Eastside dividing line questions (Los Angeles, Vista: transplants, neighborhoods, live)

[Laocoön]

1. Are Los Feliz, Echo Park, Silver Lake (or is it Silverlake and the Carefully Disheveled Hipsters not know how to spell their own neighborhood in Losangeles?), considered to be on the Eastside, or are they Eastside-lite? Many hipsters I know who live there claim that they're Eastsiders. Seems pseudo-Eastside to me.

2. And, where are the dividing lines between Eastside, Westside, and Central L.A.? Is Central L.A. its own thing, and is it a commonly-used regional descriptive, or do its neighborhoods ultimately take East or West "sides" or have sides applied to them? Is it West, Central, or East or merely either West or East? I have picked up on the connotation of "West" in L.A. parlance to be suggestive of materialism, the stuffy and traditional, the stale, boring, and conventional, cookie-cutter, corporate, lifeless, and square, while "East" suggests indie, iconoclasm, the unconventional, and hip. Seems to me that the former, “West,” is hurled polemically, and as such that it was the Eastsiders who first created these delineations and perpetuate them. ... Last, West L.A. denotes Santa Monica and its surrounding areas out near the coast, and East L.A. is basically all the barrios east of the L.A. River. That is a different thing altogether, no?

[disgruntled la native]

This is a complicated question, and there is not necessarily any right or wrong answer.

I would consider Silverlake, Los Feliz, and Echo Park as Central LA.

Some say the Westside stretches only as far east as the 405, others would put borders like Century City, Beverly Hills, or even La Cienega or La Brea.

I think the Westside culture stretches from the beach to end of Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills is a very Westside area, as much as Brentwood or North Santa Monica, so to put the line at the 405 or Century City seems wrong. "Westside" cities not in city of LA are Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and some would say Culver City. The Westside culture goes as far south as Playa del rey or Mar Vista, and as far north as Malibu or Sherman Oaks/Encino

Once you get into WeHo/Whatever the hell that area is by the Beverly Center is called, the Westside culture ends.

Central LA can include the area by the Grove, Hollywood, Koreatown, Downtown, Silverlake, Los Feliz, Studio City, Hancock Park. I would consider the city of West Hollywood to also be part of Central LA and its culture.

The culture of Central LA is pretty hip, diverse, youth oriented, and a lot of transplants, and all the above areas except Hancock Park share that. Weho too.

Then East LA is East LA, as well as the communities that may not be in the city of LA but can be part of the East LA culture (i.e. Monterey Park, Alhambra).

[Senshi]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

Some say the Westside stretches only as far east as the 405, others would put borders like Century City, Beverly Hills, or even La Cienega or La Brea.

The official Los Angeles tourist map actually puts everything west of HIGHLAND as the Westside! Maybe so the Red line can say it goes through the westside?

But yeah, the boundaries change depending on who you talk too. Heck even the boundaries of Hollywood are in dispute. The state of California considers Loz Feliz to be part of Hollywood when no one else here does.

[Fontucky]

East of the river = East Ellay

[ladoll]

I think it's kind of funny that you mock hipsters for possibly not knowing how to spell Silver Lake when you can't spell Los Angeles.

Also, it is spelled Silver Lake, so it appears the hipsters are right as far as spelling goes.

[JohnG72]

Originally Posted by Laocoön

1. Are Los Feliz, Echo Park, Silver Lake (or is it Silverlake and the Carefully Disheveled Hipsters not know how to spell their own neighborhood in Losangeles?), considered to be on the Eastside, or are they Eastside-lite? Many hipsters I know who live there claim that they're Eastsiders. Seems pseudo-Eastside to me.

2. And, where are the dividing lines between Eastside, Westside, and Central L.A.? Is Central L.A. its own thing, and is it a commonly-used regional descriptive, or do its neighborhoods ultimately take East or West "sides" or have sides applied to them? Is it West, Central, or East or merely either West or East? I have picked up on the connotation of "West" in L.A. parlance to be suggestive of materialism, the stuffy and traditional, the stale, boring, and conventional, cookie-cutter, corporate, lifeless, and square, while "East" suggests indie, iconoclasm, the unconventional, and hip. Seems to me that the former, “West,” is hurled polemically, and as such that it was the Eastsiders who first created these delineations and perpetuate them. ... Last, West L.A. denotes Santa Monica and its surrounding areas out near the coast, and East L.A. is basically all the barrios east of the L.A. River. That is a different thing altogether, no?

Shennanigans.

[David in the City]

Originally Posted by ladoll

I think it's kind of funny that you mock hipsters for possibly not knowing how to spell Silver Lake when you can't spell Los Angeles.

Also, it is spelled Silver Lake, so it appears the hipsters are right as far as spelling goes.

I'm pretty sure the OP spelled "Losangeles" that way on purpose as a joke playing off the "Silverlake."

Anyway, the Eastside (and this has been debated and the majority agree) starts east of the LA River. Silver Lake, Echo Park, etc are North Central LA.

[Jay100]

East side = east of the river.

I think the Silverlake hipsters are just being antagonistic toward their West side counterparts.

[Mike121]

Yet another vote for eastside as east of the river.

[David in the City]

Originally Posted by Jay100

East side = east of the river.

I think the Silverlake hipsters are just being antagonistic toward their West side counterparts.

I couldn't have said it any better. You hit the nail on the head.