Al Desmadre here, reporting from Silver Lake, CA. This evening, (Wed. June 10, 2009 at approximately 7:00pm PST) at a public meeting of the SILVER LAKE IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION held here in Silver Lake, 4th District City Councilmember Tom LaBonge made a stunning and revealing statement that I believe calls for an L.A. Eastside Extra! AY! Witness News Report!
But first, a little background on Councilmember LaBonge.….
Thomas J. LaBonge born in Silver Lake, Ca., he is a member of the L.A. City Council and represents the 4th district. His district stretches from North Hollywood to Hollywood and Griffith Park and Wilshire Blvd. He is Chairman of the Arts, Parks, Health and Aging committee, Vice Chairman of the Public Works Committee, and member of the Audits and Governmental Efficiency Committee and the Ad Hoc River Committee for our city. Before he was councilman, Tom LaBonge was Director of Community Relations at the Department of Water and Power, Special Assistant to Mayor Riordan, and Chief Deputy to Council President John Ferraro. Tom LaBonge calls himself the Cheerleader of Los Angeles. His reputation for adding history lessons in City Council meetings is well known. A graduate of John Marshall High School, Tom LaBonge received his Bachelor degree in sociology from Cal State L.A. Some call him “Mr. Los Angeles“. Believe me, this man knows and loves this city like no other.
So, tonight, as Councilmember LaBonge spoke to those of us in attendance describing how a number of Westsiders have been moving into his and Councilmember Garcetti’s 13th District, he was heard to announce;
“By the way, THIS IS NOT THE EASTSIDE!, Silver Lake, Los Feliz,…That is not THE EASTSIDE.”
WOW! HA! HA! Well, you could have knocked me over with one of the empty paper cups from INTELLIGENTRIA Coffee Shop that I find strewn on my lawn every day!!!… So- I couldn’t wait to spill this news here! Requests have been made to Mr. LaBonge to follow up on his statement, and I will add any additional info from him as it becomes available. In the meantime, all of you hipster wannabees in SL/EP/LF calling yourselves eastsiders, can continue to BITE ME! 🙂
I always thought LF, SL, and EP were called the eastside because it was the eastside of Hollywood. After which, if you’re headed east, comes East L.A.
Not sure I get the problem with that.
^^ O que la chingada.
So what would you call LF/SL/EP?
I never knew the folks who lived in East L.A called themselves Eastsiders. Ignorant without a doubt, I admit.
But what would you call the other area if not the Eastside? East Hollywood?
Historically, LF/SL/EP haven’t had a commonly used lumped together geographic name.
My family that grew up in EP said if they had to choose now they would call the area “Metro” or “Central” but of course prefer to just use the proper name.
The neighborhoods west of Downtown like Echo Park at one time were called The Westside (especially among Chicanos and Mexicans). You can sometimes see gang graffiti with w/s in front of the name which stands for westside. For instance, the gang White Fence had the Eastside branch in Boyle Heights and the Westside branch in Hollywood.
East LA is an unincorporated area of the county that starts at Lorena street east of Boyle Heights.
If you search around this site for the Eastside, you will find a lot more info and history. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
Thanks for the info.
I do like the site a lot as I like learning more about L.A. outside of the Hollywood stuff that dominates.
I will say that those of us who live in LF/SL/EP who use the Eastside term are not doing it to either associate with East L.A. and some thought of being cooler or tougher by doing so. Nor is it to erase East L.A. culture and history from the books in some nefarious scheme to rewrite history.
The thought is to just give a name to a group of neighborhoods that over the last 15 years or so have developed into an artsier scene than the the even more yuppified Westside (being loosely defined as everything west of West Hollywood — Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Westwood, Venice, Pacific Palisades, Culver City) and the less defined Hollywood. That’s it. It’s just a way to explain where you live. No one thinks it’s East L.A.
Probably the common use of Eastside and Westside in Manhattan had a lot to do with the use of the term as well as NYC still dominates (as even Buenos Aires now has a Palermo Soho, to define the part of the neighborhood of Palermo that is artsy like Manhattan’s Soho.)
The grand majority of the people using the Eastside term are not doing it with any knowledge that those in East L.A. have used it for generations. They assumed that area was called East L.A., not the Eastside. Ignorance isn’t always malicious, just ignorance. Angrily decrying those who use the term as dumb hipsters doesn’t help educate.
I like the term East Hollywood for the LF/SL/EP area and that’s usually how I explain where I live to friends from out of town who ask. Or I just say near Griffith Park, but they don’t know that outside L.A. so I get stuck saying a little east of the Hollywood sign, which just feels kinda lame.
“The grand majority of the people using the Eastside term are not doing it with any knowledge that those in East L.A. have used it for generations.”
Dumb hipsters.
Michelle T. said,
“…so I get stuck saying a little east of the Hollywood sign, which just feels kinda lame.”
Michelle T,
Deep in your self conscience, you do feel the desire to be more cooler, edgy (tougher). Your communities already have cool names and history, (Los Feliz, Echo Park, Silver Lake). Those communities have lots of edgyness and cool factors in their own roots and history. Keep educating your self and your acquaintances on the history of your neighborhoods.
If your are stating geographically where you are living at, you could keep saying- east of Hollywood, north/west Downtown L.A., south of griffith park,…Heck… you could even say the “The Westside,” you are west of Main St on one of the largest metropolis of the world, Los Angeles.
State your barrio (neighborhood), and if they don’t understand, educate them.
Good Luck
I use the name East Hollywood all the time myself. The issue is not about directional semantics. All we’re saying here is; don’t use the name “The Eastside” for any of these areas west of the river. Please call it anything else, but-.
Michelle T, there are many seemingly cool people such as yourself who welcome becoming educated of our city’s history. But on the other hand, you may be unaware of the number of angry, nasty and petulant individuals who have sent out a negative backlash to our initially civil calls to correct this new Eastside designation. To these people we direct some well deserved barbs and will continue to do so “by whatever means necessary”.