A Place to Plant Roots : Sawtelle, best known for its Japanese nurseries, has become an affordable family community on L.A.’s Westside

When Ilana and Craig Israel discovered that they were expecting a child, they did not just celebrate. They went house-hunting.

“We needed a family home in a friendly community on the Westside, but at an affordable price,” Craig Israel said. “And we needed it fast.”

Just months later, in May, 1993, the Israels moved to a new townhouse development in the community of Sawtelle. “It’s an unpretentious neighborhood that offers more square-footage for the money than Santa Monica and is less congested than Brentwood or Westwood,” Israel said.

Although just four blocks north of the Santa Monica (10) Freeway and one block west of the San Diego (405) Freeway, the community of Sawtelle seems to sit apart from hectic metropolitan life. Manicured gardens and an array of small specialty shops, cafes and restaurants along Sawtelle Boulevard reflect a suburban ambience. Sawtelle features modest cottages and Old Spanish-style homes, three-story apartment buildings from the 1960s and luxurious contemporary townhouses with spacious patios open to ocean breezes.

“Sawtelle is close to everything without being in the middle of everything,” said Israel, a 33-year-old general dentist. The community is only minutes from Santa Monica’s beaches and upscale restaurants, Westwood’s movie theaters and Century City’s department stores. “For my family, this location means a relaxed lifestyle. For me, it translates into an easy commute to my office in Santa Monica.”

Israel and his wife, a former dental assistant in her early 30s, paid $382,000 for their three-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot contemporary Mediterranean townhome with high ceilings, two fireplaces, skylights, walk-in closets and a cactus-planted atrium. The tile-roofed townhouse on Federal Avenue is part of a gated 20-unit complex with a palm tree-encircled swimming pool, a playground and a recreation room filled with workout equipment.

“The common spaces make it easy to keep in touch with the neighbors,” Ilana Israel said. “In September, most of them even celebrated baby Ryan’s first birthday with us at the pool.”

Less than one square mile in size, the community of Sawtelle is bounded by South Bundy Drive on the west, Sawtelle Boulevard on the east, by Olympic Boulevard on the south and Santa Monica Boulevard on the north. The middle- to lower-middle-class community’s 10,000 residents are primarily Anglo, with Latinos as the second largest group. Japanese Americans count for about 20% of Sawtelle’s population.

The area is best known for its Japanese nurseries along Sawtelle Boulevard that stand as a picturesque reminder of the community’s formative Japanese influence. Sawtelle had been home mainly to Mexican laborers, who worked in the area’s fruit orchards and fields of lima beans, when the first immigrants from Japan arrived in the 1910s.

Within a few years, the city of Sawtelle (it incorporated in 1909) became known for its Asian flair. Bonsai gardens accentuated well-kept homes, Japanese grocery stores offered Asian foods and much of the area’s social life centered around the local Buddhist Church. While most of the Iseis, or first-generation Japanese Americans, were gardeners, small Japanese businesses catering to the growing Oriental population mushroomed along Sawtelle Boulevard. By the time Sawtelle became part of Los Angeles in 1922, about a quarter of the community’s 3,500 residents had Japanese roots.

When the Japanese Americans were interned during World War II, Sawtelle’s once-flourishing Asian community lay dormant until its members returned years later. “We felt that this was the place where we belonged. People here shared our culture,” said Miyo Ohara, who came back in the early 1950s with her husband. George, her late husband, was a gardener. “There were plenty of gardening jobs nearby. Most of Sawtelle’s Japanese worked for wealthy people in Beverly Hills, Bel-Air and Brentwood.”

In 1955, the Oharas paid $12,000 for a Spanish-style home on the corner of Purdue and La Grange avenues. The two-bedroom house was built in the 1920s on a 65-foot-by-147-foot lot. “Our children just loved the big yard with all the trees and flowers,” said Ohara, 77, who was born in Los Angeles but spent most of her childhood in Japan. Her back yard, now fenced to prevent passersby from picking fruit and flowers, is still overflowing with dozens of rose bushes.

Like Ohara, many Japanese Americans have occupied their Sawtelle homes for decades. Combined with affordable house prices this sense of continuity has attracted more and more young families from all walks of life in recent years.

According to Howard Sall, a realtor with Jon Douglas Co., the community’s proximity to good schools, including Brentwood Unified Science Magnet School and University High School, is one major selling point. “In Sawtelle, families find an affordable foothold on the Westside and a stable community,” Sall said. “Six blocks east you pay $50,000 more for a modern condo.”

Home prices range from $87,500 on the low end for a one-bedroom fixer-upper condominium to $499,000 for a top-of-the-line single-family home with six bedrooms. The median price for a condo runs about $195,000. An average single-family home currently sells for $281,000. “About 80% of the homes on the market in Sawtelle are condominiums,” said Dolores Roberts, also with Jon Douglas Co. “Most were built in the ‘80s on land that used to hold nurseries.” To longtime residents’ regrets, only a handful of the more than 30 nurseries from the 1950s have survived.

Although many nurseries and orchards had to give ground to new dwellings, newcomers point to the community’s still abundant flora as one major draw. “When I first looked at houses, I was impressed by all the flowers and bonsai gardens. To me, the greenery is a signal that the people are really involved in their community,” said Eugen Golling, 53, who moved to Sawtelle’s Armacost Avenue in March, 1994. “Here, involvement doesn’t stop at one’s garden fence. Even public spaces such as sidewalks and the park are in great shape.”

Last spring, Stoner Park, in the heart of the community, was spruced up by members of the Japanese Gardening Assn., who planted 100 cherry trees. In recent years, Sawtelle’s businesses and residents teamed up with the Los Angeles Police Department’s West L.A. Division to transform the park from a graffiti-smeared gang hangout to a recreational oasis the size of two city blocks. Today, youths and adults workout on Stoner Park’s baseball field and tennis and basketball courts, while local toddlers enjoy a colorful playground.

“I feel comfortable to go swimming in the Stoner outdoor pool. It’s safe,” Golling said. The German-born manufacturer of rare automobile parts was searching for a more convenient location than his former Malibu home, when a friend mentioned Sawtelle. “I used to spend two hours in the car each day on the way to my downtown office. Now, I only waste 30 minutes on the freeway,” Golling said.

He paid $324,000 for a new 2,000-square-foot, three-bedroom townhouse with a loft and 10-feet-high windows that overlook tree-lined streets and the neighbors’ patios overflowing with flowers. “When I come home at night, the laid-back atmosphere helps me unwind,” Golling said. “In a community so centrally located like Sawtelle, you wouldn’t expect such a relaxing feel.”

A feel of diversity, mirrored by Sawtelle Boulevard’s charming hodgepodge of emerging yuppie cafes, Mexican markets and Japanese stores, attracted first-time buyer Jill Parker to Sawtelle 11 years ago. “There is an easy coexistence between different cultures and different age groups,” said Parker, a fund-raiser in her late 30s. “It adds character to the community and makes life so much more colorful.” The area, named after prominent local banker W. E. Sawtelle, remains one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods on the Westside.

After renting in West Hollywood for a few years, Parker, who is originally from New York City, looked for a place to call her own. “I came to California for the lifestyle and the weather,” Parker said. “So for me, the best spot to take advantage of both seemed to be a reasonably priced neighborhood on the Westside.”

A realtor recommended Sawtelle, where Parker fell in love with a 1,200-square-foot condo from the late 1970s with a private back yard bursting with fragrant jasmine. Parker paid in the $140,000 range for the two-level, two-bedroom unit on Barry Avenue. “The location is wonderful,” Parker said. “If I feel like hiking, I get to the Santa Monica Mountains in 10 minutes. If I’m in the mood for some biking along the beach, it only takes me seven minutes to get there. It’s like a Fantasyland.”

For a breath of fresh air even closer to home Parker retreats to Stoner Park. After the LAPD started to beef up police presence at Sawtelle’s then-trouble spot about five years ago, violent crimes in and around the park have decreased at a steady pace, according to Phillip Enbody, the Los Angeles Police Department’s senior lead officer at the West L.A. Division.

“Crimewise we are on a low in the area,” said Enbody, who credits much of 1994’s 22% drop in violent and property crimes to residents’ participation in prevention programs. “There is a lot of wisdom from people who have lived here for generations, especially from the Japanese,” Enbody said. “I would move there if I could afford the houses.”

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Sawtelle Home Sale Data Sample Size (for 10-year period): 128 Ave. home size (square feet): 1,327 Ave. Year Built: 1935 Ave. No. Bedrms: 2.51 Ave. No. Baths: 1.46 Pool: 1% Central air: 3% Floodzone: 45% Price Range (1993-94): $145,000-420,000 Predominant Value: $288,000 Age Range: 10-90 years Predominant Age: 59 years

Average Sales Data

Year Total $ per Median Sales sq. ft. price 1994* 10 $191.74 $279,500 1993 11 $230.61 $283,363 1992 4 $231.57 $326,250 1991 5 $267.61 $431,800 1990 4 $263.28 $456,500 1989 6 $227.01 $388,333 1988 15 $243.73 $319,000 1987 32 $207.04 $264,296 1986 23 $164.40 $192,826 1985 18 $143.89 $161,027

*1994 data current through December. Source: TRW Redi Property Data, Riverside

AT a Glance

Population 1994 estimate:11,633 190-90 change: +1.0%

Annual income Per capita: 24,403 Median household: 36,331

Household distribution Less than $30,000: 29.3% $30,000 - $60,000:34.o% $60,000 - $100,000: 24.9% $100,000 - $150,000: 8.5% $1500,000 +: 3.6%