Is this just a gang thing or individual thing? (Los Angeles: gated, living in)

[CelticViking]

Some people call "the east side" anything really east of central---all the way to watts...you hear some(especially bangers) really term whittier/southgate/norwalk...etc...south east la...some people say east la is only over the river...is it just an individual thing? I think i asked this once, but wanted to bring it up again...

[LuckyGem]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Los_Angeles_(region)

[CelticViking]

You hear some people even calling watts "the east side"

thanks for the link

[LuckyGem]

Originally Posted by CelticViking

You hear some people even calling watts "the east side"

thanks for the link

I have never heard Watts being referred to as "the east side" ever.

It's in the South.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Los_Angeles

Watts, Los Angeles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[CelticViking]

Well it is definately referred to the east side by some...

Especially in the black community.

[CaliDude1]

Think of the 110 freeway as a divider. People from South LA will refer to everything east of the 110 as the east side and everything west of the 110 the west side. It is not a gang thing. It more a local thing from those living in the portion of Los Angeles that is south of the 10 freeway.

My guess is that it was originated by blacks going back to the '50s and '60s. At one point South-Central Los Angeles was the only part of LA blacks were allowed to live in. So for people who had spent their entire lives in that one portion of the city the furthest east most had been was Watts. Conversely, the furtherest West many went was the Crenshaw District. Those areas represented the east side and the west side. The terms have just stuck over time.

[DewDropInn]

Originally Posted by CaliDude1

At one point South-Central Los Angeles was the only part of LA blacks were allowed to live in.

Where the heck did you learn that?

[sjnative]

^
I thought that was common knowledge. I'm not a native Angelean and even I know that LA was unofficially segregated, as was the SF Bay Area.

[Twinkle Toes]

Is this just a gang thing or individual thing?


Aint nuthin' but a G thang!

[CaliDude1]

Originally Posted by DewDropInn

Where the heck did you learn that?

I learned it from my family members. After returning from WWII my grandfather moved his wife, kids and extended family from Louisiana to Los Angeles. I have heard many "wondeful" stories of what it was like for them when they first got here in the late 1940s.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/c.../timeline.html

This link explains some of the restrictive practices I referred to in the earlier post.