When did people start calling "Pico-Union" "City West"..? (Inglewood: how much, house)

[XMen1]

Originally Posted by socal88

I've never heard of City West. Another marketing tactic to try to get naive, young people to move into an area that looks like a third world country and has a fair amount of gang activity.

I get it if someone can't afford anywhere else and has to live in Pico-Union. But it's amazing how stupid some people are paying these astronomical rents for some of these newer buildings in bad areas because they are lured by deceptive marketing. It's appalling how little research some people do before they decide to plunk all that cash into housing in marginal areas.

I have a co-worker who moved to North Inglewood with her husband 2 years ago and she is always complaining of all the crime that goes on around her neighborhood. She says she hears the ghetto bird just about every night. I always think to myself what did she expect, it is Inglewood after all. A lot of people believe all the hype that marketers create regarding "the next gentrified" city and how much money they will save but later they regret it because of the crime.

[NativeOrange]

Originally Posted by Astral_Weeks

Yep, true.

The whole history of City West has some ups and downs. Mostly up for now. The 1100 Wilshire Building is a 37 story office building built in 1987 located in City West at Wilshire and Bixel. It was built during the "office" boom in the 80's (baby boom was in prime working years, etc.). However, that particular office project was a bust and the owner was never able to lease it up. It was vacant for nearly two decades until 2006 when it was converted to condos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1100_Wilshire

Yea. And it has probably one of the ugliest, most monolithic parking podiums in all of LA.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by XMen1

I have a co-worker who moved to North Inglewood with her husband 2 years ago and she is always complaining of all the crime that goes on around her neighborhood. She says she hears the ghetto bird just about every night. I always think to myself what did she expect, it is Inglewood after all. A lot of people believe all the hype that marketers create regarding "the next gentrified" city and how much money they will save but later they regret it because of the crime.

Good point. There are a lot of people priced out of lower crime areas . of course there still is crime in more expensive parts of the city but often it's less violent crime .
I didn't realize that North Inglewood was an area being hyped up though . I know there is some positive talk about inglewood because of the football stadium , but still can't imagine people would think it has changed that much quickly .I could see Highland Park or something or Boyle Heights.

[Big L]

Originally Posted by XMen1

I have a co-worker who moved to North Inglewood with her husband 2 years ago and she is always complaining of all the crime that goes on around her neighborhood. She says she hears the ghetto bird just about every night. I always think to myself what did she expect, it is Inglewood after all. A lot of people believe all the hype that marketers create regarding "the next gentrified" city and how much money they will save but later they regret it because of the crime.

I spent most of my childhood in Inglewood and my father and two aunts still live there now in separate houses. With that being said, I doubt that I would even take a free house over there these days. There are still some safe and quiet spots there, but the bad outweighs the good for the most part. I could see a youngster getting an apartment there for cheap rent, but I wouldn't advise a married, working couple to buy a house there.


If your co-worker's house is closer to the L.A. border, then she is dealing with even more issues that most folks a little further south have to deal with. Historically, it has always been a little quieter closer to the cemetery and the Forum than it was on the other side of Centinela (now Edward Vincent) Park.

[Big L]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Good point. There are a lot of people priced out of lower crime areas . of course there still is crime in more expensive parts of the city but often it's less violent crime .
I didn't realize that North Inglewood was an area being hyped up though . I know there is some positive talk about inglewood because of the football stadium , but still can't imagine people would think it has changed that much quickly .I could see Highland Park or something or Boyle Heights.

There have been some nicer townhomes near the Forum for years and the part of Century Boulevard that borders the casino has been cleaned up over the past decade or so. Even any part of Inglewood gentrifies, it would probably be somewhere in that area. The areas south, southeast, and west of there would more than likely remain the same.

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by Big L

There have been some nicer townhomes near the Forum for years and the part of Century Boulevard that borders the casino has been cleaned up over the past decade or so. Even any part of Inglewood gentrifies, it would probably be somewhere in that area. The areas south, southeast, and west of there would more than likely remain the same.

Yeah just like any neighorhood I'm sure it's block by block. Thats the thing with neighborhoods. You could be in a " bad neighborhood" but your block has a strong neighorhood watch program and lots of old timers that don't put up with crap and it might not be so bad for example .

In the valley there are lots of neigborhoods that have a bad reputation but there are some nice pockets . Parts of Panorama city and parts of sylmar are some examples . If you showed people certain blocks they would never guess those homes and streets are in those neighborhoods .
I've seen nice clean streets by the Crenshaw mall too , nice homes that's not an area that people generally would think of as a nice area .

[Los Angeles Gucci Mane]

A lot of people are talking about the hot inglewood market don't realize that the area where the stadium is being built is surrounded by mostly upper middle class black gated communities from the 2000s, not exactly prime hipster gentrification material, and outside of that is helicopter noise 24/7, crack house, fast food strip malls, suburban gang territory, Hipsters and developers will remain trying to get the eastside (which doesn't look like its Latino community is gonna go down without a fight) and "ghetto" areas interspersed throughout west LA to gentrify

[jm1982]

Yeah at this point people are pretty desperate that anything within the city of L.A if they build trendy looking housing people will likely jump on it.
What would the 'ghetto' areas in West L.A be though?
In L.A even areas considered gentrified are still pretty rough looking and somewhat dirty. Echo park is a good example.
Average home price is $800,000.
There is hipster/"artist" gentrification and then yuppie/techie gentrification in L.A

[Big L]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Yeah just like any neighorhood I'm sure it's block by block. Thats the thing with neighborhoods. You could be in a " bad neighborhood" but your block has a strong neighorhood watch program and lots of old timers that don't put up with crap and it might not be so bad for example .

In the valley there are lots of neigborhoods that have a bad reputation but there are some nice pockets . Parts of Panorama city and parts of sylmar are some examples . If you showed people certain blocks they would never guess those homes and streets are in those neighborhoods .
I've seen nice clean streets by the Crenshaw mall too , nice homes that's not an area that people generally would think of as a nice area .

Yes, there has always been some quiet blocks not far from Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza. Of course Baldwin Hills and View Park are right up the hill from there. Also, Leimert Park has really become sought-after lately for some reason. There is foolishness not far from there of course, but the people that I know in the areas that I named have never had any issues.

[Big L]

Originally Posted by Los Angeles Gucci Mane

A lot of people are talking about the hot inglewood market don't realize that the area where the stadium is being built is surrounded by mostly upper middle class black gated communities from the 2000s, not exactly prime hipster gentrification material, and outside of that is helicopter noise 24/7, crack house, fast food strip malls, suburban gang territory, Hipsters and developers will remain trying to get the eastside (which doesn't look like its Latino community is gonna go down without a fight) and "ghetto" areas interspersed throughout west LA to gentrify

Some of those gated communities are even older than that. I used to ride my bike in Briarwood in the late-80's when some of it was still being built. Some of home prices outside of the gated communities are still higher than I would expect, but I don't think that there will be widespread gentrification. Like you said, there are plenty of other areas in L.A. that the hipsters are heading to instead.


One of my cousins bought a house just down Manchester from the Forum for about $350K. I wouldn't have done it, but it is not a bad spot for her situation (single with no children).