No! It's not Los Angles, it's the Valley. The Valley has its own issues, culture, news, history, etc. While I'll admit that sometimes it makes sense to consider the Valley as part of Los Angeles, other times it makes more sense to view them as counterparts. There are enough of these other time to justify a separate site.

Regarding the new site Roderick calls it, "the new incarnation of my website about the San Fernando Valley."

He continues:

"It went online in 2002 as a companion site to my book, with pages on history and lore, the Valley's mixed image and even a compilation of quips and jokes. This week I reloaded the pages into a blog format, which means everything is now searchable and I can update more easily. Valley lore is still the focus, but I'll also be posting some news and culture items and observing the rising number of blogs that emanate over the hill from the rest of Los Angeles. Consider it the first cousin of LA Observed--the first addition to a growing family."

As an outsider who has now lived here for nearly 20 years, all of it in The Valley, I think that the Valley is, indeed, no part of Los Angeles.

Treated as the adopted step-sister by both parents and siblings, the Valley is no more part of LA than Irvine. The Santa Monica Mountains are a natural division that no amount of governmental will can overcome.

You're not from these parts are ya, Carolyn?

And there's nothing wrong with opening a site to promote a book. That's exactly what I did when I introduced 8763 Wonderland in July of last year and it has evolved quite nicely, thank you, into a boutique site with between 750 and 900 unique visitors per day. And my book does move quite well but that's not the primary purpose of the site.

I meant "heading west" instead of "heading east."

This looks like a reminder of the Valley Succesion movement. But then again I swear there are still people who say that Orange County is not part of Los Angeles, but then again we do have a geographically confused baseball owner.

Rodger, I was born in Tallahassee, Florida, where I lived until I was three. My life is an open book. I'm not sure why you ask, but I hope that this sharing has brought us closer together.

I'm from the Valley, therfore, I am from Los Angeles. Period.

Yes, there are issues and cultures that are specific to the Valley, but the same can be said of any region of Los Angeles (East L.A. specific issues, West L.A. specific issues, South Bay specific issues). It's like New York City --- Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and even Staten Island are all part of NYC; not just Manhattan --- and each part has its own distinct flavor. True, the Valley's flavor may be bland (I disagree) but it's a unique part of the City of L.A.

Go Valley!

Los Angeles does indeed have its own regions—West LA, Mid-City, Hollywood, East LA and Downtown to name a few. However, I wouldn't really consider the Valley to be one of these regions. The Valley has its own regions—Burbank, Glendale, Van Nuys, etc.

Yes, the Valley and LA are linked and yes, it is sometimes helpful to think of them as part of a single, sprawling megalopolis. And technically, much of the Valley lies within the Los Angeles city limits. But the Valley is not Los Angeles.

The Valley is part of the City - almost half of it, in fact. You can focus on the Valley without including all of the City, but you can't focus on all of the City without including the Valley. It's the whole "not all parrallelograms are squares but all squares are parrallelograms" logic.

They're intimately linked, and one part would not do well without the other.

Well, Orange County, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Long Beach, West Hollywood, and Pasadena aren't part of Los Angeles. They're separate cities.

Sure, they're in the same area as LA, (i.e., the "Greater Los Angeles Area"), but that doesn't make them part of LA, any more than being in the same area makes New Jersey part of New York City.

Hollywood, the Valley, and Venice, on the other hand, are part of Los Angeles, no matter what the geographically confused may think. If Manhattanites were to insist that Brooklyn and the Bronx "aren't really part of New York City", they'd be wrong, too. :-)

J-Po, if it's any comfort, there are some Angelenos who don't see why anyone bothers to distinguish between Kentucky and, say, Tennessee, Arkansas, or Missouri. If it's not on the coast, it's 'flyover country', and not worth worrying over trivial distinctions like state boundaries. :-)

"It all looks the same to someone from outside" isn't really a reliable yardstick. :-)

Some handy maps for combatting geographic confusion from Los Angeles Almanac:

Communities of the City of Los Angeles
Other Cities in Los Angeles County
Unincorporated Areas of Los Angeles County

Is an overcoat a part of a wardrobe or is it separate from it? Are you sure of what you mean when you say "wardrobe"? Is everyone you're speaking to just as sure? If you're wearing the coat, is it still a part of the wardrobe or is it now a part of your outfit?

Is any of this worth defining for purposes other than semantic ones?

But, New Jersey IS part of New York City. (Culturally, if not governmentally.)

If people ask where I grew up, I say "New York," even though I grew up in suburbia in New Jersey (though I've been to New York more times than I can count; my mother and father were both from The Bronx). When they say "what part of New York?" I say "New Jersey." This pisses off some people more than you could possibly imagine. But I watched New York City TV stations, listened to New York City radio stations, and shopped at New-York based (or New-Jersey based) supermarkets my whole life growing up. (We get the local newspaper though.)

In this same way, the Valley is part of L.A. Hell, some of the TV stations here even broadcast out of the Valley, (Glendale channel 7, and Burbank for channel 4) and they i.d. as "Los Angeles."

However, having lived in both L.A. and the Valley, I have to say, that The Valley, more than any other region I can think of, has its own distinct, historical and cultural identity. More than any other part of any other city in the United States. It's the geographical separation that does it.

So, the Valley: Not really separate as far as government. Really separate as far as culture and history. It is this dissonance that causes all the uproar and threats of secession.