L.A. article showed lack of regional knowledge

Dear Editor:

In response to Jia Gu’s column [“What does it mean to be a Los Angelean?” April 4], I would like to express my deepest apologies to residents of Los Angeles County for the inadequate portrayal of the city and county of Los Angeles. Having been born in L.A. and having lived there for most of my life, I was appalled at the disrespect shown to one of the greatest cities in the world. One of her statements denouncing the representation of being from L.A. for those living in the 213, 310 or 323 area codes was uninformed, and Gu disturbed me with her lack of knowledge of the Los Angeles city and county lines or effort to do research for the official newspaper of UCSD. Clarification would have been appreciated on why people in said area codes should not say they are from L.A., for in actuality, towns in those area codes, such as Westwood, the Pacific Palisades, Bel Air, Van Nuys and San Pedro are a part of the city of Los Angeles as well as the county; Burbank, where Gu claims to live, is only in the latter. Additionally, she segregates the entire West Los Angeles populace, UCLA and residents of Venice, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Compton, Long Beach and Inglewood. Gu needs to stop sipping on the hater-ade, venture out of East L.A. and give true props to L.A. County, the 14th-largest economy in the world, with its 88 cities and roughly 10 million residents. So what does it mean to be Los Angelean? Obviously Gu does not know, for an Angelino is anyone with an address in the 310, 213, 323, 818, as well as parts of 562 and 626.

— Karoline Katus

Eleanor Roosevelt College junior