BOYLE HEIGHTS, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

(Redirected from Boyle Heights)
'Boyle Heights' is a district just east of Downtown Los Angeles on the East Side of Los Angeles, California, USA. The neighborhood was once known for its diverse demographics, including large Jewish American, Japanese American & Mexican American populations, as well as Russian American and Yugoslav populations. Now the neighborhood is 95% Chicano/a and or Latino/a according to the 2000 US Census.
Picture of Boyle Heights Sign - Photograph by Yolanda Guerra:courtesy Shades of L.A Archives/Los Angeles Public Library


Contents
Geography and transportation
"All Roads lead to Boyle Heights"
Metro Rail Gold Line Eastern Extension
History
Breed Street Shul
The Flats
Demographics
Fire service
Education
Elementary
Middle School
High School
Private schools
Local Private/Catholic High School
College/Universities/Trade Schools
Landmarks
Demolished Landmarks
Notable residents
Politics
Sports
Entertainment
Music
Arts & Literature
History
Trivia
External links

Geography and transportation


Boyle Heights lies on the east bank of the Los Angeles River. It comprises the bluffs for which the district is named and the muddy flats ("The Flats") below them. The district's boundaries are roughly Mission Road on the north, the Los Angeles city limits on the east and south, and the river on the west. Downtown Los Angeles lies to the west, Lincoln Heights lies to the north, City Terrace and East Los Angeles are to the east, Commerce is to the southeast, and Vernon is to the south. Major thoroughfares include Whittier Boulevard; Cesar E. Chavez Avenue; and State, Soto, Lorena, 1st, and 4th Streets.
"All Roads lead to Boyle Heights"

Boyle Heights has long been a destination for newcomers to Los Angeles. Andrew Boyle, for whom the area is named, was an Irish immigrant who established his home in the area in 1858. His son-in-law, William H. Workman, served as mayor and city councilman and helped build the water lines, bridges, and public transportation that connected Boyle Heights across the river to the city center and made it a viable place to live. By the end of the 19th century, many well-to-do residents and civic leaders resided in Boyle Heights.
As Los Angeles expanded into an industrializing city, the population of Boyle Heights both grew and diversified. Many people moved east of the Los Angeles River due to downtown development, rising real estate values, and racially discriminatory housing restrictions in other parts of the city.
Throughout the past century, people moved to Boyle Heights in search of new opportunities. Some came after being driven out of their countries of origin by wars, persecution, and adverse economic circumstances. All of these people, old and new residents alike, impacted the neighborhood they shared as they created homes and communities supporting their diverse talents, interests, and needs.
The massive East Los Angeles Interchange is located in Boyle Heights on the eastern bank of the Los Angeles River, allowing access to the Golden State (I-5), Hollywood (U.S. Route 101), Pomona (CA-60), San Bernardino (I-10), Santa Ana (I-5), and Santa Monica (I-10) freeways.
Metro Rail Gold Line Eastern Extension

In 2004, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) began work on the "Eastside Extension" of its Gold Line through Boyle Heights. MTA had planned to run the line at grade level along 1st Street, but community opposition concerned for the potential loss of affordable housing led it to instead route the line through the district as a subway before it emerges as a standard grade-level light rail line in East Los Angeles. (Ironically, this route was planned as part of the Red Line subway before 1998, when county voters passed a proposition banning use of existing sales tax revenues for subway construction.) The Eastside Extension is expected to open in 2009.

History


Sketch of Boyle Heights in 1877, with Los Angeles in the background

Originally owned by the early L.A. Boyle-Workman family, the district was subdivided in 1875 and named after Andrew Boyle. Traditionally one of the most heterogeneous neighborhoods in the city, it was a center of Jewish, Mexican and Japanese immigrant life in the early 20th century, and also hosted large Yugoslav and Russian populations. Canter's Deli, one of Los Angeles' culinary landmarks and a beloved fixture in the city's Jewish community, was originally located in Boyle Heights before it followed its customer base to the Fairfax District in the 1940s. However, during and after World War II, most of its non-Latino population left for Mid-Wilshire, the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys, and the West Side. A large percentage of Boyle Heights' population also was interned in relocation camps such as Manzanar during World War II, and did not return after the war. This evolution is evidenced, among many other ways, by the name of the district's main drag: once Brooklyn Avenue, it was rechristened Cesar E. Chavez Avenue in 1994.
Breed Street Shul

Opened in 1923, the Breed Street Shul, located at 247 North Breed Street, was one of the oldest synagogues on West Coast of the United States. Boyle Heights was a predominantly Jewish community for many years, but slowly the demographic changed to a large Latino community, and the synagogue steadily lost congregation members. Breed Street Shul was finally abandoned in 1996, with the building becoming ramshackle. Shortly afterward, an effort was made to renovate the synagogue, and to preserve the site for posterity. In 1999, the nonprofit Breed Street Shul Project, Inc., a subsidiary of the Jewish Historical Society of Southern California (JHS), officially undertook the restoration project. The project has been completed, and Breed Street Shul is now considered a national historic landmark.
The Flats

Unlike the middle- and lower-middle-class neighborhoods on the bluffs, "The Flats" was one of the most impoverished areas of the city, and by the 1930s was considered one of the last remaining slums in the United States. Reformer Jacob Riis had visited The Flats in the early 1910s and declared them worse than anything in New York; a survey conducted by the city in the 1937 deemed 20% of the city's dwellings "unfit for human habitation," including most of The Flats. During World War II, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) razed The Flats and built housing projects in their place, resulting in Aliso Village and Pico Gardens. Like most of HACLA's 1940s projects, Aliso Village and Pico Gardens were hailed at the time of their construction as some of the finest examples of the principles espoused by the garden city movement, and were racially integrated to boot.
Soon after the end the war, Aliso Village and Pico Gardens lost most of their non-Latino populations, and were increasingly populated by Mexican immigrants. With the river on one side and a massive rail yard on another, the construction of the East Los Angeles Interchange further isolated them from the rest of the city, and the closure of the Pacific Electric Railway dramatically reduced the mobility of many of the projects' residents. By the 1970s, overcrowding had eliminated much of Aliso Village's once-vaunted green spaces, physical deterioration had become rampant, and gangs were an increasing problem. In the 1980s the residents of Aliso Village and Pico Gardens began to organize with the support of Dolores Mission Church and its community Organization UNO and began to address these problems. By the late eighties the residents of the two housing projects had developed a network of community groups that pushed for better services and began negotiating truces between the different gangs, thus reducing the level of violence. In 1996, HACLA wrote off both projects, against the residents desires; Pico Gardens was razed and rebuilt eliminating half of the units in the development. Aliso Village was demolished and replaced with the New Urbanist, Pueblo del Sol "workforce housing" project. In the process two thirds of the residents of the two housing projects were displaced in a situation reminiscing of the Chavez Ravine incident

Demographics


As of the census of 2000, there are 87,426 people in the neighborhood. The racial makeup of the neighborhood is 36.50% White (1.61% not of Hispanic origin), 0.98% African American, 1.11% Native American, 2.06% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 54.75% from other races, and 4.53% from two or more races. 94.95% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Fire service


Los Angeles Fire Department Station 2 (Boyle Heights) and Station 25 (South Boyle Heights) are in Boyle Heights.

Education


Elementary

Los Angeles Unified School District operates Boyle Heights' public schools.

Sheridan Street Elementary School

2nd Street Elementary School

Utah Street Elementary School

★ Breed Street Elementary School

★ Dena Elementary School

★ First Street Elementary School

★ Euclid Elementary School

★ Soto Street Elementary

★ Bridge Street Elementary School

★ Evergreen Elementary School

★ Lorena Street Elementary School

★ Malabar Elementary

★ Sunrise Elementary
Middle School


Hollenbeck Middle School

Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School
High School


Roosevelt High School Roosevelt H.S Website

Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School Bravo H.S

★ Boyle Heights Continuation High School

★ Ramona Opportunity High School
Private schools


★ Dolores Mission School Proyecto Pastoral

★ Santa Isabel School

★ Santa Teresita Elementary School

★ Saint Mary's Elementary School

★ Our Lady of Talpa Elementary School

★ White Memorial Adventist School
Local Private/Catholic High School


Bishop Mora Salesian High School
College/Universities/Trade Schools


★ East Los Angeles Occupational Center

★ East Los Angeles Adult Skill Center

USC Keck School of Medicine

Landmarks



Otomi Cafe now Otomisan Last Japanese Restaurant in Boyle Heights.

★ Arctic Hotspot- First Community Based Coffee House

★ Metro Grill, Cesar E. Chavez & Boyle Ave.

Variety Boys and Girls Club

LAC+USC/Los Angeles General County Hospital/University of Southern California Health Sciences Campus

Estrada Courts Murals

Evergreen Cemetery

White Memorial Hospital

Breed Street Shul

★ Historic Brooklyn Avenue Corridor now Avenida Cesar E. Chavez

★ El Mercadito del Este de Los Angeles

★ Mariachi Plaza

El Tepeyac

Hollenbeck Park

★ Santa Fe/Linda Vista Hospital

★ Sears Building, Olympic Boulevard and Soto St. Oscar De La Hoya "Golden Boy" Buys Sears Bldg

★ Casa Del Mexicano

★ El Corrido de Boyle Heights, Brooklyn Ave. & Soto St - East Los Streetscrapers

★ International Institute of Los Angeles, Boyle Ave.

★ Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School, Largest High School in the nation, Most Overcrowded school in the nation. The High School with the most recruitment to the United States Marines and the High School with the highest dropout rate in the nation.

★ Malabar Public Library

★ Robert L. Stevenson Public Library

★ Benjamin Franklin Public Library

★ St. Mary's Catholic church (4th and Chicago Streets)

★ Teocintli - T-Shirts, Books, Cultura y Mas! / TEOCINTLI

Demolished Landmarks



Soto-Michigan Jewish Community Center [1]

Aliso Village

Pico Gardens

★ No.54 Historic 6th Street Wooden Bridge - Hollenbeck Park, Los Angeles, demolished 1968

★ Benjamin Franklin Library

Notable residents


Politics


Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles

Jose Huizar, Democratic politician

Nick Pacheco, Democratic politician

Edward R. Roybal, WWII Veteran, Democrat in the United States House of Representatives for the 30th district and later for the 25th district of California and was the first Mexican American member of the Los Angeles City Council.

Paul Bannai First Japanese American to ever serve in the California State Legislature.

Julian Nava, 1st Mexican-American to serve in the L.A.U.S.D

Eugene A. Obregon, Korean War Medal of Honor

★ Judge Harry Pregerson United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Fred Okrand, First Legal Director of the Southern California Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union

Lucille Roybal-Allard United States House of Representatives, 34th District.

Nativo Lopez Immigrant Right Activist

George Nakano California State Assemblyman, First Japanese to serve in the City of Torrance City Council

Sheldon Andelson First openly gay female to be appointed to the University of California Regents or any high position in state goverment.
Sports


Donald Sterling, Los Angeles Clippers owner (he was raised in this neighborhood as a child)

Joe Gold, Bodybuilder and founder of Gold's Gym

Sam Balter, 1936 Olympic Gold Medal - Basketball

Art Aragon Lightweight Boxer, 1944 to 1960, was "The Golden Boy" long before Oscar De La Hoya was born.

Willie Davis, Fastest Man in Baseball, Dodgers

Mike Garrett, Two-time All-American - USC Heisman Trophy Winner 1965

Bill Slayton, Boxing trainer (Ken Norton, Michael Dokes, Lamon Brewster)

Paul Gonzales, 1st Mexican American to win a Gold Medal, 1984 Olympics Boxing.
Entertainment


Edward James Olmos, Actor

Josefina Lopez, Writer (Writer of Real Women Have Curves)

Xavi Moreno Teatrista, Boyle Heights Historian

Lew Wasserman, A Hollywood agent and studio executive

Sean Carillo Director, Producer & Writer
Music


Don Tosti, Musician, Composer

Lou Adler, Record company owner, record producer, manager, and director

will.i.am Founding member and frontman of BEP/ Black Eyed Peas.

KAM (rapper) Esteemed West Coast underground rapper.

Arts & Literature



George Yepes, Muralist

Isamu Noguchi Landscape Architect

Jack Chick Cartoonist

Louis Barajas Author

George Ramos Journalist

Rodolfo Acuña Historian, Author, Professor

History



Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout, Aviationist - Pioneer Women of the Year -1984

Julius Shulman, World Famous photographer of architecture

Harold Williams, Creator of The New Getty Center Los Angeles

★ Father Greg Boyle S.J. Homeboy-Industries

Trivia



★ Boyle Heights is often mistakenly referred to as East L.A.

★ Boyle Heights' Roosevelt High School has a long standing rivalry with East L.A.'s Garfield High School (Los Angeles County, California). Their football teams play each other once a year in what is mistakenly referred to as "The East L.A. Classic", which is not correct since technically Garfield High School is currently the only high school in East Los Angeles.

★ CNN once called Boyle Heights "Homicide Capitol".

★ Self-Help Graphics & Art was established on Brooklyn Avenue in Boyle Heights by Sister Karen Boccalero and a group of artists. Organization moves to Gage Street in East L.A. in 1978

★ Boyle Heights was once called Paredon Blanco (White Bluffs) when California was part of Mexico.

External links



Departures: Boyle Heights (kcet.org)

Boyle Heights: Neighborhood Sites and Insights

Boyle Heights: Power of Place

History of Aliso Village

Breed Street Shul Project, Inc.

Boyle Heights Learning Collaborative

Boyle Heights - NO SE VENDE!

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