Find the edge of LA

Posted by Smokey Stover on August 10, 2005

In Reply to: Find the edge of LA posted by Kashima on August 10, 2005

: : : Could someone help me what "find the edge of this city(Los Angeles)" mean in the following conversation by a father who lives in LA and a successful son who is now building a huge house in Hollywood Hills:

: : : A(son) :Do you like LA?
: : : B(father):Do I like LA? If I could find the edge of this town, I'd leave it. But you are the edge of this town now, and you are everywhere.

: : : In this case, does "edge of this town" mean the high-class residential district? Is the father saying that if he was able to succeed and find a house in the outskirts of LA where the rich live, he would have left LA (downtown or wherever he is living).

: : : Thank you in advance.

: : I think it means that he dislikes LA so much that he'd willingly leave, if only he could find where the town ends and the rest of the world starts.
: : Let's see what our US members think!

: In that case, then what would "you are the edge of this town now. You are everywhere" mean? Before this conversation, the father says to his son who has now become a Hollywood star, "this town is yours", and the son replies, "I'm doing pretty good". Could it mean that "Your name is all over the town now, so I can tell where the end of the city is. If I don't see your name, then it's the outside the city."?

There are three sentences in the father's utterance. The first is a question. The second is, "If I could find the edge of L.A., I'd leave it." That part's easy. The third sentence needs a context. So let's do the second. Where's the edge of L.A.? Do you have a reference work? American cities don't follow a single model. The city of Philadelphia is co-extensive with the County of Philadelphia (although it has named districts within it). New York City now contains the five boroughs (though it did not always), each of which is a county. Los Angeles--ah (sigh!). The city proper has an area of 466 sqare miles (pretty small), or 1,207 sq. km. However, as the seat of Los Angeles County and the center of a metropolis, it has 4,070 sq. miles, 10,541 sq. km. What we call Los Angeles is all or part of this metropolitan area, which includes 80 incorporated cities, the Santa Monica Mountains, and the San Fernando Valley. The City of Hollywood recently made history by threatening to secede from Los Angeles. Besides Hollowood, there are Glendale, Burbank, Beverly Hills, Westwood, Culver City, even Pasadena and Long Beach. So you see that it might be difficult to find the edge of town. SS