West Park Terrace is a neighborhood in

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. There are two parks in the community.

History

Beginning in 2000, the Eighth District Empowerment Congress began working on the "Naming Neighborhoods Project" to identify and name the communities with the neighborhood council area. The first focus group was held at

Hebrew Union College Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until ...

in June 2000. Through research, a meeting with an urban historian, and numerous community meetings, the Empowerment Congress ultimately outlined sixteen unique neighborhoods, including the neighborhood of West Park Terrace. The names were submitted to City Council in October 2001 and approved in February 2002. In 2009, the

Mapping L.A. Mapping L.A. was a 2009 project of the ''Los Angeles Times''. It identified 158 cities and Unincorporated area, unincorporated areas within Los Angeles County, California. It also drew boundary lines for 114 neighborhoods within the Los Angeles, C ...

project of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' gave the same area a different name: Gramercy Park. In 2021, the Southwest Neighborhood Council stated that the two different names caused confusion and asked residents which name they preferred. By 2022, however, the ''Times'' was using the city designation of West Park Terrace.

Geography

The West Park Terrace neighborhood is bounded by Manchester Boulevard on the north (from Van Ness Avenue to Vermont Avenue), Vermont Avenue on the east (from Manchester Avenue to the City of Los Angeles boundary), City of Los Angeles boundary on the south (from Vermont Avenue to Van Ness Avenue) and Van Ness Avenue (from Manchester Avenue to the City of Los Angeles boundary). At that time, the Department of Transportation was directed to install neighborhood signs at the following locations: Vermont Avenue at Manchester Avenue, Manchester Avenue at South Van Ness Avenue and Van Ness Avenue at West 89th Street. According to

, the West Park Terrace neighborhood is bounded by Manchester Boulevard on the north,

Normandie Avenue Normandie Avenue is one of Los Angeles County's longest north–south streets, with a stretch of about . It lies between Western Avenue to the west and Vermont Avenue to the east. The avenue begins in the south by branching off from Vermont A ...

and the Los Angeles city line on the east, and the Los Angeles city border on the south and west."Exposition Park," Mapping L.A., ''Los Angeles Times''

Population

2000

A total of 10,047 people lived in the neighborhood's 1.13 square miles, according to the 2000 U.S. census—averaging 8,859 people per square mile, about an average

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

in both the city and the county. In 2008 the city estimated its population had grown to 11,173. The median age was 36, considered old for the city but about average for the county, and the percentages of residents aged 50 and older was among the county's highest. Within the neighborhood,

African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

made up 86.4% of the population—the highest percentage among

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

neighborhoods or cities—and

Latinos Hispanic and Latino Americans are Americans who have a Spanish or Latin American background, culture, or family origin. This demographic group includes all Americans who identify as Hispanic or Latino, regardless of race. According to th ...

made up 11.5% of the population. Other ethnicities were white, 0.8%; Asian, 0.4%; and other, 0.9%. Mexico and Jamaica were the most common places of birth for the 9.3% of the residents who were born abroad, a low percentage of foreign-born when compared with the city or county as a whole. Jamaican and Unspecified African were the most common ancestries.

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

were the most common foreign places of birth.

2008

The median household income in 2008 dollars was $57,983, considered average for both the city and county. The percentage of households earning $40,000 to $60,000 was high, compared to the county at large. The average household size of 2.8 people was about average. Homeowners occupied 70.4% of the housing units, and renters occupied the rest. The percentages of divorced and widowed people were among the county's highest, and there were 562 families headed by single parents, or 21.9%, a rate that was among the county's highest. There were 939 veterans, or 13.1% of the population, considered high compared with the city and the county overall. Residents aged 25 and older holding a four-year degree amounted to 14.9% of the population, an average percentage for both the city and the county. The percentage of residents of that age having some college education was considered high.

Education

The

Los Angeles Unified School District Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a State school, public school district in Los Angeles County, California, United States of America. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the List ...

operates the following public schools within the boundaries of West Park Terrace: * La Salle Elementary School – 8715 La Salle Avenue * Manhattan Place Elementary School – 1850 West 96th Street

Recreation and parks

*Saint Andrews Recreation Center – 8701 Saint Andrews Place. * Jesse Owens Community Regional Park – 9651 S. Western Avenue. Formerly named "Sportsman Park", it was renamed after

Jesse Owens James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who made history at the Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics, 1936 Olympic Games by becoming the first person to win four gold meda ...

. The park is a facility that provides recreational activities including baseball, flag football, basketball, soccer, tennis and aqua aerobics.Jesse Owens Community Regional Park
Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation

Development

In 2020, CVS Pharmacy announced it would build a new ground-up location in West Park Terrace.

References

{{South Los Angeles Neighborhoods in Los Angeles South Los Angeles