Oh, and where is that, again?

Recently I bought a house in what is known as "Montecito Hills" or possibly, "Monterey Heights." (It's on the boundary between Monterey Hills and Montecito Heights.) I had no idea there was another huge park near me (Ernest F. Debs Park). After having lived in Eagle Rock for over a decade and experienced people change from saying "Oh, and where is that again?" to "Oh, wow, Eagle Rock---that is such a cute area!" I wanted to start up a conversation about all the neighborhoods that people at LAVoice.org know about, live in, are interested in but which are still hidden gems to most of the Angeleno hoi polloi.

Who decides what the boundaries of a particular "neighborhood" are? Thomas Bros.? Realtors? The media? Us? This is not a trivial question, because in an era where the median house price in Los Angeles is hurtling towards one-half of a million dollars (it's basically already there for the state, L.A. is at $440, 000 behind the state median of $495,000). There are tens of thousands of dollars at stake between having your house in Eagle Rock versus Highland Park versus Glassell Park versus Mount Washington.

The delineation question is not the focus of this post, however, what I really want to talk about is your neighborhood in Los Angeles (or one that you have heard of or aspire to). For example, I want to talk about EAGLE ROCK!

"Where is that again?" It can be found on Page 594 of most Thomas Bros. maps, encompassing zip codes 90041 and 90042. Eagle Rock is in northeast Los Angeles, bounded by the 5, 134 and 2 freeways which intersect to form a triangle. Eagle Rock is in the interior of this triangle, it is also very close to Glendale, Pasadena and South Pasadena. Yes, there is an eagle rock in Eagle Rock. I never thought it looked much like an eagle until I saw this picture.

Politically, Eagle Rock is part of Los Angeles City Council District 14 represented by the next Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa.

Demographically, Eagle Rock is 39% Latino, 30% White, 25% Asian (mostly Filipino).

Housing prices in Eagle Rock have increased between 100% to 200% in the last decade.

Eagle Rock has a Target (2002), a Starbucks (2004) and a Trader Joe's (Store #55)! It also has numerous cafes, boutiques and an inordinate amount of auto repair shops and fast food store. Some people are not happy about the latter developments. The local neighborhood association, The Eagle Rock Association has the slogan "Eagle Rock: Where land use and planning is a contact sport"!

Eagle Rock also has a nationally ranked liberal arts undergraduate college: Occidental College.

Doing research for this post I came across this great webpage at the Los Angeles Almanac which describes the meanings and origins of names of places in Los Angeles County.