Defining LA's 8 major regions (Los Angeles, Long Beach: neighborhoods, live in, vs)

[MrIndependent]

I'm on a mini personal project. In order to conceptually understand a metro area, I need to be able to understand what are its functional regions and which key neighborhoods belong where.

Can any locals help me understand what LA's regions are? I'm excluding IE and OC from this.

Examples of what I mean by regions:

NYC: Brooklyn, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Staten Island, "New Jersey" (Hoboken + Jersey City),
Washington DC: NW, SW, NE, SE, Northern Virginia, Montgomery County, PG County

Here's the list for LA that I've put together so far. Need help refining:

Beach Cities: Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey
Westside: Bel Air, Brentwood, Westwood, Culver City, Century City, Sawtelle, Palms, Mar Vista
South Bay: Manhattan Beach, Torrance, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Long Beach
South Central: Inglewood, Compton, Watts
Central LA: Ktown, Miracle Mile
Greater Downtown: Downtown, Chinatown, Echo Park,
Greater Hollywood: WeHO, BH, Hollywood, E. Hollywood, Los Feliz, Silverlake, Atwater
The Valley: Pasadena to Calabasas

[ryanms3030]

Santa Clarita Valley, Antelope Valley, San Gabrielle Valley and might as well include parts of Ventura County since a lot of people live in Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley but work in LA County

[Taiko]

And I would place Pasadena and maybe as far as Glendale with the San Gabriel Valley. Most folks think of "The Valley" as being the San Fernando Valley

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by MrIndependent

Can any locals help me understand what LA's regions are?

It depends on how one defines regions. And, as the other poster mentioned, "The Valley" is the San Fernando Valley, not the San Gabriel Valley (the latter of which would include Pasadena but not Calabasas).

Mapping L.A. - Los Angeles Times

[DKM]

We are only part of the combined SA, not the metropolitan area, that includes the IE and OC. So if IE and OC are out, leave Thousand Oaks out.

[2Easy]

South central should include Crenshaw and South central Los Angeles. Many people lump Compton in I guess. Inglewood is technically South Bay although most see demographics and put it with South LA.

MacArthur Park should be in greater downtown. Not sure why you left out places like East LA, Boyle Heights, the whole east side really. This is a weird list. Very white centric.

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by 2Easy

South central should include Crenshaw and South central Los Angeles. Many people lump Compton in I guess. Inglewood is technically South Bay although most see demographics and put it with South LA.

MacArthur Park should be in greater downtown. Not sure why you left out places like East LA, Boyle Heights, the whole east side really. This is a weird list. Very white centric.

Because it's written by someone who doesn't live here and probably never been here

[JohnG72]

Originally Posted by MrIndependent

Can any locals help me understand what LA's regions are? I'm excluding IE and OC from this.

Mistake #1

Originally Posted by MrIndependent

Examples of what I mean by regions:

NYC: Brooklyn, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Staten Island, "New Jersey" (Hoboken + Jersey City),
Washington DC: NW, SW, NE, SE, Northern Virginia, Montgomery County, PG County

See mistake #1. The reason you are making this mistake is due to size, not population. LA metro is waaaay more spread out than NY

Originally Posted by MrIndependent

Here's the list for LA that I've put together so far. Need help refining:

Beach Cities: Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Playa Del Rey

Thats not the Beach cities. Not sure what its called as SM, Venice, MDR, PDR are part of the westside. Malibu is Malibu.

Originally Posted by MrIndependent

South Bay: Manhattan Beach, Torrance, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Long Beach

The beach cities are part of south bay and you got that right. Add in Palos Verdes, Lawndale, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Gardena, Lomita, Harbor City, San Pedro, and Carson and take away Long Beach and now you have the South Bay(though I think many of the snobbier South Bay residents may be distressed at my including Inglewood, Lawndale, Hawthorne etc)

Originally Posted by MrIndependent

South Central: Inglewood, Compton, Watts

Watts yes. The rest no.

Originally Posted by MrIndependent

Central LA: Ktown, Miracle Mile

Not really

Originally Posted by MrIndependent

Greater Downtown: Downtown, Chinatown, Echo Park,

This probably would distress most Echo Park residents.

Originally Posted by MrIndependent

Greater Hollywood: WeHO, BH, Hollywood, E. Hollywood, Los Feliz, Silverlake, Atwater

Again no.

Originally Posted by MrIndependent

The Valley: Pasadena to Calabasas

Sigh. Pasadena is hell and gone from the SF Valley by about 10 miles. Pasadena is part of the San Gabriel Valley which stretches from the general western border of Pasadena down to about northern Montebello and then east out to Diamond Bar and north to Glendora/San Dimas.

So if you really want a breakdown...and literally no one in LA does this so its pretty useless, it would probably be like this:

1.) Desert - Palmdale/Lancaster
2.) Conejo Valley - Simi Valley/Thousand Oaks etc
3.)Santa Clarita Valley - SC/Valencia
4.) San Fernando Valley - Burbank to West Hills
5.) City of Los Angeles - Hollywood, Downtown, South LA, Northeast LA(inc Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Glendale, etc)
6.) South Bay - As stated above
7.)Long Beach - Probably includes Bellflower, Paramount, Signal Hill, Cerritos and Lakewood
8.)Downey, Whittier, Norwalk, La Mirada, South Gate, Huntington Park, Cudahy, Maywood, Bell, Bell Gardens, Pico Rivera, Montebello, etc - I don't even know what you call all these cities
9.)SGV - San Gabriel Valley
10.)OC- Orange County
11.) IE - Pomona out to San Bernadino/Riverside
12.) High desert(Apple Valley, Victorville, etc)

[saybanana]

Gateway Cities - name for all those cities between LA city and Orange County.
Here is a map.
Gateway COG: Who We Are

[Texamichiforniasota]

Originally Posted by JohnG72

Mistake #1



See mistake #1. The reason you are making this mistake is due to size, not population. LA metro is waaaay more spread out than NY



Thats not the Beach cities. Not sure what its called as SM, Venice, MDR, PDR are part of the westside. Malibu is Malibu.




The beach cities are part of south bay and you got that right. Add in Palos Verdes, Lawndale, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Gardena, Lomita, Harbor City, San Pedro, and Carson and take away Long Beach and now you have the South Bay(though I think many of the snobbier South Bay residents may be distressed at my including Inglewood, Lawndale, Hawthorne etc)


Watts yes. The rest no.



Not really



This probably would distress most Echo Park residents.



Again no.




Sigh. Pasadena is hell and gone from the SF Valley by about 10 miles. Pasadena is part of the San Gabriel Valley which stretches from the general western border of Pasadena down to about northern Montebello and then east out to Diamond Bar and north to Glendora/San Dimas.

So if you really want a breakdown...and literally no one in LA does this so its pretty useless, it would probably be like this:

1.) Desert - Palmdale/Lancaster
2.) Conejo Valley - Simi Valley/Thousand Oaks etc
3.)Santa Clarita Valley - SC/Valencia
4.) San Fernando Valley - Burbank to West Hills
5.) City of Los Angeles - Hollywood, Downtown, South LA, Northeast LA(inc Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Glendale, etc)
6.) South Bay - As stated above
7.)Long Beach - Probably includes Bellflower, Paramount, Signal Hill, Cerritos and Lakewood
8.)Downey, Whittier, Norwalk, La Mirada, South Gate, Huntington Park, Cudahy, Maywood, Bell, Bell Gardens, Pico Rivera, Montebello, etc - I don't even know what you call all these cities
9.)SGV - San Gabriel Valley
10.)OC- Orange County
11.) IE - Pomona out to San Bernadino/Riverside
12.) High desert(Apple Valley, Victorville, etc)

Your list is way better than the OP's, but still a little flawed, especially the City of LA category (Glendale under city of LA?) Most people would break up your city of LA category and surrounding independent cities to:
Westside: North of the 10, West of La Cienega.
South LA: South of the 10 inside city limits, except:
Harbor: Harbor City, San Pedro, Wilmington
The Valley: agree with your description of the SFV, although I'd put Glendale in here too (it is 818 after all)
Central LA (Some people call this the Eastside, but I prefer Central LA as a more specific area): North of the 10, East of La Cienega to the River.
Westchester would fall under the South Bay.
East and NE LA: Anything in city limits East of the River, and the unincorporated county area of East LA.

I realize a lot of people split the last region between NE and East, but with the exception of Eagle Rock, the main diffrence between these areas is if they are still very poor and almost completely Hispanic (East LA) vs gentrifying and more diverse (but still majority Hispanic) in NE LA.