The Westside: What's the big deal? (Los Angeles, San Diego: neighborhood, school, live in)

[majoun]

Originally Posted by 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.

Referring to Silver Lake as the "Eastside" is ridiculous enough (and the sign of a transplant) - referring to the Miracle Mile as "Eastside" is ridiculous.

East LA is the other side of the river. Any native Angeleno knows that. The term "Eastside" to mean anything else was rather ethnically charged in origin - it had to do with Los Feliz and Silver Lake 20 years ago being the farthest east places in L.A. with large non-Latino white populations and thus the "white people's eastside" (Whoever coined that term obviously didn't know about Mount Washington being further east than Silver Lake. Since the early '90s Echo Park and downtown have acquired larger non-Latino white populations, too...)

I've heard the term "eastern westside" used to describe the westside east of the 405. "Near West Side" sounds too Chicago-ish.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by 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

Los Feliz is the best neighborhood within L.A. city limits, and definitely better than your hood. There's no neighborhood in L.A. city limits that offers as much.

BTW some people like old grungy buildings.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by 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.

This former westsider agrees.

The Westside varies a lot- while there aren't too many truly "bad" neighborhoods (Oakwood and Cadillac-Corning are the only bad westside areas that would be considered bad neighborhoods if they weren't on the westside - Palms, Del Rey, etc. if they were in the Valley would just be considered average, not bad areas) there are definitely some places that are more desirable than others, and that doesn't always go according to income.

IMO Brentwood is the most overrated of all of L.A.'s affluent hoods - as I said in another post, it's a sterile, vapid cultural wasteland. If I had the money to live there, I'd live in Los Feliz or Hancock Park.

[SoCal35]

The debate about where the westside begins or ends is ongoing. The LA Times "Mapping LA's Neighborhoods" places the eastern border at Beverly Hills/La Cienga.

Westside - Mapping L.A. - Los Angeles Times

My college roomate grew up in Mar Vista. He often used to make the joke about never needing to venture east of the 405 Freeway. Of course, he didn't actually live his life that way.

[matt345]

Originally Posted by majoun

IMO Brentwood is the most overrated of all of L.A.'s affluent hoods - as I said in another post, it's a sterile, vapid cultural wasteland. If I had the money to live there, I'd live in Los Feliz or Hancock Park.

That was exactly my point in making this thread! I know that Santa Monica and Venice have a lot to offer, but what about the other Westside neighborhoods? I hear Brentwood and Pacific Palisades hyped up endlessly, but to me, they resemble nothing more than upscale bedroom communities. That is, unless of course I've been missing something or someplace all these years which is why I asked. In LA, the Westside gets hyped up in a manner similar to Manhattan in NYC; so you would think it'd be the center of all the action in LA, just as Manhattan is in NYC. But it's not. Sunset Strip, Hollywood Blvd, Rodeo Drive, Melrose Avenue, celebrity-filled Roberston Blvd...they're all outside of the Westside.

[uptown_urbanist]

Human nature, I guess. When working in Pasadena I frequently heard negative comments about the Westside and "Westsiders," which generally seemed to mean pretentious, flash with money, going for new glitz over more subdued history, etc. Sort of a noveau riche vs old money sort of thing, at least in terms of the way the comments were framed. Westsiders were vulgar, Pasadena was elegant, with "Westside" in many ways being treated more like a frame of mind and a lifestyle choice rather than a geographic location. (maybe in that sense the way "Hollywood" the industry, "Hollywood" the lifestyle, and "Hollywood" the neighborhood mean different things?).

I haven't heard anyone say anything about how they never went east of the 405, but then again, most of my friends and colleagues live/lived east of there. I do agree that there are people in LA who live very sheltered lives and who haven't explored much of the city. That's probably true everywhere, though.

[SoCal35]

Originally Posted by majoun

Referring to Silver Lake as the "Eastside" is ridiculous enough (and the sign of a transplant) - referring to the Miracle Mile as "Eastside" is ridiculous.

East LA is the other side of the river. Any native Angeleno knows that. The term "Eastside" to mean anything else was rather ethnically charged in origin - it had to do with Los Feliz and Silver Lake 20 years ago being the farthest east places in L.A. with large non-Latino white populations and thus the "white people's eastside" (Whoever coined that term obviously didn't know about Mount Washington being further east than Silver Lake. Since the early '90s Echo Park and downtown have acquired larger non-Latino white populations, too...)

I've heard the term "eastern westside" used to describe the westside east of the 405. "Near West Side" sounds too Chicago-ish.

Majoun: I am practically a NATIVE, as I moved to Los Angeles when I was 6-MONTHS old.

I am well aware of what constitutes East LA. I put the "Eastside" in quotations because I was being somewhat facetious...poking fun at the mentality of SOME westside residents do view anything east of La Cienga as practially being East LA.

I know and visit the real East LA....El Tepeyac (actually in Boyle Heights) being my favorite Burrito in all of LA County.

[hsw]

Everyone lives in their own economic/cultural bubbles...wealthy or middle-income or poor...singles or those w/kids...whites/Jews vs Chinese vs Mexicans, etc...finance vs entertainment vs other industries

Know several ~40yo guys who live in Brentwood or Pali (N of Sunset) w/a wife and 3 rugrats (who attend pvt schools)...and work in SM or CentCity or DLA...and if in finance industry, often arrive at office <<6AM (as they work around NYC stock mkt hrs) and work anytime/anywhere on their Blackberries/iPads

This crowd often started their careers in Manhattan as single workaholics and did the whole urban yuppie nonsense and are now married workaholics who view Westside as BH to SM along the relevant office/residential/dining corridors: rest of LA is irrelevant to them, much like a guy working at PIMCO in NewportBch may reside in NewportCoast and have no reason to ever venture N of NwptBch or S of LagunaBch's Montage

Any major region like PaloAlto or Manhattan or LA has plenty of jaded people who've been there and done that and basically hang out at office and at home and at favorite dining spots, all closely clustered in a rather circumscribed area of vast urban regions...and often had (earlier in career) busy travel schedules to major business cities, so less impressed by alleged "culture" of any urban region in world, esp economically irrelevant touristy or poor or club/nightlife or smoggy areas

[BRinSM]

i've been living on the westside for five years and i think it's a great place to live. much of the time i worked in century city, which is about as far east as i would usually go (unless heading out of town to see family or something like that). now i work in santa monica and travel east of the 405 even less. it's not that i consciously choose to stay west of the 405, it's just that everything i need is located near the coast, so there's not much reason to travel to other parts of town (not to mention the hassle of traffic and parking and the fact that i'm busy working most of the time). there are plenty of other nice parts of the city i like to visit, sometimes it's just hard to get myself to make the 30-45+ minute drive just to go to an area like larchmont village when i could just go to main st in santa monica. when i leave the westside, it's usually to catch a game downtown or visit my brother who lives by the beverly center.

[californio sur]

Originally Posted by majoun

Los Feliz is the best neighborhood within L.A. city limits, and definitely better than your hood. There's no neighborhood in L.A. city limits that offers as much.

BTW some people like old grungy buildings.

Los Felix is nice, to be sure, but there are better LA neighborhoods unless $million homes is important to a person. Los Felix is mainly residential and Los Felix blvd is the only major artery w/ lots of traffic [esp when people are heading to Griffith Pk]. I guess being close to the zoo is cool and the riding stables near the river. But there aren't that many restaurants in the immediate area & the only shopping is in Atwater. But Los Felix is near Glendale w/ good stores [Galleria & Americana]. And Los Felix is also close to Hollywood and not that far from downtown.

But neighborhoods further east\ across the river than Los Felix are also nice though a lot less expensive real estate. Mt Washington\ Eagle Rock\ Monterey Hills\ Montecito Hts are great areas, especially Mt Washington. I have close family friends in Mt Washington. It is really off the beaten track for being so close to downtown [only 4 stops away from Chinatown on the Gold Line]. The hillsides are so remote and full of wildlife that you think you are in the country. Lots of open land that is owned by the Santa Monica conservancy [Mt Washington is the eastern-most extension of the Santa Monica mountains]. Quiet hillsides and canyons yet has the Gold Line if a person wants to go into Pasadena or downtown for dinner\ movie\ nightlife.

The LA neighborhoods adjacent to Pasadena\ South Pasadena & Glendale are also interesting and up-and-coming especially Eagle Rock for funky restaurants\ coffee shops. Even Highland Pk has some really nice homes in the hills near the Arroyo Seco. El Sereno is still fairly blue-collar Latino\ Asian but the homes up in those foothills are nice with big lots and even farm animals [not just chickens either].