OK, this question has been bugging me for a while. The City of Los Angeles is broken down into communities more or less (i.e. Van Nuys, Hollywood, Chatsworth, etc.). The population of these communities are figured into the population of L.A. (the actual population of Los Angeles proper is relatively small I believe) Even if you send a piece of mail, you address it as the community name (although if you say L.A. instead of Van Nuys it will still get there I think). My question is, Why is it done like this? My experience with other cities (Atlanta, Chicago, Milwaukee among others) have community names, but they aren’t as “official” as L.A’s. In Chicago you can say the North Side, Belmont Park, but these are more unofficial names for different areas.
I know what you are asking… Being from the “Other West Side- Tampa” I cannot be sure.
But I think some of it has to do with the fact that all those towns are in Los Angeles County. So someone saying they are officially in LA, they are telling the truth. But they mean the county, not the city.
Also, I think they just want to rack up a large ‘official’ population so they can compete with New York for bragging rights…
:::waiting for LA dopers to show up with real answer:::
Why are L.A.‘s suburbs more distinct than other major cities’ suburbs?
If that’s your question, I don’t have a clue. I didn’t even know it was an issue until I read this. I actually live in Huntinton Beach, which is in Orange County (but still right next to L.A. county) and when people on the Internet ask me where I’m from, I just reply L.A. I do it because most people who don’t live here don’t know where Huntington Beach is. When I say L.A., everything clicks.
And about the mail thing, the mail sorters pay no attention to the city, but rather, the zip code (speaking from experience).
Hollywood, Van Nuys etc ARE actually part of LA. They are NOT seperate communities. Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, while surrounded by LA ARE seperate communities.
At one time they were seperate cities but they were annexed by LA. This may explain the post office thing. Note you address mail to Bronx or Brooklyn not NYC, even though they are part of NYC.
I think the key is they were well established cities in their own right BEFORE they were annexed. Places in Chicago like Hyde Park, Jefferson Park, Hegweisch (sp?) were cities but were not well know in their own righ till AFTER Chicago annexed them.
I was born in Glendale, which is an actual city. (My dad was a postman, and he knew all the technicalities.) Glendale is a suburb of LA, and I usually tell people that I am a native Angeleno. But I really am a native Glendalian. (If there is such a thing!) To be even more confusing, I lived in the La Crescenta part of Glendale. La Crescenta (which is North of the main part of Glendale, off of 210 freeway, for those of you who know the area) has a specific zip code, 91214. Most people who live in that area say they live in La Crescenta. But my dad, the ever anal-retentive postal worker, knew that the Post Office considered La Crescenta (and zip code 91214) as part of Glendale. And in fact, if you drive on the 210 right by where we used to live, there is a sign that says “Entering the City of Glendale”. How’s that for confusing? Oh, and I also was in the Glendale Unified School District.
I then moved to Sunland-Tujunga. Now, that is confusing. A hypenated city! It is also called “Shadow Hills”, or just “Sunland”. But it’s part of Los Angeles. There is also a sign in the Sunland area (I think either near the 210, or the 5) that says that you are in Los Angeles. You can address mail to Sunland, Sunland-Tujunga, Shadow Hills, and I guess L.A., and the mail would get there. But I don’t remember ever having anything addressed to L.A.
Marxxx, I think you answered it for me. My wife is from Sylmar, and I vaguely recall hearing the word annex. It does make sense now that I think of it.
I never knew Chicago annexed these “communities”. Ah well.
yosemitebabe, yeah I know all about the actual suburbs. Heh, my wife’s parents have one of those Thompson maps that I studied forever when I went to visit out there.
I do the same thing, living in Alexandria, VA. (Actually, next to it in Fairfax County.) I say I’m from DC, just to gel it in people’s minds. You say Virginia to people and they get a picture of Walton’s Mountain or something rural like that.
Northern Virginia – the area near DC mostly affected by it – is as dissimilar to the rest of the state as you can be. Those that grew up here don’t have southern accents. Big Tobacco’s influence is barely felt, economy-wise.
Even though it has pretty much been answered, I thought I should put my nickel in.
Much like NY (Manhattan, Queens, Harlem…), Los Angeles is broken down into various communities: Downtown, Westwood, Westlake, Watts, Palms and my personal favorite Harbour Gateway (The thin strip that runs down the 110 FWY so that Los Angeles proper can be connected to the L.A. Harbour.) and a few more. These are properly (postally?) addressed as Los Angeles.
There are a number of independently incorporated cities around LA which, because of the close proximity, are considered suburbs. These are postally addressed as the incorporated City.
Generally you talk about “The Los Angeles Area” or “The Greater Los Angeles Area” to talk about LA and it’s suburbs, sometimes including Orange County. When people from far away ask me, I say I am from the Los Angeles Area, though I work in Torrance, about 15 miles South East of Downtown and live in Downey, about 10 miles East and a little South of Downtown.
Because Los Angeles is so big and diverse, there is talk of the Los Angeles part of the San Fernando Valley seceeding and becoming a separately incorporated city.
The City of Los Angeles, if you get enough residents to sign a petition, will stick up a sign, draw a relatively arbitrary line and declare your community “Sealand” if the councilman agrees.
While there are signs that indicate that they are “official”, they have absolutely no legal significance. It matters to Realtors mainly. The community of Sepulveda, which has a big gang problem, had a section “break off” and started calling itself “North Hills”. The remaining “part” of Sepulveda got pissed after a few years and it was able to persuade the City Council to start calling it “North Hills” as well.
As for mail delivery, most of the community names were first recognized by the Post Office. The older parts of the San Fernando Valley had Post Offices before they became part of the city of Los Angeles. Most of the San Fernando Valley was annexed into the city of Los Angeles AFTER the construction of the LA Aqueduct back in 1913.
Since everybody had gotten in the habit of sending letters to “Van Nuys” or “Granada Hills”, the practice continued and still does to this day.
It is helpful somewhat since the city of Los Angeles is so big.
No, no, no. Harlem (like Greenwich Village, Turtle Bay, Murray Hill, Washington Heights) is a community within Manhattan; Queens is a separate borough.
If you mail a letter to any community within Manhattan, you address it “New York, New York.”
Brooklyn is also a separate borough of New York City, made up of various communities including Sheepshead Bay, Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Bensonhurst, etc.
If you mail a letter to any community within Brooklyn, you address it “Brooklyn, New York.”
The borough of Queens is made up of various communities including Long Island City, Middle Village, Kensington, Woodside, Astoria, Corona, Kew Gardens, etc.
If you mail a letter to, say, the community of Astoria within the borough and county of Queens within the city of New York and the state of New York, you address it “Astoria, New York.”
What makes it confusing is that context is everything. Political boundaries, geographic boundaries, and postal boundaries rarely coincide. The Post Office identifies districts or areas as being covered by a post office (as in yosemite babe’s response regarding La Crescenta and Glendale) without regard for political boundaries, tending to rely more strictly on ZIP codes.
Then you have the Angelenos that feel it very important that you know they live in Hollywood, for example, and not Los Angeles. Hollywood is a community, but is not an independent city, and in fact is part of the city of Los Angeles. There is a certain perceived prestige to being able to boast a Hollywood address, though, (which is really just the ZIP code for the Hollywood Post Office), as opposed to being just a Los Angeles address. This snotty phenomenon can clearly be demonstrated by looking at residential rental rates in and around Hollywood. Apartments and rental houses with a Hollywood ZIP code rent for a premium compared to those just outside the ZIP code.
A Thomas Brothers map book shows in fairly clear detail (in color) what communities are separate cities, what are unincorporated areas of LA County, and what comprises Los Angeles proper.
Sorry about the ignorance of NYC, my M-I-L, a NY native, would not be happy. 8^)
I had also forgotten about the annexation of the Valley.
You cannot live long in the Los Angeles without a Thomas Bros. Map! It caused quite a stir a few years ago when they renumbered the pages. People were disoriented and confused for a while. (Even more than normal for LA!)
I do not have my Thomas Bros. with me since I rode my bike today, but aren’t there two Hollywood’s? Isn’t Hollywood proper a part of Los Angeles, while West Hollywood is its own incorporated city?
Residing in the area of Los Angeles known as Hollywood isn’t all that prestigious unless you live in the foothills above Hollywood.
The area which can be described as “Hollywood” is an interesting, but sometimes seedy area depending upon where you are.
If you want to see rents really go up, get a place in the (in)famous 90210 ZIP code, which includes most of Beverly Hills, but also some sections of Los Angeles.
I’m told that the details of this whole Los Angeles/incorporated suburb/unincorporated LA County thing are quite sordid, politically. I’m sure somebody can correct me if I’m wrong:
Back in the early part of the 1900’s, the city of Los Angeles was considerably smaller (geographically) than it is today, and much of what is now a part of LA was incorporated as a number of smaller communities. Somehow, LA got a chokehold on the local water supply, and “offered” to give these small suburban communities access to it if they allowed themselves to be annexed. Most felt that they had no choice but to agree.
To add my own $0.02 to what a number of folks have correctly stated: there are a lot of community names in LA County, and without consulting a map it can be very difficult to tell which of three categories each one falls into:
1 - Incorporated city, with own government, police force, city council. e.g., Pasadena, Burbank, Santa Monica and West Hollywood.
2 - Unincorporated community. NOT a true city, and NOT a part of the city of Los Angeles, either. Strictly speaking, Los Angeles County is the most local governing authority. I believe, however, that many/most such communities have contracts with neighboring cities’ police, fire, etc. for their services. The only one that comes instantly to mind is Altadena, but I know there are many others.
3 - Named (to some degree of formality) region within the city of Los Angeles. They are, in every way, a part of Los Angeles, voting in its elections and being served by its police, fire, and such. Most (but not all) of the San Fernando Valley falls into this category (Woodland Hills, Sherman Oaks), as well as Hollywood and some other places.
From what I’ve managed to observe, mail sent to category (3) places can be addressed either to “Los Angeles” or to “Hollywood”, for example. As long as the ZIP code is right, the Postal Service will have no trouble getting it there, even though “Los Angeles” is more formally correct (I think).
For ZIP Codes 90001-90101, you can address it as “Los Angeles” and USPS will be quite happy.
There are some neighborhoods that USPS doesn’t want you to use, in particular “Westwood” and “Brentwood” (communities in West Los Angeles). Both of those communities are also the names of cities in Northern California. If you’re mailing something to those places, you should use “Los Angeles”.
Most other parts of Los Angeles, you can use the name of the community unless it is very small or infrequently used.
For example, don’t address mail to “Hermon”, “Garvanza”, or “Larchmont Village.”
