Pendersleigh & Sons Cartography — Map of Los Angeles Neighborhoods and Los Angeles County Communities

I worked on the actual map for about six weeks but I’ve been mapping Los Angeles since about 2007. Most of the maps are done with ink, oil paint, or water colors but computer maps do have their advantages. For example, it’s a lot easier to change this map than it is a painted one, which usually involves patches and glue. Anyway, hope you enjoy and feel free to offer suggestions.

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Here’s a variation of the map with the communities grouped by region, something which is bound to be contentious. I’ve yet to meet two people who share a definition of which neighborhoods are Westside, South Bay, or even San Fernando Valley. Many communities straddle more than one region (places like San Dimas, Burbank, Montebello, &c). To paraphrase the lyrics to the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 theme song, “Just repeat to yourself ‘It’s just a show, I should really just relax’.”

Using the original map I decided to create a map just of the city of Los Angeles and its neighborhoods.

A flipside of the previous map, one which removes the city of Los Angeles, thus shifting the focus to the other communities of Los Angeles County. There are 87 other cities and almost as many unincorporated communities.

These, then, are the unincorporated communities of Los Angeles County. There are other unincorporated pockets which are generally lumped in with the cities they neighbor, such as in Calabasas, Rolling Hills, Claremont, Long Beach, and others.

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Eric Brightwell is an adventurer, writer, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener who is always seeking writing, speaking, traveling, and art opportunities — or salaried work. He is not interested in writing advertorials, clickbait, listicles, or other 21st century variations of spam. Brightwell’s written work has appeared in Amoeblog, diaCRITICS, and KCET Departures. His work has been featured by the American Institute of Architects, the Architecture & Design Museum, the Craft & Folk Art Museum, Form Follows Function, Los Angeles County Store, Skid Row Housing Trust, and 1650 Gallery. Brightwell has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Magazine, LAist, Eastsider LA, Boing Boing, Los Angeles, I’m Yours, and on Notebook on Cities and Culture. He has been a guest speaker on KCRW‘s Which Way, LA? and at Emerson College. Art prints of his maps are available from 1650 Gallery and on other products from Cal31. He is currently writing a book about Los Angeles and you can follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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