Our Community
The Ninth District encompasses the some of the most culturally diverse and vibrant communities in Los Angeles, including Bunker Hill, Little Tokyo, South Park, Vermont Square, and other South Los Angeles neighborhoods.
Click here for Census data for the Ninth Council District.
District Gems
The Ninth Council District is home to several fantastic public facilities, outstanding free community events, and dynamic businesses that have cultural and historical significance to the Ninth District.
Annual Seniors Celebrating Life Social
Each year, Councilwoman Jan Perry honors local seniors by hosting the “Senior Celebrating Life Social.” This special event is designed to be both an informative and entertaining gathering that celebrates the work of our seniors while seeking to better their lives through education and discussion of health and quality of life issues.
In addition to informational speakers, seniors are treated to music, entertainment, and lunch. Last year, approximately 1,500 seniors from all over the Ninth District attended.
Annual Central Avenue Jazz Festival
www.centralavejazz.org
Each year during the last weekend of July, Councilwoman Perry hosts the Annual Central Avenue Jazz Festival, a unique cultural event that pays tribute to the early heart and soul of African American Los Angeles. At the turn of the Twentieth (20th) Century, a distinct African American community grew within the first thirty blocks of Central Avenue.
From the 1920s to the 1950s, the “Avenue” achieved national recognitions as a jazz hot spot—a thriving cultural hub of intelligent thought, art and music that has been dubbed Los Angeles’ version of the Harlem Renaissance. The Jazz Festival is held at Central Avenue Jazz Park on 43rd and Central and features live musical performances, informational booths, and arts and crafts for children and their families. The festival began in 1995 and has been going strong ever since.
Dunbar Hotel
Located at 4225 South Central Avenue, The Dunbar Hotel (founded as the Hotel Somerville) was the first first-class hotel built by people of African descent to service the Black community in Los Angeles. It opened in 1928 as the flagship hotel for the NAACP’s (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) West Coast convention. It also served as a center place for jazz music in Los Angeles. The hotel has always functioned as the centerpiece of the Central Avenue community, the first Black community in Los Angeles. The Dunbar Hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Los Angeles Cultural Historic Monument. The Community Redevlopment Agency of Los Angeles (CRA/LA) just issued an Request for Proposals (RFP) for the redevelopment and preservation of this neighborhood treasure.
Los Angeles Trade Tech College
Los Angeles Trade Tech College (LATTC) was founded in 1925 as the Frank Wiggins Trade School. The 25-Acre Campus is located in the City of Los Angeles approximately two miles south of the Central Business district. LATTC offers academic courses required for transfer to a four-year college or university in addition to nearly 90 different occupational programs. LATTC is the oldest of the nine, public two-year colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District and the only community college in Council District Nine.
Augustus F. Hawkins Natural Park & Wetland
Located at the corner of Compton and Slauson Avenues in South Los Angeles, 8.5-acre Augustus F. Hawkins Natural Park was named in honor of the first African-American elected to the United States Congress from California, opened in December 2001.The Park provides a serene natural environment in the urban core of the city. Native plant communities, oak trees, rolling hills, riparian areas, and a running stream mimic a native California setting.
A strolling path, picnic and barbecue areas, an outdoor amphitheater, and grassy areas provide local residents and families comfortable gathering places to socialize and relax. The park also sponsors free camping trips and day outings to mountain and beach parks.
In 2006, Councilwoman Perry unveiled a new wetland feature at the Augustus Hawkins Nature Park. The wetland is the first-of-its kind to be developed in a highly urban setting and creates an urban oasis for South Los Angeles residents, attracting unique wildlife and vegetation to the community.
The wetland feature attracts new animal and plant species to this urban oasis. Additionally, the wetland was designed to improve urban storm water flood protection, which was also a major goal of Prop O, the storm water bond that was passed last November by the residents of Los Angeles. The wetland includes a composite liner and vector control mechanism. Additionally, it provides efficient flood controls, and treatment of surface water run-off. It will also support a habitat for locally sensitive species, migratory birds, and other wildlife. The plant species that are integrated into the wetlands feature provide nesting, roosting and refuge. Within two growing seasons many of these plants will grow 2’-4’ in height.
Gallery Row
Under the leadership of Ninth District Councilwoman Jan Perry, on July 29, 2003, the Los Angeles City Council designated the area along Main and Spring Streets between 2nd and 9th Streets in Downtown Los Angeles as “Gallery Row.” The designation was the result of community stakeholders who saw an emerging art and gallery district and approached Councilwoman Perry with the idea. Street signs have been permanently installed along the perimeter of the designated area to identify this Los Angeles’ creative district. In Fall 2004, Gallery Row Organization (GRO) was formed as an independent, non-profit entity
Gallery Row is located in the center of the architecturally significant section of Los Angeles’s historic downtown, which is currently at the beginning of a vibrant revitalization. With the Financial District, Disney Hall, and MOCA on Grand Avenue to the west, Little Tokyo to the east, and Staples Center to the south, Gallery Row is well positioned to become a hub of cultural activity.
Little Tokyo
Little Tokyo is a dynamic Japanese American district in downtown Los Angeles, and serves as the cultural center for Japanese Americans in Southern California.
Little Tokyo features cultural attractions such as the Japanese American National Museum—the only museum in the country dedicated to preserving and sharing the rich history and heritage of Americans of Japanese ancestry. It is also home to the East West Players, the nation’s first and foremost Asian American theater, which presents live theater written and performed by Asian American artists at the David Henry Hwang Theater.
Little Tokyo also proudly displays the famed Go For Broke Monument, the first of its kind on the mainland USA commemorating the 15,987 Japanese American veterans of World War II who served the United States while their families were incarcerated in the internment camps during the war.
Central City East
Central City East faces the unique challenges that accompany homelessness. This area is home to more homeless services than the entire Western States combined. Since her election, Perry has worked aggressively to begin rebuilding this community . She earmarked funds to establish a year round Emergency Homeless Shelter Program and worked to promote regional solutions to address homelessness. It is also home to a hundreds of new supportive housing developments for the formerly homeless.
Historic Core
Downtown Los Angeles’ Historic Core consists of the area between Hill and Los Angeles streets on the west and east, and the 101 Freeway and Pico Boulevard on the north and south.
This colorful district boasts the largest unbroken string of pre-1931 buildings in North America, including the futuristic Bradbury Building, the pulsing Grand Central Market, and the spectacular Broadway Historic Theater District.
In an effort to convert and preserve once neglected buildings, new developments in the Historic Core are converting older, industrial-style buildings into lofts, hotels and art galleries.
Arts District
The Downtown Arts District is bordered by the 101 Freeway to the north, Sixth Street to the south, the Los Angeles River to the east, and Alameda Street to the west.
The Arts District had its humble beginnings around 1976. Many artists took an interest in the Downtown Los Angeles area. Moving from Venice, Santa Monica, Long Beach and various other communities, artists realized their dreams with large affordable spaces in previously abandoned buildings in the Downtown area. Today there are over 1200 live/work lofts in the Downtown Arts District and hundreds more in the surrounding communities.
Museum of Contemporary Art & Geffen Contemporary
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles is home to one of the country’s finest collections of American and European art created since 1940. MOCA holds approximately 5,000 objects in all visual media, ranging from masterpieces of abstract expressionism and pop art to recent works by young and emerging artists. Selections from the permanent collection are on view in MOCA’s galleries throughout the year.
Designed by Frank O. Gehry, the Geffen Contemporary facility in Little Tokyo was originally opened as a temporary exhibition space while the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) at California Plaza was under construction. The facility became so popular, however, that MOCA’s Board of Trustees voted to continue its operation. In 1995, MOCA received a $5-million gift from The David Geffen Foundation. In recognition of this gift, the museum’s second location, formerly known as MOCA at the Temporary Contemporary, was renamed The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.
South Park (Downtown)
Located in central Los Angeles, the neighborhood of South Park is bounded by Olympic Boulevard on the north, Main Street on the east, the Santa Monica Freeway (I-10) on the south, and the Harbor Freeway (CA-110) on the west
South Park is the site of the Staples Center arena and the Los Angeles Convention Center as well as several construction projects aimed at redeveloping the neighborhood.
Music Center
Located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles along Grand Avenue, the Music Center is home to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Each year, the Music Center welcomes more than 1.6 million people to performances by its four internationally renowned performing arts companies. Visiting the Center isn’t limited to performances. Tours of the Frank Gehry designed Walt Disney Concert Hall are available to visitors daily as performance schedules permit. Several types of guided and self-guided tours are available. Since 1965, free tours of the Music Center Campus are made available by the Symphonians, volunteer docents of the Music Center.
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Designed by internationally renowned architect, Frank Gehry, the 293,000-square-foot Walt Disney Concert Hall features a wavy, steel exterior designed to look like a ship with its sail at full mast. Gehry wanted to create the feeling of traveling along a ceremonial barge to music. Walt Disney Concert Hall is the fourth and most recent addition to the Music Center of Los Angeles County. It is situated on 3.6 acres – a full-city block at the intersection of First Street and Grand Avenue in the historic Bunker Hill area of downtown Los Angeles.
Walt Disney Concert Hall encompasses two outdoor amphitheaters, including Keck Children’s Amphitheatre seating 300 and a second performing space that accommodates an audience of 120, as well as a space for pre-concert events. A large portion of the site has been dedicated to an urban park with expansive public gardens and ornamental landscaping and water elements.
Our Lady of Angels Cathedral
Our Lady of Angels Cathedral is the first Roman Catholic Cathedral to be erected in the western United States in 30 years. Walking tours of the Cathedral are available Monday-Friday.
Vermont Square
Developed in the first three decade of the century, the neighborhood of Vermont Square is one of the oldest communities in Los Angeles. Vermont Square’s boundaries are roughly Exposition Boulevard on the north, Main Street on the east, Slauson Avenue on the south, and Western Avenue on the west.
Vermont Square is home to the esteemed Vermont Square Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, which was built in 1913 with funds donated by the Carnegie Foundation of New York City.