A Note on L.A. Geography and Identity

Whenever a major disaster happens in a large metropolitan region, friends from outside the area panic. We know our own cities and towns, but we don't know others.

Friends and family ask that we check in. They watch television coverage that makes it seem the entire city is burning. One must explain the geography, noting the distance to the Palisades, Altadena, and other hot spots.

Just a few months ago, when that terrible hurricane hit the Gulf Coast of Florida I messaged several friends who lived in the region. I have a vague idea of where Sarasota is in relation to Bradenton, and where Naples is compared to Tampa Bay -- but no intimate knowledge of distance or risk. It all seemed to be in equally grave danger, and I was very, very concerned. My lack of understanding of the specific geography of the region left me with a panic -- rooted in part in uncertainty and ignorance.

Los Angeles is NOT completely destroyed, as I see some of have claimed. Two beloved neighborhoods have endured colossal damage. Much of Altadena and Pacific Palisades are wiped out. The loss is devastating. Perhaps 30,000 people may have lost their homes, though that is only a guess. I know more than one hundred of the permanently displaced. But we are a region of more than 10 million souls. The vast majority of us are worried, sad, but safe. The ripple effects of this disaster will hit the entire Southern California economy, but the angels will persevere.

Los Angeles is the name of a city. It is the name also of our nation's largest county, one that includes 87 other incorporated cities and dozens and dozens of unincorporated regions. It is all properly called Los Angeles. The name isn't "El Angel." It is plural because we are a complicated tapestry of histories and experiences, of manners and mores, of language and livelihoods. The City of Los Angeles is L.A., and Palisades is within the city limits. Altadena is unincorporated, but still very much L.A.

Beverly Hills is L.A. Carson is L.A. El Monte is L.A. Burbank is L.A. Culver City, Santa Monica, Bellflower, Torrance, Compton, Sierra Madre, La Cañada Flintridge, Santa Clarita, Huntington Park, Malibu, South Pasadena, Lawndale and dozens more? All outside the city limits of Los Angeles, and still all L.A. All with different risks, all with different stories — and all part of the angel town, writ large.

Only the most tiresome and unpleasant of pedants insist on limiting the use of L.A. to describe what lies within the city limits of the county’s largest municipality. One notes that the Los Angeles Rams won their most recent Super Bowl in the city of Inglewood; the great Los Angeles Lakers teams of the 1980s won all their titles in that same town as well. The Los Angeles Galaxy began in Pasadena and now play in Carson.

Randy Newman’s region-defining song about L.A. includes these lines:

Rollin' down the Imperial Highway
With a big nasty redhead at my side
Santa Ana winds blowing hot from the north
And we was born to ride.

Imperial Highway starts in Orange County, in the Anaheim Hills, and runs to the sea. In Los Angeles County, the vast majority of Imperial Highway is not in the city limits of Los Angeles, passing instead through La Mirada, Santa Fe Springs, Norwalk, Downey, South Gate, Lynwood, Inglewood, Hawthorne, and El Segundo. All, all, all L.A.

The Santa Ana winds blew especially hot and hard from the north, and the brave angels are reeling. Resilient, but reeling. We will take care of our own, but please give where you are able -- to the GoFundMes of those who have lost their homes, to the Red Cross, to animal shelters.

Pray for us too, and invite the supernal angels -- if you believe in them -- to come and comfort, console, and protect their namesakes here on earth.