By JOHN HARLOW | Editor-in-Chief
For the most part, the new report, “A Portrait of Los Angeles County,” produced by the Social Science Research Council, has nothing but hopeful words about Pacific Palisades.
But there is a shadow that might spread by the time the council repeats this big data exercise—drawing on dozens of LA County agencies’ resources—in three years’ time.
We are one of nine “glittering” communities that the wealth report, funded by big guns such as Blue Shield, Annenberg and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, highlight as fantastic places to live. Others include Palos Verdes, Malibu, Hermosa Beach and Bel Air, of course.
Researchers Kristen Lewis and Sarah Burd-Sharps praised our ability to be able to pay our mortgages.
“Three in four households own their own homes—quite a feat given median home prices that range from $970,000 in Rancho Palos Verses to $1.9 million in Malibu,” the report said. “With [Human Development] Index scores above 9 [out of 10, a balance of health, wealth and educational factors], they enjoy a higher level of wellbeing than almost anywhere else in the United States.
“People living in the Glittering LA have unrivaled freedom to pursue the goals that matter most to them.”
These communities are largely neighbors, but they’re only a tiny cluster of neighborhoods.
“Just 1.6 percent of Los Angeles residents live in Glittering LA: The sky-high costs put these high-HD communities out of reach for all but a fortunate few.”
According to the report, two out of three residents are white, and one in five residents is Asian.
“All but one Glittering LA locate, San Marino, where 51.6 percent of the population is Asian, are majority white,” the report read. “One in five residents were born outside the U.S., the lowest share of foreign-born residents in LA.”
The price of housing reflects factors such as education—towns such as Pacific Palisades are where the smart people are willing and able to pay to live, the report said.
“Virtually all adults completed high school, seven to 10 adults have at least a four-year bachelor’s degree, and three in 10 hold graduate degrees.”
The researchers give the Palisades-Brentwood corridor a 9.33 on their education index, compared to 9.95 for Westwood, 9.79 for Palos Verdes Estates and 9.64 for La Cañada Flintridge, north of Pasadena.
The data is both expected (we know we are wealthy here) and stunning.
The Brentwood-Pacific Palisades corridor is the second “best” area in Los Angeles, just behind Bel Air-Beverly Crest, as judged on the HD index: 9.24 out of 10. Venice comes in at 7.98, Westwood at 6.36 (the students skew many statistics) and Southeast Los Angeles at 2.26.
Another reason why prices keep soaring ahead in the Palisades: social mobility—people keep on buying and selling.
Around 300,000 people move into LA each year right now and 320,000 move out. More Asians are moving in and staying—especially Indians, who are the biggest new numbers in the Palisades, as well as the most educated.
Also, good wages help. Palisadians average incomes are knocked out of whack by a few that earn enormously, but the median is still strong: around $65,000 per year, twice the county median.
Not that financial wealth guarantees everything—the area with the highest life expectancy is the small Latino city of Walnut Park, where the median annual wage is $19,000. But social cohesiveness, through the church and volunteerism, long marriages, and steady jobs help ensure that the average Walnuter lives to around 90, four years long than Palisadians, who spend vastly more on their health and wellbeing than the Latino population.
“High levels of educational attainment translate into high earnings, poverty is nearly non-existent, at less than 5 percent. Children growing up in Glittering LA have abundant access to outdoor recreation, with five of the seven cities earning the LA County Department of Parks and Recreation’s best park-access score,” according to the report.
We have it all—wonderful parks and mountains, a solid, if congested, transportation infrastructure and confidence in our future—who would not want to move here?
So what is the lesson for Palisadians?
“The Palisades is extraordinarily wealthy in many ways,” Burd-Sharps said, “which means they do have the means to help out neighbors less fortunate than themselves, helping to work out the issues of homelessness and poverty that affect us all.
“Be compassionate.”
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