Westwood Village

My first time here was just a few years ago and it had to have been the greatest layout for a deserving college town. The school can say quite a bit for itself and it really does deserve better representation. In other words– I’m wholly disgusted.
Ultimately my loyalties remain with The Ohio State University where I got my bachelors, but
even I can see the genius that is here that the urban planners and idiots running the show refuse to look at.
UCLA had Jackie Robinson. It was the other half of Stanford’s DARPA research funded by the Air Force when it was developing the internet. Nowhere else in the world could you hear professional vocalists singing by or in Luskin’s building during your extention international business classes on Monday night, down the street from Royce and the other street by oil conglomerates. UCLA is a better planned out campus and surrounding area than UCB and UCSD — destination to students from all over the world. L.A. could use the cash flow since we’re stuck in our own little recession.
First of all, you CAN park in a centrally located garage for free up to 2 hours.
Also, living in one of the apartments nearby is SUPPOSED to be a perk. You can walk to school, bus lines, Target, Rite Aid, Ralphs, Trader Joes, Whole Foods and a few pubs.
Parking is a blood sport. Of course students will bring the trucks and SUVs and not pay for a parking spot and leave that business on the street. Towing including parking ticket is over $ 300. They NEED street permits and passes for guests– even subletters and working tenants in the area.
Landmark is a nice venue for film. You have a nice movie theater, across from the school’s beautiful tracks and football field. THe students are out running A LOt which makes me happy (in a country run over with metabolic disease epidemic), so many options for HEALTHY eating– UCLA is tops in my books for pulling that influence.
Los Angeles is home to 169 dialects, the one perk in this city is that you can find almost anything you want here. And that includes food and coffee. So yes in Los Angeles you can find Mexican, Australian, Indonesian, Persian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, French foods in Westlake Village. Many «FOBs» who come here are still lean with no health issues because they are able to eat their cultural foods which are often still made from scratch with real food.
Yes I know that UCLA researchers have already converted adipose tissue (fat mass from lipos) to bone grafts. This is a real school. And that needs to continue. Hat tip to UCLA student body & co. for being a good influence.
THE DARK SIDE:’ The streets remain defecated. The businesses in Westwood were not happy with this, they were NOT happy to make their staff clean up defecation right on their doorstep. This is why business have left UCLA. For those of us who live nearby, it would be nice to walk to Ross and a few more botiques. Yes we know that LA got hit hard by the economy but come on already.
The tech stores are okay? You can outdo Best buy here in a big way.
These places should be optimal for student employment since many have to pay their own rents, etc. I don’t know why people are commuting for hours to work a minimum wage job that a student (with flexibility) could be doing without forcing people to drive, need a car (since many are environmentalists?)…
There was a «mentally ill» woman sitting right in the middle of the sidewalk right infront of the neuro-​mental healthy facility on the north side of Gayley. ??? Compassionate is not condoning undesirable situation.
In the Westwood Village by «health Nazi» UCLA, I ran past FOUR piles of vomit. Like you guys already forgot about the ebola scare last summer that the horrible press shoved down our throats or something and nobody bothered to clean it up– for over a week now.
Especially for the gas taxes and fines/​traffic tickets you get from people. There’s NO excuse for that. The people running this place into a $h*thole are competing with the dank deficated smell of the Mission Bart Station in San Francisco and tweakerville. And this is where people go to eat. And some of these eateries are not bad– you WANT the business here.
And parking– make the garage more visible. Especially during Thursday nights during Farmers’ Market.
This isn’t as entertaining as Bourbon Street, it’s not NYC. It’s WESTWOOD UCLA. People are rightfully expecting Bel Air (in UCLA’s back yard), Beverly Hills and Malibu. Not a defecated version of Buffalo New York. STANDARDS PEOPLE!!!
They should’ve let a proud native legit person FROM Los Angeles with healthy ties to the school to run that school and surrounding areas.
The other part is that the city cares WAY too much about towing cars without signs (WHICH IS ILLEGAL) instead of peoples’ safety from crime and rapes.
I don’t care what the budget is or not– somebody mismanaged funds obviously. Somebody did raunchy with this place.

Parking is my only real complaint about this place. Other than that, it’s a nice little college village-​y area. Sure, it’s got a lot of big chain retail & restaurants, but it still feels like you’re somewhere other than Los Angeles.
The area also seems to be in a perpetual state of construction. There seems to be a high turn around for businesses (which isn’t a good sign in my opinion) so if you like something, don’t expect it to be there forever.
My favorite place? 800 Degrees. That & Diddy Reese. Yeah, there will be lines at both places, but it’s worth the wait.

Westwood Village is a quaint, little area in the vicinity of UCLA, so there are plenty of students ever-​present. There are some tree-​lined streets with theaters and lots of restaurants, both chain and independently owned.
One thing that I really like is that the Village is very pedestrian-​friendly, and much of the area is quite walkable. So you can park your car at one locale and stroll to many places within just a few blocks.
parking — several garages/​lots, metered street parking which is free after 7 or 8PM, depending on location.

Parking sucks here but the food options are getting better every month.
So many places to eat. Check out some of the favorites:
800 Degrees — Good quality quickfired pizzas
Diddy Reese — Cookies and Ice Cream
TLC — Tacos, Beers
Ike’s — Crazy big sandwiches
Jimmy Johns — crazy quick sandwichs
Sepi’s — good bacon, cheap beer
BBQ Chicken — takes a while but awesome fried chx
Veggie Grill — healthy and cheap if you have a student id after 4 pm
Bella Pita — cheap and authentic
Fat Sals — crazy big sandwiches
Chic-​a-​filet — you know what this is
Chipotle — you also know what this is
Bibigo — asian fastfood. It’s okay but Koreans love this place
Jose B’s — cheap Mexican food. hits the spot when you’re drunk and hungry
Falafel King — really enjoy their falafel
In-​n-​out — always solid
Mr. Noodle — asian food.
Yamato — cheap sushi and sakebombs
Stan’s — local donut king
Headlines — breakfast plates, diner style
Palominos. — awesome happy hour.

All of the restaurants in Westwood Village are less than delicious.

As a tourist, I think this area is a nice pedestrian-​friendly area that obviously caters to the UCLA crowd. What stood out here are the many Persian/​Middle Eastern cafes and restaurants and also the famous ice cream sandwich institution, Diddy Riese cookies.

One of the first places I went when I first came to LA 30+ years ago, and now that I live in the neighbor hood it’s still a favorite place to hang out, great food, movie theaters and easy parking.

hate to do this but have to.
Back in the 1990’s this place was so vibrant, hip and fun to hang around, especially if you just got a new car, girlfriend or both.
FFWD 20+ years, first time back since b4 the millenium, my goodness looks like a ghost town. ½ the retail spaces are for lease. food selections have vanished, barely any people, sad to see. Paid $ 6 parking, walked outside for 10 minutes before being yelled at my wife («what the hell is this, you bring us HERE? etc.) got back in the car, and heart sank from A) verbal abuse B) abondonement of this once proud village and city. What a shame.
Not one single thing to do here, walking here makes you extremely depressed.