Los Angeles Overview & General Information

OVERVIEW

Los Angeles neighborhoods display a degree of diversity well befitting the second-largest city in the United States. Much of this is an artifact of the city's history of growth by annexation and horizontal development, which allowed distinct environments to arise in many areas; indeed, many Los Angeles neighborhoods, such as Venice, Hancock Park, Silver Lake and Boyle Heights are fairly close-knit, culturally distinctive communities.

Many communities do not have defined or commonly accepted boundaries. Yet there is a broad consensus that they belong in particular larger district-wide groupings. The city is oddly shaped—surrounded and punctured by unincorporated areas, other cities and state parklands. The city began in downtown, in what had first been a Tongva village named Yang-na located in what is now the Los Angeles State Historic Park near Chinatown. It later became a Spanish pueblo and eventually grew to a metropolis based on manufacturing, aerospace, and entertainment industries. The city, and indeed the county, radiated outward from downtown, and geographic names referencing cardinal points or relative directions tend to be determined by their relationship to downtown rather than directions proper. For example, East L.A. is not all of the city east of West L.A., but rather the portion of the city east of downtown (and the Los Angeles River in its proximity).

The origins of L.A. neighborhoods are varied. Angelino Heights, for example, with its 1880s-era Victorian houses, was within view and walking distance (although a long one) from downtown Los Angeles, while distant Playa Vista is the city's newest manufactured neighborhood, conceived and birthed by developers. Chinatown was originally an ethnic-based community whose population and businesses were forced to move wholesale from a few miles away when L.A.'s newly built Union Station displaced Old Chinatown in the 1930s. San Pedro was once an independent city that voted to be annexed to Los Angeles: San Pedro got L.A.'s water and the larger city got access to San Pedro's harbor.

The City of Los Angeles is divided among several telephone area codes. Downtown is area code 213, the areas of Hollywood and Mid-Wilshire fall within area code 323, West L.A. is area code 310 and the San Fernando Valley is area code 818.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES

Downtown proper contains the Civic Center, a central business district, multiple large industrial districts, and some, but by no means all (or even a majority), of the city's cultural institutions. Downtown is the smallest of the city's regions.

EAST AND NORTHEAST LOS ANGELES

To the east and northeast of Downtown Los Angeles and the Los Angeles River is Eastern Los Angeles, which is not very large in terms of the city proper, but quite large when including adjacent independent cities like Montebello or East Los Angeles. The entire region houses a significant Latino community, although this varies by neighborhood.

East of downtown lie mostly working class majority Latino neighborhoods, an example being Boyle Heights. North and northeast of downtown are a mix of similar neighborhoods but also genteel, older neighborhoods that abut Glendale and Pasadena. The major neighborhoods of this area include Atwater Village, Glassell Park, Mount Washington, and Eagle Rock. The communities of northeast Los Angeles sit on higher ground than the rest of the region and are characterized by a mix of middle and working class neighborhoods as well as rapidly gentrifying ones.

ECHO PARK & WESTLAKE

Immediately west of Downtown Los Angeles is a collection of some of the city's first suburbs. Angelino Heights and Echo Park were the locations of some of the first film studios west of the Mississippi. Now mostly populated by Latino immigrants, they still possess distinctive architecture from the early 20th century when they were the most desirable neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Of these, the restored Victorian homes in Angelino Heights are an excellent example.

GREATER HOLLYWOOD

Formerly a religious colony then an independent city, Hollywood was annexed by Los Angeles in 1910. Its name is synonymous with the motion picture industry, yet, much of movie production has moved out to neighboring cities. Tourists flock around Hollywood Boulevard and gaze up to the mountains to see the Hollywood sign. The last decade has brought in new life to the once-struggling parts of the Hollywood district with various developments taking advantage of the subway stations built within the past decade. The wealth of the neighborhoods here are strongly influenced by elevation with some of the wealthiest tracts in the country are up in the Hollywood Hills and gradually lessen to pockets of large working-class and transient populations further southeast.

HARBOR AREA

Following the Harbor Gateway south to the port leads to the Harbor area, an enclave of L.A. surrounded by independent cities and annexed so the city would have full right-of-way to the port. The leading neighborhood of the harbor area is San Pedro.

LOS FELIZ AND SILVER LAKE

Nestled between Hollywood and the Los Angeles River are a group of the city's older residential neighborhoods that house Griffith and Elysian Parks, the city's largest public parks.
Similar to most of the city, communities in this area are significantly wealthier closer to the hills. In this fashion, Los Feliz retained its expensive reputation while other districts further south and closer to Westlake were plagued by gang wars or crime. In the last decade, the area particularly around the Silver Lake Reservoir and now Sunset Blvd has become closely associated with gentrification, a process which has pushed working class families out due to high housing costs. This is also the location of Chavez Ravine, a focal point of local history where the Latino neighborhood was demolished to make way for the Dodger Stadium in the 1950s.

SOUTH LOS ANGELES

South Los Angeles, formerly called South-Central, includes most of the city directly south of downtown, the I-10, and Wilshire, but not those areas as far south as the Harbor Gateway, Harbor Area or the Port of Los Angeles. Most noted for its modern legacy of crime, and urban decay, South Los Angeles still harbors struggling areas. An example of this is Watts. More genteel communities are situated near USC in West Adams/University Park, as well as in the westernmost part of the region in districts like Crenshaw and Leimert Park.

THE VALLEY

The largest region of the city is "the Valley," which includes the San Fernando Valley and portions of the Crescenta Valley. It is mainly suburban, and houses a wide-range of socioeconomic groups. About forty percent of the city's area and population are located in the Valley. Mulholland Drive in the Santa Monica Mountains forms its southern boundary. It has gone through periodic clashes with the rest of the city over policy, culminating in a failed effort to become an independent city in 2002.

WEST LOS ANGELES (WESTSIDE)

West Los Angeles is the part of the city encircled by Beverly Hills and Wilshire on the east, and Santa Monica and the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Santa Monica Mountains on the north, and Culver City and El Segundo on the south.

While the area is inhabited by a wide range of socioeconomic groups, it undoubtedly houses the largest concentration of wealth in the city. Attracted by its rolling hills on the north end, and close proximity to the ocean, early developers succeeded in establishing some of the most upscale residential districts in the city and the county. Pre-eminent among these are Bel-Air and Pacific Palisades. Yet further south, pockets of working class areas remain in those areas closest to former industrial areas like those near South LA and Culver City.

The term Westside, though often debated, refers to both the western parts of the city of Los Angeles as well as adjoning cities, such as Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and West Hollywood. West L.A. or West Los Angeles also refers to a specific neighborhood south of Brentwood and east of Santa Monica.

WILSHIRE

The Wilshire area is north of the I-10, east of Beverly Hills, west of Downtown LA and south of Hollywood. It is a collection of wealthy, middle, and working class neighborhoods that cluster around Wilshire Boulevard. Unlike other parts of Los Angeles the wealthier neighborhoods are set not in the hills, but rather on leveled land north of Wilshire Boulevard, east of Beverly Hills such as Larchmont, and Hancock Park. On the lower end, Koreatown is an example of a somewhat struggling neighborhood undergoing a revival.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_districts_and_neighborhoods_of_Los_Angeles <-------- Right here is an awesome link to get information on Los Angeles, California. In fact, it's where most of the above information came from.

In all kindred societies, there are code words and slang put into use that define the supernatural and what they do. L.A. is no different. In fact, L.A. has it's very own dialect of kindred terminology. Listed below are some of the more well known terms.

Alucard - An elder vampire, or kindred who acts like a vampire stereotype
Ass Clown - A vampire that belongs to no coterie
Bitch - A vampire turning Anarch from another sect, usually the Camarilla
Body Bag - A mobile haven, but usually translated literally
Burger and Fries - Feeding quickly or in a hurry
Cub Scouts - Police, the vampire kind
Chuck Norris - Vincent Dixon, the former Brujah champion of Fight Club and Baron of
L.A.
Cleanup - Fixing a Masquerade breach - "Ratman had to cleanup his own oops after last night's stunt."
Collar - A blood bond
Dork - An Anarch who still acts like a member of the Camarilla or Sabbat
Funions - Drugs
Fur Coat - A werewolf, or Gangrel who likes to act like a werewolf
Grandpa - An aged vampire who is loyal to the Anarch cause
Hangover - Coming off of the effects of feeding on a drugged or intoxicated mortal
Jacked - High on supernatural vitae
Kingpin - An Anarch Baron
Knocked Up - A vampire who is responsible for a new arrival or childre
Mamma's Boy - A Camarilla vampire
Munchies - The need to feed
Ninja - A Cathayan
Nugget - A contact on the corner good for information - "I had to stop and see Nugget before coming."
Oops - A Masquerade breach
Pitbull - A badass werewolf
Po-Po - Police, the mortal kind
Rack - Prime feeding grounds
Roadkill - A dead mortal
Rugrat - A childe or inexperienced Anarch
Shitfaced - High, under the effects of drugs in a mortal's system - "Edge got shitfaced last nigh after attending the Triple X party."
Shovelhead - A Sabbat vampire
Slimer - A Ghost
Snitch - A kindred spy, usually for other coteries but can mean a Sabbat or Camarilla too
Speed Bump - Mortals used as pawns against other vampires
Steak and Shrimp - Feeding on the High Class or Celebreties
Tantrum - A Frenzy out of anger
The Devil - A vampire's beast
The Sword - The Sabbat
The Tower - The Camarilla society
Torch / Torched - Left out in the sun
Valentine - A vampire who feeds through sex and seduction
Vendetta - A personal grudge against another Anarch
Virgin - A kindred who has not fought in Fight Club
Wimp - A vampire who lost their first fight at Fight Club