What is this neighborhood like?

[JohnG72]

Boundaries: Beverly to the south, Melrose to the north, Vermont to the east, Normandie to the west. Not a good area, yes some of the buildings are essentially slums. But you don't have to take my word for it, just visit.

I'll also note that people in LA have REALLY short memories. While LAPD has historically high deployment, and gentrification pushed rents high enough to get rid of some of the riff raff, theres a reason that neighborhood falls under a gang injunction for MS-13. With the city facing huge budget defecits, don't count on the police to maintain current hiring practices. Do expect some trying to gentrify areas to fall back over the next few years.

[Greg53]

Well for heavens sake, that's what I need. That's what we all need who are new to LA and just want to be safe and not step on anyone's toes. I'm not too keen on my son moving to LA even for 6 months. Both sons being in Chicago was and is still hard enough on my heart, but if I had something like a map that could at least tell us where the gangs are and where Caucasians are not welcome in LA I would buy it. I suppose there would be a lot of controversy with something like that though. Generalizing and profiling doesn't sit well with me , but it's all I have to work with right now. I am looking into student type housing and rooms right now for him. Thank you all for the help and letting me pick your brain. This forum has been most helpful. Thanks for listening to me rant, I'm not normally a ranter.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by Greg53

Well for heavens sake, that's what I need. That's what we all need who are new to LA and just want to be safe and not step on anyone's toes. I'm not too keen on my son moving to LA even for 6 months. Both sons being in Chicago was and is still hard enough on my heart, but if I had something like a map that could at least tell us where the gangs are and where Caucasians are not welcome in LA I would buy it. I suppose there would be a lot of controversy with something like that though. Generalizing and profiling doesn't sit well with me , but it's all I have to work with right now. I am looking into student type housing and rooms right now for him. Thank you all for the help and letting me pick your brain. This forum has been most helpful. Thanks for listening to me rant, I'm not normally a ranter.

Your sons are big boys right?

You could throw a dart at a map of LA and it's likely you'd hit gang territory. Unless your son is going to get involved with them, it's likely he'd encounter any problems.

Where Caucasians aren't welcome? I guess he could go to each neighborhood and ask. LA has its segregated parts, but there aren't vast parts of the city that only contain one race (a la Chicago).

If he wants to live in LA, let him live in LA, and let him use his own intuition when finding a place to live. He'll learn what he likes and dislikes, and he'll arrange his life accordingly. You aren't going to be there to protect him from the gangs, caucasian-haters, or LA as a whole, are you?

[JohnG72]

Gang Injunctions - official website of THE LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT

David is right though, there are bad and good pockets all over LA.

My issue is with what KingoftheHill posted. I think its deceptive and attempts to describe it as sort of urban gritty, but diverse. In reality some of East Hollywood recently(within the past ten years) had some of the worst violent crime in LA. East Hollywood is a pretty huge area and there are a few parts I would live in, mostly north of Franklin. I would also have no problem living nearby in Silver Lake or Los Feliz. Even within East Hollywood, there are little pockets that are nice...actually entire streets with small pre 1930's houses, nice lawns etc inhabited mostly by Armenian immigrants. These are mostly between Santa Monica and Melrose. However, nearly every home will have bars because in general the next street over will be apartments filled with mostly illegal mexican and central american immigrants. I usually laugh when someone posts on city data about illegals inhabiting a neighborhood, but in this case its true. And thats why gangs have a foothold in this area, although its better than it used to be.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

Unless your son is going to get involved with them, it's likely he'd encounter any problems.

*unlikely.

[JohnG72]

So, I decided to drive by the neighborhood last night. The area I focused on was Kenmore between Beverly and the 101. Here is what I observed:

1.) Mix of very old homes, very old apartments buildings, and a couple renovated buildings.

2.) Every single house and building has either a wrought iron fence, bars on all the first floor windows, or both. This was every single building in the 3 block area.

3.) No gang influence whatsoever right now. No graffiti anywhere(rare in LA), no baldy's running around.

4.) Mostly latino community with everything else thrown in. It's not East LA.

5.) Building condition varies GREATLY from brand new entire renovation down to paint peeling, no landscaping, and windows that probably don't work.

6.) Parking is at a diagonal most of the stretch of Kenmore. I saw zero parking spaces available on the street. Quite a few nicer cars which means people that have money and jobs to some extent.

And thats about it. I live in Van Nuys, which lots of people consider to be pretty crappy. I wouldn't live in that stretch of Kenmore.