South Central LA

Let's start with the name: In 2003, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to change the name of this neighborhood to South Los Angeles. South Central, thanks to the gang violence documented in gangsta rap and the riots documented in the nightly news, was not deemed a happy association for the city.

Media and politicans may dutifully call it South LA now, but to those who live and visit here, it's still South Central, and it still stretches from south of downtown through Watts and as far south as Compton. Nowadays, this once 80-percent African American neighborhood -- a demographic created by blatant redlining after World War II -- is home to many Latinos as well as Pakistani and East Indian, Korean, and Filipino families.

The area is still not a place you want to aimlessly stroll through after dark, but there's plenty here worth visiting. For example, the University of Southern California campus is here. Exposition Park is a big draw with its Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Natural History Museum, California Science Center (and its IMAX Theatre), and Exposition Park Rose Garden. Some notable blues clubs are located in South Central, too.