Harbor City is a community within Los Angeles, California. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 24,640. Harbor City is part of the Los Angeles region known as the South Bay, and is a perfect illustration of the great contrast that exists within the region: Harbor City is nestled at the foot of the wealthy region of Palos Verdes and the upper middle class suburb of Torrance, but also borders the distinct working class white city of Lomita and the more diverse working class areas of Wilmington and San Pedro. Harbor City is a small subdivision of the city of Los Angeles with a highly ironic name and its own mix of race, class, and social status. Some parts of Harbor City, notably those that border Torrance and Palos Verdes, are home to upper middle class suburbs, while other regions, particularly those bordered by Lomita Boulevard and PCH north and south and by Normandie Avenue and Vermont Avenue on the east/west, are particularly heavy in crime and poverty.
Recently, the city has been heavily featured in statewide and national news for the discovery of an alligator within the heavily urban municipality's Machado Lake.
Harbor City is located in the southern part of the city of Los Angeles, and part of the South Bay region. It is bordered on the north by Sepulveda Boulevard, the east by Figueroa Street, the south by Anaheim Street/Palos Verdes Drive North, and to the west by Western Avenue. A smaller, more afluent section of Harbor City referred to as "Harbor Pines" is bordered by Anaheim Street to the north/northeast, Western Avenue to the west and Palos Verdes Drive North to the south.
Harbor City stands as a testament to the ambitious designs of the Anglo-American creators of the modern metropolis of Los Angeles. By the turn of the century, city leaders had decided that it would be in the best interests of the city if the port and harbor areas were directly annexed. The independent cities of San Pedro (founded in the late 1700s) and Wilmington (founded in 1858 by Phineas Banning) were then independent establishments of what would be come the Port of Los Angeles. Following the establishment of San Pedro as the main source for the port over Santa Monica in 1897, Los Angeles city leaders argued that direct control over the port areas would be mutually beneficial by providing San Pedro and Wilmington with larger funding and in turn allowing the city to garner more revenue via the increasing port trade. The two cities were initially reluctant to join; in 1906, frustrated by the indecision of San Pedro and Wilmington leaders, the city of Los Angeles purchased a long and narrow swath of land that connected then-South Los Angeles to San Pedro, naming the two regions Harbor Gateway and Harbor City. City leaders then threatened to built a new port in Harbor City if the recalcitrant towns would not acquiesce to annexation. Both agreed by 1909. In return, the city of Los Angeles elected to keep Harbor City as a land-locked part of the main city, linking the metropolis to its newly won ocean trading centers. To this day, Harbor City remains an amusing irony—it is not a city and contains no harbor (that honor goes to San Pedro, Wilmington, and Long Beach).
|
