GoogleMaps and East Whittier

Google updated the map some time ago, replacing East La Mirada with East Whittier. Hooray.

Success!

This morning I got email from a contact in the Census Bureau who says they've discussed the issue in committee and double-checked with someone in the County of Los Angeles, and have decided to change the name of their census designated place from East La Mirada to East Whittier. It will probably take a long time for the folk who use their data (like Google Maps) to catch up with the change, but I'm patient.

Summary

I have found evidence that East Whittier (by that name) was an unincorporated area of Los Angeles as far back as the late 1800s or early 1900s. In 1961 a portion of East Whittier was annexed by the city of Whittier. I haven't seen historical maps, but I assume the area under discussion is the remainder of the land then know as East Whittier that was not annexed by Whittier.

I've compiled some evidence that the unincorporated area is still widely known as East Whittier.

1. There are street signs on the major and some of the minor intersections that say East Whittier. I've put pictures of a couple on the map, but there are many others. I just got tired of driving around and  looking for places to park so I could take picures of street signs. I haven't found any street signs saying East Whittier outside the map area. I can't prove there are none, but I'm pretty sure.

2. There are two Welcome to East Whittier signs, also noted on the map.

3. Realtors call the area Whittier or East Whittier. If you click the map tag on Lambert, you'll see a scanned image of part of a notepad that a local realtor hands out as a promotion. It's a photo of a Welcome to East Whittier sign.

4. Our mailing addresses are Whitter. That may not be the same as East Whittier, but it certainly isn't East La Mirada.

5. The Whittier County Community Coordinating Council, a citizen group which works with the County Board of Supervisors representing the interests of residents in unincorporated Whittier, alternates it's meetings among three sites, in areas they refer to as West Whittier, South Whittier, and East Whittier. The East Whittier meetings are held at the Southern California University of Health Sciences, shown on the map.

6. The Los Angeles Times has a mapping project in which they provide information about Los Angeles communities. They follow the Census Bureaus designation for this area, calling it East La Mirada. Four people (including me) have made comments there. Of the four, three mention that the name is East Whittier. The fourth doesn't mention the name at all.

Admittedly there are some problems.

1) One of the two Welcome to East Whittier signs that I found is located as you enter what is more commonly called South Whittier. I can't account for that. I drove around that region a bit and didn't find any street signs with the name East Whittier on them.

2) East Whittier continues to be used as the name of a neighborhood in Whittier. Hence we have the East Whittier YMCA, located in incorporated Whittier, and the East Whittier School District whose attendance map includes portions of Whittier, La Mirada (incorporated in 1960), and East Whittier. You can find East Whittier on maps, but they point to the eastern portion of incorporated Whittier.

3) Then there's the case for calling the area East La Mirada. ... Oh, wait a minute. There isn't an argument for East La Mirada. So far as I know, only the Census Bureau and people using Census Bureau data ever call the area East La Mirada.

History of the Name

As far as I can make out, East Whittier has a history going back to the 1800s. I found a reference here to one Joseph McGee who "came to Whittier just after the turn of the century to join his parents, James and Lillii Cammack McGee, pioneer East Whittier ranchers. In 1912, Joseph McGe married Leona Gibson, who had been a teacher in Whittier and school principal in East Whittier." His wife was involved in many organizations, including the East Whittier Woman's Improvement Club. The club building is a historical landmark in what is now incorporated Whittier. (See page 55 of this register.)

Nixon grew up in East Whittier.

In a description of the neighborhoods of Whittier, Wikipedia says,“The area east of College Avenue is referred to as East Whittier. East Whittier was a separate agricultural community until the postwar era. The eastern parts of East Whittier, developed in the 1950s and 60s, are Friendly Hills, Murphy Ranch and Leffingwell Ranch.”

In a newsletter of the Whittier Historic Neighborhood Association, Karen Bennett explains, "East Whittier, mainly citrus, avocado and walnut groves, was never incorporated as a separate city..."

According to the city of Whittier's website, "“The City continued to grow as the City annexed portions of Whittier Boulevard and East Whittier.  The 1961 annexation added over 28,000 people to the population, bringing the total to about 67,000.”

I haven't found maps that would confirm that what is now being called East La Mirada by some, and which I am suggesting should be called East Whittier, was the remaining unincorporated portion of East Whittier after the rest was annexed by Whittier, but that seems like a reasonable assumption.

What Realtors Say

Realtors use maps which use census designations, so homes in East Whittier are usually grouped under the heading East La Mirada. But if you read the descriptions of the homes, La Mirada is rarely mentioned except in the context of a nearby place. The addresses of the homes are all in Whittier, and the descriptions, if they mention a locale, are apt to call it Whittier or East Whittier.

Here's a listing of all East La Mirada homes for sale. If you hover over the images, you can see truncated descriptions using phrases like, "... charming Whittier gem..." and "... East Whittier charmer ..."

Whittier County Community Coordinating Council

The website of the Community Resource Center of the County of Los Angeles includes this information about the Whittier County Community Coordinating Council, a citizen group which represents the interests of residents in unincorporated Whittier, including the region in question:
---------------------------

COMMUNITY MEETINGS

Whittier County Community Coordinating Council
Meetings held the first Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m.

Meeting locations rotate between the following sites:

Community Resource Center, 10750 Laurel Avenue, South Whittier
The Chiropractic College, 16200 Amber Valley Drive, East Whittier
Sorenson Park, 11419 Rosehedge Drive, West Whittier

For inquiries about the Whittier County Community Coordinating Council, please contact
Jean Wall at (562) 943-4271.

---------------------------  

Notice that meetings are regularly held at the Chiropractic College (now renamed The Southern California University of Health Sciences) in East Whittier. Not East La Mirada.

Census Designated Places

The Census Bureau considers the area under discussion to be a census designated place (CDP). They explain what a CDP is here, including this explanation for how a CDP should be named.

---------------- 

7. The CDP name should be one that is recognized and used in daily 
communication by the residents of the community. Because unincorporated 
communities generally lack legally defined boundaries, a commonly used 
community name and the geographic extent of its use by local residents 
is often the best identifier of the extent of a place, the assumption 
being that if residents associate with a particular name and use it to 
identify the place in which they live, then the CDP's boundaries can be 
mapped based on the use of the name. There should be features in the 
landscape that use the name, such that a non-resident would have a 
general sense of the location or extent of the community; for example, 
signs indicating when one is entering the community; highway exit signs 
that use the name; or businesses, schools, or other buildings that make 
use of the name. It should not be a name developed solely for planning 
or other purposes (including simply to obtain data from the Census 
Bureau) that is not in regular daily use by the local residents and 
business establishments.

---------------- 

I figure "East Whittier" meets their criteria for a proper CDP name, and "East La Mirada" does not.