ADU Contractor Topanga, California

Topanga (pronunciation) (Tongva: Topaa’nga) is a census-designated place (CDP) in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located in the Santa Monica Mountains, the community exists in Topanga Canyon and the surrounding hills. The narrow southern ration of Topanga at the coast is amongst the city of Malibu and the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades. As of the 2020 census the population of the Topanga CDP was 8,560. The ZIP code is 90290 and the area code is primarily 310, with 818 deserted at the north grow less of the canyon. It is in the 3rd County Supervisorial district.

History

Topanga is the name utter to the Place by the Native American native Tongva tribe, and may mean “where the mountain meets the sea” or “a place above.” The publicize in the Tongva language, Topaa’nga, has a root topaa’- that likely comes from the Chumash language. It was the western affix of their territory, abutting the Chumash tribe that occupied the coast from Malibu northwards. Bedrock mortars can be found carved into stone outcroppings in many locations.

Topanga was then colonized by Mexicans in 1839. In the 1920s, Topanga Canyon became a weekend getaway for Hollywood stars past several cottages built for that purpose. The rolling hills and plenty vegetation served to have enough money both privacy and handsome surroundings for the rich and famous.
During the 1960s, Topanga Canyon became a magnet to many other artists. In 1965 Wallace Berman established in the area. For a time, Neil Young lived in Topanga, first living later producer David Briggs then far ahead buying his own house. He recorded most of his After the Gold Rush album in his basement studio in 1970. Charles Manson had past been energetic in Topanga, where he had briefly befriended both Neil Young and Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys. Members of the Manson Family began their disconcert of murder upon July 31, 1969, with the murder of Topanga resident Gary Hinman, a music literary who had opened his home to anyone needing shelter.

Geography

Topanga Canyon

Topanga Creek drains Topanga Canyon and is the third largest watershed entering the Santa Monica Bay. The creek is one of the few unshakable undammed waterways in the area, and is a spawning field for steelhead trout. The area typically receives very nearly 22 inches (560 mm) of rain annually. Topanga Beach lies on the coast at the outlet of Topanga Creek. Topanga Canyon Boulevard, State Route 27, is the principal thoroughfare, connecting the Ventura Freeway (US 101) to the north when Pacific Coast Highway (SR 1) on the south. The southern portion of the boulevard largely follows Topanga Creek. North of the Old Topanga Canyon Road intersection, the boulevard traverses the Santa Monica Mountains.

Topanga Canyon contains lands of Topanga State Park, the largest park in the Santa Monica Mountains and one of the largest edit space preserves in the company of a city in the world, as with ease as the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. It is allocation of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. It primarily represents a California coastal sage and chaparral ecoregion, with large areas of the California oak woodland tree-plant community, and a broad variety of native plants.

Climate

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and ascetic summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F (22.0 °C). According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Topanga has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated “Csb” on climate maps.

Demographics

The 2010 United States Census reported that Topanga had a population of 8,289. The population density was 433.2 inhabitants per square mile (167.3/km²). Topanga had a median household pension of $120,711, with solitary 5.9% of the population living under the poverty line. The racial makeup of Topanga was 7,313 (88.2%) White (84.5% Non-Hispanic White), 117 (1.4%) African American, 35 (0.4%) Native American, 353 (4.3%) Asian, 3 (0.0%) Pacific Islander, 125 (1.5%) from additional races, and 343 (4.1%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 534 persons (6.4%).

The Census reported that 8,289 people (100% of the population) lived in households, 0 (0%) lived in non-institutionalized bureau quarters, and 0 (0%) were institutionalized.

There were 3,442 households, out of which 996 (28.9%) had kids under the age of 18 bustling in them, 1,772 (51.5%) were opposite-sex married couples blooming together, 262 (7.6%) had a female householder afterward no husband present, 140 (4.1%) had a male householder behind no wife present. There were 239 (6.9%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 49 (1.4%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 903 households (26.2%) were made occurring of individuals, and 256 (7.4%) had someone full of life alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.41. There were 2,174 families (63.2% of anything households); the average family size was 2.87.

The population was 1,682 people (20.3%) under the age of 18, 333 people (4.0%) aged 18 to 24, 1,917 people (23.1%) aged 25 to 44, 3,188 people (38.5%) aged 45 to 64, and 1,169 people (14.1%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.9 males. For all 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.2 males.

There were 3,750 housing units at an average density of 196.0 per square mile (75.7/km), of which 2,589 (75.2%) were owner-occupied, and 853 (24.8%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.2%; the rental vacancy rate was 3.8%. 6,597 people (79.6% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 1,692 people (20.4%) lived in rental housing units.

Lower Topanga Canyon

The bottom of Topanga Canyon, where it meets Pacific Coast Highway and the ocean, was owned for many years by the Los Angeles Athletic Club, a rich private club in downtown Los Angeles. The 1,659-acre (6.71 km²) parcel was rented out to a variety of businesses and residents for decades at remarkably low rents, considering that it borders the city of Malibu. Thus Lower Topanga became unique as one of the last outposts of the unchanging Topanga Canyon bohemian hippie lifestyle.

The Chumash people considered Lower Topanga a sacred, economic, and cultural meeting place for tribes whatever along the coast. One of the main neighborhoods, the “Rodeo Grounds”, takes its state from an actual rodeo arena that existed there on a Mexican ranch in the 1800s.

In the in advance 1900s, Lower Topanga was a Japanese fishing village. William Randolph Hearst owned the property for a era and turned it into a weekend getaway spot with seashore shacks for his and Marion Davies’ guests.

In the ’60s, a practicing community of artists and surfers sprang taking place in Lower Topanga. They maintained their houses without assistance, sometimes digging them out of the mud after floods or quality backfires to prevent a spreading wildfire from burning down their neighborhood. The roads remained unpaved.

In 2001, Lower Topanga was sold to California State Parks. Even even though the Lower Topanga community occupied less than 2% of the total purchased land, State Parks had an rasping policy to relocate everyone and bulldoze everything of the houses. (State Parks had already evicted residents who lived directly upon Topanga Beach in the late ’70s.)

A society of 10 Lower Topanga poets calling themselves the “Idlers of the Bamboo Grove” published a scrap book of the same name in 2002, celebrating their community and lamenting the prospect of having to leave. Their publisher, Brass Tacks Press, continued publishing works not quite Lower Topanga, as competently as maintaining an online Lower Topanga Photo Archive.

Even even if Lower Topanga residents were unlimited money to leave, some fought bitterly neighboring their relocation in court. However, the last holdouts were provoked off the house in March 2006. Currently there are nimble efforts by TreePeople and Mountains Restoration Trust to improve the Place to its pristine condition as it was prior to development.

Culture

Topanga is known as a bohemian enclave attracting artists, musicians, filmmakers, and others. Numerous music festivals have been organized in the canyon, including the Topanga Days Festival and Topanga Earth Day. The Topanga Film Institute hosts the annual Topanga Film Festival.

In the 1950s, blacklisted actor Will Geer had to sell his large Santa Monica house and involve his family to a small scheme in the canyon where they could amass their own produce. Geer’s friend Woody Guthrie had a small shack upon the property. They by chance founded what became an artists’ colony. Since its founding in 1973, the Geer relations has continued to put-on the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. It has grown into an Equity theater, and occupies a natural outside amphitheater. It features Shakespearean plays, modern classics, and indigenous productions, as well as musical concerts. Performers have included Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Della Reese, and Burl Ives. Odetta was allocation of the forward music scene in the 1960s.

A well-known venue in the canyon was the Elysium Institute, also known as Elysium Fields, a nudist club started by Ed Lange in 1967. After surviving extended battles in the same way as county officials the 9-acre (3.6 ha) property was sold in 2002 by its founder’s heirs.

Every Memorial Day weekend upon the grounds of the Topanga Community House, Topanga has an annual fair and parade, called Topanga Days. Topanga Days Country Fair features music, belly dancing, over 80 unique craft vendors and a variety of food from Cajun to Mexican to vegan. A parade is held upon Memorial Day. The parade is said to have inspired the more famous Doo-Dah Parade in Pasadena, California.

Topanga Canyon afterward hosts an annual reggae festival titled Reggae on the Mountain that has grown to be one of the largest deeds in the area. The issue serves as a fundraiser for the Topanga Community Club in a thesame fashion as Topanga Days.

The Topanga Film Institute presents the annual Topanga Film Festival each July. The festival events to bridge cultures, create and build up community, provide cultural row and networking opportunities.

Two uncovered shopping centers featuring local businesses form the hub of local commerce. There are no hotels, motels or gas stations in Topanga, nor are there any chain or big box stores.

The location of Topanga in the Santa Monica Mountains moreover makes the natural surroundings an important part of the culture. Streams, waterfalls, cliffs of exposed bedrock, landmark rock outcroppings, and overlooks later panoramic views of the mountains, Pacific Ocean and Los Angeles are common attractions. There are many trails for terse walks, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, birdwatching, and stone climbing, all of which are important parts of the local community.

Government and infrastructure

The County of Los Angeles Public Library operates the Topanga Library located on 122 N Topanga Canyon Blvd.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department operates Fire Station No. 69 in Topanga as a ration of Battalion 5. During the 1960s and 1970s, “problematic firefighters” were placed here below the organization of James O. Page.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) operates the Malibu/Lost Hills Station in Calabasas, serving Topanga.

The United States Postal Service Topanga Post Office is located at 101 South Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

The California Highway Patrol, West Valley Area, handles the traffic on the State Route and in the unincorporated areas.

The Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness (T-CEP) operates an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) near the Topanga Town Center.

Education

Most Topanga residents are zoned to schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The Place is within Board District 4. As of 2010 Steve Zimmer represents the district.

Some portions are in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD). Those portions are zoned to Webster Elementary School and Malibu High School. Some are in the Las Virgenes Unified School District.

Private schools:

The County of Los Angeles Public Library operates the Topanga Library.

Notable people

See also

References

External links