The Westside: What's the big deal? (Los Angeles, Oxnard: neighborhoods, buying, schools)

[matt345]

When I lived in LA, I would sometimes hear people and the media hype up "the Westside". I would read about how for some "fortunate" Angelenos, Los Angeles "ends at the 405 freeway". Does anyone on the Westside really feel this way? I mean, yes there's Santa Monica and Venice, but what else is there to do west of the 405 freeway outside of going to beach and hanging around your house? I don't know about you, but I'd be extremely bored if I limited all my activities to points west of the 405. What about West Hollywood, Melrose, The Grove, Robertson Blvd, Beverly Hills, or Hollywood? And then of course there's Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Koreatown...Dodger Stadium!! I know I shouldn't take the "I never go west of the 405" statements literally, but why would anyone even consider that to be desirable? Sounds like a pretty boring, and certainly not enviable, life to me.

[Charles]

When you buy (or rent) a home, you are buying your neighbors too.
Anything near the beach seems to be higher end (some exceptions, parts of San Pedro, Oceanside, and Oxnard are not extremely high end).
Schools are better.
People are more educated.
There is more affluence.
There may be demographic attraction too.

[californio sur]

Of-course living near the beach is a definite plus & why it costs more to live in West LA. The climate is the coolest in the area w/ the best air quality as well. But aside from the beach the Westside doesn't have anything more than the rest of the city especially in the LA basin. How many times can a person go to the Getty before it gets old? Westwood is fun & of-course Santa Monica & Venice Beach but there are many other interesting things to do in the rest of Los Angeles.

[vegaspilgrim]

Funny thing is there are many neighborhoods of "West LA" that are grungy, seedy in parts & utterly unglamorous, such as Palms. I don't think there's a clear consensus on what "West LA" really is-- it's not necessarily limited to west of the 405.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

Funny thing is there are many neighborhoods of "West LA" that are grungy, seedy in parts & utterly unglamorous, such as Palms.

Some parts of Venice are pretty gross too. (Not sure if that is considered West LA though.)

[bhcompy]

No big deal really. But then again, no big deal to the rest of LA that you mentioned either. Tons of dirt poor. Tons of old grungy buildings. Tons of torn up streets. Not much good and still very overpriced per square foot

[Lafferty Daniel]

Originally Posted by matt345

When I lived in LA, I would sometimes hear people and the media hype up "the Westside". I would read about how for some "fortunate" Angelenos, Los Angeles "ends at the 405 freeway". Does anyone on the Westside really feel this way? I mean, yes there's Santa Monica and Venice, but what else is there to do west of the 405 freeway outside of going to beach and hanging around your house? I don't know about you, but I'd be extremely bored if I limited all my activities to points west of the 405. What about West Hollywood, Melrose, The Grove, Robertson Blvd, Beverly Hills, or Hollywood? And then of course there's Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Koreatown...Dodger Stadium!! I know I shouldn't take the "I never go west of the 405" statements literally, but why would anyone even consider that to be desirable? Sounds like a pretty boring, and certainly not enviable, life to me.

You gotta get out of your comfort zone once in awhile. I love living near the beach, but I also love visiting the many interesting areas east of 405.

[SoCal35]

Matt345: I agree with you. The westside is overrated, esp. by SOME of its residents.

If you are west of the 405, the air quality is clearly GOOD. But I prefer the climate from Westwood to Downtown LA (more sun, less fog, less "chilly" summer beach evenings, etc).

The architecture is certainly more varied and interesting in "East" LA (e.g, Hollywood, downtown, echo park, silverlake, miracle mile, etc). As you noted, there are also many more museums and cultural and sports facilities too.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by matt345

When I lived in LA, I would sometimes hear people and the media hype up "the Westside". I would read about how for some "fortunate" Angelenos, Los Angeles "ends at the 405 freeway". Does anyone on the Westside really feel this way? I mean, yes there's Santa Monica and Venice, but what else is there to do west of the 405 freeway outside of going to beach and hanging around your house? I don't know about you, but I'd be extremely bored if I limited all my activities to points west of the 405. What about West Hollywood, Melrose, The Grove, Robertson Blvd, Beverly Hills, or Hollywood? And then of course there's Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Koreatown...Dodger Stadium!! I know I shouldn't take the "I never go west of the 405" statements literally, but why would anyone even consider that to be desirable? Sounds like a pretty boring, and certainly not enviable, life to me.

I grew up in the Westside west of the 405 and the only people who ever used the 405 as a divide were from Venice. (And many Venetians would prefer to not go east of Centinela...or for that matter Lincoln...) I never heard ANYONE not from Venice say that. And they probably wouldn't have said "Los Angeles ends at the 405" because they prefer to identify with Venice not Los Angeles. Then again, there are also Angelenos who say "anything west of Vine is the beach" (a very Silver Lake thing to say....)


I went to Webster and Uni and both of those schools included plenty of territory on both sides of the 405 even though they're west of the 405.

The eastern boundary of the westside? Probably Fairfax Ave.

[King0fthehill]

I'd say that south of Pico, the border shifts to La Cienega, as that stretch of Fairfax is pretty far removed from LA in just about every aspect.