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Is Westwood the Best Neighborhood for Trick-or-Treating in L.A.?
Photo by bumblebeelovesyou via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
Westwood topped a list of the best neighborhood for trick-or-treaters in Los Angeles.
The real estate website Zillow plugged in a bunch of factors to come up with its list: the value of homes, crime data, population density and walkability. This method spit out Westwood as the best neighborhood for trick-or-treating, followed by a few others on the Westside: Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Bel Air and Venice (which was Zillow's best trick-or-treating neighborhood in L.A. last year).
Zillow came up with a national list of rankings, too. Los Angeles came in at #8 on the list that was topped by San Francisco, Boston and Honolulu.
Curbed LA is one of those not completely in love with the list: "Now we spend a lot of time thinking about both neighborhoods and candy collecting, and this year's list is pretty good, but we're still not completely sold. Can you imagine trying to walk a costumed kid around Pacific Palisades at night?"
We're not totally sold on the method ourselves. Crime stats seem like a no-brainer, but the other factors aren't. Walkability sounds great, but kids (and, uh, those who never outgrew trick-or-treating) don't need to walk to a restaurant or ATM in order to have a really solid trick-or-treating experience. Car-centric suburbs are not necessarily at a disadvantage.
Also, well-off folks (or 1 percenters in modern parlance) might be more inclined to give out something more generous than a dried-up tootsie roll, but that's not always true. And some wealthy folks without kids might be more inclined to go out than hang around to hand out candy. And let's just think about things logistically: you might need a bike (or worse, car) just to hit more than a few sprawling properties in some of the fancier neighborhoods on the list.
My guess is that the best neighborhoods for trick-or-treating have a lot of kids, have very little crime and pass a certain threshold for wealth — but after a certain point, it doesn't matter.
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What are the best neighborhoods or cities for trick-or-treating in Los Angeles?
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