Some Believe Plan for Adding 3rd Area Code Is a Wrong Number

When the upscale magazine Beverly Hills (213) was created six years ago, its editors never dreamed that the swanky city’s area code would be changed to 310.

But Pacific Bell and GTE California be damned, editor Susan L. Warner declared Wednesday. The change in area codes for Beverly Hills and dozens of other Los Angeles County communities announced a day earlier will have no impact on the name of her 50,000-circulation society and fashion weekly.

“We are Beverly Hills (213), we are not Beverly Hills (310),” sniffed Warner. “(This is) a successful publication. We’ve gone beyond the reason for first choosing our name.”

Warner, however, seemed in a distinct minority Wednesday as businessmen and officials of communities directly impacted by the area code switch-over pondered the impact of the phone companies’ decision.

Bothered that they were given no input, officials in several cities that will now be bisected by two area codes said they are considering legal or legislative remedies.

“We’re in a state of shock,” said City Manager Claude Booker of Bell Gardens, a southeast Los Angeles County community where one third of the residents will have 213 as their area code and the rest will have 310. “We will have to evaluate it and decide if we want to fight them.”

In West Hollywood, which will be sliced in half at La Cienega Boulevard, Mayor Abbe Land said that unless Pacific Bell officials reconsider, “we will explore avenues including legal avenues.”

Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, whose district also includes portions of the San Fernando Valley served by the 818 area code, said: “They should have discussed this with us in advance.”

Yaroslavsky said that it made more sense to keep the Miracle Mile, Beverly Hills, Century City and Westwood together under one area code than Westwood and Long Beach, which will both be in the 310 area code.

In addition to filing lawsuits against the phone companies, the cities say they have the option of seeking special state legislation.

“A whole range of things could be considered,” said Inglewood City Manager Paul Eckles, whose city will be split between 213 and 310 area codes. “Legal action is certainly one. Getting some kind of special legislation to restrict the phone companies to do this is another.”

A spokesman for the state Public Utilities Commission, which regulates rates charged to phone customers, said the agency does not interfere with phone company decisions to split area codes.

In the plan due to take effect in February, 1992, a U-shaped portion of Los Angeles County, stretching from Malibu south to Long Beach and east to Whittier, will be incorporated in the new 310 area code. Downtown Los Angeles and some surrounding communities, such as Hollywood and Montebello, will remain in the 213 area code.

Phone company officials said the split is necessary because they are running out of phone numbers for Los Angeles due to the region’s bustling economy and increasing reliance on such new technology as fax machines and cellular phones.

In all, eight communities will have customers in both area codes, phone company officials said. They added that there was no need to consult local officials because they were determined to make their decision based on technological factors rather than geopolitical guidelines.

Their primary concern, they said, was to split the 213 district into two regions of similar projected growth so that any further area code subdivision can be postponed as long as possible.

By doing so, Los Angeles becomes the first major city in the nation to have three area codes. The 310 area code will also be the first that divides a major city along artificial boundaries rather than by geographic or political guidelines.

When the 818 area code was introduced to Los Angeles in 1981, the phone company chose a north-south division that coincided neatly with the ridgeline of the Santa Monica Mountains. In San Francisco; Dallas; Newark, N.J.; Boston, and Chicago--where area codes have been split up in the past few years--the integrity of city boundaries were maintained.

Pacific Bell media relations manager Kathleen Flynn said that the new Los Angeles division is different because Los Angeles itself is different.

“Has any city grown and changed as much as Los Angeles?” she asked. “And we have so many surrounding communities that make up the global and nebulous term that is Los Angeles.”

Countered Yaroslavsky: “What’s the old story about Los Angeles being a series of suburbs looking for a city? I think this is a reflection of that characterization.

“No question about it, it’s almost as if it doesn’t matter where you draw the line to the phone company.”