CITY & ITS PEOPLE
In LA, your area code is your personality.
Greater LA has 12 area codes, each with its own persona: 213 the old guard, 310 the beach halo, 818 the Valley Girl, 626 Little Taipei. With Taiwanese translations: next time, the first three digits of a phone number roughly tell you how long the drive is.
Translated from Jasmine’s original Chinese. The illustrated slides are on the interactive reader.
Key points
- In LA, your area code is your ID: 213, 323, 310, 818, 626...
- The 626 is a home away from home for Taiwanese, and you can get by in Chinese all day
- 714 and 949 aren't LA, they're OC
- Check a restaurant's area code before you book and you'll know roughly how long the drive is
Full text
First, the basics | Three digits, a whole persona
When Angelenos meet, they love to ask 'what area are you in?', and the area code is the fastest answer; it gets printed on tees and hats and even becomes brand names. Taiwanese translation: like 02, 04, 07.
213 | The OG downtown
DTLA, the Arts District, K-Town, Little Tokyo, Echo Park. Around since 1947, and every other code split off from it; get a new number now and you'll likely land 738. 213 = 02.
323 | The Creative
Hollywood, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Highland Park. Vintage, vinyl, natural wine; you can't tell what they do, but they're busy every day. Taiwanese translation: Chifeng Street + the Shida area.
310 | The Westsider, rich and beachy
Santa Monica, Malibu, Beverly Hills to Manhattan Beach. Pilates in the morning, Erewhon at noon, a beach walk at dusk. 424 is the same area's newer code: same rent, a little less swagger.
818｜Valley Girl
Burbank, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Calabasas. The studios and Universal Studios are actually all here, and summer is way hotter than the beach. In Taipei, crossing the bridge means New Taipei; in LA, over the hill means the Valley.
626 | Taiwanese folks' home away from home: Little Taipei
Arcadia, San Gabriel, Alhambra, Monterey Park. Back in the '80s, Monterey Park was already called Little Taipei, and you can live entirely in Chinese. Off a 12-hour flight: wait, isn't this Taipei?
562 | The port city that's its own thing
Long Beach, Downey, Whittier, Cerritos. It has a port, the Queen Mary and its own airport; call them an Angeleno and they'll correct you: 'I'm from Long Beach.' LA's Kaohsiung.
661 | The Wide-Open, nature types
Santa Clarita, Palmdale, Lancaster. Big houses, big sky, Six Flags Magic Mountain and spring poppy fields. Pressed on where they live, they just say 'um… north.'
909 | The Suburban Fam
Pomona, Diamond Bar, Walnut, Claremont. Lots of Chinese families, schools are the priority, and it has its own airport, ONT, often easier than LAX. Taiwanese translation: Taoyuan.
BONUS | 714, 949, 657 aren't LA
These codes are the OC: Disney is in 714, Irvine and Newport Beach are in 949. Calling an OC person an Angeleno is like calling someone from Hsinchu a Taipei person; you'll get side-eye.
Fun fact | Your area code isn't necessarily where you live
In the US you don't change numbers when you move, so the 310 person might have moved to the Valley ages ago; plenty of New Yorkers move here and cling to their 917. In most of LA, calling your next-door neighbor still means dialing ten digits.
Pro tip | Use the first three digits to guess the drive
Before booking a restaurant, check the area code on its landline: staying in Santa Monica and see 626? Budget an hour's drive.
Last word
'LA isn't one place, it's 12 frequencies.'
Places in this story
In this series
An original JSLALALAND field guide by Jasmine Chang (@jslalaland).