| West Adams, Los Angeles, California |
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Information AboutWest Adams, Los Angeles, California |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT WEST ADAMS, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA | |
| los angeles historic preservation overlay zones | |
| neighborhoods in los angeles | |
| united states communities with hispanic majority populations | |
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GEOGRAPHY West Adams is bordered by Pico-Union and Harvard Heights on the north, the original South Los Angeles on the east, Vermont Square on the south, and Jefferson Park on the south and west. The district's traditional boundaries are Western Avenue on the west, Washington Boulevard on the north, Main Street on the east, and Exposition Boulevard on the south. However, the Santa Monica and Harbor freeways are often considered to be its northern and eastern boundaries, respectively. Its principal thoroughfares are Adams, Jefferson, and Exposition Boulevards, Western , Vermont , and Normandie Avenues, and Hoover and Figueroa Streets. The district is in ZIP Code s 90007 and 90018, with 90089 reserved for the USC campus. DEMOGRAPHICS West Adams is a large area, covering 11 distinct United States Census tracts. As of the 2000 census, its population was 48,925 when the USC campus is excluded. Racial breakdown was as follows: 27.6% white, 20.0% black or African-American, 0.8% Native American, 7.7% Asian or Pacific Islander, 38.5% some other race, and 5.4% two or more races; 58.1% of persons of any race were of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity. Income and poverty figures are unreliable due to the large presence of students, many of whom are claimed as dependents by their parents, in the district. Most of West Adams' Asian and non-Hispanic white population is USC students, although some white families reside in the district as well. HISTORY West Adams is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, with most of its buildings erected between 1880 and 1910, including the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library . It was once the wealthiest district in the city, with its Victorian mansions and sturdy Craftsman bungalows home to downtown businessmen and professors at USC. In the 1990s, three areas of West Adams were designated as Historic Preservation Overlay Zones by the city of Los Angeles, in recognition of their outstanding architectural heritage. The development of the West Side and Hollywood , beginning in the 1920s, siphoned away much of West Adams' upper-class white population; upper-class blacks began to move in around this time, although the district was off-limits to all but the very wealthiest African-Americans. One symbol of the area's emergence as a center of black wealth at this time is the 1948 headquarters of Golden State Mutual Life , a late-period Art Deco structure at Adams and Western that housed what is still the nation's largest black-owned Insurer . West Adams' transformation into an affluent black area was sped by the Supreme Court 's 1948 invalidation of Segregationist Covenants on property ownership; soon thereafter, most of the district's white residents moved to other parts of the city. The area was a favorite among black celebrities in the 1940s and 1950s; notable residents included Hattie McDaniel , Joe Louis , and Little Richard . Ray Charles ' business headquarters, including his RPM studio, was located at 2107 Washington Boulevard, just outside the northern edge of the district. (The intersection of Washington and Westmoreland Avenue, near the studio, is named ''Ray Charles Square'' in his honor.) In the 1950s, the construction of the Santa Monica and Harbor Freeways obliterated much of West Adams, their routes chosen in large part to demarcate areas acceptable for black settlement and those deemed whites-only. (In both cases, this was notably unsuccessful, as blacks poured into Mid-City and Arlington Heights during this period.) Black money began to leave after the 1965 Watts Riots , which also led to calls (ultimately unheeded) for USC to leave the district. By the 1970s, the desegregation of areas such as Ladera Heights and Baldwin Hills had led to a further exodus of upper- and middle-class blacks. The elegant mansions they left behind were often purchased by landlords who carved them up into apartments, for students at fast-growing USC and the burgeoning population of single Latino immigrants. In the areas more distant from USC, Gang violence became an increasingly large problem among the area's diminishing black population. While the 1992 Los Angeles Riots largely spared West Adams' historic buildings, most of its remaining African-Americans decamped for the Exurb s of the Antelope Valley and Inland Empire . An increasingly large portion of the district's population is now of Mexican origin, but the area's architecture and proximity to USC have brought a number of upper-middle-class whites as well {Link without Title} . RECENT DEVELOPMENTS West Adams' belated designation by the city as a historic district in the late 1990s increased property values, while the Southern California real estate boom of the early 2000s has brought new prosperity to the district. The successful reforms of Los Angeles Police Department chief William J. Bratton , in conjunction with beefed-up security patrols by USC's Department of Public Safety, have considerably reduced gang activity in the area, although it remains troubling in the area north of Adams and west of Vermont. The projected 2010 opening of a long-delayed Light Rail Line from Downtown Los Angeles to Culver City and Santa Monica --which will pass by USC on Exposition Boulevard and have stops in the district at Figueroa Street, Vermont Avenue, and Western Avenue--may bring even greater importance to West Adams. USC has tentatively endorsed the project, although it has expressed an interest in it running as a Subway along the campus' southern edge, for aesthetic and public safety reasons. Reportedly this project to build an underground segment and station would cost 100 million dollars, in addition to the 650 million dollar cost of the entire line. USC has indicated that they would be willing to pay up to half of the 100 million dollar cost, but the LACMTA has expressed doubts that they could identify any funds to pay for this additional construction. LANDMARKS
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