Watts Towers are interesting, but might be " Comptonish" for some, your loss if you miss it.
And people I know who are from the Valley, often won’t admit to it, or will tell you how quickly they got out of there, but it can be detected from their slightly different accents, “valley speak.”
I grew up in L.A. when there were still orange groves and dairy farms, and the view of the city on a clear nite from the Hollywood Hills is still breath taking. It looks like shiny colorful jewels in a black velvet box.
Yes, I know this all too well, because one of my regular loads was a group of four guys who just about every Saturday night called for a taxi from “The Study” bar at closing time (on Western, near Hollywood Blvd.) to their house off of Division street. They knew exactly what the shortest (i.e., cheapest) route was, but that was a tortuously long, winding path of streets through the back of Silverlake and Cypress Park. Not only did they insist that we take this exact route, but every time they felt they had to dictate it to me, at exactly every twist and turn (which annoys all cab drivers). All the while, though, they would be hilariously drunk, making all kinds of gay jokes at me and at my expense. They tipped okay, though.
Good question. Personally I only really think of East LA as the barrio, but to me it is more than just a population question there is a cultural element to it also. But that’s me, and I have no idea how well my concept meshes with anything. If I had to put a % number on it I would say over 75%.
Looking at the wiki for East LA the 2010 census put it at 97% Latino up almost 1% from 2000, that’s the sort of population density that I am thinking of. But maybe not everyone does. I grew up in the Valley and went to high school in Hollywood so 50% Latino population just sound normal to me.
Barrio just means neighborhood to those of us from the “bario”, and since the area was once 100% Mexico, it seems like the- everyone else % has gone way up, and what do you call those neighborhoods?