Security Guard in West Los Angeles, CA

The West Los Angeles Community Plan area recognized by the city of Los Angeles is generally bounded by Centinela Avenue on the west; Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard on the north; National Boulevard, Pico Boulevard, and Exposition Boulevard on the south; and Durango Avenue, Robertson Boulevard, and Canfield Avenue on the east. Among the neighborhoods included within it are Sawtelle, Rancho Park, Beverlywood, Cheviot Hills, Castle Heights, and Century City. The Community Plan area itself is part of the larger West Los Angeles Area Plan Commission area (i.e., the Westside region).

The Automobile Club of Southern California does not mark boundaries on its map, but centers the neighborhood of West Los Angeles proper as south of Santa Monica Boulevard, west of Interstate 405, north of Olympic Boulevard and east of Barrington Avenue. The borders of the official West Los Angeles Neighborhood Council correspond closely to this definition. Specifically, its district stretches from the 405 freeway in the east to Centinela Avenue in the west and Wilshire Boulevard in the north and the 10 freeway in the south. This is roughly the same area labeled as “Sawtelle” in the Mapping L.A. website of the Los Angeles Times.

In 2003, a Los Angeles Times correspondent noted: