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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NEIGHBORHOOD PAGES
Click on the cities and neighborhoods below for descriptions of life in these Los Angeles areas.
The self-proclaimed "Heart of Screenland," the city enjoyed a grand and glamorous heyday starting in the 1920s after Hal Roach and MGM established studios. Classics such as "The Wizard of Oz," "Gone With the Wind" and "Citizen Kane" were later filmed here.
But after MGM and other studios moved on in the 1960s, the city experienced several decades of economic and social downturn before a concerted effort was made in the 1990s to revive it.
Since then, Sony Pictures Studios has taken over the MGM property, and trendy cafes, restaurants and furniture boutiques have sprouted up along the broad boulevards of the downtown area and breathed new life into the formerly grand Prohibition-era beaux-arts buildings. Established and upstart art galleries have revamped industrial spaces along nearby La Cienega Boulevard and have made the artsy vibe less post-college bohemian and more cutting-edge urban.
Although it borders the city of Los Angeles, Culver City remains a separate municipality with its own government, school system and independence-minded small-town charm.
Residents laud the location, as they enjoy afternoon breezes that waft inland from the Pacific as well as proximity to downtown Los Angeles via surface roads instead of freeways. Home prices have also remained relatively sober compared with surrounding areas of Los Angeles but continue to rise. The median price for homes as of March 2007 was $595,000, according to DataQuick Information Systems, a 22% jump over the year before.
The housing possibilities are diverse, and the demographic, multiethnic. Older residents live next to young couples riding the wave of gentrification. Homes range from 1,200-square-foot condominiums listed for $200,000 to $1.5-million homes perched on the hillsides of Culver Crest. But the houses that the city is known for are the small three-bedroom postwar bungalows along palm-lined streets built for returning troops and their families. These homes are slowly but surely being refurbished by new residents.
