by Garrison Frost

People in the South Bay, in the beach cities and up on Palos Verdes (known by denizens as The Hill) probably didn't bat an eye when the city of Los Angeles recently decided to stop referring to South Central Los Angeles and begin using the phrase South Los Angeles for that area instead. The reasoning behind the change was that South Central had gained a negative connotation over the years, and it was thought that changing the name might improve people's general impression of the place. Of course, the move was stupid, leaving the Los Angeles City Council open to those who would say that the area has a lot more needs than a simple name change can satisfy.

But the change got me thinking about the South Bay, which includes Palos Verdes, San Pedro, the beach cities, Hawthorne, Torrance, Lawndale as the South Bay. I also wonder about the beach cities and The Hill. Are these names meaningful? Do they have a connotation? What do we mean when we use them? And lastly, are there better names we could be using that might be more accurate?

First off, the term South Bay isn't very good for the simple reason that there are a lot of bays with attendant southern parts. For instance, talk about the South Bay while visiting northern California and, rest assured, people will not be thinking of Redondo Beach and Torrance. Furthermore, not that people in the South Bay would give a shit what outsiders think, it might surprise some to know that not everyone views the South Bay in all that favorable a light. In fact, the South Bay has negative connotations to some, although obviously it doesn't conjure the same negative images that the name South-Central does. Nonetheless, there are people who hear South Bay and think "Homogenous," "White," "Conforming," "Police state," "Rich," or "crowded."

To resolve this, folks in the South Bay could change their name to something else. Among the first choices, no doubt, would be something along the lines of what people in the South Bay come up with every time something needs to be named, something idiotic like "Freedom Bay" or "Golden Bay" or "Sunset Bay," none of which mean anything at all. Then, of course, there are the names that are so true that no one would ever approve them, such as "Overpriced Bay" or "Mostly White Bay" or "Xenophobia Bay." No recommendations here, although it does seem like a new name would be a good idea.

As for the beach cities, this appellation suffers the same lack of specificity as South Bay. There are lots of beaches and lots of cities near them. Of course, the name does seem descriptive. Hermosa Beach is, after all, on the beach. And it even has the word beach in its name. But are the beach cities just Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach? People in El Segundo have long wanted to be considered a beach city, as has Torrance, but are they out of the club simply because they don't have the word in their names? That would seem problematic, as these cities have a lot more in common than they have significant differences. Perhaps it would be better to find some other descriptive word that they all have in common. So, rather than call them the beach cities, we could call them the small cities or the no parking cities or the condo cities or the Realtor cities. That would certainly be more specific and it would apply to everyone.

As for the Hill, what can I say? Who wants to be known as merely a hill? It sounds a bit diminutive for the heavily ego-centric residents of Palos Verdes. I mean, this is the same group that would prefer to have an 18-hole golf course for every family, right? Why not just call it the Mountain? It's just as much a mountain as it is a hill, and mountain just sounds better. And it would lend a little justification to all the owners of giant SUVs up there whose cars never so much as tough dirt, nonetheless go off-road.

Our cities have problems like any others. There's a mild crime wave in Manhattan Beach these days. The schools are saddled with steep budget cuts. Housing is over-priced. Too many kids get sunburned. Dog owners don't clean up after themselves. Parking is hard to find, and too expensive when you do find it. Development is out of control. It's hard to find really good Greek food. Our leaders have struggled for years to correct these deficiencies, but have come up short. Perhaps the Los Angeles City Council had a good idea when it changed South-Central L.A. to South L.A. Maybe a name change will do the trick there, and maybe it would work here. It's certainly worth a try here in the South Bay.

(June 1, 2003)

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