Everyone knows where Koreatown is, but the city has never officially recognized it. That is until now. The L.A. City Council this morning voted to create boundaries for two new neighborhoods: Koreatown and Little Bangladesh. more ›

Little Bangladesh and Koreatown are on the way to becoming officially recognized L.A. city neighborhoods, but that's not all. Assemblymember Mike Davis has been working with community members to create the El Salvador Community Corridor along Vermont Avenue. If his legislation passes, signs along the 10 Freeway will let drivers know where to exit to find the culturally rich artery. more ›

It's been a year and half after debate began to officially (and finally) define the borders of Koreatown and to create a new community called Little Bangladesh. The process did not start off affably -- in fact, it was quite the opposite -- but at a city council committee meeting on Wednesday where the two communities were recommended for approval, only praise could be given by all parties involved. more ›

Just over a year ago, the LA Times launched their neighborhood mapping project, which used data from multiple sources and reader input in the hopes of settling debates about physical--and often psychological--boundaries. more ›

Fed up with those who erroneously label Silver Lake, Echo Park and other so-called hipster neighborhoods as in within the Eastside, and left with no general sobriquet for the area, Curbed LA is calling for submissions for its regional renaming (basically, the real Eastside is east of the L.A. River, but it always seems to be up for debate). more ›

As GOOD is so great to point out, LA is a mecca for homegrown products. (No, not that. Well, yes, that, but that's not what they/we mean!) Fallen Fruit keeps track of where Angelenos can play gatherer on our own city streets. GOOD explains:

FallenFruit.org has neighborhood maps of publicly accessible fruit trees. They also have a great guide to creating your own fruit gathering map. Tips range from the obvious (get out of your car and walk, you’ll find more fruit) to the specific (you should take note of that young fruit tree on private property—it might eventually grow to reach public property.) If more people create maps for other cities, Fallen Fruit could become one of the more delicious free resources on the web.

Since City Hall can't do it, it's the people's turn, and oh boy, this is going to be fun. Los Angeles has around 180 official neighborhoods, marked by those blue signs, but ask the city for a map defining borders or for a complete list and you won't get much. Defining a neighborhood, a region or anything gets people angry. It's just one of those super passionate issues where neighborhood council meetings turn into screaming matches. more ›

Here at LAist, we're always happy to take leads and tips from out tips@laist.com box about issues you are having in your neighborhood, commute, etc. We were happy to see our Orange Line post get picked up and now being worked on by the city and we are always looking for more issues to be brought to light. more ›

Starting Monday, LA Department of Transportation parking enforcement will change how they spend their days. Instead of gravitating to areas where it's easy to find violations, therefore write a lot of tickets, they will now be assigned a neighborhood beat. more ›

As proven by public outcry, the naming of a neighborhood and what borders define those communities is as controversial, if not more, than the latest city hall scandal. And perhaps city hall over the years is partly at fault: they are the ones who put up those blue signs telling you what neighborhood you're in, but ask them for documents and maps supporting those signs and you'll get a whole lot of nothing. more ›

Thinking about kicking off 2009 by buying a home? It seems prices are falling month after month, but you may be interested to know where the biggest price drops are happening around Los Angeles. Real Estate website Redfin put together their monthly index of rate-drops and compiled some charts representing area cities and towns as well as L.A. neighborhoods to help potential buyers, or the just plain curious, see where things are getting cheaper. They explain that the charts "show the percent of MLS, FSBO or REO listings that were price-reduced at some point before leaving the market (either sold or removed unsold from the market) in the past 90 days," excluding areas too small to provide helpful data. (A full ranking of areas is available to download from their site, too.) more ›

Next year could be the year that East L.A. gets on the map. more ›

Via Gawker, we find Homethinking who has launched a nifty tool comparing neighborhoods in one city to another city. It's fun, but beware: their methodology is not income based ('cause rent is just a tad higher on Manhattan), but rather demographics such as "age, marital status, whether the household has kids or not and the frequency of arts and culture activities," as they explain. It's a start... more ›

The Sesnon Fire in Porter Ranch, which has now burned around 2,000 acres, has prompted the following neighborhoods to be under mandatory evacuation: Box Canyon, Woosley Canyon, Bell Canyon, Lake Manor, Brown Canyon, Twin Lakes and Dayton Canyon. Basically, the message is if you're in Porter Ranch or to the West of, leave. For complete coverage, follow our "wildfire" tag by clicking here. more ›

And when you hear that, you might find yourself asking which Realtor came up with that ranking. Luckily, this time there is some creditability behind the designation: the American Planning Association. They "singled out Echo Park because of its breathtaking topography set in the hills above downtown, historic architecture, pedestrian-oriented streets and stairways, and engaged residents who, over the years, have gone to great lengths to protect and preserve their community," according to an APA release (add: their website has more info and history on why EP was chosen) . more ›

As KCRW offers their first key chain fringe benefits cards (whew! we'll finally remember to use it now), one local neighborhood council has gone out and done something similar. The South Robertson Neighborhood Council, an official City of Los Angeles community volunteer advisory board that represents neighborhoods south of Beverly Hills such as Beverlywood and La Cienega Heights (map below to see if you live, work or play there), has launched the SOROCARD that offers cardholders discounts at participating local businesses. more ›

Old men smile at each other's stories over games of dominoes played on card tables set up on the street corner. Ladies in their Sunday best daintily nibble cake at outdoor cafes, and children run laughing around the fountain in the park. People stop to chat as they meander along the boulevard. This is not a scene from another era; it's a typical Sunday afternoon in Leimert Park.
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Chicago graphic designer, Jenny Beorkrem, designs neighborhood posters of various cities in her own simple typographic style. A couple weeks ago, she released the Los Angeles one (available in three colors, see large image here), adding to the collection of other cities that include San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Brooklyn and Manhattan. more ›

"The neighborhood surrounding the Watts Towers presents a stark contrast to the well-maintained aesthetics of this national monument, and currently the residents have limited means to capitalize socially or economically on this cultural currency," reads a pamphlet about the Watts House Project, which self-describes themselves as an an artist-driven urban revitalization project that hopes to be a catalyst for solutions and change in the community. more ›

You say Angelino, I say Angeleno. more ›

An Urban & Environmental Planner friend of mine in New York City believes that when you build bigger and beefier streets, all you do is build increased traffic congestion. "Build it and they will come," he would say. Today, Steve Hymon in his weekly Road Sage column explores the subject by extension of the Pico/Olympic plan, where city officials are planning to begin adjusting the two busy arteries to act like one-way streets starting March 8. more ›

These neighborhood projects are a heck of a lot of work. All of the writing, research, fact-checking, map-making, walking around, metro-riding, photographing, uploading, downloading, sun-block wearing, and image re-sizing is not easy. Trying to maximize my lazing potential, I volunteered to document the Jewelry District figuring that the neighborhood's mere six square blocks shouldn't be too much work. I got off the Metro thinking "I've been here a million times, I know where the points of interest are, this shouldn't take long, I'lI take like 15 pictures, and I'll be out of the sun and sprawled out supine under a ceiling fan in no time." But many, many pictures and five hours later, I can safely say, damn, was I wrong. The Jewelry District is vibrant, visually engaging, and architecturally absorbing -- a neighborhood-sized vintage curiosity of antiquarian intricacies. more ›

An opinion piece in today's LA Times raises the issue of what seems to be the rampant Pinkberry-fication of many of our local neighborhoods, using recent food and retail closings and openings in the popular Larchmont Village as an example of how major-chain development affects the unique vibe of a given area. more ›

Picture it: North Hollywood, 2007. Two old pals get together to work on an installment of LAist's Neighborhood Project but are easily distracted by watching episodes of The Golden Girls on dvd. Deeply entrenched in a bout of hunger, the two turn to the internets to find a local pizzeria that isn't a great big multinational chain (one of them used to be the LAist Food Editor, after all, and has these lofty ideals about consumerism) and they land on the site of a well-known nearby establishment. The pizza is ordered, delivered, and consumed, and the two are left remarking that it was one helluva pizza. more ›

Back in July, LAist and you, our dear readers, had some fun with Walk Score, a site that lets you punch in your address and spits out a walkability score for your neighborhood. Some Los Angeles neighborhoods earned a very respectable "walkers paradise" rating and some just plain sucked (that's what you get when you live on Quakertown Ave. in the northwest Valley). A recent Brookings Institute study finds that Los Angeles ranks 12th... more ›

Sherman Oaks has a lot going for it. From movie and TV stars to community activism, from dingy Valley corner strip malls to high-end boutiques, this neighborhood of nearly 52,000 residents is never a bore (come on, Desperate Housewives films a bunch here). It is named after General Moses Hazeltine Sherman, a well known real estate developer who bought a good amount of land in the area and sold it off. The community was... more ›

Earlier this week I made a right turn out of a parking lot in order to avoid waiting a lifetime to make a near-impossible left turn. I found myself on a quiet side street in lovely Toluca Lake, and eyeballed my trusty GPS navigation screen in order to see if the road I'd taken would connect me through to a street I knew would hook me up with Riverside Drive and send me on my way home. more ›

‘Tis the season for good theater. For fun theater. The holidays always usher in tons of lighter fare and holiday reviews. Here’s just a sampling of what’s going on this weekend your local neighborhoods… Bob’s Holiday Office Party Bob is back. As usual, insurance agent Bob Finhead’s clients stop by his small-town office for the annual holiday bash. What started out as an improve sketch 12 years ago has morphed into an annual event…with... more ›

“Carol Baker Tharp loved the City of Los Angeles and spent the past year working to strengthen its neighborhoods as the General Manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said today in a statement announcing the passing of Carol Baker Tharp. "Though we mourn her passing today, we take comfort in the fact that her work and ideas will continue to yield positive benefits for the people of Los Angeles.” Tharp was... more ›

Today we are all supposed to be thankful, so that's exactly what I am going to do, right now, in enumerated fashion, just for you. more ›