NationalGeographicPersonalExplorer

Also known as “Ghost Town,” Oakwood was founded as a segregated African-American beachside neighborhood during the oil rush in the 1930s and 1940s. A few decades later, the population expanded to include a large percentage of Latino immigrants. The formation of gangs in the late 1970s made Oakwood an infamously dangerous neighborhood; black and Hispanic gangs—such as the Venice Shoreline Crips and the Latino Venice 13—have been constant enemies and currently coexist under a shaky truce. Drive-by shootings and criminal activity has been greatly reduced due to real estate developers buying huge pieces of property during the ‘90s, and turning them into million-dollar homes. Most gang members, and “civilian” locals who grew up in Oakwood can’t afford to live there anymore and have moved into neighborhoods further east and south of Venice Beach.