MAPS / THE 25-MILE RADIUS
One town at a time, a map of how locals actually talk about the place: the region everyone knows, the joke everyone makes, and the border nobody agrees on. It started with El Segundo. The neighbors are next.
The original. Twelve regions, one refinery.
From “planes so low you can read the tail numbers” to “smells like money,” with a short tour of every region.
Same pen, same affection. Locals, please correct us.
Walk streets with “no cars, no yards, no regrets,” a Hill Section of “calves of steel,” and a Tree Section that wants you to know there’s another one up the road.
Open questions: does Liberty Village get its own region? Is “East Side” fair, or fighting words?
Pier Plaza is “brunch by day, bachelorettes by night,” the Greenbelt is “wood chips, joggers and dogs with jobs,” and the Hill goes uphill both ways.
Open questions: what do locals call the stretch east of PCH? What did we miss on the pier?
“One pier, two Redondos.” A horseshoe pier that goes in a circle, King Harbor’s “boats that rarely leave,” and a North Redondo that is “suburbia with a beach-adjacent ZIP.”
Open questions: is the North/South split the real line? Where does Riviera Village end?
“Big city, bigger parking lots.” Del Amo (“pack snacks”), an Old Torrance downtown with ramen lines, and a refinery that is “El Segundo’s rival in aromas.”
Open questions: Torrance is big. Which neighborhoods did we flatten into “West Side”?
Roughly in the order we’ll try them
Locals know the real borders
Keep it kind and about places, not people. Nothing you send is published without review.