Italian American community in LA (San Francisco, Gardena: transfer, to buy, live)

[CamaroGuy]

Originally Posted by sjnative

This is going to get the East Coast people all excited. They have to suppress us with their mantra that everything on the EC is "the best".

SF probably has the best Chinese food in the country being that it had the first Chinatown.

[West of Encino]

Originally Posted by majoun

Boyle Heights had Jews, Italians, Japanese, Russians, Mexicans, even some blacks back in the old days. When the Japanese were interned the Latinos became the largest group. Jews were already beginning to leave right before WW2 but after WW2 they started leaving in larger numbers. By the mid-50s they were virtually all gone (Many older Latinos I've talked to who grew up in the old Boyle Heights miss it because of its sheer diversity - you'd hear Spanish, English, Yiddish, Russian, Italian, etc. all on the same block. In the era of the "white spot", diversity was east of the river.)

Lincoln Heights in the old days was definitely an Italian neighborhood. There may have been some Jews there but I never heard it ever described as a Jewish neighborhood.

What about South Central during that time?

[CamaroGuy]

Originally Posted by West of Encino

What about South Central during that time?

There were quite a few whites in that part of Los Angeles at that time.

[disgruntled la native]

My grandparents are Russian Jews and grew up around Crenshaw and Washington. It was a white, Jewish neighborhood at the time. By USC too.

[BRinSM]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

My grandparents are Russian Jews and grew up around Crenshaw and Washington. It was a white, Jewish neighborhood at the time. By USC too.

my dad spent his first few years off vermont in the teen streets, also near USC. it was a working class white area in the 50s, although still not a great area.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

My grandparents are Russian Jews and grew up around Crenshaw and Washington. It was a white, Jewish neighborhood at the time. By USC too.

The Crenshaw/Washington area back then was called "Little New Orleans" iirc. Most of the inhabitants were working class transplants from NOLA, plenty of Creoles as well as whites (were your grandparents from NOLA? New Orleans used to have a very large Jewish population), a few blacks. I worked with people who grew up around there back then who told me some stories about it. The bars, restaurants, and music were legendary, one guy I worked with said "the women were the most beautiful I've ever seen."

I saw a documentary about Arthur Lee in which he talked about growing up in Crenshaw. The documentary showed pictures of him when he was young there and when he went to Dorsey. From the pictures shown it looked like Dorsey was a very thoroughly racially mixed school when he was going there (from the pictures I'd guess end of the '50s/beginning of the '60s?) with no racial majority.

The West Adams area was the Baldwin Hills/Windsor Hills of the mid 20th century. Many celebrities lived around there then. When the laws against housing discrimination were passed most of the residents moved to Baldwin Hills, Windsor Hills, View Park, Baldwin Vista, etc. and so West Adams went downhill. There's a great James Ellroy story set in 1950s West Adams, unfortunately I do not wish to mention that story's name because it's too racial. If you weren't anti-reading I'd suggest checking out Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins books for some great crime fiction set in black L.A. from WW2 to the Watts riots.

[disgruntled la native]

Originally Posted by majoun

The Crenshaw/Washington area back then was called "Little New Orleans" iirc. Most of the inhabitants were working class transplants from NOLA, plenty of Creoles as well as whites (were your grandparents from NOLA? New Orleans used to have a very large Jewish population), a few blacks. I worked with people who grew up around there back then who told me some stories about it. The bars, restaurants, and music were legendary, one guy I worked with said "the women were the most beautiful I've ever seen."

I saw a documentary about Arthur Lee in which he talked about growing up in Crenshaw. The documentary showed pictures of him when he was young there and when he went to Dorsey. From the pictures shown it looked like Dorsey was a very thoroughly racially mixed school when he was going there (from the pictures I'd guess end of the '50s/beginning of the '60s?) with no racial majority.

The West Adams area was the Baldwin Hills/Windsor Hills of the mid 20th century. Many celebrities lived around there then. When the laws against housing discrimination were passed most of the residents moved to Baldwin Hills, Windsor Hills, View Park, Baldwin Vista, etc. and so West Adams went downhill. There's a great James Ellroy story set in 1950s West Adams, unfortunately I do not wish to mention that story's name because it's too racial. If you weren't anti-reading I'd suggest checking out Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins books for some great crime fiction set in black L.A. from WW2 to the Watts riots.

Makes sense, but a lot of Jews did live in South LA/West Adams in the 20s, 30s, and 40s. Why are you assuming I'm anti-reading?

[majoun]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

Makes sense, but a lot of Jews did live in South LA/West Adams in the 20s, 30s, and 40s. Why are you assuming I'm anti-reading?

You wrote once, "don't you know we don't read books?" when I recommended some book on L.A. history to you.

If you were joking than I apologize.

Anyways the area I was talking about attracted New Orleansians of all the Crescent City's races and ethnicities, but it was dominated by working class Creoles and working class whites (prior to the Watts Riots). NOLA working class Jews (there were many in New Orleans at the time) would've felt comfortable there because it would've seemed like back home but with different weather.

Didn't know about Jews living in West Adams pre-WW2 in large numbers. I have read West Adams didn't become black majority until California outlawed restrictive covenants in 1948, and that it was all white before WW2. That does not necessarily mean that Jews didn't live there during those years, I just haven't read that. From what I've read it seems like wealthier Jews during that era congregated more in Hollywood and the Wilshire District. (Even I'm old enough to remember when what is now Koreatown was overwhelmingly white, albeit more working class than upscale.)

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by majoun

I know Chicago has a big Mexican population but it's hard to believe it has a bigger Mexican population than Texas cities.

I think the person is comparing Chicago with Texas because of sheer numbers, not %. I would agree with you, I doubt Chicago has the same population of Mexicans as say El Paso or San Antonio.

Nita

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by nowincal11

I thought Boyle Heights was predominantly Jewish and Lincoln Heights was close to predominantly Jewish.

They were very Jewish at one time (probably the early 40s, but I was only a baby then) The Italians were there in large numbers as well. By the mid 40s the Jewish population started leaving Boyle Heighs and Lincoln Heights for the Wilshire district, then the San Fernando Valley. The Italinas were in high numbers in both Lincoln and Boyle Heghts at that time, but by the mid 50s both areas started attracting more Hispanics just like east L.A. At least as a child, growing up near the area that is how it was precieved.

Nita