The original impetus for this blog was my desire to set the record straight about where I live.
There is a chunk of unincorporated Los Angeles County generally known
as Whittier, unincorporated Whittier, or East Whittier, but called East
La Mirada by the U.S. Census Bureau and by others who use census data,
like mapmakers and realtors. I'd like wipe East La Mirada off the map.
The
purpose of these posts was to convince the Census Bureau to change the
name of their census designated place from East La Mirada to East
Whittier in the hope that everyone using the Census Bureau's place names
will follow suit. I emailed them in November of 2011, and began a correspondence with a very nice fellow there who examined my evidence, ran it by other folk at the Census Bureau, confirmed the idea with people from LA County, and eventually told me that they'd all agreed to change the name. It'll take a while, he said, before we saw any evidence of the change. The last time I checked (September of 2012), Googlemaps still calls us East La Mirada, but I'm patient.
I've also corresponded with the LA Times, which has a mapping project. They've said they'll also change the name in their database. Soon.
Below are links to the evidence I compiled to support my argument in favor of a name change.
Comments about the name by readers on the LA Times community pages
How a census designated place is named
What the Whittier County Community Coordinating Council calls the place
What realtors call the place
A history of the name
A summary of the evidence
Success: The Census Bureau has agreed to the name change!
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