The Los Angeles Times’s Neighborhood Spotlight feature recently focused on nearby Mid-City, a neighborhood of over 50,000 people living between Pico Blvd and West Adams and Crenshaw Blvd and Robertson Blvd. Like Greater Wilshire, most of the homes were built in the 1920s and ’30s.
“The commute has always been at the heart of Mid-City life. Before the rolling floor of the Los Angeles basin swapped sagebrush for concrete, isolated clusters of suburban villages were erected along the trolley tracks that ran between downtown and the ocean-side resorts of Santa Monica and Venice. Many of these suburbs were built by the trolley operators themselves, to provide a steady stream of customers for the Red and Yellow Cars that clattered back and forth across the rapidly growing metropolis,” wrote Scott Garner of the Times.
According to Garner, Mid-City is poised to become a center of transit again.
“If all goes according to Metro’s plan, Phase 2 of the under-construction Crenshaw Line will connect Mid-City to the city’s rail system once again. If that comes to pass, residents could soon be riding the rails to work, this time to any of number of new “downtowns” that have come into being in the 60 years since the trolleys rolled off the tracks and into the scrapyard.”
Garner goes on to offer insights into the highlights of the neighborhood, it’s close proximity to everything given its central location and some of the challenges it faces keeping the historic homes. It’s worth a look if you love reading about LA’s neighborhoods.
