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As proven by public outcry, the naming of a neighborhood and what borders define those communities is as controversial, if not more, than the latest city hall scandal. And perhaps city hall over the years is partly at fault: they are the ones who put up those blue signs telling you what neighborhood you're in, but ask them for documents and maps supporting those signs and you'll get a whole lot of nothing.
The issue of defining a neighborhood's border has come up again after the LA Times erroneously reported the neighborhood where part of an apartment building collapsed last week. What the conversation among blogs brought out was that LA Times' California editor David Lauter is working on a map that will soon publish and will be a living document with the public's participation--a very exciting prospect, indeed.
Additionally, there has been a Google map out there for a couple years done by the infamous LA City Nerd, whose popular blog went private and we rarely heard from again.
The anonymous Nerd said over instant message that this was a slow project that will be done over time. We sat on IM as the Nerd defined the borders of Del Rey and Playa Vista and it does take a good deal of time (over an hour each). The Nerd combs through city council files and historical planning documents posted online, which are all hard to find on the city's terrible website. Nevertheless, it's interesting to see what has been done so far.
With the work of the LA Times combined with the Nerd and the community, it's about time LA will have a real map.
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I miss LA City Nerd. I was hugely into photographing those neighborhood signs for him (or her; I have no idea really). The nerd's about the only one I'd trust to get such a difficult task done right. The L.A. Times? Exciting maybe, but if they nail it I'll eat my "City Nerd For Mayor" bumper sticker. I get the sense the Times is going to hustle something out there probably before the next round of layoffs and then leave it for the public to argue about and forget about. Long live The Nerd!
I miss the Nerd, too.
I also can't believe that this has come to be this huge undertaking being worked from in reverse, rather than a City-originated as-it-happens kind of a project. It's bass ackwards, methinks.
BUT...I will be thrilled and delighted the day SOMEONE assembles a full, comprehensive, publicly accessible map that clearly shows all the neighborhood boundaries. (And then the Councilmembers won't have any excuse for not knowing their districts' neighborhoods!)
i don't mean to be annoying...but can people stop calling silver lake the "eastside"? East LA is boyle heights and anything EAST of downtown LA. that's the real "eastside" of Los Angeles. :)
That's why I put "eastside" in quotes today. I didn't really want to get into it:)
I'm so glad you wrote "Silver Lake" rather than "Silverlake." That's another pet peeve of mine, along with people calling Silver Lake/Echo Park the "Eastside."
You don't mean to be annoying, but what can you do? It's been more than 15 days since we argued about the location of Eastside vs. Westside on LAist!
That sure looks similar to the Maps Councilman Bernard C. Parks has on his website?
Judge for your self.
http://www.bernardparks.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=32
Wow, I haven't been to Benard's website in a while. This looking much better, thanks RailBird!
UGH! Finally. I'd really like to know where it is that I live. I have a hard enough time trying to describe it to others. My block could be in Hollywood, Franklin Village, Little Armenia, Los Feliz, Thai Town or really, all of the above. I'm afraid my place is in an identity crisis.
Same with my friend's apartment/my old apartment. It's between Larchmont and Koreatown, but too far south to be Hollywood (or Melrose Hill) and outside the Wilshire Park or Hancock Park boundaries.
At least I live on the city line of WeHo, so I know exactly where I live!
Then there's the whole Lake Balboa vs Western Van Nuys thing. The city has been hanging up Lake Balboa signs, but then I read last week that the Lake Balboa Neighborhood designation doesn't really exist, and that the actual Lake Balboa body-of-water is in Encino. So where do I live? When I put my address into the USPS zip+4 site they regularize it to Van Nuys.
Ed, zip codes are merely a system to help the postal service more efficiently serve you. The default city or neighborhood name attached to a zip doesn't mean that you live within said city or neighborhood, but rather you are served by that main post office.
For example, there are sections of the famous 90210 zip code below Mulholland in Sherman Oaks and in Studio City. It's a zip that shares two cities and various LA neighborhoods. The USPS has developed a system where names attached to zips can be "acceptable." So while you can't say "I live in Van Nuys, 90210," you can say you live in Sherman Oaks, 90210 and your mail will get delivered.
I hope that made some sense.
At least I definitively know I live in West L.A. Pretty simple to figure out, really. Or maybe Sawtelle? But I don't live adjacent to Sawtelle Blvd.
err...
I'm curious. Aren't a neighborhood's boundaries defined by the neiborhood council district? And who establishes those?
Mapmaking like this is probably a thankless job.
CityNerd was fun; I sense he's closer than we think!
It's where Britney Spears lived for a while, hence the confusion as to whether her house was in Studio City or Beverly Hills.
To the city of LA, it's Studio City, but to the USPS, it's Beverly Hills, 90210.
Actually, you'll probably get your mail no matter what city name you use, as long as the ZIP code's correct, since the USPS sorts down to ZIP level before it does any verifying of the city name.And your chances would be about the same whether you used "Sherman Oaks 90210" or "Van Nuys, 90210", since the only USPS "Acceptable Address" for all of 90210 - even the parts in the city of LA - is "Beverly Hills".
That's also why local realtors use the designation "BHPO", meaning "Beverly Hills Post Office" - it's not just a status thing, like "Beverly Hills-adjacent", they're telling you that, even though the house is actually in LA, the mailing address will be "Beverly Hills, 90210."
I have a neighbor in Studio City who amuses himself by using the USPS-acceptable "North Hollywood" when he gives his address to family back in Kansas, but always uses "Studio City" when he gives his address to locals, since it's a much tonier address than North Hollywood.
I used to do the same when I lived in Hollywood. I would say my address was "Hollywood, CA 90028." Shorter than Los Angeles, too.
MayorSam: Close and yet so far away...
LACN
Awesome! Glad Nerd is up to the challenge.
I wonder why he/she hasn't worked on the (real) Eastside yet? The neighborhoods are so old (and everyone around here knows the boundaries by heart and history), it seems it would be an easier job.