Bel Air, Los Angeles

Bel Air
Neighborhood of Los Angeles
The Bel Air west gate at Sunset and Bellagio
Country	United States
State	California
County	Los Angeles
City	Los Angeles

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.

Bel Air is situated about 12 miles (19 km) west of downtown Los Angeles and includes some of the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. It borders the north side of UCLA along Sunset Boulevard. At the heart of the community sits the Bel Air Country Club and the Hotel Bel Air. The community was founded in 1923 by Alphonzo E. Bell, Sr.

It is bordered by Brentwood on the west and southwest, Westwood on the south, Beverly Hills Post Office on the east, and Sherman Oaks on the north. Bel Air is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities and high-profile corporate executives. The Bel Air Association has been operational since 1942, dedicated to preserving the life-style and property-values of their residential community. The Bel Air Association is located at the entrance of the East Gate of Bel Air at 100 Bel Air Road.

Residences

Residences in Bel Air tend to be private and hidden, by dense foliage and gates, from the winding roads of the community. Residences range from relatively modest ranch-style houses, to lavish mansions on magnificent estates. While some houses in Bel Air seem quite modest from the outside, often lying mere feet from the street, they still have large grounds. In general, the higher up the mountain, the smaller the building lots, and more modest the houses. However, those residences along roads such as Stradella Road and Linda Flora Drive provide panoramic views of the Los Angeles basin and Catalina Island. The most desirable houses are near the main entrances of the Bel Air Country Club, because they boast views of both the country club and much of Los Angeles. Lower Bel Air boasts many of the most expensive homes in the community, largely because of their proximity to Sunset Boulevard, a major thoroughfare.

Multi-family housing is not permitted and ordinances regarding architectural styles, landscaping, and lot sizes exist to preserve Bel Air . Although no one is necessarily banned from entering on foot, most of Bel Air lacks residential sidewalks (unlike Beverly Hills) to discourage the public from walking around the community. Bel Air is also patrolled by local security companies.

President Ronald Reagan lived in a house in Bel Air from his retirement as President in 1989 until his death in 2004, and former First Lady Nancy Reagan continues to live there and attends nearby Bel Air Presbyterian Church.

Neighborhoods

Of several entrances, there are two main ones: the East Gate at Beverly Glen and Sunset Boulevards, and the West Gate at Bellagio Road and Sunset Boulevard, opposite an entrance to UCLA. Bel Air is generally subdivided into three distinct neighborhoods: East Gate Old Bel Air, West Gate Bel Air and Upper Bel Air.

Attractions

The UCLA Hannah Carter Japanese Garden is located in Bel Air . It was inspired by the gardens of Kyoto. Many structures in the garden - the main gate, garden house, bridges, and shrine - were built in Japan and reassembled here. Antique stone carvings, water basins and lanterns, as well as the five-tiered pagoda, and key symbolic rocks are also from Japan. Several hundred tons of local stones came from the quarries in Ventura County and the foot of Mt. Baldy, northeast of Los Angeles.

Television and film

Television shows and movies have been filmed in Bel Air, or are said to take place in the community. Exterior shots for the Beverly Hillbillies were shot in and around the 1938 French neoclassical-style mansion at 750 Bel Air Road, built by Lynn Atkinson (and later sold to hotelier Arnold Kirkeby after Atkinson's wife refused to move into a house she thought too ostentatious) After the exterior shooting was completed, the residents of that address forbade any more filming, as passers-by would wander onto the property and ask to see 'Granny'. Exterior scenes from movies such as Get Shorty have also been filmed in the area. Several television films of The Rockford Files were filmed in Bel Air.Google Maps display of estate used in several episodes The television sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air was set in the neighborhood although the exterior shots used were filmed in nearby Brentwood. The Bel Air Film Festival, first held in 2008, is an annual international film festival held in Bel Air and the Los Angeles area.

Brentwood–Bel Air fire

In 1961, a construction crew working in Sherman Oaks noticed the smoke and flames in a nearby pile of rubbish. Within minutes, Santa Ana winds gusting up to 60 mph (97 km/h) sent burning brush aloft and ultimately seared November 6, 1961, into Los Angeles' civic memory.

Life magazine called it "A Tragedy Trimmed in Mink," and glittering stars of stage and screen scrambled to do battle with the blaze that swept through Bel Air and Brentwood that day. Flaming embers danced from roof to wood-shingled roof, spreading the fire across the Santa Monica Mountains to the south and into the affluent Westside enclaves.

In Bel Air, some film stars stood their ground against the encroaching flames. Maureen O'Hara risked her life to remain at her home and hose down her wooden roof. Fred MacMurray battled the flames and contained damage to just a portion of his home. But comedian Joe E. Brown saw his home burn to the ground. Burt Lancaster and Zsa Zsa Gabor also lost their homes.

Then former Vice President Richard M. Nixon and his chief researcher, Al Moscow, were working on a draft of Nixon's "Six Crises" when the flames threatened his rented house on North Bundy Drive. Nixon and Moscow took to the roof to water down the wood shingles, saving the home.

More than 300 police officers helped evacuate 3,500 residents during the 12-hour fire, and more than 2,500 firefighters battled the blaze, pumping water from neighborhood swimming pools to douse flames in some areas. Pockets of the fire smoldered for several days. Even as firefighters battled what was to become the Bel Air disaster, a separate fire had erupted simultaneously in Santa Ynez Canyon to the west, further straining local firefighting resources. That blaze was contained the next day after consuming nearly 10,000 acres (40 km²) and nine structures and burning to within a mile of the inferno raging in Bel Air and Brentwood.

At least 200 firefighters were injured, many by the tar from the roofs of the homes, but no one was killed and 78% of the homes were saved. Still, the fires were the fifth worst conflagration in the nation's history at the time, burning 16,090 acres (65.1 km²), destroying more than 484 homes and 190 other structures and causing an estimated $30 million in damage.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 7,928 people in the neighborhood. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 86.24% White, 6.84% Asian, 4.65% Hispanic, 1.93% Black, 0.06% Native American, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.30% from other races, and 3.59% from two or more races.

In 2009, the Los Angeles Times's "Mapping L.A." project supplied these Bel Air statistics: population: 7,928; median household income: $207,938

Government and infrastructure

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services SPA 5 West Area Health Office serves Bel Air.

It lies within the 5th city council district, represented by Paul Koretz. It is located in the 90077 (Bel Air Estates & Beverly Glen) ZIP code, which is part of the city of Los Angeles.

Stone Canyon Reservoir lies in the northeastern part of Bel Air. Established in 1994, it serves around 400,000 people.

Emergency services

Fire services

Los Angeles Fire Department Station 71 is in the area.

Police services

The Los Angeles Police Department operates the West Los Angeles Community Police Station at 1663 Butler Avenue, 90025, serving the neighborhood.

Education

The American Jewish University, located in the Bel Air Casiano neighborhood

Primary and secondary schools

Public schools

The community is within the Los Angeles Unified School District. The area is within Board District 4. As of 2009 Steve Zimmer represents the district.

Two elementary schools, Roscomare Road Elementary School in Bel Air and Warner Avenue Elementary School in Westwood serve Bel Air . Emerson Middle School in Westwood and University High School in West Los Angeles serve Bel Air .

In addition, an LAUSD magnet school named Community Magnet Charter School is in Bel-Air. Because the school's point-based admissions system does not favor area residents, children living in Bel-Air generally do not attend the school. It is located in the former Bellagio Road School campus.

In April 1983 an advisory committee of the LAUSD recommended closing eight LAUSD schools, including Bellagio Road School. The committee did not target Fairburn Avenue School in Westwood, as a way of allowing it to preserve its ethnic balance, and so it can take children from Bellagio Road in the event that it closed. In August 1983 the board publicly considered closing Bellagio, which had 240 students at the time. The school's enrollment had been decreasing. In May 1983 the board voted to keep the school open. In February 1984, after the composition of the board had changed, the board voted to close the Bellagio Road School.

Bel-Air previously housed the Bellagio Road Newcomer School, a 3rd-8th grade school for newly arrived immigrants. In 2002 it had 390 students from Armenia, China, El Salvador, Guatemala, Korea, Russia, and other countries. This program was housed in the former Bellagio Road school.

Private schools

Private schools in the Bel Air area include:

• John Thomas Dye School (K–6)
• Marymount High School
• Westland School (K-6)
• Berkeley Hall (Christian Science, K-8)
• Stephen S. Wise Temple Elementary (Reform Jewish; K-6)
• Milken Community High School (Jewish; 7-12).
• The Mirman School (K-8)
• The Curtis School (DK-6)

Colleges and universities

Colleges and universities in Bel Air include:

• American Jewish University, comprising an undergraduate school, MBA, MaED, and Rabbinic ordination through the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies

Notable residents

• Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan
• Bruce Lee
• The Verschoyle-King Family
• Mariah Carey
• Chris Paul
• Meg Ryan
• Will Smith
• Kyle Richards
• Taylor Armstrong
• Zsa Zsa Gabor

External links

• Bel Air Association Official Website
• Los Angeles City Council District 5
• "Bel Air: A part of the city, yet apart from it too" (6 Mar 2005) Los Angeles Times, Real Estate section, Neighborly Advice column.