Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California

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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
Picture of Boyle Heights Sign - Photograph by Yolanda Guerra:courtesy Shades of L.A Archives/Los Angeles Public Library

Contents

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.

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.

In 2004, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) began work on the "Edward R. Roybal Metro Gold Line 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

  • Dolores Mission SchoolProyecto Pastoral
  • Santa Isabel School
  • Santa Teresita Elementary School
  • Saint Mary's Elementary School
  • Our Lady of Talpa Elementary School
  • White Memorial Adventist School
  • Resurrection Elementary School



  • As a long standing tradition, and as a term of effect, Boyle Heights is often referred to as East L.A., along with the unincorporated area of East Los Angeles.
  • 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.

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Topics History · Transportation · Culture · Landmarks · Maps · Notable people · Mayors · Other elected officials Flag of Los Angeles
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Eastside region, Los Angeles, California
Districts and
neighborhoods		 Atwater Village · Cypress Park · Boyle Heights · Eagle Rock · El Sereno · Glassell Park · Hermon · Highland Park · Lincoln Heights · Montecito Heights · Monterey Hills · Mt. Washington · University Hills The Eagle Rock
Points of
interest		 California State University, Los Angeles · Occidental College
See also City Terrace · East Los Angeles CDP
Downtown · Eastside · Harbor Area · Greater Hollywood · Westlake/Silver Lake/Los Feliz · San Fernando and Crescenta Valleys · South Los Angeles · Westside · Wilshire
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