 Following the Second World War, the Pico-Union area, like many inner city neighborhoods, experienced an outflux of residents to the suburbs.The loss of residents and business led to high vacancy rates and lower property values in much of the neighborhood by the 1960s.In the late 1970s and 1980s, the area became a major point of entry for Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants seeking refuge from civil war, according to the "Pico Union Self-Guided Walking Tour," published in 2009 by the Los Angeles Conservancy.