Baldwin Village, Los Angeles

This article is about the neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. For the neighborhood in Toronto, Canada, see Baldwin Village.

Baldwin Village is a community in Los Angeles. Baldwin Village is officially part of the Crenshaw district, an area of Los Angeles that has gone through drastic economic changes.

Baldwin Village is called "The Jungle" or "Jungles" by locals because of the tropical trees and foliage, such as palms, banana trees and begonias, that once thrived among the area's tropical-style postwar apartment buildings. The Los Angeles City Council ostensibly changed the name in 1990, after residents complained that it reinforced the neighborhood's image as a wild and menacing place. They renamed it Baldwin Village, hoping to reflect the affluent and peaceful Baldwin Hills neighborhood nearby, one of the most affluent African American neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

Recently, former NBA star Magic Johnson and others have begun revitalization plans for the area, which have already begun to boost the area economically and socially. While redevelopment has shown many successes, not all efforts have yielded results; development of Marlton Square, for instance, has stalled in bankruptcy after years of work and millions of dollars of public and private funds.

Education

Dorsey High School in February 2007

Residents of Baldwin Village are zoned to schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In popular culture

The neighborhood appears in the 2001 film Training Day starring Denzel Washington, as well as in the video for "Hard in da Paint" by Waka Flocka Flame. Also, in White Men Can't Jump. Episode 1 of Season 3 in the TV series Southland features a police traffic stop gone bad in Baldwin Village which incites gang members and onlookers to riot and attack police officers.

See also

• Baldwin Hills (mountain range)
• Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw, Los Angeles

External links

• The Gangs of Los Angeles - Part 3: Helping to Heal Communities, FBI