LAX
“Planes so low you can read the tail numbers.”
Technically Los Angeles, emotionally ours. Nobody here hears the planes anymore, which is how you spot a visitor: they’re the one looking up.
MAPS / HUMOR / OCT 30, 2026
Regions of El Segundo.
Borders approximate, smells exact.
Every town has neighborhoods it argues about. Ours fit on one page: a runway at the top, a refinery in the middle and a lot of lanyards on the east side. Here’s the map, a short tour, and a request: tell us what we got wrong.
A humor map, drawn with affection. Borders are approximate and the captions are jokes, not claims about anyone. Not an official City of El Segundo page.
The tour
North to south, 12 regions, about two minutes
Hyperion
“Not our smell. Officially.”
Also technically Los Angeles, and we’d like that on the record. It gets a dashed border, like LAX, for the same reason.
Tree Section
“Tree-named streets, strollers and the Plunge.”
The streets read like a nursery catalog, the sidewalks are a stroller expressway, and summer runs on the public pool everyone calls the Plunge.
Rec Park
“Little League and minivans.”
The civic backyard. If you’ve lived here a year you have stood at that fence holding a coffee and yelling something encouraging.
Richmond Street
“Dive bars and a pipe organ.”
The skinniest region on the map and maybe the best. Yes, the pipe organ is real: the Old Town Music Hall plays one for silent films and concerts.
Main Street
“Mayberry by the Sea.”
Said with love and a slight eye roll. Small shops, good coffee and the same three people you run into every single time.
Smoky Hollow
“Breweries, makers and garage startups.”
Machine shops next to tasting rooms next to a company that will probably be on the news in five years. Bring a hoodie and a business card.
Aerospace Alley
“Rockets, satellites and the Lakers’ gym.”
Where the badges have security clearances. And somewhere among the hangars, the Lakers practice at the UCLA Health Training Center.
Chevron Refinery
“Smells like money.”
The biggest region on the map and the reason there’s a map at all. The town takes its name from Standard Oil’s second refinery in California: el segundo, the second.
The Point
“Where Manhattan Beach shops.”
An El Segundo shopping center that our neighbors to the south treat as their own. We let them. We’re generous like that.
Cubicle Country
“Badges, lanyards and a 5 p.m. 405 jam.”
Glass towers, standing desks and a daily migration that starts around 4:45. If you work here and live elsewhere, hello, and thanks for lunch.
El Segundo Beach
“Surfers, sunsets and smokestacks.”
One of the few beaches where the sunset shares the frame with industry, and somehow that makes it better. Locals know. Everyone else drives past.
What did we get wrong?
This map gets better with locals
Maps like this are a conversation. Is Hilltop its own region? Does Grand Avenue deserve a name? Is there a better line for Cubicle Country? Did we miss your corner entirely? Tell us, and the next version will carry the best ideas, credited by first name or handle if you like.
- A missing region or a better caption. Send it through Share an update (choose “Correction”), or email mh@pointcast.xyz.
- Want one on your wall or your water bottle? We’re thinking about a small run of stickers and prints. If you’d buy one, send a one-line email. No sign-up, no list, just a count.
- Draw or write for the next town. Local artists and writers welcome. The neighbors’ maps below are first drafts and need people who actually live there.
Please keep it kind and about places, not people. Nothing you send is published without review.
Next: the neighbors
First drafts, same pen, same affection
We started on the towns around us. These are rough and almost certainly wrong in ways only locals can see.
About this map
How it was made
Drawn in code with Claude from a list of regions and jokes, then published by Michael Hoydich. It is creative work, not local reporting: no region boundary here is official, and the captions are opinions about places, offered with affection. The three facts in the tour link to their sources.