Eastside Los Angeles

The Eastside is an urban region in Los Angeles County, California. It includes the Los Angeles City neighborhoods east of the Los Angeles River—that is, Boyle Heights, El Sereno, and Lincoln Heights—as well as unincorporated East Los Angeles.

History

Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, 2007

East Los Angeles was founded in 1870 by John Strother Griffin (1816–1898), who was called "the father of East Los Angeles".^[1] He was said to have created the first suburb of the city of Los Angeles in Lincoln Heights after he purchased 2,000 acres of ranch land for $1,000 and in 1870, with his nephew, Hancock Johnson, erected houses on the site. That land was a rancho called La Rosa de Castilla, on the east side of the Los Angeles River, taking in the deserted hills between Los Angeles and Pasadena.^{[citation needed]} In late 1874 the two men offered an additional thirty-five acres, divided into 65x165-foot lots, for $150 each.^[2]^[3] They planned the laying out of streets of the present community of East Los Angeles and gifted East Side Park (the present Lincoln Park) to the city of Los Angeles.^[3]^[4]

The Mapping L.A. project of the Los Angeles Times defines the Eastside as comprising Boyle Heights, El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, and East Los Angeles.^[5] However, the boundaries are a matter of perennial discussion and debate among the residents of Los Angeles.^[6]

The Mapping L.A. definition corresponds to the traditional boundaries, but, beginning in the early 21st century, residents of some of the rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods west of Downtown Los Angeles but on the eastern side of Central Los Angeles, such as Echo Park and Silver Lake, began to refer to their neighborhoods as part of the Eastside.^[6] This debate generated some friction, which, according to Ali Modarres, an expert on the geography of Los Angeles from the University of Washington Tacoma, is to be expected because neighborhood names are "full of meaning, nuances, history, cultural and political relationships". Eric Garcetti, former mayor of Los Angeles and a fourth generation resident, is a traditionalist, stating that "true east is east of downtown".^[6]

The trend led the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council to declare officially in February 2014 that Silver Lake is not part of the Eastside.^[6]

The Sixth Street Viaduct, also known as the Sixth Street Bridge was demolished. Prior to the demolition, Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti recorded the rap song "101SlowJam", backed by musicians from Roosevelt High School, and issued it via a video on his own YouTube channel. The public service announcement video advertised the closure of parts of the 101 Freeway to accommodate the demolition of the viaduct.^[7]^[8]

Communities

California State University, Los Angeles, Student Union and Luckman Auditorium, 2010

City of Los Angeles

The official East Area Planning Commission area of the City of Los Angeles is divided into the following communities:^[9]

Mapping L.A.

The Mapping L.A. project by the Los Angeles Times lists the following City of Los Angeles neighborhoods in its definition of the Eastside:^[5]

Education

High Schools
Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts
Marc and Eva Stern Math and Science School
Oscar De La Hoya Animo Charter High School
James A. Garfield High School
Theodore Roosevelt High School
Abraham Lincoln High School
Woodrow Wilson High School
Belmont High School
Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez High School
Esteban Torres High School

Population and housing

The following data applies to the boundaries of the Eastside established by Mapping L.A.:

In 2000, 286,222 people lived in the 20.66 square miles of the Eastside region, amounting to 13,852 people per square mile. The neighborhood was "not especially diverse" ethnically, with a high percentage of Latinos. The ethnic breakdown was Latino, 91.2%; Asian, 5.2%, white, 2.3%; black, 0.7% and other, 0.6%. Just 5.1% of residents aged 25 and older had a four-year college degree. More than two-thirds (66.8%) of the inhabitants lived in shared housing, and 33.2% were homeowners.^[5]

Notable places

Latino Walk of Fame - East Los Angeles
Mariachi Plaza - Boyle Heights
El Mercado de Los Angeles - Boyle Heights
Calvary Cemetery (Roman Catholic) - East Los Angeles
Home of Peace Cemetery (Jewish) - East Los Angeles
Evergreen Cemetery - Boyle Heights
Estrada Courts Murals - Boyle Heights
El Pino (The Pine Tree) - East Los Angeles

Notable people

will.i.am (William James Adams, Jr.), musician, producer, philanthropist^[12]
Herb Alpert, trumpeter, producer
Narciso Botello (about 1813–1889) Mexican Army officer, California State Assembly member^[13]
Anthony Quinn, actor^[14]
Howard E. Dorsey, engineer, politician^[15]
Jaime Escalante, educator^[16]
Kid Frost, musician^[17]
John Strother Griffin (1816–1898), surgeon, founder of East Los Angeles, member of Los Angeles Common Council^[3]
Oscar De La Hoya, boxer
Edward James Olmos, actor^[18]
Dan Peña financial analyst on Wall Street
Luis J. Rodriguez, writer and activist^[19]
Andy Russell, international recording artist
Hope Sandoval, singer-songwriter^[20]

Gallery

The Self-Help Graphics & Art building
CASA 0101 Theater in Boyle Heights^[21]
L Line Mariachi Plaza Station, 2009

References

^ Barrows, H.D. (1898). Memorial Sketch of Dr. John S. Griffin. Vol. 4. Los Angeles: University of California Press, Historical Society of Southern California. pp. 183–185. doi:10.2307/41167720. JSTOR 41167720. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^ "Street Name". EastLosAngeles.net. Archived from the original on May 30, 2013. Retrieved August 20, 2012.
^ ^a ^b ^c Founder of Cities. August 24, 1898. p. 1. ProQuest 163923464. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^ Griffin, John S. (John Strother), 1816–1898. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^ ^a ^b ^c "The Eastside". Mapping L.A. Los Angeles Times.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Esmerelda Bermudez (February 18, 2014). "East is East, but Eastside is open to debate". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 18, 2014.
^ Pedersen, Erik (January 28, 2016). "[WATCH] 101 Freeway Closure: LA Mayor Eric Garcetti Slow-Jams Reminder". Deadline. Retrieved February 6, 2016.
^ #101SlowJam on YouTube
^ Area Planning Commission (APC), Boundaries for the seven (7) Area Planning Commissions as established by Ordinance No. 173,492. Feature Layer by GIS@LADCP. Created: Feb 28, 2018. Updated: Dec 31, 2019.
^ "Historic Resources Survey Report" (PDF). Northeast Los Angeles Community Plan Area. lacity.org.
^ "Los Angeles Times Neighborhood Project". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 11, 2010.
^ "will.i.am's Aha! Moment". Oprah.com. April 14, 2009.
^ "Death of Narciso Botello". Los Angeles Herald. November 21, 1889. p. 2.
^ "Anthony Quinn Public Library". Los Angeles County. Archived from the original on December 23, 2017. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
^ "Reference file" (PDF). Los Angeles Public Library. This file was compiled in 1937 by Works Progress Administration worker Clare Wallace from an interview with Dorsey on June 23 of that year and from newspaper articles.
^ "Honoring a legendary teacher and his legacy". Los Angeles Herald. April 17, 2010.
^ Huey, Steve (2006). "Frost Biography". allmusic. Retrieved December 18, 2008.
^ Bethel, Kari Francisco (2002). Henderson, Ashyia N. (ed.). Edward James Olmos. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale. p. 156. ISBN 0-7876-6538-X. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^ "Luis J. Rodriguez".
^ "The Official Website". Hope Sandoval.
^ "CASA 0101 Theater".