Comment by Aloha | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Aloha | Hacker News Reader

The Subtitle "There’s history around every curve on the back roads between Los Angeles and Los Olivos, a 100-mile route that meanders through mountains, canyons and star-studded enclaves." bothers me.

First thing the author started in Calabasas, which is on the edge of Los Angeles County and a significant distance from the City of Los Angeles.

Second, this region in particular - between say, Malibu and San Luis Obispo is notable for its general lack of freeways. There are two in that general vicinity the 118 (east/west) and the 101 (north/south). The reasons for that are complex, but largely because they only started to develop only after Los Angeles was done with its freeway building craze - and freeways are not politically popular - particularly in that region, which is either agriculture or wealthy enough to want no change to the area. Freeways still bring development.

That all said, when I have the time, I always take the two lane highway, just to see what there is to be seen - America is so much prettier and more diverse than the gas stations and food places near the freeway exit, go out and explore, there is a whole world - often in your back yard, that you didn't even know was there.

> First thing the author started in Calabasas, which is on the edge of Los Angeles County and a significant distance from the City of Los Angeles.

This is wrong. The city of Los Angeles is right up next to Calabassas. Most of the San Fernando Valley is actually the city of Los Angeles, regardless of what people put on their postal address.

For example, Woodland Hills is part of the city of Los Angeles.

As a former LA resident: Yup.

We might put down more specific towns and cities for our street address, but geopolitically the whole damn region is Los Angeles.

I have the opposite experience - now sure, maybe to your cousin from Cedar Rapids.

If I'm taking to another Californian, I'm not gonna tell them Los Angeles, I'll tell them Long Beach, if I'm talking to a Southern Californian, then that becomes Los Alamitos.

You’re basically just saying to locals what part of LA you’re from, but everybody knows LA is basically considered the whole county of LA (and yes, Calabasas is also part of LA County). I’ve lived in Calabasas and I always considered myself to be living in LA.

Are you sure you're an LA native?

Los Alamitos is not in Long Beach. It's not even in the same county. It's in Orange County, and most locals would say they are from Anaheim, aka the home of the world-famous Disneyland.

Especially when you were growing up, Los Alamitos locals would not have said they were from Long Beach, since Long Beach had a huge crime problem back then nobody would have voluntarily associated themselves with that cesspool.

Yes?

From the front door of the apartment we lived in, I could see buildings in the City of Long Beach whereas Disneyland was 9.5 miles east. Most nights I could hear the airplane testing at the blast wall McDonnell Douglas - very rarely if the wind was just right I could just barely hear fireworks from Disneyland.

Technically to people, I didn't say "in Long Beach" I said "near Long Beach" when I explained where I grew up, but thats a quibble that would not be otherwise heard by most people.

It's ironic you mention crime, because it always confounded me, East Long Beach and North Long Beach (where the crime was) were different enough that they might as well have been different planets.

Also, in my opinion, Los Alamitos/Seal Beach are culturally more affixed to Long Beach (we shared an area code) than the rest of Orange County.

I mean San Pedro is also part of the city of Los Angeles. LA is basically an hour away from LA.

“Everything in LA is either twenty minutes or two hours away” as the saying goes.

I moved to Atlanta pre-pandemic and I’m still amazed that some people won’t drive 15 minutes to come visit me. I live “outside the Perimeter” (we have a ring freeway) and culturally it’s as if I live in Lancaster and they’re coming from Downtown LA. Acquaintances originally from New York and Miami have noted the same thing and we all get a huge laugh out of it.

I didn't say from the edge of Los Angeles, but from Los Angeles.

As a native when someone tells me they live in Los Angeles, that means Los Angeles, no one from San Pedro or The Valley would tell you Los Angeles.

I grew up near Long Beach, but I live in Fort Worth now, when I first moved to Fort Worth, I settled in the furthest east portion of the city near DFW airport, so I'd tell folks I lived in Euless or Irving, even though I had a Fort Worth address, because if I told them Fort Worth they think, something west of 820.

This seems opposite of the Detroit area where anyone in the Metro Detroit/Tri-County area (over 200 municipalities) will say they are from Detroit.

Maybe because every person worldwide who watched a couple of movies or series knows at least one LA neighborhood by name and zero for Detroit ;)

Where would you tell someone from Michigan where you're from?

As someone who grew up in North Hollywood and lived there for 30 years, I’m not really sure how you came to your conclusion. You might tell another local you’re from Pacoima, but someone from Ohio doesn’t know what or where that is. You’d tell people in general you’re from Los Angeles. I certainly do.

Within the sprawl it’s important to share the neighborhood, lest you keep someone guessing on which of the 43 miles of Sepulveda Blvd you’re referring to.

Even Disneyland, which is very solidly in Orange County, is “in Los Angeles” to non locals. This gravitational pull lead to the silly renaming of the Angles baseball team to “Los Angeles Angeles of Anaheim.” This is roughly as silly as moving the Mets to New Jersey and naming them, “The New York Mets of Hoboken.”

A lot of Los Angeles’ neighborhoods are exactly that. The names come and go with whatever planning mechanisms exist. North Hollywood was formerly “Lankershim” after the founding company and before that “Toluca.” Functionally “North Hollywood” was a marketing campaign for the area due to the rise of the completely non-bordering Hollywood. At most these neighborhoods get to form councils to promote the area. They have little authority and autonomy outside of helping grow a farmers market here and a cultural event there.

This is a definitely learned response. Growing up in northern Palm Beach County, we never described ourselves as being from Miami. It was far away! And expensive! ¡Y solo podemos hablar un poco de español! But after traveling here and there for work and giving long explanations of where I was from — "oh, [town]? Where's that?" "It's about an hour and a half north of Miami" — I just gave up. I'm from Miami. I had no choice in the matter.

And when I went to Italy, I was from Miami. "Oh, I've been there. It's very nice."

I think most people in most places scale their responses based on to whom they're speaking. I grew up about in the greater metro area of a large northeastern city. Now I live across the river from said city, technically a different city but still part of its urban core.

In both cases when describing where I live to a local I use the actual location. When talking to someone further away I default to the city name. If they then express some reason why they may know the area a bit I zoom in to my location.

> As someone who grew up in North Hollywood and lived there for 30 years, I’m not really sure how you came to your conclusion. You might tell another local you’re from Pacoima, but someone from Ohio doesn’t know what or where that is. You’d tell people in general you’re from Los Angeles. I certainly do.

Yeah, but to people within southern California, we would expect you to say you are from The Valley.

As a native when someone tells me they live in Los Angeles, that means Los Angeles, no one from San Pedro or The Valley would tell you Los Angeles.

As a native of Los Angeles, when someone tells me Los Angeles, that means they live somewhere south of Ventura and north of San Diego. I've had other SoCal natives tell me LA when they actually live in Pasadena, or Long Beach, or Irvine, or Chino Hills, or Rancho Cucamonga, or a plethora of other cities that aren't even in LA County. LA natives don't usually start with their neighborhood unless it's contextually appropriate to the conversation, such as when talking to another LA native/local who would actually understand the geographic reference. Outside of a few well-known neighborhoods like Hollywood, non-Angelenos wouldn't know what you're talking about if you said "San Pedro" or "Boyle Heights."

On a pedantic note, "the Valley" usually refers to San Fernando Valley if you're in LA County, but is also used to refer to Santa Clarita Valley by locals there, and to San Gabriel Valley if you're east of LA in Pasadena, San Bernardino County, or Orange County. In Ventura County, "the Valley" means Simi Valley.In Riverside County, "the Valley" refers to Jurupa Valley and Moreno Valley depending on which side of the county you're in. Using "the Valley" to refer exclusively to San Fernando is a Hollywood thing and signifies that the speaker is either from San Fernando Valley (which is usually already apparent from their accent) or isn't an LA native and doesn't know any better.

As an Orange County native who spent some years living in Los Angeles, people from Long Beach, Irvine, Chino Hills, or Rancho Cucamonga saying they are from "LA" is ridiculous and shouldn't be tolerated or encouraged lol

Thank You - and I'll go on from what you said here - it was unheard of!

Having grown up in Los Alamitos, where I tell people I grew up depends on where they're from, I'll break down the rules -

From outside the US: Southern California or "LA Area"

From the US but not the California: "LA Area" or Southern California

California: "Near Long Beach" or North Orange County

Southern California and Adjacent: North Orange County or Los Alamitos

Orange County: Los Alamitos

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