Recent L.A (county) neighborhood(s) you discovered or were surprised by (Glendale: 2015, house)

[jm1982]

One thing I find interesting about L.A is that it seems you can live here a long time and still discover new neighborhoods. I am thinking in terms of L.A County or the L.A "area" , rather than just city of L.A...even within city of L.A there are a bunch of neighborhoods too.

Anybody that has lived in L.A for even a short amount of time or even visited has been to Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and likely Hollywood.

But what are some of the lesser known neighborhoods that you feel are underappreciated perhaps or that you discovered recently.

For myself , I think that Montrose area of Glendale is one that is pretty cool and recently discovered it.
Shop Montrose - Montrose Shopping Park Association | Glendale's Historic Old Town

I think it's cool that it's kept up, clean, and there is a mix of older businesses mixed in with newer mostly independent businesses. There's a good little mix of restaurants, bars, shops, bakeries. It's also pretty cool because it doesn't seem like it's been 'discovered' by hipsters ...maybe not gritty looking enough for them?

More recently , today I was driving through the Sunland-Tujunga area on Foothill and was kind of surprised there were quite a few types of restaurants and businesses. I've lived not too far from there for several years, but never really drove through there before. It's not really "walkable" like Montrose but still kind of interesting.

I just found this article, which is pretty interesting about a development planned for the area and the neighbors are pretty upset. Apparently Sunland has had the reputation as being a biker hideout and being known for meth labs.. but the residents have been trying to get rid of that image.

Sunland-Tujunga residents work to keep bucolic feel in face of project - LA Times

[munchitup]

I think a big reason that they have not become trendy is their lack of rail access. Sure Silver Lake and Echo Park don't either, but at least they are only a few miles from DTLA and actually not all that far from some Red Line stops.

I agree the Montrose area is quite nice.

[jm1982]

Perhaps, I don't really know what the stats are though on trendy or hipsters using rail.
I'm not the biggest user of rail myself , but I have taken it before. Most of the people using it seem to be more working class immigrants rather than trendy people though.

I could be totally wrong though. For me there is no doubt that in the future being closer to rail will be much more desirable...similar to how it is in NYC .
Right now rail isn't even live in the Westside yet, so this will probably take a while.

NoHo arts is pretty active and I'm sure most of it is from the rail being there. Kind of crazy there are only 2 rail stations in the valley. Of course that was partly because valley people didn't want it. I believe the orange line bus line was supposed to be rail.

It should of also stretched further north on Lankershim. I think that would of really helped development in a part of the valley that desperately needs it or could be improved. Lankershim North of the NoHo arts area.

I wouldn't fault someone for thinking they are in a 3rd world country looking at the current state of it.

[RudyOD]

I recently fell in love with Eagle Rock (in the last two years or so). This was after having lived in the LA area since I was 7. aha.

[jm1982]

Eagle Rock is nice. I think it's a lot nicer than Echo Park personally..as far as hip areas. There are hipsters in Echo Park..but it's not like 10 on the hipster scale like EP .

[majoun]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Perhaps, I don't really know what the stats are though on trendy or hipsters using rail.
I'm not the biggest user of rail myself , but I have taken it before. Most of the people using it seem to be more working class immigrants rather than trendy people though.

I could be totally wrong though. For me there is no doubt that in the future being closer to rail will be much more desirable...similar to how it is in NYC .
Right now rail isn't even live in the Westside yet, so this will probably take a while.

NoHo arts is pretty active and I'm sure most of it is from the rail being there. Kind of crazy there are only 2 rail stations in the valley. Of course that was partly because valley people didn't want it. I believe the orange line bus line was supposed to be rail.

It should of also stretched further north on Lankershim. I think that would of really helped development in a part of the valley that desperately needs it or could be improved. Lankershim North of the NoHo arts area.

I wouldn't fault someone for thinking they are in a 3rd world country looking at the current state of it.

No rail in the Westside right now? Forgetting about where Expo terminates right now? The Westside extends a good deal east of the area under the jurisdiction of the Coastal Commission.

It does need to be extended all over.

A shame Zev killed rail extending further into the Valley.

[jm1982]

Culver City, which is technically westside true..

Not a big fan of Zev...or pretty much any of the L.A politicians..

[mrsltd]

Bungalow Heaven, in Pasadena.

Plus there are not-so-hidden gems in cities like Whittier (Friendly Hills and the Janine Dr area to the east, etc.), and La Mirada (either side of Imperial Hwy around Oxford Dr. between La Mirada Blvd and Santa Gertrudes is some good ol' fashioned rolling hill country with beautiful homes to match). These are not recent discoveries of mine, and are on the edges of the county, but numbers of people are surprised that these areas exist where they are.

My dad's house is in ER, south of Colorado Blvd. I discovered the neighborhood NORTH of the Blvd one day. Wow. Hill Dr is awesome.

[HyperionGap]

Cafe Beaujolais in ER is the best.

[John_marts]

I was on vacation in LA a week ago and visited as much as the LA area as I could. I drove through/ visited:

Venice
Santa Monica
Marina Del Ray
Hollywood
Hollywood hills
W.Hollywood
Beverly hills
Brentwood
Malibu
North Hollywood
Van Nuys
Los Feliz
Silverlake
Echo Park
Westlake
DTLA
Glendale
Pasedena
Alhambra
Torrance
Watts
Compton

Out of all of those, I enjoyed Echo Park, (although rougher looking than I imagined) Silverlake, and NoHo the most. Thats out of the "lesser known" areas. If I had to pick one are period, it would be Venice hands down.