toward greater density, as single-family houses get replaced by apartment houses, or apartment houses get replaced by taller ones, as building sites become available through demolition.
Schools in the area, such as Wildwood School, are well-respected and of generally high quality. University High School, a secondary school named for nearby UCLA, is in the district. "Uni" is one of very few older high schools in Los Angeles that have not had to be completely rebuilt following earthquakes over the years, and still has a traditional look to it featuring weathered brick walls and arched entries. As a result, it is a popular with film producers as a shooting location, when school is not in session. The campus also contains within its bounds an artesian well (claimed by the Tongva people as their ancestral home) which has never failed, even in the driest years. Junipero Serra's party is said to have camped there in the course of their journey up and down the state.
West Los Angeles is the home of a Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP). It is part of an initiative by the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide mail order prescriptions to veterans using computerization at strategic locations throughout the United States.
[edit] Education
Residents are zoned to Los Angeles USD schools [1].
Some residents are zoned to Brockton Avenue Elementary School, while others are zoned to Sterry Elementary School.
Some residents are zoned to Emerson Middle School, while others are zoned to Webster Middle School.
All residents are zoned to University High School. Indian Springs Continuation High School is on the site of University High School.
St. Sebastian School and West Los Angeles Baptist School are nearby private schools.
[edit] External links
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
- West Los Angeles Neighborhood Council
- Los Angeles Times, Real Estate section, Neighborly Advice column: "[West Los Angeles (neighborhood):] In the vicinity of everything in West L.A." (19 Jan 2003)
