Westside, Long Beach, California
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West Long Beach is a working-class neighborhood in Long Beach, California made up mostly of Hispanics, Asians, and African-Americans.
Its boundaries are the Los Angeles River to the east, Interstate 405 to the north, Anaheim Street to the south, and Los Angeles and Carson, California to the west. Apart from Interstate 405, the area is served by the Terminal Island Freeway, Interstate 710, and the Pacific Coast Highway.
The neighborhood was once an affluent area populated mostly by Caucasian and Japanese people. 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 Eastside or Central Long Beach. The white and Japanese population subsequently dwindled and now makes up less than ten percent.[citation needed] Since the 1980s, large numbers of Hispanics, Asians, and Samoans have moved to the area as well.
In the 2000 United States Census, West Long Beach was divided into nine census tracts. African-Americans were mostly concentrated in the Springdale 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 were between 15% and 30% Black. Asians made up between 2.2% and 51% of the population per tract, with census tract 5727 having the highest percentage. Hispanics ranged from 23.7% to 64.5%, with the highest percentage being in census tract 5729.[citation needed]
Gang presence in this area is heavy. Long Beach's most prominent gang, West Side Longo 13, is located on the West Side. Some of the larger gangs West Coast Crips (Black), Westside BIG (Black & Filipino), Sons of Samoa (Samoan), and Westside Islanders (Filipino/Guamanian). West Long Beach is also a hot bed for racial tensions between Blacks and Latinos.
