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List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles

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

Seal of Los Angeles City
Seal of Los Angeles City

Overview

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 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. Playa Vista, for example, is the city's newest manufactured neighborhood, conceived and birthed by developers. Chinatown is an ethnic-based community with an identity defined by the ancestry of its residence. San Pedro was once an independent city annexed by Los Angeles to access its harbor and ports.

The City of Los Angeles is divided between several area codes. Downtown is area code 213, the areas of Hollywood and Mid-Wilshire fall within area code 323, Western Los Angeles is area code 310 and the Valley is area code 818.

Downtown Los Angeles

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.

 
Downtown Los Angeles skyline
Main article: Downtown Los Angeles

East and Northeast Los Angeles

To the east and northeast of Downtown LA 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, California. 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, Mt. 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.

Main article: East Los Angeles (region)
See also: East Los Angeles, California

(Unincorporated area)

 
Moonrise over Eagle Rock

Echo Park & Westlake

File:Macarthur park LA 01.jpg
The lake at MacArthur Park, with the Westlake Theater and downtown in the background

Immediately west of Downtown is a collection of some of the city's first suburbs. 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.

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 south and east.

File:Hollywood sign2.jpg
The world-famous Hollywood sign
See also: West Hollywood and Universal City, California

Harbor Area

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

File:118.29561W 33.73203N.png
Satellite image of the Harbor area
Main article: Harbor Area

Los Feliz & Silver Lake

 
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 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.

South Los Angeles

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.

 
Gateway to Jefferson Park
File:Westadams.jpg
A typical West Adams street scene.

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
 
The Watts Towers

The Valley

The largest region of the city is "the Valley", which traditionally implies the San Fernando Valley but also includes 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
 
The only California Mission in Los Angeles is the San Fernando El Rey de Espana. It is located in the Mission Hills district.
 
Winnetka is served by the Orange Line bus service.

Western Los Angeles

 
A palm-lined boulevard in West Los Angeles

Western 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.

Main article: West Los Angeles (region)
See also: Beverly Hills; Culver City; Santa Monica; and Malibu, California
See also: Ladera Heights, Marina Del Rey, and Topanga Canyon
 
Bel Air
 
High-rises in the Westwood area
 
The famed boardwalk and the bike path on Venice Beach

Wilshire

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
 
The Grove is a popular shopping center in the Fairfax District.
 
Carthay Circle
 
The Miracle Mile on Wilshire, near Museum Row

City Map & Data

Other areas in Los Angeles County


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