Pico-Union is a neighborhood in Central Los Angeles, California. The name “Pico-Union” refers to the neighborhood surrounding Pico Boulevard and Union Avenue intersection. Located immediately west of Downtown Los Angeles, it is home to over 40,000 residents. The neighborhood contains two historic districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has five public schools as well as a public library.
History
The area encompassed by Pico-Union was developed as a middle and upper-middle-class residential district beginning in the 1910s. Easy access to downtown Los Angeles, CA, and the nearby Wilshire District drew large numbers of affluent homeowners. Following the Second World War, the Pico-Union area, like many inner-city neighborhoods, experienced an outflux of residents to the suburbs. The loss of residents and businesses led to high vacancy rates and lower property values in much of the neighborhood by the 1960s.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, the area became a major point of entry for Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants seeking refuge from civil war, according to the Pico-Union Self-Guided Walking Tour, published in 2009 by the Los Angeles Conservancy. Pico-Union became the city’s 19th Historic Preservation Overlay Zone on August 10, 2004. It contains two historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places: South Bonnie Brae Tract Historic District and Alvarado Terrace Historic District.
In August 2012, the City of Los Angeles designated a portion of Vermont Avenue in Pico-Union as El Salvador Community Corridor; parts of Pico-Union are also being considered for designation as The Central American Historical District.[7] The former First Church of Christ, Scientist, once one of Jim Jones’s Peoples Temples, was located in Pico-Union, at the corner of Alvarado Street and Alvarado Terrace.
Population
Pico-Union is the fourth-most-dense neighborhood in Los Angeles, surpassed only by East Hollywood, Westlake, and Koreatown. The 2000 U.S. census counted 42,324 residents in the 1.67-square-miles neighborhood—an average of 25,352 people per square mile. In 2008, the city estimated that the population had increased to 44,664. The median age for residents was 27, considered young for the city and the county.
The ethnic breakdown in 2000 was: Latinos, 85.4%; Asians, 7.6%; whites, 3.0%; blacks, 2.9%; and others, 1.1%. El Salvador (44.4%) and Mexico (23.3%) were the most common places of birth for the 64.6% of the residents who were born abroad, a figure that was considered high in comparison with foreign-born in the city whole. Other immigrants come from Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Bed Bug Exterminator LA King
The median household income in 2008 dollars was $26,424, considered low for both the city and the county. The percentage of households earning $20,000 or less was high compared to the county. The average household size of 3.3 people was relatively high for Los Angeles. Renters occupied 90.5% of the housing units, and home- or apartment owners the rest.
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