Northridge has become famous for Cal State University Northridge, and infamous for the Northridge quake. In reality, the earthquake's epicenter was beneath Reseda. Although the San Fernando Valley is very particular about each neighborhood's boundaries, the history of one area sometimes bleeds over into the next. It would be easy to paint the Valley with a single brush. But that would be a gross oversimplification.

What makes Northridge stand out from its neighbors? Its resiliency. To become the neighborhood it is today, Northridge has survived over 100 years of growing pains. When there was no water, the people of Northridge grew wheat. With the arrival of the aqueduct, the people grew citrus. When the rows of orange trees turned to rows of houses, they adapted. Through hardships, strife, and natural disasters, Northridge has and will continue not only to adapt, but to flourish.

There is so much more to Baldwin Hills than meets the eye.

Home to the largest middle and upper middle-class African American community in Los Angeles, this hillside neighborhood ties together one of the most important strongholds of black culture in town, forming the residential nexus of the Crenshaw area. Baldwin Hills has gone through many permutations over the decades, and has been the site of some of the most significant events in the city's recent history, having since the 1930s hosted an Olympics, a who's who of black Hollywood and one of the city's most amazing natural disasters.

Through it all Baldwin Hills has continued to endure, and today is a tight-knit enclave determined to preserve its past while looking boldly towards its future.

Your tour of wonderful Baldwin Hills begins after the jump...

Although Chinatown is no longer a hub of activity relative to other parts of Los Angeles, it contains significant portions of the cultural history of the city within its tiny one-square-mile boundaries. It has served as the gatekeeper to America for many generations of immigrant groups, not only from China but from all over the world. It’s been a launching pad for all of the true believers that clung to the promise of a new life in the land of opportunity. Today, you can hear the echoes of these stories, and the underlying heritage of the lives that were left behind, reverberate throughout the community. Far more than just a novelty, Chinatown is a reflection of many of the things that, for better or worse, give LA its true identity beyond the postcard images and the glitz and glamour that the rest of the world projects on to it.

Known to some as La Brea Park and dubbed “America’s Champs Elysee,” Miracle Mile has put up a long fight to become one of the most visited neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Despite the area’s slight congestion, Miracle Mile is a great place for culture, business, and happy living.

The Watts area of Los Angeles is located in South LA, and is fighting to change the infamous reputation the area has for gang violence, and riots. Named after Charles H. Watts, the area has always been a haven of affordable housing that attracts mostly the working class. With small single story one or two bedroom houses, and housing projects, the Watts community is tightly knit. And being home to the Watts Towers, one of 4 nationally recognized historical landmarks in Los Angeles, Watts is a distinctive community with a unique history.

Once the heart of the Arts and Crafts movement in Los Angeles and a bohemian artists' colony, Garvanza is today one of Northeast LA's hidden treasures seeking to retain its turn of the century identity while creating a liveable neighborhood for the twenty-first century. Although many consider Garvanza to be just a part of Highland Park, this small and hilly area brimming with historic buildings has more than enough charm and character needed to stand out on its own. Named for the wild sweet peas (garbanzo beans) that used to grow on the hillsides, Garvanza itself is much like a hearty wildflower, blooming stubbornly amidst the dominant concreted landscape, unabashedly colorful and pleasantly surprising to discover.

Studio City may actually be what out-of-state folks are talking about when they imagine L.A. (I personally had always wondered...) Wide boulevards lined with palm trees and shops, neighborhoods yielding houses used on TV sitcoms, plaques on the sidewalk commemorating John Wayne films, and filming going on around nearly every corner; as Vankman said to Vigo, it's "the sweet life out in Southern California's beautiful San Fernando valley".

For Los Angelenos, it's either a gateway to the valley, "with the Cahuenga Pass on the east leading to Hollywood, and both Laurel Canyon and Coldwater Canyon feeding into Studio City from the Westside" (Studio City Chamber), or just a gateway to Universal Studios. And if you're a pop-punk fan, it's also the site of Mest frontman's stabbing incident at the Archstone complex off Ventura and Vineland:

Way more after the jump...