Except for a very narrow corridor that leads and includes the Arclight, everything west of Vermont is technically “The Westside.”

The problem here isn’t where the line of demarcation is per se, but that all these ignorant, clueless, uncultured transplant hipstards think that there IS a singular dividing line between “Eastside” and “Westside.” Answer: There is none. What divides “Eastside” and “Westside” is THE CENTER OF THE CITY. The Militant knows more than you do. Learn it, folks.

Well MA..been here over 20 years, not a hipster by any stretch which may be why I always looked as the LA River as the dividing line between East and West.

I like the idea of downtown being something of an absolute point from which the regions radiate, but from my perspective the river’s my choice in part because of its historical context: it’s been here far longer than any pueblo or civic center or skyscraper or street.

Western Avenue has the interesting context of being the western boundary of the city way back in the day, but it’s always lost in the shuffle because La Brea’s basically the point of no return for any testy westy daring enough to venture onto the dark side of La Cienega via anything other than a freeway.

The L.A. River is the line I use before using “East” in a name. For all the other places, I call them by their neighborhood names.

I think you all know where I stand. :)
Eastside 101

Main Street divides the city’s addresses between East and West. I must then live on the first block of the West Side….

Wow. That poll is just sad.

Darleene, why sad? Are there not enough responses or not enough emotion to them?

Those are all wrong. The correct answer is Rancho Cucamonga.

Can we just compromise and call everything between LA Brea and the LA river the East End, leaving the Eastside where it has always been?

Frazgo: The Militant has still lived here longer than you have. But you are half-correct; Yes, in absolute terms, east of the Los Angeles river is in fact The Eastside, if that’s what you mean, and the Militant lauds you for recognizing that. But the west bank of the Los Angeles River is not the “Westside,” nor is the eastern side of La Cienega the “Eastside.” You understand?

Think of the United States. There is a West Coast and and East Coast. Is there a dividing line between the two? The Mississippi? The Rocky Mountains? Is Denver “West Coast?” Is Memphis “East Coast?” What about other cities – is there an absolute line dividing the North Side of Chicago and the South Side? Isn’t The Loop in the middle?

Ergo, Downtown, Silver_Lake, Hollywood, Echo Park, Koreatown, et al are *neither* Eastside nor Westside, they comprise THE CENTER OF THE CITY.

Enough with the binary mentality.

MA…nice comment and you are correct about the binary mentality. I take it a bit farther though as I don’t like the way the city allows itself to be subdivided constantly when a neighborhood wants to separate itself between good and not-so-good neighborhoods sharing the same zip or mailing name.

It always seemed to me that people growing up west of the silverlake longitude line considered silverlake the “westside”. Everyone I knew growing up east of downtown considered ourselves the east side aka East L.A.

Thank Cthulhu I live in the South Bay…

Good news: LA River is now leading.
I’m in total agreement with militantangeleno. Why must everything be one or the other? I suspect there’s been widespread brain damage. I can’t account for this simple-mindedness any other way. I emailed the proprietor of another LA blog because one of his writers believes anything east of Beverly Hills is the Eastside and that everything east of the 110 is nonexistent. The proprietor accused me of being a segregationist and a fascist because I said that historically East LA is east of the LA River.

I always thought it was Beverly Glen myself! This trailer looks like it explains the “westside” perspective:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctj6JQ2tU1w