where is the core part of Los Angeles?

[Torie]

Where the city was as of when?  For example, I have marked the first subdivision built in LA in 1889. Then there was a bank crash, and development did not start again until 1895 in the Adams district north of USC.  My dad learned to drive on Wilshire Blvd west of La Cienega (the main commercial street in Los Angeles) when it was still a dirt road in the early 1920's, when he visited his brother there for a few months where he was a cameraman (later to become the most famous special effects man of his era), until Dad decided that LA was a sleepy little town, and repaired back to NYC.  LA is a new city!





And here is a map of LA circa 1913.

[Torie]

West Hollywood, because that's where the rich people are.

  Actually, the rich people live in general live in Homby Hills, Bel Air, Hancock Park, Brentwood, and Pacific Palisades. In addition, West Hollywood is a separate city.

[Torie]

LA just doesn't have a dominating downtown. It has hubs. It was built too late, in the automobile era, for it to have such. And it is tough to get from point A to B, with an under-developed subway system (partially due to the earthquake risk, and partially because of that very lack of one BIG downtown).

But over time, LA along the Santa Monica mountains is becoming like Manhattan, and close in Brooklyn  and The Bronx. It is ALL downtown. The tale of the two cities over my lifetime have become much more alike, each going a bit towards the other, and I think that trend is continuing.