The Los Angeles Westside is an urban

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

in western

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

. It has no official definition, but sources like ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...

'' and the

Mapping L.A. Mapping L.A. is a project of the ''Los Angeles Times'', beginning in 2009, to draw boundary lines for 158 cities and unincorporated places within Los Angeles County, California. It identified 114 neighborhoods within the City of Los Angeles and 42 ...

survey of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' place the region on the western side of the

Los Angeles Basin The Los Angeles Basin is a sedimentary basin located in Southern California, in a region known as the Peninsular Ranges. The basin is also connected to an anomalous group of east-west trending chains of mountains collectively known as the Tr ...

south of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Geography

''LA Weekly''

According to the ''

'', there are different perspectives on where the Westside ends and the Eastside begins. Generally, the Westside is the area south of the Santa Monica Mountains and

Sepulveda Pass Sepulveda Pass (elevation ) is a low mountain pass through the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles. It is named after the Sepúlveda family of California, a prominent Californio family that owned the land where the pass lies. It connects the L ...

, and west of either: *

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is ...

– a historic definition supported by UCLA urban and cultural historian Eric Avila. Most of the number streets and big boulevards get a “west” before their names west of Main Street and an east if they are “east” of Main Street. * The 110 Freeway * La Cienega Boulevard * The

405 Freeway Interstate 405 (I-405) is a major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in Southern California. The entire route is known as the northern segment of the San Diego Freeway. I-405 is a bypass auxiliary route of I-5, running along the s ...

Mapping L.A. boundaries

''Los Angeles Times'' readers submitted more than 300 maps, with borders ranging from Lincoln to La Brea and beyond. The most common east/west dividing lines were: Downtown, La Cienega Boulevard (the most common street cited), and the 405 freeway (the most common answer). The ''Times'' analyzed the results and no one definition approached a majority. Ultimately, the ''Los Angeles Times'' Mapping Project settled on a definition comprising , encompassing not only districts in the city of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

but also two unincorporated neighborhoods, plus the cities of

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...

, and Santa Monica, but excluding all of the city of

West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most ...

– even areas west of La Cienega Boulevard.Mapping L.A.: Regions. The Westside.
''Los Angeles Times'',

Neighborhoods and districts

Map of Westside area, Los Angeles County

According to the

survey of the ''Los Angeles Times'' the Westside includes all of the below neighborhoods: * Bel Air *

Beverly Crest Beverly Crest is a neighborhood in the Santa Monica Mountains, in the Westside area of the city of Los Angeles, California. History Developer George Read purchased the 80-acre area in 1923. After the streets were paved and underground utilities ...

Beverlywood Beverlywood is a neighborhood in the Westside of the city of Los Angeles, California. History Beverlywood was developed in 1940 by Walter H. Leimert, who also developed Leimert Park. The neighborhood consists of 1,354 single family homes, and wa ...

Beverly Grove Beverly Grove is a neighborhood within the Fairfax District, Los Angeles, Beverly–Fairfax neighborhood in the Mid-City West, Los Angeles, Mid-City West area of Los Angeles, California. Geography City of Los Angeles The term "Beverly Grove" was ...

* Brentwood *

Century City Century City is a 176-acre (71.2 ha) neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles, California. Located on the Westside to the south of Santa Monica Boulevard around 10 miles (16 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles, Century City is one of ...

* Del Rey * Cheviot Hills *

Mar Vista Mar Vista is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California. In 1927, Mar Vista became the 70th community to be annexed to Los Angeles. It was designated as an official city neighborhood in 2006. History Mar Vista was called Ocean Par ...

* Pacific Palisades * La Cienega Heights * Palms * Pico-Robertson * Playa del Rey * Playa Vista *

Rancho Park Rancho Park is a residential neighborhood in the Westside of the city of Los Angeles, California with mostly single family homes and tree lined streets. The community is nestled between West Los Angeles and Cheviot Hills. This enclave draws young ...

* Sawtelle *

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

West Los Angeles West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped differently by di ...

Westchester Westchester most commonly refers to Westchester County, New York, immediately north of New York City. __NOTOC__ It may also refer to: Geography Canada *Westchester Station, Nova Scotia, Canada United States *Town of Westchester, the original seat ...

* Westwood

Other cities

* Malibu * Santa Monica *

Unincorporated areas

Ladera Heights Ladera Heights is a community and unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 6,634 at the 2020 census. Culver City lies to its west, the Baldwin Hills neighborhood to its north, the View Park-Windsor Hills commu ...

Marina del Rey Marina del Rey (Spanish for "Marina of the King") is an unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, with an eponymous harbor that is a major boating and water recreation destination of the greater Los Angeles area. The p ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

Population

In the 2000 census, the Westside (as defined by the ''Los Angeles Times'' Mapping Project) had a population of 529,427. In 2000, non-Hispanic whites made up 63% of the population. The areas within the city of Los Angeles that ''Los Angeles Almanac'' recognized as part of the Westside had a population of 413,351.

Education

Fifty-three percent of West Los Angeles residents aged 25 and older had earned a 4-year degree by 2000, according to Census Bureau figures quoted by the ''Los Angeles Times.'' They included 89,620 people with master's degrees or higher and 117,695 with bachelor's degrees. In addition, 95,187 people in that age range had some college experience. There were 46,823 with

high school diplomas A school leaving qualification is an academic qualification awarded for the completion of high school. Depending on the country or region, it may alternatively be known as a high school diploma, senior secondary leaving certificate, high school ge ...

but 40,451 who had

dropped out Dropping out refers to leaving high school, college, university or another group for practical reasons, necessities, inability, apathy, or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves. Canada In Canada, most ind ...

before graduating. As of 2019, the median income of the neighborhood was about $96,300. The Westside is home to the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

(UCLA), a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kno ...

in the Westwood neighborhood. It is the second-oldest of the ten campuses of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

system. UCLA is considered a flagship campus of the University of California system, along with

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

. It offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines. With an approximate enrollment of 28,000 undergraduate and 12,000 graduate students, UCLA is the university with the largest enrollment in the state of California and the most popular university in the United States by number of applicants. Other post-secondary schools in the Westside are as follows: * Otis College of Art and Design * Santa Monica College, first opened in 1929 as Santa Monica Junior College. Current enrollment is over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. *

West Los Angeles College West Los Angeles College (West L.A. College or WLAC) is a public community college in Ladera Heights, Los Angeles County, California. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and the Los Angeles Community College District. It is acc ...

, which offers

associate degree An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree. The fi ...

s, vocationally oriented programs and transfer programs to four-year universities.

References

External links

* {{authority control Los Angeles County, California regions Populated coastal places in California