Culver City, Atwater Village, Echo Park, Frogtown, Chinatown and the Beverly Hills and Bel-Air corridor are 6 of the best places to live in Los Angeles for very different budgets. Whichever you choose, the first job after getting keys is the same: rekey every exterior lock in a single visit with one upfront quote.
Here is what each neighborhood is like, and what to do about the doors.
We are a Los Angeles locksmith based in Mid-Wilshire, so the security notes below come from the move-in, lockout and post-burglary calls we run in each of these areas.
Living there: The Beverly Hills flats and the Bel-Air hills are the top of the Los Angeles market: large lots, private schools, Rodeo Drive and Beverly Drive for shopping, and some of the lowest crime counts in the region. Beverly Hills is its own city with its own police department; Bel-Air is LAPD territory with private patrols funded by the homeowners association. Housing is detached homes and, along Wilshire and Doheny, full service condo towers.
Securing a home here: The risk is targeted, not random: contractors’ keys, staff turnover, gate codes shared too widely, and key fobs relayed from a front hall to a driveway. Restricted keyway cylinders (Medeco, Mul-T-Lock, Abloy) stop key copying entirely, and a small master key system lets staff open the kitchen door but not the study. Audit smart lock user lists and gate codes quarterly. Keep car fobs in a signal blocking pouch away from the front door. Our high security lock comparison covers the hardware.
Living there: North of Downtown and a short walk to Union Station, Chinatown has changed fast: new apartment buildings along Broadway and Hill, galleries on Chung King Road, some of the best inexpensive food in the city, and Gold Line and Metro access in every direction. Housing is mostly newer mid-rise rentals plus older walk-ups.
Securing a home here: In mid-rise buildings, your front door is usually behind a lobby and a garage gate, so the real issues are tailgating at the lobby door, package theft and shared garages. Ask the manager to fix a lobby door that does not latch and to confirm your unit was rekeyed after the last tenant. Add a secondary lock to a ground floor slider or balcony door. Never leave a fob or garage remote in a parked car; that is how most Downtown area garages get entered.
Living there: Wedged between the LA River and Glendale, Atwater Village is a grid of 1920s bungalows and Spanish duplexes around a walkable strip on Glendale Boulevard: coffee, bakeries, a farmers market and the river bike path. It is quieter than Silver Lake next door and popular with families and remote workers.
Securing a home here: Older detached homes with side yards and detached garages. Put a real keyed lock on the side gate, a deadbolt on the garage pedestrian door and a Grade 1 deadbolt with a reinforced strike on every exterior door. Many homes still have original mortise locks; they are worth keeping and can be rekeyed rather than replaced. If you buy a duplex and rent one side, key the units separately so a tenant change means one rekey. See our residential locksmith page for options.
Living there: Hillside streets, the lake, Dodger Stadium fireworks in summer and Sunset Boulevard’s bars and restaurants. Echo Park mixes 1900s Victorians and Craftsman homes with small apartment buildings and new construction. Central, a quick drive to Downtown and Hollywood, and one of the few LA neighborhoods where people actually walk to dinner.
Securing a home here: Street parking is tight, so car break-ins are the crime you will most likely see; keep nothing visible in the car and never a spare house key in the glove box. Hillside homes with stairs from the street often have a rear or lower door out of sight of neighbors: that door needs the same deadbolt and strike as the front. For apartments, a keypad deadbolt solves roommate and subletter key turnover without a rekey each time.
Living there: A narrow strip between the 5 freeway and the LA River, Frogtown was warehouses and small bungalows for decades. It now has the river path, a handful of breweries and cafes, small design studios and new townhomes going in among the original houses. It is still one of the more affordable central neighborhoods to buy in.
Securing a home here: The mix of live-work buildings and homes means a lot of roll-up doors, commercial hardware and alley access. Roll-up doors need shrouded padlocks on hardened hasps, not hardware store locks. Converted warehouse units should have a Grade 1 deadbolt added to the pedestrian door and a latch guard against prying. New townhomes come with builder Grade 3 hardware; upgrading the deadbolt and strike on move-in is a quick job quoted upfront. Our commercial locksmith team handles the live-work hardware.
Living there: Its own city with its own police and schools, Culver City has a walkable downtown around the Culver Hotel, the Expo Line to Santa Monica and Downtown, the studios, and quiet residential streets of 1940s and 1950s homes. Consistently one of the safest parts of the Westside, with a housing mix of single family homes, condos and newer apartments near the Metro stop.
Securing a home here: Postwar houses often have an attached garage with a hollow side door and an aluminum sliding patio door: both need attention. Put a deadbolt on the door from the garage into the house, a lock on the garage side door, and a pin or auxiliary bolt on the slider. Culver City condos near the Expo Line have shared garages; keep the fob out of the car. Lockouts here are common in the downtown parking structures; our automotive locksmith team covers them around the clock.
Whichever neighborhood you pick, the previous owner, their agent, cleaners, contractors and the stager have all held keys. Most Los Angeles burglaries in good neighborhoods involve no forced entry at all. On the day you get keys:
For renters, ask the landlord in writing whether the unit was rekeyed since the last tenant. Working deadbolts are required by Civil Code 1941.3, rekeying is standard practice, and it is a two minute question that most people never ask.
Locksmith Liberty is a licensed mobile locksmith company based in Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles, CA, serving central and west Los Angeles including Mid-Wilshire, Koreatown, Hollywood, Beverly Grove, Miracle Mile, West Hollywood, Culver City and Santa Monica. Technicians respond 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for home, apartment and car lockouts, rekeying, lock installation and repair, car key replacement and programming, and commercial locks and access control. Every job is priced upfront before work begins. Call Locksmith Liberty any time at (213) 314-1971. Call us when:
Call (213) 314-1971 or use the contact page. From Mid-Wilshire we dispatch fast to Beverly Hills, Culver City and Echo Park. Coverage pages: Mid-Wilshire and Hollywood. If safety is your first filter, see our companion guide to the safest neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
It depends on commute and budget. Culver City and Atwater Village balance walkability, safety and price for most households; Echo Park and Frogtown suit renters who want central access; Beverly Hills and Bel-Air are the top of the market. Check LAPD Crime Mapping for the exact block before you commit.
Rekey or replace every exterior lock on day one, reset every keypad, gate and garage code, and reinforce the strike plates. A move-in rekey in Los Angeles is priced by the number of cylinders, so a condo costs less than a house, and it is done in a single visit.
Usually yes with the landlord’s written consent and a copy of the new key for them, and many leases spell this out. California Civil Code 1941.3 requires the landlord to provide working deadbolts, and rekeying between tenants is standard practice, so ask whether it was done before you move your furniture in.
For households with housekeepers, dog walkers, roommates or short term guests, yes. A keypad deadbolt from Schlage, Yale or Kwikset is a mid-range install and lets you give each person a code you can delete. Choose one with a mechanical key backup and Grade 1 or 2 rating.
From our Mid-Wilshire office, Beverly Hills, Culver City and Echo Park are our closest calls, with Atwater Village, Frogtown and Chinatown close behind, depending on traffic. We run 24 hours and can schedule a move-in rekey for the hour the movers leave.
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