I'm feeling better already. In an excellent post that I feel settles this issue forever, the Militant Angeleno explains the Eastside/Westside issue once and for all.
3. THEREFORE, west of the Los Angeles River is NOT "The Westside" nor is east of La Cienega Blvd "The Eastside." There is no dividing line between the two. You cannot be on the Westside and throw crap across the street to the "Eastside." You cannot be on the Eastside and hock a loogie across the street to the Westside. You cannot jump between Westside and Eastside in a precisely-located game of hopscotch. Stop thinking binary here.
Read the whole thing here.
For me the reason this whole thing is so funny (and if you live in Los Angeles you'll understand this, I think) is that those of us that live in Hollywood are never sure where we fall into the descriptions of the city. When I look at the weather map in the LA Times, for example, they have temperatures for Burbank, Downtown and UCLA. Because LA has so many micro-climates, I'm confident my weather is different than Burbank, but we're not nearly as far west as UCLA. So I end up going with downtown. I really am only 4 miles from downtown, but in LA that seems so far.
There is, of course, the distinct social differences between "East LA" and "the Westside". To suggest that there is a center that is neither East nor West is, well...messing with the well established social strata of this city. So, now I can be aloof not just in my Hollywood address but in my "neither East nor West but rather Center of the City" status.
Anyway, just a little Los Angeles geography humor to start the day.
So would that then make you an Angelino Centrino? It's funny - the excerpt from Militant Angelino reminds me of a part in Robin Hood: Men In Tights, where Dave Chapelle is trying to convince Robin not to bother fighting Little John to cross the bridge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_tqLVNcIS8
(Starts at 1 min 49 second)
Posted by: Kat | March 28, 2008 at 01:53 PM