Listen Up Posers...

(Photo from Los Angeles Almanac)

OK Posers...if your neighborhood, district, and/or community is not listed on this map in BLACK then you are not from Los Angeles, you DO NOT live in Los Angeles, nor are you an Angeleno (unless of course you were born in one of the areas listed in BLACK, but this post is not directed towards you...I'm talking to all the poser transplants out there. Over the last 30 years you have moved yourselves right in and have ruined the place that I love so much). But I have digressed...

But that is OK...if you live in Santa Monica, embrace it, tell the world you're a Santa Monican. Do you find your home address is West Hollywood, great! You're a WeHobian. What about Alhambra? Then you're an Alhambrite, etc, etc, etc...

It is as simple as that. Feel free to claim your allegiance to Los Angeles County, that is something we all can be proud of. Just don't claim to be from "LA" when you really aren't.

What about me you ask? Full disclosure: I was born as a Long Beach-ian (that doesn't really work now does it), but was raised in Orange County. Yep that is right, I may be a native Southern Californian, I can even say I was born and raised in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, or even the Los Angeles Basin. These are all true, but the fact is I'm just an Orange County boy living in Los Angeles, because my neighborhood DOES show up in BLACK on that map! I guess you could say I'm a Los Orangeleno...scary how well that one works!

So, love where you're from, what city you live, and what you are. Don't be ashamed of who you are, and above all try not to be a poser any move...Frankly, I'm tired of it.