What's this part of West LA known as? (Los Angeles, Santa Monica: apartments, condos)

[vegaspilgrim]

What's this part of West LA known as? I'm thinking of the area south of Wilshire (south of Brentwood), west of the 405, north of Olympic, and east of LA/Santa Monica city border. I've spent a lot of time exploring this neighborhood. This area is very dense and very city like, a lot of blocks full of old apartment buildings that are being replaced one by one with brand new 5-6 story apartments/condos, a lot high rise office buildings, tons of ethnic restaurants in double decker strip malls along Santa Monica Blvd, tons of restaurants and bars and hole in the wall places and lamp stores (for some reason?) on Wilshire. This seems to be a very happening part of town, right in the middle of everything with close access to all parts of West LA and Santa Monica... and yet I almost never hear anything about this area, I don't even know what it's called.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

It is called "West Los Angeles". That is the area South of Brentwood, North East of Santa Monica, West of Westwood or the 405. Pacific Palisades may be just west of the area. Not sure what the cut off is for Pacific Palisades.

[cmw2133]

Sawtelle?

[Todd.LA]

West LA.

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

It is called "West Los Angeles". That is the area South of Brentwood, North East of Santa Monica, West of Westwood or the 405. Pacific Palisades may be just west of the area. Not sure what the cut off is for Pacific Palisades.

West Los Angeles. Wow, what an original name. Well that explains why I hadn't heard of it distinguished in any way.

I was actually in this area last night taking a walk. When you go west of Centinela, south of Wilshire, you immediately cross over into the city of Santa Monica. I wonder what that east part of Santa Monica is called?

Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, and the part of Santa Monica around Montana Ave all kind of blur together in my mind, they all feel like the same continuous neighborhood pretty much.

Originally Posted by cmw2133

Sawtelle?

I wondered that too, since I was looking at some Wikipedia LA neighborhood articles and that came up, but some of the areas I'm talking about (like near Barrington, Bundy, etc) are nowhere near Sawtelle blvd.

[Lord Lionheart]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

West Los Angeles. Wow, what an original name. Well that explains why I hadn't heard of it distinguished in any way.

I was actually in this area last night taking a walk. When you go west of Centinela, south of Wilshire, you immediately cross over into the city of Santa Monica. I wonder what that east part of Santa Monica is called?

Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, and the part of Santa Monica around Montana Ave all kind of blur together in my mind, they all feel like the same continuous neighborhood pretty much.


I wondered that too, since I was looking at some Wikipedia LA neighborhood articles and that came up, but some of the areas I'm talking about (like near Barrington, Bundy, etc) are nowhere near Sawtelle blvd.

The specific part the OP refers to is just West L.A. Zip codes is the disginguishing feature. Santa Monica covers 90401, 90402, 90403, 90404 & 90405. Sawtelle is West LA 90025. Westwood is a few blocks east at 90024. They do all blur together but Santa Monica starts west of Centinella Blvd however people will often refer to all of the above as West L.A or 'The Westside'

Zip Codes by Community - Los Angeles County

To my mind Barrington is very close to Bundy and Sawtelle, only about 7 city blocks, which is a small distance in LA. I guess it depends what you are used to. The other option is to use the little yellow man icon on Google street view maps and drag him around in various streets you are interested in after punching in the zip code on Google maps;

90025 - Google Maps

In my mind Santa Monica, Westwood, Brentwood and West LA are hard to distinguish unless you are very familiar with the specific neighborhood. Generally speaking the further north you get of Wilshire the more desirable

[cmw2133]

Haha, West LA is a bit of an arbitrary name, but I guess no more so than any of the otherwise blended-together areas that make up the whole of SoCal.

[preweking]

Simple, it's called West Los Angeles. Some people call it Sawtelle. Sawtelle was once an independent city until the 1920s. The city was annexed by the City of Los Angeles and is now called "West Los Angeles".

[LASam]

I'm quite familiar with that area since I live there. I believe it is TECHNICALLY called Sawtelle, but everyone calls it West LA. The Japanese restaurants/shops/markets along Sawtelle Blvd are great.

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by LASam

I'm quite familiar with that area since I live there. I believe it is TECHNICALLY called Sawtelle, but everyone calls it West LA. The Japanese restaurants/shops/markets along Sawtelle Blvd are great.

I agree. There's a lot of good food to be had in the area-- Japanese, Mexican (including Oaxacan), Persian, Italian. And this whole area, to me at least, feels very dense, with a neat jumble between old and new. Sometimes physically attractive, sometimes very ugly. I'm surprised why "West LA" proper seems to be under the radar screen by people looking for centrally located, urban neighborhoods. I'm always hearing about Santa Monica, Koreatown, Hollywood, Los Feliz, Silverlake, and downtown, but not "West LA" which has everything these other places have and more. Is it just that "West LA" is old news whereas these other areas are in the up and coming? Isn't Santa Monica Blvd considered the historic final stretch of Route 66? Just that one street alone is loaded with stuff.