The community was founded in 1923 byAlphonzo Bell. Bell owned farm property inSanta Fe Springs, California, where oil was discovered. He bought a large ranch with a home on what is now Bel Air Road. He subdivided and developed the property with large residential lots, with work on the master plan led by the landscape architectMark Daniels.[6] He also built theBel-Air Bay Club inPacific Palisades and theBel-Air Country Club. His wife chose Italian names for the streets. She also founded the Bel-Air Garden Club in 1931.[7]
On November 6, 1961, a fire ignited and devastated the community of Bel Air, destroying 484 homes.[8] On December 6, 2017, a fire started by a homeless encampment burned in the same area, destroying six homes.
The 2000 U.S. census counted 7,691 residents in the 6.37-square-mile (16.5 km2) Bel Air neighborhood; with 1,207 per square mile (466/km2) it has among the lowestpopulation densities for the city and the county. In 2008, the city estimated that the population had increased to 8,253.
In 2000, the median age for residents was 46, which was high for city and county neighborhoods. The percentages of residents aged 50 and older was among the county's highest.[12]
The median yearly household income in 2008 was $207,938, the highest figure for anyneighborhood orcity in Los Angeles County. Renters occupied 14.5% of the housing stock, and house- or apartment-owners held 85.5%. The average household size of 2.4 people was considered typical for Los Angeles.[12]
The 4.1% of families headed by single parents was considered low for city and county neighborhoods. The percentages of married people in Bel Air were among the county's highest—66.0% for men and 65.7% for women. There were 808 veterans, or 12.9% of the population.[12][13]
The neighborhood was considered "not especially diverse" ethnically[14] within Los Angeles, with a relatively high percentage of white people. The breakdown waswhites, 83.0%;Asians, 8.2%;Latinos, 4.6%;African Americans, 0.9%; and others, 3.2%. Iran (26.1%) and South Africa (8.2%) were the most common places of birth for the 24.1% of the residents who were born abroad—which was an average percentage for Los Angeles as a whole.[12]
Bel Air Estates, the original subdivision of the Bel Air community, is generally bounded by Nimes Road to the north, Sunset Boulevard to the south, Beverly Glen Boulevard to the east and both sides of Bel Air Road to the west.[15]
TheHannah Carter Japanese Garden is in Bel Air. It was inspired by the gardens ofKyoto. Many structures in the garden—the main gate, garden house, bridges, and shrine—were built inJapan and reassembled on site. Antique stone carvings, water basins and lanterns, as well as the five-tieredpagoda, and key symbolic rocks are also from Japan.[16]
Bel Air is in the 5th city council district, represented byKaty Yaroslavsky. It is in the 90077 (Bel Air Estates & Beverly Glen) ZIP code, which is part of the city of Los Angeles.Stone Canyon Reservoir lies in the northeastern part of Bel Air. Established in 1994, it serves around 500,000 people. The Bel Air Association, operational since 1942, is dedicated to preserving the residential community's aesthetic appearance. It is at the East Gate, at 100 Bel Air Road.[18]
Almost two-thirds (66.1%) of Bel Air residents over 24 had earned afour-year degree by 2000, a high percentage for the city and the county. The percentages of residents in that age range with abachelor's degree were high for the county.[12] The community is in theLos Angeles Unified School District. The area is in Board District 4.[21] As of 2009, Steve Zimmer represented the district.[22]
Community Magnet Charter Elementary School, 11301 Bellagio Road. As of 2010[update], because the school's points-based admissions system does not favor area residents, children living in Bel Air generally do not attend the school.[25] It is on the former Bellagio Road School campus.[26]
In April 1983, an advisory committee of the LAUSD recommended closing eight LAUSD schools, including Bellagio Road School. The committee did not target Fairburn Avenue School in Westwood, as a way of allowing it to preserve its ethnic balance, and so it could take children from Bellagio Road in case it closed.[27] In August 1983, the board publicly considered closing Bellagio, which had 240 students at the time.[28] The school's enrollment had been decreasing, but the board had voted in May to keep the school open. In February 1984, after the composition of the board had changed, it voted to close the school.[29]
Bel Air formerly housed the Bellagio Road Newcomer School, a 3rd–8th grade school for newly arrived immigrants. In 2002, it had 390 students from Armenia, China, El Salvador, Guatemala, Korea, Russia, and other countries.[30] This program was housed in the former Bellagio Road school.[31]
Westland School, 16200 Mulholland Drive, was founded in 1949. It moved to its current location in 1965, becoming the first school to locate in what has now developed into a major 'institutional corridor' in the area of theSepulveda Pass.[34]
Television shows and films have been filmed in Bel Air, or are said to take place in the community. Exterior shots for theBeverly Hillbillies were shot in and around 750 Bel Air Road,[36] built by Lynn Atkinson (and later sold to hotelierArnold Kirkeby after Atkinson's wife refused to move into a house she thought too ostentatious).
Several scenes in the 2015 film "Get Hard" were set in Bel Air. Exterior scenes from films such asGet Shorty (1995) have also been filmed in the area.[citation needed]
The Bel Air house featured in the 1960 filmStrangers When We Meet was built and completed during filming, and still stands today as a private residence.[39]
^Melton, Mary (August 25, 1996)."The Stars of Star Maps".Los Angeles Times.Each map tends to cover the 'three Bs': Brentwood, Bel-Air and Beverly Hills. A few toss in a Malibu sidebar.
^Myers, David W. (May 28, 1993)."A Sad Westside Story : Home Prices Have Declined as Much as 50% Since the 1980s".Los Angeles Times. RetrievedJuly 4, 2014.But, as Meyer's case suggests, nowhere have those losses been as dramatic as the high-priced area on the Westside known as the 'three Bs' – Brentwood, Bel-Air and Beverly Hills.
^abcde"Bel-Air".Mapping L.A. Los Angeles Times. RetrievedOctober 31, 2015.
^"Veterans Ranking".Mapping L.A. Los Angeles Times. RetrievedOctober 31, 2015.
^"Diversity".Mapping L.A. Los Angeles Times. RetrievedOctober 31, 2015.The diversity index measures the probability that any two residents, chosen at random, would be of different ethnicities. If all residents are of the same ethnic group it's zero. If half are from one group and half from another it's .50."
^"Board Members".Los Angeles Unified School District. Archived fromthe original on May 2, 2009. RetrievedSeptember 16, 2009.
^"Bel-Air Schools".Mapping L.A. Los Angeles Times. RetrievedOctober 31, 2015.
^abSavage, David G. (April 11, 1982)."Many Minority Students Back in Their Old Schools".Los Angeles Times. Archived fromthe original on November 4, 2012. RetrievedMarch 23, 2010....a bright and talkative black girl, rode a school bus from her home west of down-town Los Angeles to Roscomare Road Elementary School in the hills of Bel Air.
United States
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