Westchester, Los Angeles

Westchester is a neighborhood in western Los Angeles, California, United States. It is home to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Loyola Marymount University (LMU), and Otis College of Art and Design.

Geography

Westchester is separated from the Pacific Ocean by Playa del Rey on the west. Its northern border is defined by Jefferson and Centinela Boulevards, where it borders the neighborhood of Del Rey, as well as Culver City, and the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights. The Playa Vista housing and retail community is located in north Westchester. The city of Inglewood is to the east, and the city of El Segundo is to the south. The southern portion of the neighborhood is taken up by the Los Angeles International Airport (a.k.a. LAX). The San Diego Freeway runs through the northeastern portion of the area. The Westchester Neighbors Association defines its boundaries as "the area within the City of Los Angeles: east of Sepulveda Boulevard, north of Manchester Avenue and west of the I/S 405 Freeway (San Diego Fwy)." [1]

History

Like most of what is now southern Los Angeles County, Westchester began the 20th century as an agricultural area, growing a wide variety of crops in the dry farming-friendly climate. The rapid development of the aerospace industry near Mines Field (as LAX was then known), and population growth in Los Angeles as a whole, created a demand for housing in the area. In the late 1930s, real estate magnate Fritz Burns developed a tract of inexpensive prefabricated single-family homes on the site of a former hog farm at the intersection of Manchester and Sepulveda Boulevards. This community, dubbed "Westchester," grew by leaps and bounds as the aerospace industry boomed in World War II and afterward.

Howard Hughes, the famous aviator, movie director and tool company owner, operated a large manufacturing plant in lower Westchester in the area now known as the Playa Vista community. Hughes Airport (IATA: CVR), a private airport, was part of the manufacturing plant. The street named Runway Drive is laid out in the approximate location of the former Hughes Airport runway.

The Hughes facilities were commonly called "Hughes's Culver City" facilities, even though this area has never been part of the City of Culver City. This appellation continues today in any number of publications that discuss Howard Hughes himself, or his companies. The Westchester facilities were owned by Hughes Tool Company, operated by Hughes Aircraft, a company that specialized in building aviation navigation and communication systems, and the profits went to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Hughes's nearly spruce-free "Spruce Goose" wood bodied transport airplane was built in Westchester. The plane was disassembled into major components in 1947, transported to Long Beach on then-rural roads, and reassembled. Howard Hughes himself flew the H4 for little over one mile (1.6 km), but the plane was never flown again.

At the center of Westchester, what was once the Loyola Theater is now a medical office building.

The 1960s saw the introduction of airliners that could make trans-Pacific flights without refueling, causing a massive increase in air traffic at LAX. While Westchester residents successfully blocked a northward expansion of the airport, the increase in noise from jet takeoffs greatly decreased the desirability of the residential areas adjoining LAX. In response, the city of Los Angeles began a longstanding program of purchasing houses from noise-weary homeowners; as a result, a number of streets just north of the airport have been decommissioned, and the homes along those streets have either been demolished or moved to other locations. The 18-hole Westchester golf course became a 15-hole course. A local elementary school, the Westchester Neighborhood School, relocated out of the area in 2005, in part due to airport noise, and renamed itself the Westside Neighborhood School. With this experience fresh in mind, local opposition to an expansion of LAX first proposed in the late 1990s rose to fever pitch. As of 2006, no alterations to LAX have taken place, and expansion of the City of Los Angeles-owned airports in the distant cities of Ontario and Palmdale appears more likely.

As part of the 1960s expansion and modernization of LAX, the now famous landmark "Jet Age" style Theme Building opened. This iconic building has itself been modernized and most recently contained the Encounter Restaurant.

In the late 1990s, Otis College of Art and Design, with approximately 1000 full-time and 3000 part-time students, moved to Westchester from its previous location near downtown Los Angeles. What is now named the Kathleen Ahmanson Hall was designed by architect Eliot Noyes in 1963 to house an IBM research center. This well known local landmark, a seven story, 115,000-square-foot (10,700 m²) building, has a distinctive "punch card" window design. The two story Galef Fine Arts Center, designed by Frederick Fisher Architects, opened on the campus in 2001. The complex geometry and corrugated metal forms contrast with the "punch card" vocabulary of Ahmanson Hall. Together, these buildings comprise the Elaine and Bram Goldsmith Campus. Ironically, the Otis building has Westinghouse brand elevators.

With Loyola Marymount University and Otis only blocks from one another, Westchester has undergone a subtle shift away from defense/aviation related industries (which have declined significantly since the end of the Cold War) and has become something of a college town. In addition, the Intercontinental University, with approximately 1800 full time students, is located on Jefferson Blvd. at the northern edge of Westchester. In 2004, the Graduate School of Pepperdine University relocated to the north-east quadrant of Westchester. The private college/university students, paying tuition typically well in excess of $30,000.00 per year, are a boon to local merchants. Adding living expenses to tuition, merchants gladly count the $45,000.00 - $55,000.00 per student, per year, dropped into the local economy.

During the beginning of the fall 2008 semester, Westchester residents became more concerned with the off-campus parties hosted by Loyola Marymount University students. Los Angeles-based KNBC 4 interviewed approximately 12 Westchester homeowners over their concerns with LMU. The piece aired on Friday, September 5, 2008. It was met with criticism by LMU students because KNBC did not interview a student in the piece.

Economy

Air Pacific operates an office in Suite 490 at 6080 Center Drive in the Howard Hughes Center in the Westchester area.

Demographics and Neighborhood Composition

Approximately 50% of the local housing stock consists of single-family detached homes, most of which are modestly sized ranches and bungalows on small lots.

Westchester is:

• 59.39% White
• 18.67% Black or African American
• 17.67% Hispanic or Latino.
• 9.19% Asian
• 6.73% other races alone
• 5.15% two or more races
• 0.43% American Indian & Alaska Native alone
• 0.44% Native Hawaiian & other Pacific Islander alone

Westchester's diversity has increased: it has become one of the more diverse neighborhoods in western Los Angeles. In particular, the black population has increased as middle-class African-American families continue to leave the areas of South Los Angeles that lie east of the Harbor Freeway.

Government and infrastructure

Local government

Los Angeles Fire Department Station 5 is in Westchester.

Los Angeles Police Department operates the Pacific Community Police Station at 12312 Culver Boulevard, 90066, serving the neighborhood [2].

County, federal, and state representation

The United States Postal Service Westchester Post Office is located at 7381 La Tijera Boulevard.

Education

Schools

Primary and secondary schools

Public schools

Westchester is served by six zoned public elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school operated by the Los Angeles Unified School District. 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.

Zoned elementary schools:

• Kentwood Elementary School
• Westport Heights Elementary School
• Cowan Avenue Elementary School
• Paseo Del Rey Elementary School
• Loyola Village Elementary School

Zoned middle schools:

• Orville Wright Middle School

Zoned high schools:

• Westchester High School

LAUSD-affiliated charter elementary schools:

• Open Magnet Charter School [3]

Private schools

Westchester has several private K-8 schools and one high school, including:

• Westchester Lutheran School (also has a preschool called Westchester Lutheran Preschool)
• St. Anastasia School (K-8)
• St. Jerome School
• Visitation School (K-8)
• Westside Neighborhood School (K-8)
• St. Bernard High School

Colleges and Universities

• Loyola Marymount University
• Otis College of Art and Design

File:Lmuchap.jpg

Sacred Heart Chapel on Loyola Marymount Campus

Libraries

Los Angeles Public Library operates the Westchester-Loyola Village Branch.

Churches and other places of worship

• First Baptist Church of Westchester
• St Jerome Catholic Church
• St Anastasia Catholic Church
• Visitation Catholic Church
• Arise Christian Center
• University Christian Church
• Airport Church of Christ
• Holy Nativity Episcopal Church
• Inglewood Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons)
• Congregational Church of the Messiah
• L A Korean United Methodist Church
• Westchester Lutheran Church (ELCA)
• Our Savior Lutheran Church (LCMS)
• Westchester Church of the Nazarene
• Covenant Presbyterian Church
• La Tijera United Methodist Church
• Westchester United Methodist Church
• Calvary Chapel LAX (Non-Denominational)

See also

• Centinela Adobe

External links

• Don-O's Unofficial Personal Westchester History Site