Ready to step out of the shadows

Beginnings

In 1906, the San Francisco earthquake devastated the homes of roughly 10,000 Japanese Americans and prompted many of its victims to move to what were then the agricultural areas and presumed seismic safety of West Adams, Boyle Heights and downtown L.A. By 1915, residential pressures had pushed farming west to areas including Del Rey. By 1929, the region became widely renowned for its celery, and the Del Rey Celery Assn. was formed.

Despite its agricultural success, the outbreak of World War II forever changed Del Rey's landscape. As Japanese families were taken to internment camps after the signing of Administrative Proclamation No. 9066, which ordered the evacuation of more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast, Del Rey's celery industry quickly diminished.

During the postwar boom, the Army Corps of Engineers developed Del Rey's farmland into a planned community that attracted war veterans and Japanese Americans returning from internment. Between the 1950s and the 1980s, the nearby Howard Hughes tool and die company, laboratory and airport facility employed a large number of Del Rey residents.

Today, Del Rey is home to about 34,000 residents, including those living in Mar Vista Gardens. Mar Vista Gardens is a subsidized low-income housing project with 62 buildings and 601 apartments and is operated by the Housing Authority of the city of Los Angeles.

The Westside community is bounded, roughly, by Washington Boulevard to the north, Lincoln Boulevard to the west, Jefferson Boulevard to the south and Culver City to the east.

What it's about

Although it has a name and can be found on a map, its multiple ZIP Codes and proximity to better-known places such as Culver City, Marina del Rey, Playa Vista and Mar Vista have obscured its identity.

Unhappy that Del Rey frequently gets swallowed up by its neighbors -- leaving it identified as "Culver City adjacent" or "Marina del Rey adjacent" -- residents have been trying to establish its separate presence on the Westside.

"People have gotten away with calling Del Rey all kinds of things, even though it has been Del Rey all along," said Steve Knight, president of the Del Rey Neighborhood Council and a Del Rey resident since 1951. "In essence, we're still searching for an identity."