L.A.'s Westside: Where readers say it starts

Last month, The Times challenged readers to answer one of L.A.'s most elusive questions: Where does the Westside start?

The answer came in the form of 500 comments, including more than 300 maps drawn by readers, with borders ranging from Lincoln to La Brea and beyond*.

A Times analysis of the results showed that while no one definition approached a majority, certain patterns were clear.

The 405 Freeway leads all other landmarks in the race to be declared the Westside's eastern border, appearing in nearly 25% of reader comments. The freeway is closely trailed by other definitions, including a dozen different streets as well as less precise offerings such as traffic, beauty, beaches and Buddhist enlightenment.

The map above shows the L.A. neighborhoods that readers most frequently included in their versions of the Westside. Each time a reader map overlapped with a neighborhood, the neighborhood's score increased. The darkest neighborhoods are the ones readers included most frequently.

Consensus couldn't be found, but several sets of partisans emerged. They include:

The 405 Faithful

The 405 Freeway was the most common answer, a position readers buttressed with appeals to tradition.

"Grew up in the Valley. (pre Zappa)," said b martins. "Westside has always been west of 405 north of 10."

The La Cienega Set

As popular a marker as the 405 Freeway was, many readers demanded a broader definition. Answers varied widely, but La Cienega Boulevard outnumbered any other city street.

"Basically, Mulholland to the north, Santa Monica Fwy to the south, and La Cienega Blvd. to the east," said Robert. "Anybody who says the Westside ends at the 405 is pretty sheltered and doesn't have a very good feel for the city they live in."

The Downtownists

A small but committed group of readers let the city's early history be their guide and cited downtown L.A. as the dividing line. This group tended to see the city as two parts, one west and one east, with no need for anything in between, like The Times' Central L.A.

"It's just geography people," said Jerome. "If Downtown is the center of the city ... then the west side is anything from downtown to the ocean."

The Potter Stewart School

Not everyone picked a city street as their dividing line. A number of readers defined the Westside using the fuzzier measures of class, race and way of life.

"You're cruising down Beverly or Santa Monica Blvd, minding your own business, when all of sudden WHAM, you realize you're surrounded by smug rich white people," said Eric. "What could possibly be going on? You my friend, have entered the Westside Zone. (dee-dee-doo-doo-dee-dee-doo-doo)."

Times Database Editor Doug Smith, a life-long Angeleno and UCLA Bruin, helped craft the Westside boundaries used in Mapping L.A. He said he sides with this camp, drawing a comparison between his method and Justice Potter Stewart's famous approach to defining pornography.

"It's something you feel as you're driving west. You could drive down Santa Monica Boulevard and you'd feel it," Smith said. "You're in a different world."

Does Smith plan to revise The Times' version of the Westside in response to reader maps?

"No. We won't make changes," he said. "Ours is built for the Mapping L.A. site, with a community-first approach. So the regions will continue to be a collection of communities. They are the building blocks."

"If we cut it off at the 405, what are we going to call the rest?" he asked. "The near Westside?"

— Ben Welsh

* Readers listed each of the following as a potential eastern boundary: Lincoln, Centinela, The 405, Westwood, Doheny, Robertson, La Cienega, Fairfax, La Brea, Highland, Rimpau, Western, Vermont, The 110, Main, and, finally, the L.A. River.

Map: Ben Welsh and Thomas Suh Lauder

Comments

[keith]

someone once told me they lived in east west la

[Paul]

So West Hollywood is in the east? Amazing how dumb people are.

[joe]

wow this just proves how stupid people in L.A. really are. Westside is only Santa Monica, Parts of Venice, West L.A, pacific Palisades, mar vista . Redondo, manhattan, Hermosa, torrance Etc are all south bay you Idiots. Everything west of Pacific Palisades is Malibu

y'all a bunch of tards

[Jim8]

I'm proud to say that I don't live in this imaginary "West Side."

People who use this term remind me of those who say, "Out here" referring to LA..

[Robert90033]

All this goes to show is that there is a "Greater" Westside, and that includes everything west of Downtown Los Angeles. The far Westside being what many people define as "Westside Proper". But that being said, Downtown L.A. is the "middle" or Heart of the City and from there all sides radiate. So yes L.A. Times there IS a "Central City" and that is Downtown Los Angeles!

[veggiegrrrl]

west side- perhaps robertson blvd . to jefferson blvd. to the ocean to sunset blvd to robertson?

[veggiegrrrl]

west side??? robertson blvd . to jefferson blvd. to the ocean to sunset blvd to robertson?

[Avaldez]

Anything west of downtown? Unlike many cities with a bustling central "heart of the city" L.A. doesn't have one (literally and maybe figuratively speaking). I don't think echo park, Korea-Town or mid-city would even be considered "the greater" west side area. There are social, particularly class implications to this definition as mentioned in the article, the desire to move the boundaries in either direction either demonstrate the extreme exclusivity of those who live in west, or the desire to be so in the east. I have always thought the divide to be primarily economic, social, and classicist with the 405 or La Cienega being the eastern border.

[Westside til I die]

I always hear gangsta rap fellas say Westsiiiiide, so I think of Westside as: Compton, Inglewood, Watts, Long Beach

[Jay]

405 freeway is the border

[mid-wilshire]

Yes some eastsiders like to think of everything west of vermont or something as the westside. I think the westside really happens at westwood, century city, culver city to the south. Beverly Hills is sort of its own trip, but if you drive west on let's say Pico things change at century city: the architecture, the time a lot of the buildings were developed, the climate becomes much more costal, the population changes. It all feels a bit more spread out. La Brea as a dividing line is also silly. Fairfax, Mid-Wilshire, West Hollywood, Hollywood- central LA or even greater Hollywood- it's all tied together by similar architecture, etc .

[David]

i'd argue that anything west of la cienega constitutes as being on the west side. if it's west of the 405, that's pretty much beach cities, no?

[Jonathan]

it's LA BREA! The old saw is that someone "won't come east of La Brea." As a long time resident of Silverlake, Los Feliz and Mount Washington I jokingly now say "I rarely go WEST of La Brea!" because I don't really need to unless there is an event in Beverly Hills or Westwood. Hollywood, Mid Wilshire, Echo Park, Koreatown, Silverlake and Los Feliz are definitely NOT "Westside."

[Echo Park]

@Avaldez you have to make echo park part of the west side now because we're not part of the east side any more!

[Pam]

Dear LA Times,
Mar Vista is nowhere near Malibu. Please fix this or you have killed your own credibility on this mapping project. As for the guy who thinks Westsiders are smug and rich, try to contain your envy. It's really unbecoming. It's why we don't let people like you live here. As for where the westside is, it's Malibu to the 10, ocean to Beverly Hills. And no, West Hollywood is NOT on the Westside.

[August]

Everything to the left of Western Ave.!

[steve]

I am between Robertson and La Cienega. When I moved in the neighbors said you are in West LA.

[Ben Welsh]

@Pam

I'm not sure I know what you mean about Mar Vista. Our maps place it just east of Santa Monica and Venice. See the link below.

http://projects.latimes.com/mapping-la/neighborhoods/neighborhood/mar-vista/

Is there something I'm not seeing?

[csadams]

so which is the better phrase to use: Westside or West LA?

[peter]

might not mean much to anyone here, but as a lifelong resident of the west side I have defined my borders as:

East: Beverly Glen/Motor (once motor hits culver city, I would argue Culver city's eastern city limit would become the border)
West: The Pacific
South: The 90 Fwy/Jefferson (Ballona creek bluffs area)
North: Sunset

Malibu is definitely not Westside, its Malibu. Mar Vista is totally Westside, anyone who uses the 10 as a dividing mark clearly has never visited the Westside, there is absolutely nothing that would make one side of the 10 different than the other in West LA other than which side of the 10 you are on. I use the 90/bluffs in the south becuase it totally separates the Westdide from Westchester (go figure) because Westchester is a very suburban area, it doesnt go with the rest of the Westside urban feel.

[Danny]

Who cares? The Eastside is where it's at, anyway. Why don't you poll people on where they think this starts, also? I personally find the Westside, sterile, lilly and stressed out.

[Schnob]

I want to belong. If I can't afford to drive the latest Beemer, can't afford to live in multimillion $ homes, don't shop at expensive stores in the Beverly Center, aren't a female with stats of 5'11", 110 lbs. with a Euroesque exotic look, does that mean I can't call my neck of the woods "Westside?"

All you who belong in the "Westside" are so special. I wish I was special, but I'mma creep, what the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here.

[Bill Sturgeon]

Since I've been living in Playa Del Rey for 33 years the west side has been expanded it seems to where it's almost all of Southern California. I don't agree with the map. What do consider inner city?

[Derrick Sanchez]

The Westside is where all the white people live....brown and black people only go there to work. We're not allowed in the Westside.

[El Guapo de la ciudad de Los Angeles]

San Pedro Ave. in downtown LA skid row. One side of the street is "West" and the other "East".