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April 25, 2008
Valley Gets New 747 Area Code, Not a Big Deal
Photo by digablesoul via Flickr
What is a slight inconvenience and change of habit to most people is freaking others out. Official as of yesterday, the Valley is getting a new area code, 747, that will overlay the proud 818 (come on, 747 is much cooler than the 310 overlay, 424).
"I think it's too much. It's crazy," a Van Nuys resident told the Daily News. "I think people would feel much better if they didn't have to dial all those numbers."
While the decision is needed because of population growth combined with the wide use of electronic devices, some are trying to spin this as a "stop development" issue. "All these huge apartments and condominiums swamping the Valley - this is the reason that they're doing this," the president of Homeowners of Encino said (of course, it's always the HOAs with their conspiracy theories about those apartments and condos). "My view is they should never have to be at this point, because development should've been controlled, rather than running rampant."
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"...the president of Homeowners of Encino said..."
Please don't judge all homeowner groups and residents' associations by the ravings of Gerald Silver.
He's a one-man-band career NIMBY who formed "Homeowners of Encino" (locally referred to as "THE Homeowner of Encino") after he was kicked off the board of the existing Encino Property Owners Association back in the '80s.
He's constantly quoted in reportage about development issues because he's a reliable source of bombastic, over-the-top pronouncements about "Manhattan-ization" and the like.
He's the very epitome of self-centered NIMBYism.
He has long been a thorn in the side of developers and neighborhood activists alike.
If what you want is a ridiculous quote that makes opponents of over-development sound like irrational, raving lunatics, he's your go-to guy.
There are hundreds of more thoughtful, reasonable voices among those who are trying to accommodate well-planned, sensible development that will enhance rather than degrade neighborhoods, but they just don't make for the sort of juicy pull-quotes that Silver's unrelenting NIMBYism provides.
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Thanks for the background info MapNerd!
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I thought the need for new phone numbers was because of fax machines, cell phones, computers [not that most people use dial-up anymore, but...] and other technologies, not a population boom.
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"population growth combined with the wide use of electronic devices"
For every new household, it can bring more than one number. For example, if a couple moves to the SFV and they get a land line, two cell phones and an office fax. Now multiply those types of scenarios.
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they couldn't think of anything clever like 424 so they just stole some numbers from the first thing they saw...
i kid.