ttp://spotcrime.com/crime/10858882-fa301c7432f38b7abe73cc5266a44ab2

One of the projects I'm involved with is a documentary on the history of LA 1850-1950. The central areas were in fact the elegant and expensive neighborhoods from the turn of the century to the '30s. But these shifts happen over time in all metropolises.

I agree that it would be REAlly cool to build visualizations showing the shifts and sprawl of affluence, zoning, commerce, industry over time to help better understand the history and backstory of these neighborhoods. +1

Actually 1909 marked the year LA became the first city in the U.S. to enact zoning laws for commercial/residential/multi-family uses, so there should be records of the zoning changes since.

http://ladbs.org/LADBSWeb/building-permit-records.jsf is where you'd have to go to get anything historical, including building permits since 1905.

In terms of digital, the City of LA has a mapping system: http://zimas.lacity.org/ which is pretty useful, except zoning codes themselves are confusing.

The county also has its real estate appraisal database online: http://maps.assessor.lacounty.gov/mapping/viewer.asp

You can see, though, that this bldg, for example: 850 S BONNIE BRAE ST was built in 1932.

So, I promise to stop replying to this thread after this, but I stumbled upon a goldmine of a treasure map today.

Cartifact Maps - http://maps.cartifact.com/ - has a web-friendly, Firefox-friendly map that mashes up Google Maps, Aerial shots with their own Cartifact *and* historical maps from the City of LA from 1880, 1920 and 1960.

You can search for "Bonnie Brae & James Wood" (or 9th St) and then click the circle icon, zoom in, and glance through the years to see how the city evolved.

I changed the location to The Thirsty Crow

I changed the date and time to Tuesday, January 13, 2015 at 3:15 AM

The Sanborn fire insurance maps may be of interest, too: http://www.lapl.org/resources/guides/sanborn1.html