Mar Vista

Mar Vista is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California. In 1927, Mar Vista became the 70th community to be annexed to Los Angeles. It was designated as an official city neighborhood in 2006. Mar Vista was called Ocean Park Heights from 1904 to 1924. Ocean Park Heights developed along a rail line - the Venice Short Line from downtown Los Angeles to Venice Beach - built in 1902 (present day Venice Boulevard). In 1927, Mar Vista became the 70th community to be annexed to Los Angeles. The neighborhood experienced massive growth in the 1950's through the 1970's. The area north of Venice Boulevard was filled in with suburban single-family development, including many surviving examples of mid-century modern residential architecture along Beethoven, Meier, and Moore street. These developments were originally built as basic, low-cost homes in a relatively far-flung region of the city. But as the surrounding areas of Western Los Angeles have developed into major business and tourism centers, property values rapidly increased to the point where, as of 2020, older homes marketed as tear-downs regularly sell for over $1 million.

 

The section of the neighborhood south of Venice Boulevard is zoned for apartment buildings, and as such it is significantly more densely populated. This section is home to a large concentration of dingbat apartment buildings which are mostly subject to Los Angeles' Rent Stabilization Ordinance, allowing many long-term renters to stay in the area despite increasingly expensive rents and property values.