East vs. West in Los Angeles

[Larry Scholnick]

I recently saw some discussion about where the West side began as one goes west from Central L.A. The discussion focused on whether it was appropriate to call Los Feliz part of the East side.

I decided that it might be helpful to know some of the geographic center points of the City of Los Angeles.

One method that I've seen used takes the easternmost and westernmost points, averages their longitude and uses the resulting longitude to determine the center. It also uses the northernmost and southernmost points, averages their latitude and uses the resulting latitude; the intersection of the those two lines (the midpoint longitude of the east/west extremes and the midpoint latitude if the north/south extremes) is one measure of the center of the city.

Another method takes the latitude and longitude of all four extremes, averages them, and uses the resulting location as another measure of the city center.

So, where are the extremes of the City of Los Angeles?

North Sierra Hwy. east of Foothill Blvd. -118.503825 34.337292

East Huntington Drive at Kendall near Alh. -118.155516 34.098586

West West end of Victory Blvd. (West Valley) -118.668058 34.184932

South Point Fermin Lighthouse, San Pedro -118.294351 33.704706

Average Longitude of East & West -118.411787
Average Latitude of North & South 34.020999
Average of 4 points -118.4054375 34.081379

So, where are these unlikely center points?

The intersection of that average Longitude and that average Latitude is near the corner of Glendon Avenue and Charnock Road in Palms, near Palms Middle School. An east-west line through this point slices through USC, thus calling everything south of that South and everything north of that North. But, a north-south line through this point lines up with the backside of the Bradley International terminal at LAX, slices through Rancho Park and Century City, and lines up with Coldwater Canyon Avenue across the floor of the Valley. By this measure, even West Hollywood is east of the center of Los Angeles.

How about the 4-point average? It comes up near the corner of Alpine & Elevado in Beverly Hills. A north-south line through this point splits LAX so that Terminals 3, 4, and Bradley are West but the remaining terminals are East, and splits the valley at Whitsett Avenue. An east-west line through this point slices the city one block south of Melrose (Clinton Street).

So, how do YOU determine where the center of a city is and thus what is considered the West side vs. the East side, etc.?