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Old 08-01-2014, 03:07 AM
 
371 posts, read 422,624 times
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I have a question about the neighborhoods in L.A.

Background:

Recent graduate that has moved here from Maryland. I did it with $2100, credit cards, and no car. Got a professional job in three weeks, have a car loan, and just moved into a place near USC. In my opinion moving here alone was a little hard, but definitely not nearly as challenging as college and its coursework.

Question:

Why does it seem like 70% of the neighborhoods in Los Angeles are poor/working class? While driving around you see a lot more nieghborhoods that resemble crenshaw and inglewood than you do beverly hills (including most of the middle class neighborhoods like echo park, silverlake, and los feliz). Not to say crenshaw or inglewood are dangerous because they are definitely not, but the aesthetics of the vast majority of Los Angeles neighborhoods seem to resemble what I would consider working class in Maryland. It makes me wonder if there is a lot of income inequality in Los Angeles or maybe the standard of living that you would pay in one part of the country is lower in L.A.

Please feel free to give me your insight.
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Old 08-01-2014, 03:16 AM
 
Location: O.C.
2,821 posts, read 3,513,772 times
Reputation: 2102
You do know CA has over 9 million people living in poverty right? By far the most in the nation and more than many entire countries. LA county has 27% of its population living in poverty.


LA County Even Poorer Than We Thought: 27 Percent in Poverty - Facts & Figures - Curbed LA
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Old 08-01-2014, 07:53 AM
 
Location: Norteh Bajo Americano
1,631 posts, read 2,364,027 times
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Actually northern Inglewood and many sections of Crenshaw are quite nice looking small homes, kept lawns, charming streets. When you get to closer to Western and east it gets really run down looking. Thats sort of true if you up above the 10 before you get to lets say Melrose where west of Western is quite nice and upscale and east of it is uglier and poorer. Pretty much most of the LA neighborhoods east of Western start looking the same from Highland Park to Cypress Park, Echo Park, Boyle Heights, Westlake, East Hollywood, Koreatown, Central and South Central. Youll find an array of housing styles on the same street, different setbacks, different heights, some single family, and some multi-unit and some large apartments on the same street. Fences of all colors and heights. Grass of all colors from green to brown dirt. Sometimes different trees, no trees or a lone 100 foot palm tree. Streets are usually busy with people amongst the cars, buses, graffiti and trash. Youll find many auto related stores, liquor stores, hair/nail salons, fast food places, gas stations, and discount stores.
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Old 08-01-2014, 09:10 AM
 
Location: South Bay
7,226 posts, read 22,097,607 times
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From street level, LA is not a particular aesthetically pleasing city in most places IMHO. Also, your perception regarding working class could be related to the fact that housing is so expensive. For example, a 1200sf house near the beachbcould easily sell for $1M. Even in nicer parts of the valley, a similar house could easily go for over $500k. What that leaves you with is people with healthy salaries living in what appear to be modest homes.
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Old 08-01-2014, 09:24 AM
 
1,855 posts, read 2,898,566 times
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Not to mention that a lot of the wealthy and upper middle class live outside LA city limits (Ventura County, Orange County, areas in the San Gabriel Valley, all of the beach cities, etc).
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Old 08-01-2014, 09:27 AM
 
Location: Southern California
4,453 posts, read 6,762,572 times
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The expansive LA freeway system gave those would could buy a house, a larger newer home further away outside of LA.
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Old 08-01-2014, 10:18 AM
 
24 posts, read 32,064 times
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Your observation is that 70% of the neighborhoods in LA is poor/working class.

I think that corresponds to the wealth/income distribution in LA.
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Old 08-01-2014, 10:38 AM
 
Location: Los Angeles
5,861 posts, read 15,177,168 times
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I use to feel the same way when I lived in DC. Many parts of DC, Baltimore, Prince Georges, Anne Arundel and even parts of Montgomery County. Same with Philadelphia. But yes, I somewhat agree. I also see alot of really nice neighborhoods too.
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Old 08-01-2014, 10:50 AM
 
Location: West Hollywood
3,190 posts, read 3,163,901 times
Reputation: 5262
The entire country is experiencing this substantial wealth gap. Look up the statistics. A tiny minority controls the vast majority of the wealth in America. Los Angeles is no different from the rest of the country.
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Old 08-01-2014, 10:55 AM
 
Location: Placentia, OC
1,487 posts, read 1,778,702 times
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Cost of living is high, lots of people really want to live here for various reasons and they scrape by. Others who have money generally don't live in central LA. So you get the working class/poor in central LA.
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