What´s LA?

[dennismpat]

When I've traveled to other areas of the country, I would say I'm from Southern California in a suburban area of Los Angeles.

When I moved to Sacramento back in 1990, I got blank stares from the locals when I told them I was from Lakewood in Southern California. In that case, I'd ask if they knew where Los Angeles was, and almost every time, the light would go on. When I expanded that a little further and asked if they knew where Long Beach was, most of the time, they'd respond in the affirmative. That's when I would say that Lakewood is a city next door to Long Beach, and show them on a map, if available.

On the flip side of the coin, prior to moving up there, I didn't know where Antioch, Vacaville, Fairfield, Manteca, Tracy, Chico or Redding were!

[gfunkclydefrog]

OC is not LA or even LAC. OC is Orange County and LA is Los Angeles Coounty. they are 2 different counties which means they are 2 different places.

[miracle]

Metro Los Angeles is more than Greater Los Angeles and includes Ventura, OC, Riverside and SB counties, its called Southland, different to Southern California that includes San Diego and Santa Barbara.

Of course if we are living here we say im from Glendale, bel air, Van nuys, Hermosa, Riverside, garden grove, pomona, or oxnard, but outside at least in my personal case always say Im from Los Angeles area, or from a place close to Los Angeles, maybe cos even if I lived 30 miles away I always drive everyday to the city of Los Angeles and work there, the core of my daily life always was Los Angeles when I lived in Los Feliz or when I lived in Yorba Linda.

[Keithns]

Originally Posted by miracle

Do you think living in OC is living in Los Angeles? and in Riverside or San Bernardino? Ventura? even Santa Clarita or most eastern cities in LAC?

If you are from Irvine, Riverside or Oxnard, you call yourself when you are abroad as a citizen from Los Angeles? or you say you are a southern californian?

And if you are from Pomona, Diamond Bard, or even Santa Clarita or Agoura Hills every of them along Los Angeles County? Do you think you are "angelino"?

And even from Santa Monica, Pasadena, Burbank, Beverly Hills, Inglewood...?

I try to catch the feeling of southern californian as part of a worldwide major city or as citizens of a sprawl with no city core belonging to a region not to a city? How do you feel about this issue?

"LA" is the area, not only a city. Its much too diverse in many things to define. "LA" could be defined as several counties from afar. Its a melting pot of all kinds of people, classes, and languages.
I've lived here most of the time since 1948. I lived in other places, colder and warmer, dryer and more humid ('nam), and I can't imagine moving completely anywhere else. But of course, a native knows exactly where around L.A. one can be comfortable.