Westside, Long Beach, California

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West Long Beach is a working-class neighborhood in Long Beach, California made up of mostly Hispanics, Asians, and African-Americans.

Its boundaries are the Los Angeles River (East), Interstate 405 (North), Anaheim St (South) and Long Beach's border with Los Angeles and Carson (West). Santa Fe, Spring, Easy, Willow, Pacific Coast Highway, and Anaheim are some of the major streets in the area. Apart from the Interstate 405, the area is served by the Terminal Island Freeway and the Interstate 710. The largest industry in the area is the combined Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.

The neighborhood was once an affluent area populated mostly by whites and Japanese and evidence of this can still be seen in the real estate market on the west-side, where houses sell for higher prices than similar homes in north and central Long Beach.[citation needed] Between the late 1960s and 1980s, large numbers of African-Americans began moving to the area, mostly from the Eastside or from Central Long Beach. The white and Japanese population dwindled and is now less than 10%.[citation needed] Since the 1980s, large numbers of Hispanics, Asians, and Samoans have moved to the area as well. In the 2000 census, African-Americans were mostly concentrated in the Springdale Section 8 apartments area (Census Tract 5725, 38.7% Black) and the Taper Street area (Census Tract 5724, 46.8% Black). The rest of the Census Tracts in the area are between 15% and 30% Black. There are nine Census Tracts that make up West Long Beach. In those, Asians make up between 2.2% and 51% of the population, with Census Tract 5727 having the highest percentage. Hispanics range from 23.7% to 64.5% amongst the nine Census Tracts, with the highest percentage being in Census Tract 5729.

Gang presence in this area is heavy. Long Beach's most prominent gang West Side Longo is located on the West Side. Some of the larger gangs are West Side Longo 13 (Latino), West Coast Crips (Black), West-Side B.I.G (Black), Sons of Samoa (Samoan), and West-Side Islanders (Filipino/Guamanian). Racial shootings and riots have occurred at Cabrillo High School, Stephens Middle School, Admiral Kidd Park, and Silverado Park.

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