Cypress Park

Squeezed between leafy Elysian Park and Mt. Washington, at the point where the 5 and the 110 meet, bordered by both aqueduct and rail, Cypress Park might seem like a shoe-in to be one of those cool neighborhoods where yuppies build their lofts or where hipsters and artist flock to create a little artistic community just slightly away from the city. Echo Park and Silver Lake are just a hop skip and a jump away after all.

But Cypress Park is none of these things. Instead, Cypress Park has become a fairly typical low income area where violence is high and an oppressive sense of futility hangs in the air. It is quite tragic actually, because the area is actually quite beautiful and has all the basics on which to build a strong, interesting community.

One of the attractive aspects of this neighborhood are the California bungalows that make up the vast majority of the housing in the area. These older homes with their low roofs and shady walk-up terraced entrances evoke pre-WWII Los Angeles. Despite the below average incomes here, the homes are well-kept, with leafy front lawns and along wide laned of streets of the kind developers looking to pack more homes into smaller spaces don’t design anymore. The neighborhood actually does not feel particularly danger.

Looks can be a bit deceiving however, as this community of 10,000 experiences about 2.5 murders every year and has one of the higher violent crime rates in Los Angeles. (I believe there is even a gang that goes by the moniker, Cypress Park.)

The nearest high school is Lincoln, I believe, Cypress itself doesn’t have anything higher than a junior high, Florence Nightingale Middle School. Florence Nightingale is below average, but not terrible. On the STAR tests, for example, Florence Nightingale students pass at about a 1 in 3 rate in both math and English. This is good for math but bad for English—though both are beneath the state average by a bit.

One thing that Cypress Park has managed to pick up from its hipster western neighbors is a bit of nightlife. I am referring to a cool dive bar, Footsies, that makes its home here. If you want to play some pool and get drunk cheap, it is definitely the place to hang out in Cypress Park. If the tables are taken, you can also head across the street to El Recreo, a seedy pool hall. And if you get the munchies, try El Ataqor down the street on Figueroa—the tastiest potato tacos you will ever taste. (Of course, given the 1970’s Tijuana décor and mariachi music, they had better be great.)

You will also find the usual sorts of fast food places and automobile repair shops that seem to be omnipresent wherever you go.

Overall, this is a neighborhood with a lot of unrealized potential that seems to be headed in the wrong direction. If only some hipsters would move here, colonize this place, and drive the gangs out, you might have something going.

Mixed feelings on this area...on the southern end of Cypress I noticed it to be not as quiet as a community. Alot of traffics, police sirens, and not as well kept. It's more industrial but this part of the city is full of hard working people, primarily middle class families. Not many attractions or eateries here.

However mid-town Cypress and Northern area of Cypress I noticed a change. The school systems are quality and all of the streets surrounding them are very quaint and calm. I would feel comfortable sending my kids to the school systems in Cypress, especially the elementary school. Known to have great teachers and plenty of resources and programs available for all grades. Northern end of town you'll find the artistic and eclectic community with more of the artsy influenced neighborhoods.