What suburbs/cities really is LOS ANGELES? (Glendale, Pasadena: neighborhoods, live in)

[NJ-201]

Hey!

I'm very confused what's really Los Angeles.

It LA only Downtown Los Angeles? Or does people from ex. Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Malibu, Glendale etc. still say they live in Los Angeles, or do they say California???!!!! Does LA have any suburbs???

[EscapeCalifornia]

Depends on your perspective. The city of Los Angeles stretches from the port in San Pedro into the San Fernando Valley. The cities you listed are incorporated cities within LA County and have their own city councils and laws. Being 50 miles away in OC, I consider the whole thing "LA" even though it's not all legally LA. From your perspective, I live in LA too because it's all one big urbanized zone. Of course LA has suburbs but the traditional urban/surburban layout that many cities in the US have doesn't really apply in LA.

[Charles]

Couple of helpful threads:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/los-a...ny-actual.html

https://www.city-data.com/forum/los-a...hborhoods.html

[wburg]

The city of Los Angeles covers about 400 square miles; there are many smaller neighborhoods within that area. So no, it's not just downtown. Like a lot of western cities, Los Angeles started out as a much smaller city but annexed nearby neighborhoods and early suburbs over the years.

Many people will say "I'm from L.A." if they live within 100 miles because most people not from the region won't recognize most of the little suburbs around Los Angeles, but everyone knows where L.A. is, even if they don't.

[NJ-201]

Originally Posted by wburg

The city of Los Angeles covers about 400 square miles; there are many smaller neighborhoods within that area. So no, it's not just downtown. Like a lot of western cities, Los Angeles started out as a much smaller city but annexed nearby neighborhoods and early suburbs over the years.

Many people will say "I'm from L.A." if they live within 100 miles because most people not from the region won't recognize most of the little suburbs around Los Angeles, but everyone knows where L.A. is, even if they don't.

So bisacally people who live in Los Angeles County say "I'm from/live in LA" even if they live in Glendora, or Santa Monica for example?

[the one]

LA is huge. i would consider the heart of LA to be downtown, and a 10 mile radius.

everything else is LA adjacent. but big enough places like Long beach or Bev hills and the valley have their own identities.

if you told someone, im from lawndale, or bell, they would not know. so you just gotta sometimes say LA.

but orance county and antelope valley isnt really LA> its the southland. southern cali.

[missionhome]

OK. There is technical Los Angeles: Everything under the governement and within the city limits of the City of Los Angeles. Everything on the map below that is colored in is part of the city of Los Angeles. The colors represent the different neighborhoods that are part of the city of Los Angeles. Neighborhoods like San Pedro, Venice, Westwood, Eagle Rock, Los Feliz, Fairfax, Koreatown, Chinatown, Downtown, etc.... are all neighborhoods just like the Upper Eastside, Morningside Heights, Midtown, Chinatown, Greenwich Village, Harlem, Staten Island, etc... are neighborhoods of New York City.
http://losangelesvendingmachineservices.com/images/map_los_angeles.jpg (broken link)


Then there are separate cities in Los Angeles County, but many are near central areas of the city of of Los Angeles. Imagine if the Upper Eastside in NYC was its own separate city from NYC. This is sort of like Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills is its own city government, but it still flows and fits into the fabric of the city of LA itself and is hence often considered just a part of L.A.

[Charles]

The map above has me stumped. There is a little notch on the west side of West Hills - isn't in the City of LA. I confirmed the shape on Yahoo Maps. It is between Vanowen and Kittridge and west of Valley Circle, yet it isn't in the City of Los Angeles. I am pretty familiar with that area; I used to play at Knapp Park there in the early 1970s. Wonder why it isn't LA???

http://maps.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTEx...om=17&q1=91304

[King0fthehill]

They just are.

BH, SM, CC, Inglewood, Glendale, Pasadena, etc are all intrinsically woven into the fabric of LA.

[wburg]

Annexation is not an automatic process. In some cases, neighborhoods or previously existing cities did not wish to be annexed, or the city didn't want to annex them for some reason, so they remain independent political entities even if they are completely enveloped by the expanding city.