# Explain Los Angeles geography **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 8, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212 "2012-02-08T17:37:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/21 "2012-02-08T20:19:29Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > This is what baffles me about L.A. and why I cannot move there (by the way, Los Angeles is “L.A.,” Louisiana is “LA,” sez Missy Copy Editor). > > “Los Angeles” is actually a dozen or so towns, all of which hate each other, and you cannot get from one to the other without rage-and-terror-inducing driving. Whenever I visit, I try to get my dozen or so friends together for dinner, and I hear, “Oh, I’m in Westwood, I can’t possibly get out to West L.A.!” or, “I’m in Studio City, I can’t possibly get out to Glendale!” > > (Of course, there is every possibility that my friends are just trying to avoid having dinner with me, too) If those are really the excuses your friends are giving you, I’d suspect the latter possibility, seeing as how Westwood and West L.A. Border each other. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/22 "2012-02-08T20:22:32Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > OK, so where amid these hills and valleys does a “Ravine” fit in? Specifically, Chavez Ravine, which I’ve only ever heard of in the context of Dodger Stadium? The history of Chavez Ravine is…[interesting and sad](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chavez_Ravine). It doesn’t really exist anymore other than as Dodger Stadium, but is worth reading up on if you want to get mad at the terrible things the city has done to the people of Los Angeles in the past. You might also hear about the [Los Angeles Basin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Basin) which covers \*both \*more than L.A. proper and less than L.A. proper so it’s sort of its own thing. > [@Pyper](#): > > If those are really the excuses your friends are giving you, I’d suspect the latter possibility, seeing as how Westwood and West L.A. Border each other. 😛 Glendale and Studio City are only 10 minutes apart on the 134 too. Now Westwood to Glendale is a trip I wouldn’t make if I didn’t love someone. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/23 "2012-02-08T20:24:02Z")
And here’s a look at [Los Angeles Geology](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqscanv/FaultMaps/Los_Angeles.html)! ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/24 "2012-02-08T20:26:00Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Here’s a map showing the neighborhoods within the city of Los Angeles. . . > > Other terms not specifically shown on this map… Some of the “gaps” in that maps are separate cities, but some are simply unincorporated areas. For example, the gap between Brentwood and Westwood, is no city at all, and has a military/Veteran’s facilities and cemetery, along with the Westside Federal building. Others, like the area called Lennox just east of LAX, is simply a place with no city. It has regular neighborhoods and businesses, etc., but never became a city. 😕 They might have become part of Inglewood or Los Angeles – whether that was their decision or the decision of those other cities, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/25 "2012-02-08T20:26:53Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > **The Inland Empire** – Far away over the mountains to the west. Huge amounts of suburban sprawl out into the desert. Uh, unless you’re upside down, that would be “to the east,” not west. West is a whole bunch of water. Really good description of L.A., tho! ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/26 "2012-02-08T20:28:15Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > And here’s a look at [Los Angeles Geology](http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqscanv/FaultMaps/Los_Angeles.html)! That’s a map I was looking for earlier. I can’t fault you for finding it. > [@NAF1138](#): > > Glendale and Studio City are only 10 minutes apart on the 134 too. Now Westwood to Glendale is a trip I wouldn’t make if I didn’t love someone. That would be a different story if the proposed [Beverly Hills-Glendale Freeway](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Route_2) had ever been built. Did you know that was on the original freeway map plans, then deleted after many NIMBY protests? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/27 "2012-02-08T20:38:35Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > If those are really the excuses your friends are giving you, I’d suspect the latter possibility, seeing as how Westwood and West L.A. Border each other. 😛 Well, I \*was \*just picking names out of a hat–the town names, not my friends’, I mean. I am way too old and dim to learn L.A. geography and where to move and how to drive again at this point. Though I am told there is a “bitter old Jew district.” ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/28 "2012-02-08T20:45:58Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > The history of Chavez Ravine is…[interesting and sad](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chavez_Ravine). Next to (the former) Chavez Ravine, but still existent, and probably one of the more interesting parts of the city, is [Frogtown](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysian_Valley,_Los_Angeles), (officially called “Elysian Valley”), which was isolated and kind of frozen in time by the construction of Interstate 5, leaving it few streets of egress other than the numerous ways to get onto or off of freeways. (It’s called 'Frogtown" for a simple reason: frogs.) One time I picked up a girl in Silverlake, who didn’t say a word to me except for an address in Frogtown. When we got there, there was a big party and barbecue going on in front of a house. She only said, “Wait,” got out, pulled off an engagement ring, **threw it at some guy** cooking carne asada on the grill, got in the cab again, and just said, “Take me back.” ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/29 "2012-02-08T20:52:20Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Did you know that was on the original freeway map plans, then deleted after many NIMBY protests? Yes, primarily from the city of Beverly Hills. The most interesting part of that history was that Beverly Hills insisted that the freeway go _under_ their city: [QUOTE=Wikipedia] At one time, the department considered building a cut-and-cover tunnel under Beverly Hills, but even this proved a non-starter, and the freeway plan west of Route 101 was quietly cancelled in 1975. [/quote] ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/30 "2012-02-08T20:56:33Z")
[QUOTE=Greg Charles] As Dick Deadeye observed, “'Tis a queer world.” [/QUOTE] That would be West Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/31 "2012-02-08T21:02:11Z")
There’s a neat exhibit at the California Science Center called the “L.A. Zone”. The floor is one huge aerial photo of the area. Just last week I walked all over downtown. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/32 "2012-02-08T21:03:30Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Though I am told there is a “bitter old Jew district.” [The Fairfax District.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfax_district) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/33 "2012-02-08T21:06:39Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Yes, primarily from the city of Beverly Hills. The most interesting part of that history was that Beverly Hills insisted that the freeway go _under_ their city: Yep, I tried to put that quote in my post, but missed the edit window! I don’t have a handy link, but there is a map – once displayed in a mural at the LA City Hall – that showed the proposed, complete, 20-year freeway plan. It was supposed to be completed ca. 1980, and was designed to handle the proposed traffic at that time. It had an East-West freeway every 4 miles and a North-South freeway every 4 miles, except where geography presented an insurmountable obstacle. The idea was that you would never be more than 2 miles from a long-distance route on-ramp in any direction. (If your journey was less than 2 miles, you were supposed to use non-freeway surface streets.) One by one, the routes on the master plan were deleted as NIMBY protests took effect. The first to go were the “intermediate” routes, leaving 8 miles between freeways instead of 4. After a few more were trimmed, the result is today’s freeway map. Gone are the Tujunga, Mid-Valley, Beverly Hills, Laurel Canyon Freeways. AFAIK, no new major routes have been built in the last 25 years and none are presently proposed. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/34 "2012-02-08T21:06:53Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > [The Fairfax District.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfax_district) Yes, though many of them are not really so much bitter as they are simply Russian. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/35 "2012-02-08T21:10:15Z")
A helpful link: [Mapping LA](http://projects.latimes.com/mapping-la/neighborhoods/) ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/36 "2012-02-08T21:22:38Z")
In the interest of generalizing neighborhoods: Los Feliz & Silverlake: Here there be hipsters. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/37 "2012-02-08T21:56:05Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Uh, unless you’re upside down, that would be “to the east,” not west. West is a whole bunch of water. > > Really good description of L.A., tho! Whoops. Yeah, I meant “east”. I was typing fast because I needed to leave for lunch … . ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/38 "2012-02-08T22:16:26Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > “Los Angeles” is actually a dozen or so towns, all of which hate each other, and you cannot get from one to the other without rage-and-terror-inducing driving. Whenever I visit, I try to get my dozen or so friends together for dinner, and I hear, “Oh, I’m in Westwood, I can’t possibly get out to West L.A.!” or, “I’m in Studio City, I can’t possibly get out to Glendale!” It’s not that the different towns HATE each other, it’s just that the traffic is often so bad that it requires a major effort to leave your neighborhood. For example, its about 12 miles from my house to downtown. And there’s a major freeway (the 10) that runs almost straight there. Theoretically it should be about a 20 minute trip. However, the only time I could actually drive that route in 20 minutes would probably be at 3 in the morning. When my wife and I had tickets to the opera, we used to allow a minimum of an hour and a half to get from our house to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. And sometimes even that was cutting it a bit close. When you’re looking at a 3-hour round trip drive (a lot of it spent in bumper to bumper traffic) your destination better be someplace you REALLY want to be. On the upside, however, a lot of the older neighborhoods have evolved to be very walkable, self-contained little communities. Unless it’s for something really special like opera, I don’t really need to leave my little pocket of Westwood. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/39 "2012-02-08T22:22:52Z")
It is hard to believe that when I was a kid I used to watch a TV Show called **The Real McCoys** about some farmers in the San Fernando Valley. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212/40 "2012-02-08T22:39:22Z")
> [@Antinor01](#): > > That would be West Hollywood. We were driving through West Hollywood years ago and my wife was explaining to our kids about why so many men were holding hands, as well as why so many of the signs had funny letters. (In addition to being heavily gay, West Hollywood has a large Russian emigre population.) Then my son spotted a guy walking down the sidewalk with a parrot on his shoulder. Henceforth, in our family, West Hollywood has been known as **“The Gay Russian Pirate District”**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-los-angeles-geography/612212.md?page=3)