Western Avenue is a major four-lane street in the city of Los Angeles (west of

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

) and through the center portion of

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the List of United States counties and county equivalents, most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 202 ...

. It is one of the longest north–south streets in Los Angeles city and county, apart from

Sepulveda Boulevard Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda ...

. It is about long.

Description

Western Avenue passes through a large diversity of residential neighborhoods in Los Angeles County. From the south, where it transitions into Paseo Del Mar near White Point and the Pacific Ocean, it begins in San Pedro, then passes through

Rancho Palos Verdes Rancho Palos Verdes is a coastal city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated on September 7, 1973, the city has a population of 42,287 as reported in the 2020 United States census. The city sits atop the bluffs o ...

, Harbor City, Gardena and

South Los Angeles South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of Downtown Los Angeles, downtown. It is de ...

. It is also the easternmost border of Torrance. Around the

Pico Boulevard Pico Boulevard is a major Los Angeles street that runs from the Pacific Ocean at Appian Way in Santa Monica to Central Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. It is named after Pío Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta C ...

, Olympic Boulevard, and

Wilshire Boulevard Wilshire Boulevard ( wɪɫ.ʃɚ is a prominent boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue (Santa Monica), Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica, California, Santa Monica east to Grand Avenue (Lo ...

intersections, Western Avenue passes through

Koreatown A Koreatown (), also known as a Little Korea or Little Seoul, is a Korean-dominated ethnic enclave within a city or metropolitan area outside the Korean Peninsula. History Koreatowns as an East Asian ethnic enclave have only been in existence s ...

. Further north, Western Avenue passes through the East Hollywood district. Around the

Santa Monica Boulevard Santa Monica Boulevard is a major west–east thoroughfare in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It runs from Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica near the Pacific Ocean to Sunset Boulevard at Sunset Junction in Los Angeles. It passes t ...

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, United States, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway (California), Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Pacific Palisad ...

, and

Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It runs through the Hollywood, East Hollywood, Little Armenia, Thai Town, and Los Feliz districts. Its western terminus is at Sunset Plaza Drive in the Hollyw ...

intersections, it passes through the East Hollywood neighborhoods of Little Armenia and Thai Town. The northern terminus of Western Avenue is north of Franklin Avenue in the

Los Feliz LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

district, at the base of the

Hollywood Hills The Hollywood Hills is a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It borders Studio City, Universal City and Burbank on the north, Griffith Park on the north and east, Los Feliz on the southeast, Hollyw ...

. The road curves east becoming Los Feliz Boulevard, a major east/west thoroughfare through Los Feliz to the

Golden State Freeway Interstate 5 (I-5) is a major north–south route of the Interstate Highway System in the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific Coast between the Mexican border and the Canadian border. The segment of I-5 in California r ...

and from there into the city of Glendale. Another Western Avenue begins north of

Griffith Park Griffith Park is a large municipal park at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains, in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The park includes popular attractions such as the Los Angeles Zoo, the Autry Museum of the Amer ...

and is located in the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

area of Glendale. Its southwest terminus is nearly due north of where Los Angeles' Western Avenue transitions into Los Feliz Boulevard. The

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...

has legally designated the segment of Western Avenue from 25th Street in San Pedro north to the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) in Torrance as California State Route 213. However, signage and maps may extend the highway south to Paseo del Mar in San Pedro, while

Caltrans The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...

has not yet adopted the northerly two miles from Carson Street to Interstate 405. The

has also legally designated the segment of Western Avenue from Interstate 405 to the

Hollywood Freeway The Hollywood Freeway is one of the principal freeways of Los Angeles, California (the boundaries of which it does not leave) and one of the busiest in the United States. It is the principal route through the Cahuenga Pass, the primary shortc ...

(US Route 101) as California State Route 258, but it remains unsigned and Caltrans has no plans to actually take it over.

History

The street derives its name from its history as the westernmost border of Los Angeles city limits in the 19th century, before annexations in the early 20th century expanded the city westward and onwards. In 1923, Alejandro Borquez opened the Sonora Cafe on Western. The café, which in 1927 changed its name to El Cholo Spanish Cafe, is credited with the invention of the

burrito A burrito (, ) or burro in Mexico is, historically, a regional name, among others, for what is known as a taco, a tortilla filled with food, in other parts of the country. The term ''burrito'' was regional, specifically from Guanajuato, Guerre ...

Public transit

Metro subway and at-grade stations

Western Avenue is served by three

Los Angeles Metro Rail The Los Angeles Metro Rail is an urban rail transit system serving Los Angeles County, California, United States, consisting of six lines: four light rail lines (the A, C, E and K lines) and two rapid transit lines (the B and D lines), ...

stations: #

on the B Line #

on the D Line #

Exposition Boulevard Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to: *Universal exposition or World's Fair *Expository writing *Exposition (narrative), background information in a story *Exposition (music) *Trade fair *Exposition (album), ''Exposition'' (alb ...

on the E Line

Metro Local

Metro Local The Los Angeles Metro Bus is the transit bus service in Los Angeles County, California, operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). Metro Bus operates in the Los Angeles Basin, the San Fernando Valley, and th ...

lines 205 and 207, and

Gardena Transit GTrans is a municipal transit agency that serves Gardena, California and surrounding Los Angeles County neighbourhoods. It was founded on January 15, 1940, as Gardena Municipal Bus Lines. On the agency's 75th anniversary, the agency was renamed as ...

line 2 operate on Western Avenue. *Metro local line 207 runs between

and

Imperial Highway The Imperial Highway is a west-east thoroughfare in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and Imperial in the U.S. state of California. The main portion of the existing route begins at Vista Del Mar in Los Angeles near t ...

. *Gardena Line 2 runs between Imperial Highway and Pacific Coast Highway *Metro line 205 runs between Pacific Coast Highway and 1st Street in San Pedro.

References

External links

YouTube: Western Avenue (Melrose to Pico) Los Angeles

Western Ave (Los Angeles) (Daytime, April 2020)

Western Ave (Los Angeles) (Nighttime, November 2020)
{{Streets in Los Angeles Streets in Los Angeles Streets in Los Angeles County, California Central Los Angeles East Hollywood, Los Angeles Lomita, California South Los Angeles Red-light districts in California