Westwood, Los Angeles, California
Encyclopedia
Westwood is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is the home of the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

 (UCLA).

History

Westwood was developed on the lands of the historic 'Wolfskill Ranch', a 3000 acres (12.1 km²) parcel that was purchased by Arthur Letts
Arthur Letts
Arthur Letts, Sr. was the underfunded immigrant from England who made his name, fortune, and mark in Los Angeles, California in the early years of the 20th century...

, the successful founder of the Broadway
The Broadway
The Broadway was a mid-level department store chain headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States of America. Founded in 1896 by English born Arthur Letts, Sr., who later went on to develop Holmby Hills, The Broadway became one of the dominant retailers in Southern California and the...

, and Bullock's
Bullock's
Bullock's was a department store based in Los Angeles, California. The company operated full-line department stores all across California, with some stores in Arizona and Nevada. Bullock's also operated the more upscale Bullocks Wilshire in parts of Southern California.- History :Bullock's was...

department stores, in 1919. Upon Arthur Lett's death, his son-in-law, Harold Janss, vice president of Janss Investment Company
Janss Investment Company
The Janss Investment Company was a family run, Los Angeles, California, real estate development company that operated from 1895 to 1995.-First generation:...

, inherited the land and developed the area and started advertising for new homes in 1922.

The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

reported the news: "Westwood, the subdivision of the Wolfskill ranch, 3300 acres (13.4 km²) of scenic territory between the city and Santa Monica, is to be opened to homeseekers and investors today by the Janss Investment Company. The tract comprises approximately 1000 residential and business lots, situated west of the Los Angeles Country Club on Santa Monica Boulevard and the Rancho Country Club on Pico Boulevard."

Geography

Located in the northern central portion of Los Angeles's Westside, Westwood is bordered by Brentwood
Brentwood, Los Angeles, California
Brentwood is a district in western Los Angeles, California, United States. The district is located at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains, bounded by the San Diego Freeway on the east, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, the Santa Monica city limits on the southwest, the border of Topanga State...

 on the west, Bel-Air
Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California
Bel Air is an affluent residential community in the hills of the Westside of the city of Los Angeles, California. Together with Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills it forms the Platinum Triangle of Los Angeles neighborhoods....

 on the north, Century City
Century City, Los Angeles, California
Century City is a 176-acre commercial and residential district on the Westside of the city of Los Angeles. It is bounded by Westwood on the west, Rancho Park on the southwest, Cheviot Hills and Beverlywood on the southeast, and the city of Beverly Hills on the northeast...

 and Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...

 on the east, West Los Angeles
West Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
West Los Angeles is a district in Los Angeles, California, within a larger region known as the "Westside."-Geography and transportation:...

 on the southwest, Rancho Park
Rancho Park, Los Angeles, California
Rancho Park is a small residential neighborhood in West Los Angeles, California with mostly single family homes and tree lined streets. The community is nestled between Westwood and Cheviot Hills. This enclave draws young professionals and families and is home to residents working in a variety of...

 on the southeast, and Sawtelle on the south and southwest. The district's boundaries are generally considered to be Olympic Boulevard
Olympic Boulevard
Olympic Boulevard is a major arterial road in Los Angeles, California. It stretches from 4th Street on the western end of Santa Monica to East Los Angeles—farther than Wilshire Boulevard and most other streets....

 on the southeast, the city limits of Beverly Hills on the northeast, and Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...

 on the north; its southwestern boundary is the San Diego Freeway
Interstate 405 (California)
Interstate 405 is a major north–south Interstate Highway in Southern California. It is a bypass of Interstate 5, running along the western areas of the Greater Los Angeles Area from Irvine in the south to near San Fernando in the north...

 between Olympic
Olympic Boulevard
Olympic Boulevard is a major arterial road in Los Angeles, California. It stretches from 4th Street on the western end of Santa Monica to East Los Angeles—farther than Wilshire Boulevard and most other streets....

 and Wilshire
Wilshire Boulevard
Wilshire Boulevard is one of the principal east-west arterial roads in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was named for Henry Gaylord Wilshire , an Ohio native who made and lost fortunes in real estate, farming, and gold mining. Henry Wilshire initiated what was to become Wilshire...

 boulevards, and Veteran Avenue between Wilshire and Sunset.

Transportation

Westwood's major thoroughfares include Santa Monica, Olympic
Olympic Boulevard
Olympic Boulevard is a major arterial road in Los Angeles, California. It stretches from 4th Street on the western end of Santa Monica to East Los Angeles—farther than Wilshire Boulevard and most other streets....

, Sepulveda
Sepulveda Boulevard
Sepulveda Boulevard is a street in Los Angeles, California, which stretches some 42.8 miles from Rinaldi Street at the north end of the San Fernando Valley to the city limits of Hermosa Beach, where it "jumps" east and continues on to Long Beach. It generally runs north-south, passing underneath...

, Beverly Glen
Beverly Glen Boulevard
Beverly Glen Boulevard is one of three major routes that connects West Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley ....

, Wilshire
Wilshire Boulevard
Wilshire Boulevard is one of the principal east-west arterial roads in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was named for Henry Gaylord Wilshire , an Ohio native who made and lost fortunes in real estate, farming, and gold mining. Henry Wilshire initiated what was to become Wilshire...

, Westwood
Westwood Boulevard
Westwood Boulevard is a street in Los Angeles that runs through the heart of Westwood Village and further south in West Los Angeles.Westwood Blvd begins south of Sunset Boulevard in the campus of UCLA as Westwood Plaza. After exiting UCLA, it is one of two major thoroughfares in the Village...

, and Sunset
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...

 Boulevards. The district is served by the San Diego Freeway
Interstate 405 (California)
Interstate 405 is a major north–south Interstate Highway in Southern California. It is a bypass of Interstate 5, running along the western areas of the Greater Los Angeles Area from Irvine in the south to near San Fernando in the north...

 (I-405
Interstate 405 (California)
Interstate 405 is a major north–south Interstate Highway in Southern California. It is a bypass of Interstate 5, running along the western areas of the Greater Los Angeles Area from Irvine in the south to near San Fernando in the north...

). Local bus service is provided by Big Blue Bus
Big Blue Bus
Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines, more commonly known as the Big Blue Bus, is a municipal bus operator in the Westside region of Los Angeles, providing both local and bus rapid transit service in Santa Monica and adjacent neighborhoods of Los Angeles...

 and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is the California state-chartered regional transportation planning agency and public transportation operating agency for the County of Los Angeles formed in 1993 out of a merger of the Southern California Rapid Transit District and the...

. Culver CityBus
Culver CityBus
Culver CityBus is a public transport agency operating in Culver City, California, currently serving Culver City, the unincorporated community of Marina del Rey, and the adjacent Los Angeles neighborhoods...

's Line 6 also serves Westwood.

The area's notorious traffic
Transportation of Los Angeles
The intercity transportation system in Los Angeles serves as a regional, national and international hub for passenger and freight traffic. The system includes the United States' largest port complex, an extensive freight and passenger rail infrastructure, numerous airports and an extensive highway...

 has led to calls for the extension of the Purple Line
Metro Purple Line (LACMTA)
The Purple Line is a subway line operating between Downtown Los Angeles and Mid-Wilshire/Koreatown, Los Angeles, California in Los Angeles; one of five lines on the Metro Rail System....

 subway
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...

 to Westwood from its current endpoint at Western Avenue in Koreatown
Koreatown, Los Angeles, California
Koreatown is a neighborhood in the Mid-Wilshire district of the city of Los Angeles, California known for its concentration of Korean American people and institutions...

.

The Metro and Caltrans have also begun a project to widen the San Diego Freeway between the interchanges with the Marina Freeway (SR 90
California State Route 90
State Route 90 is a state highway in Southern California, United States. It consists of two unconnected pieces in Greater Los Angeles....

) in Culver City
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...

 and the Ventura Freeway
Ventura Freeway
The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California running from Ventura to Pasadena. It is the principal east-west route through Ventura County and in the southern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County. From Ventura to its intersection with the Hollywood Freeway in the southeastern San...

 (U.S. Route 101) in Sherman Oaks; the project, which will finally add a northbound carpool lane
High-occupancy vehicle lane
In transportation engineering and transportation planning, a high-occupancy vehicle lane is a lane reserved for vehicles with a driver and one or more passengers...

 to the congested route, is not scheduled for completion until 2011 at the earliest.

Attractions

A center of movie-going on the Westside and the site of many movie premieres, Westwood is home to several vintage movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

s, including the Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

 Crest, the Mann Village (once called the Fox Theater
Fox Theater, Westwood Village
The Fox Theater, Westwood Village, also known as the Fox Village Theater, is a historic, landmark cinema in Westwood Village, Los Angeles, California. It is currently operated by Regency Theaters under the name Regency Village Theater...

) featuring a landmark 170 feet (51.8 m) white tower and the Bruin Theatre
Fox Bruin Theater
The Fox Bruin Theater is a large movie palace located in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, California. The structure was designed by noted movie theater architect, S...

. Playboy Mansion
The Playboy Mansion
The Playboy Mansion is the home of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner. Located in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles, California, the mansion became famous during the 1970s through media reports of Hefner's lavish parties.-History:The house is described as being in the "Gothic-Tudor" style...

, home of Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...

founder Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...

, is located in nearby Holmby Hills.

Westwood is also home to the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
The Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery is a cemetery in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles, California. It is located at 1218 Glendon Avenue in Westwood....

, the final resting place of many of Hollywood's biggest stars
Movie star
A movie star is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a movie in trailers and posters...

. A museum
Hammer Museum
The Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture Center, or the Hammer Museum as it is more commonly known, is an art museum in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California...

 named for and endowed by activist and philanthropist Armand Hammer
Armand Hammer
Armand Hammer was an American business tycoon most closely associated with Occidental Petroleum, a company he ran for decades, though he was known as well as for his art collection, his philanthropy, and for his close ties to the Soviet Union.Thanks to business interests around the world and his...

, longtime head of Occidental Petroleum
Occidental Petroleum
Occidental Petroleum Corporation is a California-based oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, the Middle East, North Africa, and South America...

 (which maintains its headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard), has become one of Los Angeles' trendiest cultural attractions since UCLA assumed its management in the 1990s. The Hammer, as it is commonly known, is particularly notable for its collection of Impressionist
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...

 art and cutting-edge modern art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...

 exhibitions. The museum also houses the Billy Wilder Theater, run by the UCLA Film and Television Archive
UCLA Film and Television Archive
The UCLA Film and Television Archive is an internationally renowned visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles. It holds more than 220,000 film and television titles and 27 million feet of...

.

Westwood Village

Built by the Janss Investment Company, the Westwood Village
Westwood Village, Los Angeles, California
Westwood Village is the main shopping and commercial center of the Westwood district in the City of Los Angeles, California. It is located north of Wilshire Boulevard, east of Gayley Avenue, south of Le Conte Avenue, and west of Hilgard Avenue.-History:...

 shopping
Shopping
Shopping is the examining of goods or services from retailers with the intent to purchase at that time. Shopping is an activity of selection and/or purchase. In some contexts it is considered a leisure activity as well as an economic one....

 district, which opened in 1929, retained its small-village atmosphere even after the San Diego Freeway came through the area in the 1950s and high-rise office towers went up around it in the following decades. However, much of this construction was planned around the never-built Beverly Hills Freeway; in combination with a perceived parking
Parking
Parking is the act of stopping a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied for more than a brief time. Parking on one or both sides of a road is commonly permitted, though often with restrictions...

 shortage at UCLA, high-density development in Westwood has created some of the worst traffic congestion
Traffic congestion
Traffic congestion is a condition on road networks that occurs as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. The most common example is the physical use of roads by vehicles. When traffic demand is great enough that the interaction...

 in Los Angeles. Even with the opening of numerous municipal parking structures in the 1990s and 2000s, finding a parking spot in Westwood Village is still a notoriously difficult task. With the proximity of Westwood's towering business area to its shops that line the streets around UCLA, parking and traffic issues dominate local planning debates.

Some landmark buildings still remain from the early years of Westwood Village including the first building erected in the village, the Janss Investment Company Building
Janss Investment Company Building
The Janss Investment Company Building, also known as the Janss Dome, is an historic building in Westwood Village, Los Angeles, California. The building is located at the five way intersection of Westwood Boulevard, Kinross and Broxton Avenues....

 (Janss Dome) with its aqua and white zig-zag patterned dome and gold leafing. Other buildings listed as Historic-Cultural Monuments include the Fox and Bruin Theaters and the Ralphs Grocery Store building.

Westwood Village is within walking distance of the UCLA campus. There is a multitude of culturally-based restaurants condensed into this small area, so that students and Westwood visitors can choose from a variety of food options, including Indian, Chinese, Thai, American, Italian, Persian, Japanese, and Mexican.

Recent history

The murder of innocent bystander Karen Toshima, during a gun battle between rival gang
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...

s on January 30, 1988, gained nationwide notoriety and led to the widespread impression that even affluent Westwood was not immune to the crime wave then ravaging Los Angeles. It would take more than a decade for this perception to fade.

Today, while Westwood is again regarded as one of the safest neighborhoods in the city, its retail sector has been slow to recover in the face of increased competition from Century City, the newly revitalized Culver City, the very popular Third Street Promenade
Third Street Promenade
The Third Street Promenade is a public entertainment venue in the downtown area of Santa Monica, California. It is considered a premier shopping and dining district on the Westside and draws crowds from all over Los Angeles County...

 in Santa Monica
Santa Mônica
Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...

, and mid-city attractions like Park La Brea
Park La Brea, Los Angeles, California
Park La Brea is a sprawling apartment complex in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles, California...

's The Grove
The Grove at Farmers Market
The Grove is a retail and entertainment complex in Los Angeles, California, built, owned, and operated by Rick J. Caruso and his company Caruso Affiliated on parts of the historical Farmers Market.-History:...

, as well as Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...

 which itself is going through a renaissance. Recently, it has been notoriously difficult for new stores to stay in business.

LDS (Mormon) Temple

The Los Angeles California Temple
Los Angeles California Temple
The Los Angeles California Temple , the tenth operating and the second-largest temple operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is on Santa Monica Boulevard in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California...

, the second-largest temple
Temple (LDS Church)
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , a temple is a building dedicated to be a House of the Lord, and they are considered by Church members to be the most sacred structures on earth. Upon completion, temples are usually open to the public for a short period of time...

 operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is on Santa Monica Boulevard in Westwood. The temple grounds also includes a Visitors' Center open to the public and the headquarters for the Church's missionary
Mormon missionary
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over 52,000 full-time missionaries worldwide, as of the end of 2010...

 efforts in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

. The church purchased the land for the temple from silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 star Harold Lloyd
Harold Lloyd
Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies....

 in 1937, but did not open the temple until 1956.

The temple grounds are also home to the Los Angeles Regional Family History Center
Family History Center (LDS Church)
Family History Centers are units of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

 (LARFHC), which is open to the public as well. It is the second-largest branch in the Family History Library
Family History Library
The Family History Library is a genealogical research facility in downtown Salt Lake City. The library is open to the public free of charge and is operated by FamilySearch, the genealogical arm of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints .-History:The origins of the Family History...

 system of the LDS Church, and contains more than 100,000 microfiche and 30,000 book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...

s.

Housing and demographics

Many of the area's permanent residents are of Asian, Middle Eastern and European ancestry and generally affluent, living in high-rise apartment buildings and, in Holmby Hills, some of the most luxurious single-family houses in Los Angeles.

Single-family homes tend to be east and southeast of UCLA, particularly in the areas behind the LDS temple. Housing in the portion of the district bounded by Sepulveda
Sepulveda Boulevard
Sepulveda Boulevard is a street in Los Angeles, California, which stretches some 42.8 miles from Rinaldi Street at the north end of the San Fernando Valley to the city limits of Hermosa Beach, where it "jumps" east and continues on to Long Beach. It generally runs north-south, passing underneath...

, Santa Monica, Westwood, and Wilshire Boulevard
Wilshire Boulevard
Wilshire Boulevard is one of the principal east-west arterial roads in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was named for Henry Gaylord Wilshire , an Ohio native who made and lost fortunes in real estate, farming, and gold mining. Henry Wilshire initiated what was to become Wilshire...

s is mostly low- or medium-rise apartment buildings catering to upscale young professionals, as well as some UCLA students. Most UCLA students in Westwood, however, live in the hilly area of low-rise apartments between Veteran Avenue and the campus's western boundary or South of Wilshire.
Because of consistently high demand and the district's proximity to so many Westside attractions and businesses, rental housing in Westwood is very expensive relative to most areas of Los Angeles. For all but the wealthiest UCLA students, living off-campus in a Westwood apartment necessitates sharing a room. (Westwood North Village is the main region in which students dwell.) As a result, many UCLA students live 5 miles (8 km) south of campus in Culver City and the Los Angeles districts of Mar Vista
Mar Vista, Los Angeles, California
Mar Vista is a district on the West Side of Los Angeles, California.-Geography and transportation:Mar Vista is near the center of LA's West Side. The city of Santa Monica lies to the northwest, West Los Angeles to the north, Palms to the northeast, Culver City to the east, Del Rey to the southwest,...

 and Palms
Palms, Los Angeles, California
Palms is a community founded in 1886 in West Los Angeles, California, and was the oldest neighborhood annexed to the city of Los Angeles, in 1915. The 1886 tract was marketed as an agricultural and vacation community...

, both in private housing and in large UCLA-owned apartment complexes. Some students also opt to live south of Wilshire Blvd. as it is inexpensive but still close to UCLA. Significant numbers of UCLA students also live in the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...

, but heavy traffic congestion through the Sepulveda Pass
Sepulveda Pass
Sepulveda Pass is a mountain pass through the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles.It connects the Los Angeles Basin to the San Fernando Valley via the San Diego Freeway and Sepulveda Boulevard and experiences heavy traffic on a regular basis, commonly experiencing major traffic slowdowns and...

 and Beverly Glen can wreak havoc on commutes between the Valley and Westwood.

Businesses owned or operated by the Iranian community are clustered along Westwood Blvd., earning it the sobriquet Little Persia.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, it is estimated that there were 47,916 people residing in the Westwood neighborhood. The ethnic or racial makeup was 62.53% non-Hispanic White, 2.10% Black, 7.0% Latino, 0.15% Native American, 23.06% Asian, 0.15% Pacific Islander, 3.19% from other races, and 5.46% from two or more races.

The median income for a household was $68,716, and for a family was $89,946. The per capita income was $47,428.

The Millionaire's Mile

The winding two-mile (3 km) section of Wilshire Boulevard to the east of Westwood Village is dominated by residential high-rises, and is variously known as the Millionaire's Mile
Millionaires' Mile
Millionaires' Mile also written Millionaire's Mile and sometimes called Millionaires' Row is an informal name given to exclusive residential neighborhoods of various cities, often along one scenic strip such as a riverside or hilltop drive, or a wide city boulevard...

, the Golden Mile or the Wilshire Corridor.

Government and infrastructure

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services
Los Angeles County Department of Health Services
Health services to over 10 million residents in the Los Angeles County are provided by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Mental health services are provided by the County Department of Mental Health...

 SPA 5 West Area Health Office serves Westwood.

Police

The Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...

 operates the West Los Angeles Community Police Station at 1663 Butler Avenue, which serves the community. Law enforcement for the UCLA campus is the responsibility of the UCLA Police Department, a division of the independent, statewide University of California Police Department
University of California Police Department
The University of California Police Department is the police agency charged with providing law enforcement to the campuses of the University of California system.-History:...

. As a state police agency, the UCLA PD has full law enforcement powers on and off campus.

Fire and EMS

Fire and emergency medical services are provided by the Los Angeles Fire Department
Los Angeles Fire Department
The Los Angeles Fire Department is the agency that provides fire protection and emergency medical services for the city of Los Angeles....

. UCLA Emergency Medical Services
University of California, Los Angeles Emergency Medical Services
UCLA Emergency Medical Services is a student run Emergency Medical Services organization at the University of California, Los Angeles. Part of the University of California Police Department , UCLA EMS provides 9-1-1 emergency medical response to the UCLA campus and surrounding areas 24 hours a...

, a division of the UCLA Police Department, operates a Basic Life Support ambulance for the UCLA campus and supports LAFD on medical aid calls in the surrounding community. UCLA also maintains a small fire suppression apparatus staffed by campus fire marshals that responds to university-owned properties and assists the outside community when requested to by LAFD.

Primary and secondary schools

The neighborhood is zoned to Los Angeles USD schools. The area is within Board District 4. As of 2008 Marlene Canter represents the district. Canter announced that she will not seek re-election after her term expires in June 2009.
Westwood is also the seat of the University of California, Los Angeles.

Elementary schools serving separate areas in Westwood include:

All residents are zoned to Emerson Middle School
Emerson Middle School (Los Angeles, California)
Ralph Waldo Emerson Middle School is a middle school in the Los Angeles Unified School District in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, USA. It was designed by famed architect Richard Neutra and was named in honor of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American author, poet, and philosopher.The school offers...

 (some residents have joint zoning to Emerson and Webster Middle School) and University High School.

Parks and recreation

The Westwood Recreation Center is in Westwood. The facility includes barbecue pits, a lighted baseball diamond, lighted outdoor basketball courts, a children's play area, a community room, an indoor gymnasium with weights, and a picnic table. The center also has Aidan's Place, which opened on December 5, 2001. The place, named after wheelchair-bound Aidan James, is a playground developed for joint use by handicapped and non-handicapped children.

See also

  • Tehrangeles
    Tehrangeles
    Tehrangeles is a portmanteau deriving from the combination of Tehran, the capital of Iran, and Los Angeles. It is used when referring to the large number of former Iranian nationals and their descendants residing in the Los Angeles metropolitan area; it is the largest such population outside of...

  • Beverly Hills
  • Westwood Village
    Westwood Village, Los Angeles, California
    Westwood Village is the main shopping and commercial center of the Westwood district in the City of Los Angeles, California. It is located north of Wilshire Boulevard, east of Gayley Avenue, south of Le Conte Avenue, and west of Hilgard Avenue.-History:...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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