Residents fight to keep their 'Beverly Hills, 90210' address

Beverly Hills Councilman John Mirisch thought he was proposing an idea that would reduce confusion for police and fire personnel.

He recently suggested that the City Council study reassigning residents of the so-called Beverly Hills Post Office community, which is actually in Los Angeles, to a different ZIP Code from the 90210 made famous by the television series "Beverly Hills, 90210."

According to Mirisch, the council had heard recently from a resident living in the Post Office area, an extensive stretch north of Sunset Boulevard, who contended that the Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to calls. LAPD, the person said, assumed from the ZIP Code that the matter was Beverly Hills' responsibility.

But Mirisch’s proposal met a brick wall of opposition from all four of his council colleagues and from residents who said they don’t want to lose the cachet of the 90210 ZIP Code.

The council voted informally 4 to 1 against moving forward with the proposal.

"I think it’s pretty dead," Mirisch said.

The residents, then, will keep 90210, which, despite popular perception, does not cover the entire city. South Beverly Hills uses 90211 and 90212.

-- Martha Groves

Comments

[Natalie Lumet]

And what about the residents in need of the police? Did the Council put their vanity mirrors down long enough to solve that problem? What a bunch of shallow, phony losers Mirisch's freinds are.

[Arrogance Is Bliss]

No shocker here. There are people who live on the West Hollywood side of Doheny Drive who list their city as Beverly Hills on their correspondence.

[Lynnie]

You're missing the point. Homes in BHPO 90210 sell for much more than they're worth because they have the BH cachet, however incorrect. Changing the zip code lowers the value. I'd be curious if Mirisch comes from the 90211 or 90212 zip himself and is getting encouraged to amputate BHPO so that the number of BH homes decreases and therefore further increases their value. The BHPO/BH battle's been a longstanding one.

[SoCalSage]

Just goes to show how lame and obsessed many folks in Los Angeles are -- especially those residing on the "west" side. They're more concerned about image and status (or at least the perception thereof) than they are about safety. Sad indeed.

[Andrew]

Zip Codes are assigned by the US Postal Service. It is not up to the Beverly Hills City Council to do anything beyond requesting that the USPS reassign this area. It is probably more efficient for the USPS to deliver mail to this small area through the Beverly Hills station, rather than Hollywood or some other L.A. zip code.

[Mark]

So L.A. And so pathetic.

[UserNameRequired]

If you want to fix something, fix Robertson Blvd. On the same block, the street numbers for the Beverly Hills side are different from the Los Angeles side.

[H. Craig Bradley]

BEVERLY HILLS SALON TALK

The zip code of Beverly Hills is, in fact, a matter of Federal jurisdiction under the management of the U.S. Postal Service and Congress. City Councils do not establish or change mail zip codes. This article is about nothing.

[Peter]

Oh, the problems of the affluent and not "as rich" parts of Beverly Hills. This is the flats -- not "the" most wealthy part by far !

[Harvey Williams]

The assertion the Los Angeles Police Department was unaware of or misunderstood City boundaries is a myth. The entire City street grid is in computerized databases. As a young LAPD officer in 1985, I routinely responded to calls for service in areas of Los Angeles with Beverly Hills addresses. I personally encountered people who declined police service because they believed with a BHPO address, they lived in Beverly Hills and were entitled to service from the Beverly Hills Police Department.

All of the homes in the south end of LAPD's North Hollywood Division, specifically reporting district (RD) 1585, are in Los Angeles, but quite a few have Beverly Hills addresses. This is also true in the north end of the West Los Angeles Division.

The Captain at West Los Angeles Division is directly responsible for the majority of the BHPO homes in Los Angeles. I can assure you she is a professional who is masterful at ensuring the communities within West LA are receiving timely and complete service.

This is simply an issue of property values. The communities of Bel Air, Brentwood, Westwood, Encino, Chatsworth, West Hills and many other so called 'cities' are actually neighborhoods within Los Angeles. I'll bet property owners in those communities would be displeased if they were forced to use Los Angeles addresses when listing homes for sale.

Note: the Mayor of Bel Air and Encino is the same person: Antonio R. Villaraigosa!