Westside (Los Angeles County)

The Westside as seen from a plane departing Los Angeles International Airport.

West Los Angeles (also known as West L.A. or the Westside) comprises the Los Angeles city communities of Bel Air, Beverly Crest, Beverlywood, Century City, Brentwood, Cheviot Hills, Pacific Palisades, Palms, Rancho Park, Sawtelle, West Los Angeles, Westwood (Los Angeles Almanac), Venice, Mar Vista, Playa del Rey, South Robertson and Westchester, as well as the incorporated cities of Beverly Hills, Culver City, Santa Monica, and the unincorporated county territory of Marina del Rey.[1]

Business and transportation

Many of the major educational, retail, cultural, and recreational attractions of Greater Los Angeles are located in this area, as is a large portion of the entertainment industry. Century City is a major business hub of the Westside, containing many major production corporations, talent agencies, and entertainment law firms.

Culver City houses several film studios and commercial effects houses. Santa Monica, Venice, Beverly Hills, and new developments near LAX are also important entertainment industry centers.

The Westside rivals downtown Los Angeles for the number of people commuting to it from other areas, particularly the San Fernando Valley to the north and the South Bay to the south.

The proposed Pacific Coast, Beverly Hills, and Laurel Canyon freeways went unbuilt in the face of massive community opposition. A great deal of development took place in anticipation of these roadways' construction, resulting in significant congestion on the area's surface streets. Getting to Hollywood from the West Side is particularly difficult. Major east-west streets between the regions are jammed during much of the day. Proposals to widen the existing freeways or extend the Purple Line to the ocean have been stalled by their great expense; more recently, an old proposal to turn Pico and Olympic into one-way streets has been revived.

Demographics and ethnicity

In the 2000 census, the Westside of Los Angeles County had a population of 570,035. The designate area within the city of Los Angeles had a population of 413,351[2]. The Westside is predominantly white, but is fairly diverse with Asians, African Americans, and Hispanics living in the area. Economic levels vary from middle class to upper class, with the Westside having one of the highest concentrations of wealth in Los Angeles.

Gentrification

Certain parts of the Westside — in Venice, Sawtelle, Culver City, Santa Monica and South Robertson — have a gang problem, although it has been reported that many gang members have moved east and south due to gentrification and increased police vigilance.

Climate

West Los Angeles is in a temperate Csa Mediterranean-type climate zone, according to Köppen climate classification.