Harbor Gateway, Los Angeles

Harbor Gateway
Neighborhood of Los Angeles
Harbor Gateway neighborhood sign
Harbor Gateway as outlined by the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles County with the City of Los Angeles in red. The Harbor Gateway is a two-mile wide north-south corridor that connects the Port of Los Angeles to the south with the rest of the city in the north (note the vertical red line).
Coordinates: 33°51′00″N 118°17′57″W / 33.850072°N 118.299068°W / 33.850072; -118.299068

The Harbor Gateway is a 5.14-square-mile, shoelace-shaped north-south residential and industrial neighborhood in the Los Angeles, California, Harbor Region, in the southern part of the city. It is highly diverse ethnically, and has experienced a measure of hostilities between blacks and Latinos, and a gang injunction has been enforced against Latino gangs.

Harbor Gateway was originally known as the Shoestring Strip and was attached to Los Angeles in 1906 to serve as a link to the Pacific Ocean port cities of Wilmington and San Pedro. It was given its present name in 1985.

With a relatively youthful population of 42,000+, it is the home of Gardena High School and seven other schools. The neighborhood is bisected by Artesia Boulevard and has two neighborhood councils, one north of the boulevard and the other south of it. A large transportation center serves the south Los Angeles County area.

Harbor Gateway is a narrow north-south corridor situated approximately between Vermont Avenue and Figueroa Street north of Interstate 405, and Western and Normandie avenues south of I-405. The territory was acquired by the city of Los Angeles in a shoestring annexation, specifically to connect San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City and the Port of Los Angeles with the rest of the city.

Despite being part of the city of Los Angeles, some parts of Harbor Gateway have a "Torrance, CA", "Gardena, CA" or "Carson, CA" address because they are serviced by those cities' post offices.