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The Entirely Readable City: Notes on Los Angeles Cartography and Street Grid (s) by Damian Gatto Source: Google Maps Whenever I tell people I studied urban planning and that I am passionate about effecting change in my home city, they usually politely smile and the conversation moves onward. If the conversation continues, I hear all of the (false) platitudes about LA’s urban design: how it consists of mindless, unplanned sprawl (false), or how it lacks a coherent address system (false), or how it lacks a perfect, contiguous waffle grid (okay, true), among other things. Author David C. Sloane does a great job disproving the characterization of LA’s sprawling nature as “mindless” throughout his brilliant book Planning Los Angeles. However, there remains the widespread idea that LA’s present state of design owes its design to poor planning processes. Recently, Christopher Hawthorne of the Los Angeles Times described a Los Angeles that is "hard-to-read. " While I can appreciate Hawthorne's extended anecdotes about growing up in a city he couldn't predict, and how all these other random irrelevant people have described Los Angeles' urban form as an "improvisation," I must objectively disagree with Hawthorne's interpretation of Los Angeles' urban landscape and street grid. ========================================================================== In response, this column is about the urban design of Los Angeles— specifically, the evolution of Los Angeles’ street grid and address system. ========================================================================== The fact is that Los Angeles’ street layout and address system is a product of the City’s evolution, numerous annexations, and the region's natural topography. During its first epoch--from 1781 to 1850-- Los Angeles was a humble pueblo, lacking any big plans for the future. The pueblo's boundaries and its street grid were a fraction of their current size. Beginning about two decades following California statehood, LA’s street layout was further altered as a result of various annexations, most of which occurred between the 1880s and 1930s, resulting in the distinct “clashing grid” that characterizes the City's urban design. Finally, there were erasures and re-drawings of small sections of the City throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries. Furthermore, the end of this article, there will be mention of how the Los Angeles region’s natural topography shaped the city’s urban design and layout. CLICK "READ MORE" BELOW I. Humble Origins Above: The pueblo of Los Angeles in the mid 19th century. Source: El Pueblo Historical Monument; Reproduced by KCET. During its first epoch from 1781 to 1850, El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles del Rio de Porciuncula was a humble pueblo, chartered and controlled by the Spanish Empire, and established by a diverse group of individuals. It is doubtful whether any of these early Angelenos imagined an enormous future for Los Angeles. The roads of Old Los Angeles were aligned at an angle in accordance with Colonial orthodoxy, as prescribed by the The Law of the Indies. The vicinity around La Placita (“The Plaza”) was at the center of this layout, and all the important roads converged at The Plaza. In this pueblo, the lot-and-block system for dividing land was not the standard. Moreover, the overall boundaries of the City were a fraction of their current size. The original boundaries of Los Angeles were the “Original 8 Leagues” granted by the Spanish Empire. Various civilizations throughout time have used the "league" as a measurement, but for the Spaniards, a “league” was an abstract measurement signifying the distance an able-bodied human could walk in an hour. In modern imperial measurements, "eight square leagues" is equivalent to about 17,800 acres or 28 square miles, with one Spanish “square league” being about 3 to 4 square miles. Above: The original 1781cSpanish land grant. (Source: Los Angeles Department of Planning) II. A Clash of…Planning Orthodoxies When Los Angeles was incorporated as a Californian city in 1850, the boundaries were essentially that of the Old City. We know of these boundaries today as, *roughly* : Fountain Avenue/Landa Street/Loma Vista Place on the north, Hoover Street on the west, Indiana Street/Soto Street/Boundary Avenue at the east, and an irregular southern boundary that roughly follows what is today Exposition Boulevard. At the time, much of the land within those boundaries was undeveloped west of The Plaza and, of greater concern, the lands were not divided as public and private property. When California and Los Angeles became a part of the United States, it became necessary to divide the land so that it could be recorded, regulated, taxed, and transferred. As such, the City adopted the lot-and-block system as well as, to the best of their ability, the linear style of road planning used by other American cities. Government engineer Eduard Ord drew LA’s first master land survey during the period 1847-1849—a period which predates statehood! This survey was the first to reflect the diagonal orientation of the streets running through the City’s historic center. In 1857, Army engineer and cartographer Henry Hancock produced a follow-up to Ord’s survey. Noting the lack of development west of the Placita, Hancock drew the final diagonal streets leading up to the City’s western boundary of the time. This western boundary is known today as Hoover Street , and the final diagonal streets that Hancock platted leading up to it include modern-day Alvarado Street, Rampart Avenue, and Union Avenue. ================================================================================ And, bingo: If you look at a map from the present day, you can see where the grids of the Old LA and the New LA clash: Hoover Street. East of Hoover, and throughout Downtown, the City grid runs its historic diagonal trajectory in compliance with the Law of the Indies. West of Hoover, however, the streets run (relatively) straight, in accordance with American urban planning tradition. Source: ZIMAS.LACity.org III. Annexation and Growth After nearly 70 years as a humble Spanish pueblo comprised of diverse individuals, Los Angeles became an American city in 1850 with the arrival of California statehood. Between 1880 and 1930, the City's population grew more than 10,970%. While many thousands of immigrants from all over the world continued to come to Los Angeles during this period of growth, the bulk of the City’s population swell came from the flight of Anglo Whites out of the Midwest and East Coast. Many fled maladies like poor sanitation and corrupt East Coast political bosses. Others sought relief from their respiratory ailments in the sultry Southern California sun. Many simply came to Los Angeles to claim their piece of the “exotic” West. Two years after Hancock’s 1857 Survey—Los Angeles began a program of immense annexation and, by effect, expansion. L.A.’s first annexation following California Statehood was the 1859 Southern Annexation, which added a long, thin strip of land, 1.35 square miles total, spanning the length of the southern boundary of the City. (See "2" Below) Below: a map depicting the first couple dozen annexations of Los Angeles. (Source: Los Angeles Department of Planning) Many areas immediately adjacent to Downtown followed throughout the late 19th century. Districts like Highland Park (1895), most of South Central (1896-1899), Garvanza (1899), and Hollywood (1909-1910) became some of the City's first suburbs Most of the Harbor area--comprising San Pedro and Wilmington-- was annexed on the same fateful day in 1909. The annexations of what are now the San Fernando Valley and the Westside occurred between 1915 to the early 1930s, although the actual residential development of the Westside and San Fernando Valley occurred mostly post-World War II. IV. A Postal System to Unite this New City of Neighborhoods Between the Northeast Los Angeles annexations in 1895 and the Fairfax annexation in 1932, the City of Los Angeles acquired over 85% percent of its present territory. At the time of their annexations, districts such as Venice, San Pedro, Wilmington, and Highland Park all contained street layouts dating from their days as separate towns and municipalities. By now, it was necessary to create an address numbering system to unite all of Los Angeles. Here is how Los Angeles' city planners and cartographers made it all work. 1. Los Angeles streets are categorized as either “north-south” or “east-west”; the letter initials on the streets ("N," "S," "E," or "W") signs signify the direction of the streets' travel as well as their positions relative to the east-west and north-south dividers (See 2. and 3. below). 2. Main Street (originally “Calle Principal”) is the east-west divider for LA’s address numbering system. 3. First Street (orig. “Calle Primera”) is the north-south divider for LA's address numbering system. In some part of the city, Beverly Boulevard (which runs right alongside First Street) is the north-south divider. ============================================================================= Thus, the center of LA’s postal system is Main Street & 1st Street. Furthermore-- ============================================================================= 4. Every increment of 100 in an address number indicates the block’s distance from the respective postal divider, measured in city blocks. Examples: -1100 (W) Pico Boulevard indicates a location on Pico Blvd. that is 11 city blocks west of Main Street. Pico Blvd., you may note, is an east-west traveling street. -3600 (S) Arlington Avenue indicates a location on Arlington Ave. that is 36 city blocks south of First Street. Arlington Ave., you may note, is a north-south traveling street. Thats pretty much it. In the City of LA proper, all you need are a pair of signs indicating which intersection you are at and, using the numbers on the signs and keeping the 1st-and-Main rule in mind, you can ascertain your location within the City. =================================================================== A few more helpful things the early engineers and cartographers of Los Angeles came up with: =================================================================== 5. There is a system of numbered streets, numbered 1st through 266th. North-south streets running south of 1st Street have address numbers indicating the closest numbered streets. The first digits of the address number indicate the numbered street that particular block intersects with. Example: The 19000 block of South Figueroa Street intersects with 190th Street. Example: The 1200 block of South Western Avenue intersects with 12th Street. Example: The 300 block of South Bonnie Brae Street intersects with 3rd Street. 6. The numbered avenues of Northeast LA (running from Avenue 16 to Avenue 67) have their very own numbering mnemonic. Example: 5700 North Figueroa intersects with Avenue 57. Example: 3200 North Pasadena Avenue intersects with Avenue 32. 7. The San Fernando Valley also abides by the 1st-And-Main rule. You will note, as all of the Valley is north of 1st Street and west of Main Street, all of the addresses numbers are quite large and begin with “North—” and “West—”—i.e. West Ventura Boulevard and North Colfax Avenue. ========================================================================== --There are just a few small exceptions to these rules. ========================================================================== I. In the Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, and the other more secluded areas of the Westside, Sunset Boulevard is the north-south divider. Luckily, these areas are set apart from the rest of the City, so there is no further clashing of grids that occurs here. II. San Pedro, now a part of the City of Los Angeles, was a separate city until August 28th, 1909. The City annexed Pedro out of the need for a harbor. As part of the deal, San Pedro retained its own address grid and its own numbering system. However, San Pedro still uses its own 1st Street as the north-south divisor and, like Central LA, abides by the “100 per block” system. So, an address of 1000 South Gaffey Street represents a location that is on Gaffey Street, ten blocks south of 1st Street. There are very few address numbers in San Pedro with “East” preceding them, as much of the eastern part of San Pedro was lost, first, in a fire, and then with the destruction of Terminal Island (historically a Japanese fishing village) and Deadman’s Island, in order to expand the port. III. The Wilmington District, prior to annexation, was also a separate, established town in and of itself. It was annexed the same day as San Pedro, but it too retained its own street numbering system, using Avalon Boulevard (formerly Canal Avenue) as its east-west divider, and a series of lettered streets as east-west streets. To unite the harbor with the Central City, the engineers arranged a Shoestring Annexation, and Avalon Boulevard was redrawn all the way from Downtown LA to the Harbor—a distance over 20 miles. IV. Venice, also once an independent town, maintains its historic grid. It has its own numbered street and numbered avenue system. Luckily, Venice is set apart from the rest of the City, so there is no further clashing of grids that occurs here. V. Erasures, Redrawings, and Secessions As previously stated, the period from 1880 to 1930 was a period of immense population and spatial growth for Los Angeles, during which time its population grew more than 10,000%. The city also accumulated over 85% of its present territories during this time. Los Angeles also became a slightly less diverse City, but it was still a beautiful city, with beautiful weather and beautiful architecture. Alas, being that Los Angeles is the land of reinvention, after World War II —and for some time before then— the City commenced an agenda of urban renewal and urban redevelopment. In the 20th century, “urban renewal” translated to “total erasure of working-class communities”. In the earliest days of Los Angeles’ growth, during the mid-late 19th century, the adobes and cottages built around the Plaza were all destroyed to make way for buildings of larger scale—which at the time meant buildings that were more than one story. Sonoratown was a generations-old community of people from the northern Mexican state of Sonora, with minorities of African-Americans and Chinese immigrants. It ran from west of the Pico House (across from the Plaza) down to Aliso Street, the present site of the 101 Freeway. It flourished from the 1850s to the early 1900s. In the late 19th century, city politicians began deriding it as a slum. By 1908-1919, redevelopment efforts were underway, and by the 1930s, thousands of its residents had repatriated to Mexico, and the whole site had been razed. The 8th Ward (also known as the Macy Street and Naud Junction neighborhoods) stretched from the present site of Union Station northward to the present site of Chinatown. Following its ravaging by the 1924 bubonic plague outbreak, and with the City's realization of the land's value as railyards, the 8th Ward was slowly demolished between 1925 and 1936. Just like that, a whole neighborhood— encompassing Rosabel Street, Augusta Street, Chavez Street, Queirolo Street, Ash Street, and most of Bauchet Street—was completely erased by 1936. Only the original building permits and photographs of the town remain. The 8th Ward was replaced with, among other things, Union Station, the Terminal Annex Building and, much later, the California Endowment Office. See my two genealogies of this community, entitled "LAST STOP: A Genealogy of the Northern 8th Ward (aka Naud Junction)" and "It Was Where Union Station is Now." The mostly Mexican neighborhood bound by Valley Boulevard, Mission Road, Soto Street, and Marengo Street, also gravely affected by the 1924 plague, was razed prior to the 1950s to built County-USC Medical Center. Dogtown, north of present-day Chnatown along North Main Street roughly between College Street and Wilhardt Street, was a working class Mexican and Italian neighborhood . It was named as such because of its proximity to the old city animal pound, out of which came the perpetual howl of dogs. Between 1937 and 1942, the neighborhood was cleared to make way for railyard expansion, and later the William Mead homes, a federal housing project. Chavez Ravine, a humble, countryside village perched over Downtown, was home to a diverse community of Mexicans, Italians, Anglos, and Jews, with Mexicans becoming the predominant group by the 20s. Many residents did their own farming, and the vast majority appear to have built their own homes, as my survey “The Lasso of La Loma” (link) demonstrates. Originally slated to be eminent domained for public housing, the anti-Socialist atmosphere of the time halted the efforts. Chavez Ravine was slowly razed starting in 1951 and ending in 1961, when the Arechiga, Vargas, and Perich families were forcefully evicted by LA County Sheriffs—who still handle evictions by the way. In this village’s place, we now have Dodger Stadium. (See my genealogy of the La Loma neighborhood, titled "The Lasso of La Loma.") Bunker Hill, once an exclusive district of the City with a rolling hill landscape, became relegated to a low-income rental district by the 1930s. It might have been hard at that time to appreciate Bunker Hill’s glamorous Victorians, with so many having been illegally altered, densified, and allowed to decay. In the period from 1945 to 1970, nearly 140 acres of historic buildings were removed from the area of Bunker Hill between the 101, the 110, Olympic Boulevard, and Temple Street. The final three buildings to be removed—two apartments and one single-family home in the vicinity bound by 3rd, 4th, Hope, and Flower Streets—were razed in 1970. The topography of Bunker Hill is no longer recognizable in its original form; nearly the entirety of the rolling landscape was flattened to accommodate the large skyscrapers we see today. Palisades Del Rey, also known as Surfridge, was an upscale beachside community located north of Dockweiler Beach and west of LAX Airport. It existed between the early 1920s and the 1960s, when eminent domain proceedings began in order to expand LAX. By the early 1970s, everything on the site was razed, with only the sidewalks and foundations of houses remaining. As of the writing of this article, expansion plans remain stalled, and the site undeveloped. There is, however, a natural preserve on the site, which is home to, among other things, the El Segundo Blue butterfly. Some erasures occurred in the late 20th and early 21st centuries as well. The neighborhood along Olympic and Pico Boulevards between Figueroa Street and Sentous Street was razed beginning in 1997 to build the Staples Center and later LA Live. Emerald Street, a working class neighborhood, was razed nearly in its entirety beginning in the early 1980s for redevelopment; it its place was built Contreras High School. The neighborhood southwest of Temple-Beaudry was razed throughout the 1990s, and in its place was built the Roybal Learning Center. These neighborhoods were among the last centered around the former Los Angeles Oil Field, and there are still a profusion of capped oil wells hidden around the area. The sole operating well is located on Mountain View Avenue south of 4th Street. The historically Mexican-Central American immigrant neighborhoods along Long Beach and Alameda Avenues between 27th Street and Slauson Avenues near the City of Vernon were demolished prior to 1955 through private development efforts to expand the County’s industrial capacity. Most were unnamed, but were referred to as "Colonias." The Chinese, Italian, and African-American neighborhoods that lined Santa Fe Avenue and Alameda Street were razed before the 1930s to make way for industrial expansion and, latter in the 20th century, the 10 Freeway. The Italians and Mexicans who lived here referred to their neighborhood simply as “The Eastside”. It revolved around Wilson Street and is not related to the present-day Eastside. A large portion of Old J-Town (Little Tokyo) was razed in the 1940s and 1950s to built modern business parks and plazas. It was here, on a street called Azusa Street, that the revival of American Pentecostalism took place in the 1900s and 1910s. More recently, the building that housed the restaurant Señor Fish, and which once housed the first Japanese lawyers association, was eminent domained to built a Metro platform. The neighborhood, however, still has immense importance to the Japanese community, and redevelopment in the area remains a contentious subject. Above: The topography of Central Los Angeles, signified by dark shading. VI. A Limiting Reagent of LA’s Urban Design: Natural Topography A frequently overlooked aspect of Los Angeles' geography, which influenced its design from the very beginning, is the region’s natural topography. The Central Los Angeles region is very topographically diverse. Numerous major and regional faults intersect in Central Los Angeles. The Raymond Fault forms the hills of Highland Park-Mount Washington. The Inglewood Fault forms Baldwin Hills-Ladera Heights. The Puente Hills Fault formed the rolling hills of what used to be Bunker Hill. The hillside neighborhoods north of Downtown—Elysian Heights, Mount Washington, and Silver Lake—are riparian zones. Terraced neighborhoods, like Melrose Hill, are scattered all over the City. The San Fernando Valley and South Central areas, by comparison, are mostly flat. This geographic diversity contrasts with other major US cities like New York, which is (except, maybe, for University Heights and Todt Hill) built in the relatively flat portion of the Hudson Valley; or Chicago, which is built on a mostly flat portion of the Portage; or Detroit, which rests on a gentle till slope. If LA were to be rebuilt from scratch according to modern master planning, the whole diverse topography of Central LA would have to be flattened—as Bunker Hill was—in order to accommodate one big, straight gridiron. (Let's not do that, though, please?) Alas, Los Angeles, like other major cities in the United States, did not anticipate the enormous future that the industrial era would bring, nor was it afforded a luxurious, flat valley of bedrock (as is the case with New York) to built upon. The truth is that LA is a perfectly readable City if you get to know it, and if you do your research. I’m looking at you, Christopher Hawthorne! You know how Americans once said “Remember the Maine, and to Hell with Spain!” ? To conquer Los Angeles, just remember the 1st-and-Main rule, look for a pair of intersecting street signs, and you will be able to read Los Angeles just fine, whether you're a native or not. As I now wrap up this article, I see a pair of street signs indicating my position at the corner Melrose Avenue (5600 W) and Larchmont Boulevard (600 N). This means I am 56 blocks west of Main Street and 6 blocks north of 1st Street. Works like magic! Bibliography Deverell, William. Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its MEXICAN PAST. University of California Press, 2005.
Hawthorne, Christopher. “Column: Los ANGELES, Houston and the Appeal of the Hard-to-Read City.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 8 Feb. 2018, www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-ca-cm-building-type-new-york-times-20180211-story.html. LA County City Annexations Map, Los Angeles County, 2015, pw.lacounty.gov/mpm/cityannexations/. Numerous GIS files via geohub.lacity.org and egis3.lacounty.gov/dataportal Sloane, David Charles. Planning Los Angeles. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017.
4 Comments
Barry T.
12/30/2018 01:27:22 am
Excellent article, but for erasures, you did not mention Surfridge, nor all the neighborhoods erased by freeways. Also, how do those oddball streets, like San Vicente , Centinela, and Santa Barbara (now MLK) fit in?
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1/12/2019 02:08:28 pm
Barry T.,
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Miles
6/3/2021 12:54:39 am
Wonderful and enlightening article. So many facets of this I found to be absolutely fascinating. I think you did an excellent job proving your point. Bravo.
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5/7/2023 10:13:50 am
Hello Miles,
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