LA areas - are they suburbs or neighborhoods? (Los Angeles, San Diego: city hall, school district)

[PinkLadyK]

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how LA is split into different areas. In Houston, there are many suburban neighborhoods, but they are 15-30 miles from downtown. So if you live there, you might commute to town for work, but that's it. You're either an "inner-looper" or you're not, and people who live in the loop (downtown) rarely go outside of it. Just like how people who live in the suburbs rarely travel inside the loop, unless it's for work.

In LA, it almost seems like everything is considered it's own city - Manhattan Beach, Santa Monica, El Segundo, Torrance, Hermosa Beach, etc - but they are still much closer into town than the suburbs of Houston. So if you live in any of those neighborhoods, do you still consider yourself living in LA? Do you go to dinner within your little area only? Or are you close enough to the "city" that you feel as though you're just living in a neighborhood of LA?

I'm not sure that I'm making sense. This might be easier understood by someone from Texas . . .

[NaplesRes]

Originally Posted by PinkLadyK

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how LA is split into different areas. In Houston, there are many suburban neighborhoods, but they are 15-30 miles from downtown. So if you live there, you might commute to town for work, but that's it. You're either an "inner-looper" or you're not, and people who live in the loop (downtown) rarely go outside of it. Just like how people who live in the suburbs rarely travel inside the loop, unless it's for work.

In LA, it almost seems like everything is considered it's own city - Manhattan Beach, Santa Monica, El Segundo, Torrance, Hermosa Beach, etc - but they are still much closer into town than the suburbs of Houston. So if you live in any of those neighborhoods, do you still consider yourself living in LA? Do you go to dinner within your little area only? Or are you close enough to the "city" that you feel as though you're just living in a neighborhood of LA?

I'm not sure that I'm making sense. This might be easier understood by someone from Texas . . .

It's all LA suburbs including OC and IE. There are cities that are technically their own but everything generally falls within the sphere of LA's influence. Examples include the LA Angels, the local news stations, and cross city/county commuting for jobs.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by PinkLadyK

do you still consider yourself living in LA?

Do you go to dinner within your little area only?

Or are you close enough to the "city" that you feel as though you're just living in a neighborhood of LA?

It depends. If you are speaking to another Los Angeles County resident, then you probably won't say you live in LA. If you are speaking to a new yorker or Swede, then you would probably say you live in LA.

Sometimes the traffic situation is so bad, it's not worth traveling out of your own neighborhood to eat. But yes, people move out of their neighborhoods for certain thing.

Again it depends. Most people in those individual cities probably rooted for the Dodgers, even though they don't live in LA. However, they probably pay their bills to the City of 'whatever" and not the City of LA.

[uptown_urbanist]

I think in LA it's possible to have both a sense of having your own neighborhood or city identity, while still considering oneself part of the greater LA area. LA itself is huge and contains many different neighborhoods; many of these areas don't necessarily have much in common, and city limits in themselves are highly artificial. There really isn't any central "town" in the more traditional core city, inner city, city, inner suburbs, outer suburbs, etc. model that you find in many cities. That said, it drives me crazy when some people use the lack of one main central core to suggest that LA is "one big suburb." It's certainly not that, either.

I lived in Hollywood for a time; Hollywood is technically part of LA, but it also (to me, anyway) felt like its own city. West Hollywood, by the way, is officially its own city. West Hollywood and Hollywood each feel different and have their own sense of place, but it's not because one is within LA city limits and the other is not. I later lived in South Pasadena; South Pasadena was its own city and felt like its own city, but if anything it is more of a "suburb" of Pasadena than of LA. Pasadena itself feels very much like its own city, complete with an amazing city hall and a core business district, yet is a "suburb" of LA in the sense that LA still anchors the larger metro area.

I'm not a California native, and maybe others have drastically different opinions, but I think in many neighborhoods (whether "official" cities, or just large communities within LA city borders, or an unincorporated area within county borders) people have both a sense of local identity as well as feel part of the greater LA area, but don't necessarily identify "LA" as being synonymous with specific formal city limits.

[osuzana]

Just to confuse matters worse, you have the city of L.A. and you also have L.A. County. I understand about inner loop and outer loop from visiting D.C. D.C. being the city and everything else being the burbs or town of like Fairfax County,Va.

[uptown_urbanist]

Good point about the loop; there is nothing comparable in LA, and borders don't necessarily fall along natural borders, either (valleys or mountains, etc.).

I don't think of the Inland Empire or Orange County as LA, although I realize that they do fall within larger LA spheres of influence.

[drshang]

I agree with uptown_urbanist on this subject. It's not a black/white type issue, but here's kind of how I'd describe it.

Once you reach a certain point away from DTLA people stop really considering LA city as part of their identity and daily life. They might tell their friends from Boston they live in LA, but they really don't go to LA much or associate it much with their day to day life. People will often say stuff like, "I hate LA" as a method of dissociating themselves from the city. Here is a diagram of how I'd describe it. Anything with the circle I'd consider to be "the city" in a lot of ways.

I will admit to now being that knowledgeable about the SFV so there may be some disagreements there. But considering that a lot of that area is part of LA city limits, it's hard to say it doesn't belong.

[LABornandRaised]

Originally Posted by Charles

It depends. If you are speaking to another Los Angeles County resident, then you probably won't say you live in LA. If you are speaking to a new yorker or Swede, then you would probably say you live in LA.

Sometimes the traffic situation is so bad, it's not worth traveling out of your own neighborhood to eat. But yes, people move out of their neighborhoods for certain thing.

Again it depends. Most people in those individual cities probably rooted for the Dodgers, even though they don't live in LA. However, they probably pay their bills to the City of 'whatever" and not the City of LA.

Yep, when I'm in Los Angeles, I'll say I live in NoHo, but if I'm in Iowa for example, I'll say I'm from LA. A funny thing happened to me when I was in the Philippines on business last year. I was getting my hair cut and the hair dresser asked me where I was from. I said Los Angeles, CA. He said, "Oh really? Where in Los Angeles? It's such a big city." I figured maybe he knew Universal Studios, so I said, I live just north of Universal Studios. He then says, oh you live in North Hollywood?

[the one]

ya, most models for naming regions dont necessarily apply to LA or LA county. urban, suburban, exurban. inner, outer, loopy. they just dont fit.
WHY?
because as LA grew up, so did other cities around it.
when i talk about "LA" i refer to the city proper (excluding the valley), but particularly the downtown area, which is where most of urban life was concentrated.

LA, at the turn of the century (not this one, the last one), was a small not very inhabitted place. at the same time there were other incorporated cities like santa monica(1886), compton(1888), redondo beach (1892), long beach (1897), whittier (1898)huntington park(1906), glendale (1906), hermosa beach (1907), burbank (1911), monterey park (1916), culver city (1917) that were also experiencing growth. there was the big city and the smaller cities, which might have been considered suburbs or rail hubsat one point in time.

in LA you had all these satelites. what happened was that they all grew INTO eachother. and all became what is known as LA. (altho someone from alhambra, when speaking to someone from pasadena will not say they are from LA).

its tricky, but all these places basically grew up together.

you can consider LA as the big brother, LB the big sister and then all these other smaller siblings. some are close to LA(downtown). others are a bit further out. some share the same school district while others have their own.

some are incorporated cities in LA county, some are unincorporated parts of LA county. and then of course you have all the districts and sections of LA proper.

i could see how it gets confusing.

[osuzana]

Question for those of you from SoCal....when you are out of state and tell people you are from SoCal, do they automatically think San Diego? Always happens to me.