Pacoima
Pacoima is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. Pacoima is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley region of LA. Pacoima is bordered by the Los Angeles districts of Mission Hills on the west, Arleta on the south, Sun Valley on the southeast, Lake View Terrace on the northeast, and by the city of San Fernando on the north. It covers an area of 7.14 square miles (18.5 km2). The Fernandeño-Tongva and Tataviam people, California Indian Tribes, now known as Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, first inhabited the area. The original name for the Native American village in this area was actually Pakoinga or Pakɨynga in Fernandeño, but since the "ng" sound (a voiced velar nasal) did not exist in Spanish, the Spaniards mistook the sound as an "m" and recorded the name as Pacoima, as we see today. Pacoima's written history dates to 1769 when Spaniards entered the San Fernando Valley. In 1771, nearby Mission San Fernando Rey was founded, with Native Americans creating gardens for the mission in the area. They lived at the mission working on the gardens which, in a few years, had stretched out over most of the valley.
The Mexican government secularized the mission lands in 1834 by taking them away from the church. The first governor of California, Pio Pico, leased the lands to Andrés Pico, his brother. In 1845, Pio Pico sold the whole San Fernando Valley to Don Eulogio de Celis for $14,000 to raise money for the war between Mexico and the United States, settled by a treaty signed at Campo de Cahuenga in 1845, and by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.
The Pacoima area became sheep ranches and wheat fields. However, in 1873, U.S Senator Charles Maclay of Santa Clara purchased 56,000 acres (230 km2) in the northern part of the San Fernando Valley adjacent to the San Fernando Mission and in 1887, Jouett Allen bought 1,000 acres of land between the Pacoima Wash and the Tujunga Wash. The land he purchased was from the Maclay Rancho Water Company, which had taken over Senator Charles Maclay’s holdings in the Valley. Allen retained 500 acres (200 ha) for himself and subdivided the remainder in 1-acre (4,000 m2) tracts. It was from this that the town of Pacoima was born.
The major transportation routes across and through the area are San Fernando Road, the Van Nuys Boulevard along which the Panorama City is located, and Laurel Canyon Boulevard. California State Route 118 (Ronald Reagan) runs through it, and the community is bordered by the I-5 (Golden State). The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) operates bus services in Pacoima. Metro operates Metro Rapid line 761 on Van Nuys Boulevard from Sylmar to West LA. Metro Local Lines 92, 166, 224, 230, 233, 294 and 690 operate in Pacoima. In 2027, Metro will open the East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor light rail project with three stations at Laurel Canyon Boulevard & Van Nuys Boulevard, San Fernando Road & Van Nuys Boulevard, and San Fernando Road & Paxton Street. Whiteman Airport, a general aviation airport owned by the County of Los Angeles, is located in Pacoima.
The 2010 U.S. census counted 103,689 residents in Pacoima's 91331 ZIP Code. The median age was 29.5, and the median yearly household income at that time was $49,842.