Does Los Angeles Have Any Actual "Suburbs"? (San Diego: live in, design)

[Joycee26]

Burbank is a nice area with beautiful suburban pockets. It is it's own city with it's own police department. It is still in the county of Los Angeles.

[puffle]

I think you have the best description of L.A. Just one big suburb. The downtown area is not what you would typically call a city, like Boston or N.Y.C. which is why a car is necessary if you live in So.Ca. ( I meant what laysafair described as Los Angeles)

[LASam]

Originally Posted by puffle

I think you have the best description of L.A. Just one big suburb. The downtown area is not what you would typically call a city, like Boston or N.Y.C. which is why a car is necessary if you live in So.Ca. ( I meant what laysafair described as Los Angeles)

One big suburb is nonsense. The definition of suburb per Random House is as follows:

"a district lying immediately outside a city or town, esp. a smaller residential community."

How does it make sense to say that the whole of LA is a district lying immediately outside a city or town? You guys throw the word suburb around without knowing the very definition of the word.

I would say the suburbs of LA would be areas like Antelope Valley, Calabasas, South Pasadena.

[puffle]

I don't have a Random House handy right now to refer to so maybe you can tell me exactly where the "city" is in Los Angeles?

[katenik]

City of Los Angeles Map - Larger View

this is the city of LA. everything pictured in white is within the city limits. the areas in grey are unincorporated areas, or separate municipalities. that west hollywood and beverly hills are not colored grey appears to be a mistake in the drawing of the map.

we tend to think of some of the bedroom communities in the valley as "suburban," but they are within the city limits, and are not true suburbs. LA developed in such a way that it often defies application of the traditional labels used by urban planners. i find it useful to think of it as a city that, geographically speaking, ate its young. large chunks of what was in now LA were inner-ring suburbs that opted to be annexed by the city of LA at some point in their histories. this is why we have cities like beverly hills and culver city that are completely surrounded by LA. they chose to retain their municipal sovereignty while their neighbors hitched their wagons to LA, which continued to expand around them.

[puffle]

When I think of actual cities, I think of San Francisco or Boston...such as "going to the city". The only time you can really say that is when you say Culver City or Century City,for instance. When do people that live in the Valley or Hollywood say, I'm going to the city"? The only reason most people go to downtown L.A. which is the closest thing Los Angeles has to a city, is to go see the Phil, Music Center, or some form of entertainment but not to hang out or walk around, like you can in the other "cities" I mentioned. I live in the suburbs of Boston and when we go to Boston we call it the city in all the correct meaning of a city. Let me add that I lived in the Valley for 48 years. Whew!

[katenik]

i would never say that i'm going "to the city," meaning downtown LA. i would say that i'm going "downtown." if i'm asked where i live by someone outside of metro LA, i say "LA." if i'm closer to home, i state the specific part of the city where i reside. i think most people in LA would answer the way that i do, but these conventions vary from place to place.

philadelphians call their downtown core "center city," and that label is used by suburbanites and city-dwellers alike to indicate that they are going downtown. the northeastern part of that city is cut off from the rest, and feels "surburban" in the same way that parts of the valley do to us, but it is just as much a part of the city of philadelphia as tarzana is a part of LA.

upstate new yorkers say they're going to "new york" (no city) to mean manhattan. to me, it sounds as odd as if someone sitting next to me right now were to say, "oh, i'm going to california next weekend." however, if you hang around a while, you find yourself following the local custom.

in the college town where i went to school, we called san francisco "the city" although san jose was closer. a trip to san jose was going "over the hill."

i have other examples, but i think you get the idea. none of these local variations of how places are called should lead one to conclude that LA isn't really a city, or that downtown is the only part of the city worthy of the label.

[katenik]

this thread reminds me of the time i drove down to LA from the central coast with a friend who was visiting from new york for the first time. when we reached the "CITY OF LOS ANGELES Population [X] million" sign on the 101 on the north side of the valley, she started to put on her shoes, in anticipation of getting out of the car shortly. when i told her that we would be driving for another hour before reaching our destination, she looked at me quizzically and said, "i thought you said she lived in LA." when i confirmed that the person we were going to see did, in fact, live in LA, she shook her head in amazement and exclaimed, "DAMN, this place is huge."

it is, indeed!

[matt345]

Originally Posted by katenik

i have other examples, but i think you get the idea. none of these local variations of how places are called should lead one to conclude that LA isn't really a city, or that downtown is the only part of the city worthy of the label.

LA is definitely a city. To me, suburbs are places like Santa Clarita, Thousand Oaks, and Porter Ranch. I don't know too many suburbs that have the vibrant street life you'll find in Santa Monica, Venice, Los Feliz, Hollywood, Koreatown, or West Hollywood. It's just not a traditional city and many people have a hard time grasping that concept.

[Texasturkey]

Originally Posted by katenik

i would never say that i'm going "to the city," meaning downtown LA. i would say that i'm going "downtown." if i'm asked where i live by someone outside of metro LA, i say "LA." if i'm closer to home, i state the specific part of the city where i reside. i think most people in LA would answer the way that i do, but these conventions vary from place to place.

philadelphians call their downtown core "center city," and that label is used by suburbanites and city-dwellers alike to indicate that they are going downtown. the northeastern part of that city is cut off from the rest, and feels "surburban" in the same way that parts of the valley do to us, but it is just as much a part of the city of philadelphia as tarzana is a part of LA.

upstate new yorkers say they're going to "new york" (no city) to mean manhattan. to me, it sounds as odd as if someone sitting next to me right now were to say, "oh, i'm going to california next weekend." however, if you hang around a while, you find yourself following the local custom.

in the college town where i went to school, we called san francisco "the city" although san jose was closer. a trip to san jose was going "over the hill."

i have other examples, but i think you get the idea. none of these local variations of how places are called should lead one to conclude that LA isn't really a city, or that downtown is the only part of the city worthy of the label.

Can someone help me out here? Los Angeles is a city. So what are suburbs? Are Whittier, Santa Fe Springs, La Mirada, Downey, Pico Rivera, Montebello, Lakewood, Bellflower and Norwalk suburbs? Most of them have populations of 50,000 to 8,000 people. They are on the outskirts of LA, so are they suburbs or just additional cites? Which is it?