Want to buy a two-story, four bedroom, two-and-a-half bath house with a view of a local artistic and historic landmark for a price tag of around $400,000? They've got custom cabinetry, marble counter tops, walk-in closets, and two-car garages to boot. Sounds pretty sweet! Do you mind that you're on land that was once a dump, and that you're three blocks from a housing project with bars on its windows? And that landmark? They're the......

The community of Watts seems to be undergoing a shift in atmosphere, reports the Daily News, as the area's gang violence has been decreasing, thanks in part to the Watts Gang Task Force. In terms of statistics, homicides were halved last year from the year before--11 in 2007 as compared to the 24 in 2006, and 2007 saw "a three-month stretch without a single slaying. Gang homicides for the approximately 1-square-mile home to an estimated......

Last night I was casually checking out what various travel websites had to say about the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Most of the summaries in Frommers sounded like this: Silver Lake, a residential neighborhood just north of Downtown and adjacent to Los Feliz (home to the Los Angeles Zoo and Griffith Park), just to the west, has arty areas with unique cafes, theaters, graffiti, and art galleries -- all in equally plentiful proportions. The......

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......

LAist keeps it real, others don't. We won't judge them for doing what they're doing but semantics doesn't solve the problems of gangs and crime and education and housing and disrespect. About three years ago the City of LA decided to officially change the name of the area known for 50 years as South Central Los Angeles to South Los Angeles. The reasoning is "South Central" had such a negative connotation that it was......

While youtube is becoming everyone's favorite addiction, another video site went live today. Turn Here is much more polished and showcases neighborhoods around the US, plus South Korea, Thailand, France and even Canada. In general, the views of LA seem to be pretty spot-on mini-documentaries by people who really live here. Most of these people have your average jobs, you know, like firemen. And fire eaters. Anyway. The tour of The Brewery is led......

Jessica Garrison of the Los Angeles Times covers the fracas in Van Nuys regarding the status of Daniel Van Meter's "Tower of Wooden Pallets" as a historic monument in 1978. The Tower is actually 22-foot stack of crumbling, termite-infested Schlitz beer pallets that now stands in the way of development. Those wacky Cultural Heritage Commissioners obviously didn't take their jobs that seriously back in the 70s. Garrison opens her piece with this quote: It's......