One of Them’s “Historic South-Central Los Angeles”
by Nathan Walpow
Now, this is just wacky. The Times has put up a map which purports to show the boundaries of 87 Los Angeles neighborhoods. Said boundaries might not be important to you (they’re not to me; I live in Culver City), but to some they’re worth griping over. Property values, that sort of thing. You don’t want to live in Winnetka when you know you’re in Woodland Hills. (Not that I’ve ever known why anyone would want to live in Woodland Hills.) And is it Mar Vista or Palms; is the 405 truly the dividing line? And how about Del Rey (also known as Del-Rey-no-not-Marina-del-Rey), where my first house in L.A. was? What’s up with that? Do the folks there need more complications when they’re already served by the Culver City post office?
On top of all that, in yet another example of the overdemocratization of America precipitated by the ubiquitousness of the World Wide Web (by the way, that was the most pretentious clause I’ve ever written), you can go to your (or anybody’s) neighborhood’s page and produce your own version of what its boundaries should be. Annex your neighbors! Shrink your hood to make it more exclusive! Redraw it so it looks like your favorite constellation!
Here’s the story from yesterday’s paper. And here’s the launch page for Mapping L.A. Neighborhoods, which is the Times’s clever name for the whole undertaking.
I don’t know why I’m feeling so negative about this. Seems like a good enough idea. Maybe it’s just that I’ve just put up with one too many citizens whining about what other people choose to call where they live.
Comments
No comments.
