Ethnic Enclaves of LA: Thai Town & Little Armenia

Los Angeles boasts significant numbers of various ethnicities, usually in well integrated neighborhoods (i.e. my blog entries about Reseda or Van Nuys). There are however, ethnic enclaves in the traditional city sense, with concentrations of a specific group within a compact area. I will seek to chronicle the officially recognized ethnic enclaves in an ongoing sporadic series of entries. I will begin with Thai Town and Little Armenia since they coexist along the same streets in East Hollywood, with the boundaries being fluid between them.

Seen here from Olive Hill is Little Armenia (at lower left foreground with the cone church spire) and Thai Town (mid-ground at far right by the brick buildings) with Central Hollywood skyline in the background (note the circular Capitol Records Building) and the Santa Monica Mountains (Hollywood Hills).

Thai Town ( or "ไทยทาวน์" in the Thai language), is a linear concentration of businesses along Hollywood Boulevard between Western Avenue and Normandie. This is the only Thai Town in existence and is recognized by the US Government as a Preserve America community, eligible for Federal funds. There are 120,000 people of Thai descent in the Greater Los Angeles area (the most Thais outside of Southeast Asia). Many of the Thai people in LA live scattered all around (very few actually live on the side streets off of Thai Town's strip), but Thai Town serves as a heart for the community. Though Thai restaurants are easy to find all over the LA area, they usually cater to non-Thai people. The ones in Thai Town on the other hand are the real deal and serve home-style and regional specialties for customers from Thailand. In Thai Town, there exists an abundance of these restaurants as well as two Thai markets, a Thai bookstore, a Thai Buddhist shrine, imported goods stores, silk clothing stores, Thai spas, and several Thai-owned establishments of a more "mundane" varierty (salons, travel agents, dry cleaners, etc). At the entrance to Thai Town on both sides of the street, there are two large gold statues of "Apsonsi" or mythological Thai angel-creatures. It is fitting since Los Angeles ("The Angels" in Spanish) is the City of Angels and Thailand's capital, Bangkok, means City of Angels. Further north, in North Hollywood, there exists Wat Thai temple, the largest Thai Buddhist temple outside of Southeast Asia, and a site for major Thai festivals and holiday celebrations.

Also along Hollywood Boulevard, as well as the side streets off of it, is Little Armenia. There are 138,000 Armenians in Greater Los Angeles, by far the largest number outside of Armenia (second would be New York with 32,000). As with Thai Town, Little Armenia is the hub of the community but doesn't necessarily have the largest concentration of residents of that background. Glendale, northeast of Los Angeles, has the largest cluster of Armenian residents (with 53,000). Nevertheless, Little Armenia boasts a very visible concentration of Armenian-owned businesses such as markets, barbers, pastry shops, Armenian-language driving schools, etc as well as Saint Garabed Armenian Apostolic Church and Pilibos Armenian School. The colors of the Armenian flag (red, blue, and orange) make their way into signs in subtle ways as well as in the form of bumper stickers and decals on people's cars. Hye Plaza is an Armenian-owned shopping center featuring Armenian, Thai, and Latino businesses. "Hye" means "Armenian" in the Armenian language. Every April the community is the location of a large rally in recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
  The Hollywood Sign is perhaps best viewed from the Little Armenia/Thai Town area, from the vantage point of Olive Hill in Barnsdall Park.