Mar Vista is located near the center of LA's West Side. The city of Santa Monica lies to the northwest, West Los Angeles to the north, Palms to the northeast, Culver City to the east, Del Rey to the southeast, and Marina del Rey and Venice to the southwest. It's approximate boundaries are the city limits of Culver City and the San Diego Freeway (I-405) on the northeast, Culver Boulevard on the southeast, Walgrove Avenue (north of Washington Boulevard) and Lincoln Boulevard (south of Washington) on the southwest, and the Santa Monica City limits and the Santa Monica Freeway (I-10) on the northwest. Major thoroughfares through the district include Palms, Venice, Sawtelle, Inglewood, and Grand View Boulevards, McLaughlin, Barrington, Short, and Centinela Avenues, and Beethoven Street. Most of the district uses the 90066 ZIP code. The northern and southern portions of Mar Vista are separated by a narrow strip of Culver City around Washington Boulevard. That portion of Culver City has an Los Angeles address and is part of the Mar Vista school district.
Westdale, the area around National Boulevard, while usually considered a part of Mar Vista, is sometimes thought of as a separate neighborhood.
Mar Vista is an economically and racially diverse neighborhood of apartment buildings and small post-World War II ranches and bungalows. The hilly areas near its border with Santa Monica, whose spectacular ocean views give it its name, are somewhat more upscale. Ironically, the most desirable areas in the district are built on the site of a former landfill. The Pacific Electric Railway "Red Car" streetcars ran along Venice and Culver Boulevards during the neighborhood's early years, but were shut down soon thereafter.
Mar Vista is considerably less densely populated than neighboring Palms, as its homeowners' associations successfully fended off the 1960s up-zoning that changed much of Palms and West Los Angeles from suburban areas to renter-dominated urban neighborhoods. It should be noted, though, that the majority of the district's population lives in rental housing, owing to the density of apartment buildings on thoroughfares like Venice Boulevard and Barrington Avenue.
In recent years, the escalating cost of real estate (even a 1500 square foot (140 m²), prefabricated 1940s tract house may go for upwards of $800,000) has led to a phenomenal rise in the number of newly constructed Mediterranean Revival-inspired McMansions and "Persian palaces" on Mar Vista Hill. Its proximity to bohemian Venice adds a slightly artsy flavor to the neighborhood. Nearby UCLA maintains a large graduate student housing complex along Sawtelle Boulevard near National Boulevard, as well as a smaller housing block near the intersection of Venice Boulevard and Centinela Avenue.
Current Los Angeles City Council member Bill Rosendahl resides in Mar Vista. He was elected in 2005 on a slow growth platform, motivated in large part by the concerns of Mar Vista residents over traffic congestion and lost views resulting from the Playa Vista project.
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