Talk:Pico-Union, Los Angeles, California

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is part of WikiProject California, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to California on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page to join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

I would like to say is that Pico-Union is not one of the most poorest area of Los Angeles. Its modestly poor, there are much poorer areas of the city. Pico-Union although falling apart still keeps some of its old antique charm. St. Sphias is not technically in the district, whom ever wrote this obviously does not live in the area.

________

When did Pico-Union have a large Jewish population? I've done considerable research into the history of Jewish Los Angeles, and I've never heard Pico-Union mentioned as an area which once had a large Jewish population except in Wikipedia, although Westlake to the north did before World War II. I have known long time residents of the area who did mention the non-Latino whites who shared the area with the Latino population before leaving in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but I've never read anything about the area's Jewish history. Any sources for this bit of information?

In doing some research, I did find that the area did have a large Jewish population from the 1910s through World War II, when the Jewish inhabitants moved west.

[edit] Jewish population

At the corner of Alvarado and Hoover, there is a massive synagogue--I mean, this thing is friggin' huge--that has a date stamped into the cornerstone of something like 1902. Research into the Alvarado Terrace HPOZ and conversations with neighbors (I used to live in southeast Koreatown, on the border of P-U) has shown that this area was a very chic address for wealthy Jews in the early 20th century. Once the Fairfax District and Beverlywood got popular in the '30s and '40s, formerly Jewish-heavy areas like Pico-Union, Westlake, and Boyle Heights saw most of their Jewish populations leave. The aforementioned enormo-gogue has now been turned into a Seventh-day Adventist Church.

UCLA has a page here on the Byzantine-Latino Quarter (which is in Harvard Heights, not P-U).--Slightlyslack 11:48, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

In the heart of Pico Union, on the north west corner of 12th and Valencia Streets is a brick Jewish synagogue constructed in the late 1920s. Today it is home to a largely Latino Christian church, but retains the stain glass Stars of David on its windows. I am told that the congregation that built this synagogue has now moved to a huge fortress-like building on Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood.

[edit] I agree Pico-Union is not as poor as the article states

Whom ever wrote this article does not live or probably never has lived in the area. For one the boundaries are all wrong, the district encompasses more than what they state. One may even put the boundaries as far west as Vermont along venice and as far north as sixth street. As for the area being the "poorest" I have to strongly disagree. Because of the large influx of immigrants that entered during the 1980's the community did suffer an economical decline. Nevertheless the area is filled with many inhabitants whom have been living here for over forty years, in the very houses they own and maintain. The area today still has areas of its charm with its Victorian and pre-Victorian houses. True however the area is seeing a change due to the development taking place in south park.