Los Feliz and Silver Lake: Where the Eastside isn’t

Our readers might quibble over exactly where to draw the line between L.A.’s Eastside and Westside — a debate addressed in Tuesday’s Times — but they agree solidly on where it isn’t: anywhere near Silver Lake or Los Feliz.

As someone who was raised just outside the city of L.A. (in Glendale), I never found sweeping geographic designations like Eastside or Westside useful. Beverly Hills and Westwood were Beverly Hills and Westwood, not West L.A. Likewise, Van Nuys and Northridge weren’t the Valley, they were Van Nuys and Northridge.

Here’s what some of our Angeleno readers have to say.

— Paul Thornton, letters editor

Sandy Schuckett of Los Angeles blames recent arrivals for this debate:

“Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Echo Park, downtown and other nearby places are not the Eastside. The Eastside is anything east of Alameda Street and the Los Angeles River. Boyle Heights is the Eastside; City Terrace is the Eastside; Lincoln Heights is the Eastside; East L.A. is the Eastside.

“I was born in L.A. in 1937. I grew up in Echo Park and now live in Silver Lake. Never has anyone I have known called our neighborhoods the Eastside. This term was coined by recent East Coast transplants who discovered our wonderful area a few miles east of La Brea Avenue and gentrified it with their shops and restaurants.”

Michael H. Miller of Los Angeles proposes a new designation for his area of L.A.:

“Currently my wife and I live in Los Feliz and couldn’t really care less what this area is called.

“Nevertheless, we are both natives of Los Angeles, and my mother, who is now 100, attended Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles, which is consistent with the demarcation drawn by The Times (she lived in Boyle Heights). It’s called the Eastside (emphasis added), not east of West L.A. or Central Los Angeles.

“There is a tendency in Los Angeles and Southern California to forget the large central area except for what we once called South Central L.A. What about the north central area of L.A., which is really where Silver Lake, Echo Park, Franklin Hills and Los Feliz exist?

“But no matter how you cut it, this area isn’t the Eastside.”

Brent Burton of Los Angeles looks back to L.A.’s past:

“Where is the Eastside? It is east of Main Street. It has nothing to do with Western Avenue or the L.A. River. First and Main streets is where the address directions change.

“Until the 1970s, the Eastside was synonymous with black Los Angeles and the Central Avenue corridor. East Los Angeles was synonymous with the Latino community.

“Many black people who moved to L.A. up until the 1950s settled east of Main Street because of housing covenants. Jefferson High is where most Eastside kids went to school.

“East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights and other points east of the L.A. River have their own autonomy. These neighborhoods have a long and proud history of having their own identity.”

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