Readers weigh in on Westside’s eastern border

The answer to the question posed is one of L.A.’s most elusive: Where does the Westside start?

Last month The Times asked readers to weigh in on the Westside borders drawn for Mapping L.A., the newspaper’s interactive site that provides information on demographics, schools and other information at a local level.

More than 500 comments came in, including more than 300 with maps drawn by readers.

A Times analysis of the results -- using a point system to weigh how often neighborhoods were included in reader-drawn maps -- showed that while no one definition approached a majority, certain patterns were clear.

The 405 Freeway leads all other landmarks nominated as the Westside’s eastern border, appearing in almost 25% of reader comments. Proponents of the 405 Freeway as the line of demarcation appealed to tradition.

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

La Cienega Boulevard outnumbered any other city street, although a dozen others, from Lincoln to Main, were cited.

“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.”

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 Los Angeles.

“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.”

A number of readers defined the Westside using the fuzzier measures of class, race and way of life. Readers demanding a broader definition offered guidelines such as traffic, beauty, beaches and Buddhist enlightenment.

“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 lifelong 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 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s famous “I know it when I see it” 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.”

Smith does not 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?”

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ben.welsh@latimes.com