About Westwood Charter
The City of Los Angeles is huge and everyone has a different take on this sprawling metropolis of a city depending on lifestyle and the different flavors of the different neighborhoods. Being a working mom of four children and relocating here from the east coast, I found and still find Westwood to be a fabulous area of Los Angeles to call home – in particular my little neighborhood in the Westwood Charter School District.
Westwood is the home of the UCLA Bruins, the center of major movie-going, and the place where many of Hollywood’s biggest stars have been laid to rest in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery – Natalie Wood, Dean Martin and Marilyn Monroe are just a few.
It’s also centrally located, offering great proximity to the 10 and 405 freeways making access to anywhere in Los Angeles easy and quick. Whether it is that bike ride on the beach you are craving, an afternoon with the kids at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) or an avocado and bacon burger, you are only ever about 10 minutes away.
In the community of Westwood alone, there are so many wonderful things to discover from The Hammer Museum to the best ice cream sandwich $1.50 can buy at Diddy Riese. But as a mom, I love my little community of Westwood Charter. Although my work and life brings me to every area of the Westside, this part of Westwood is where I call home. The elementary schools in Westwood that are part of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) are Warner, Fairburn, and Westwood Charter — and students are enrolled based on property boundaries. The “Westwood Charter” area where I live, play and work is defined by the school, whose boundaries are between North Santa Monica Boulevard and Pico Boulevard to the north and south, and Century Park East and Sepulveda Boulevard to the east and west.
I have to say that when we relocated from the east coast, I was extremely nervous to call Los Angeles home. It is a city you have to truly discover and a collection of little villages that have all grown together and begs the question: “Which little village do I choose?” After many drives through neighborhoods and many rolling down of the car window to get real, live perspectives from real, live parents, we finally decided on Westwood Charter. I remember the definitive moment when I ran into a dad teaching his child to learn to ride a bike in the faculty parking lot on a Saturday and he just kept going on and on about this little gem of a school. I was sold.
And, I have to say that he was right. In my neighborhood, we have established an every-Monday-night potluck dinner; I still borrow that needed egg or cup of sugar at least once a week from my friends down the street; and on any given night, I can walk with my family over to one of the great restaurants on Westwood Boulevard and see at least five familiar faces in the crowd. We can walk, bike, or scooter to school and this truly makes our enormous city of Los Angeles and large community of Westwood seem small, intimate and safe.
In writing this blog Westwood Charter Real Estate Voice, I am hoping to bring this great, little community to life through stories and information. Here you will find current housing market statistics, tips on where to find the best burger, updated school information, neighborhood events, and simply a place to interact and engage in conversation with people in your own community. Whether you know it as L.A., the City of Angels, the Southland, or Lalaland, Los Angeles is a great place to live and to truly call home.
