Highland Park's Boundaries: Where Do You Draw the Line?

Long time Angelenos often cite neighborhood life as one of the unheralded benefits of living in Los Angeles.  It's not hard to see why, especially in a neighborhood like Highland Park.

For starters, useful public services can all be found in centralized locations. We have the well stocked on N. Figueroa St. Right across the way is the Highland Park Senior Center, which is also where the does business on the first and third Thursday of every month. 

Children from Highland Park attend school within their own neighborhood at and . There's also a host neighborhood elementary schools. For many young folks, there's really no reason to ever leave Highland Park.

Highland Park also offers several weekly, monthly and annual events that provide us an opportunity to gather and celebrate community. , the annual holiday parade and the regular classes at are all points of great civic pride.

In many ways, Highland Park exists like an autonomous city. People here may reside in Los Angeles, but they are from Highland Park, if you catch my drift.

As you know, though, Highland Park was the first town to be annexed by Los Angeles, way back in 1895. So while it may feel like it's own city; it's not. Which, of course, has its advantages. (Disadvantages too, but that's a column for another day.) On the plus side,  we're able to enjoy the cache of being official L.A. residents, while at the same time enjoying all the conveniences of neighborhood life.

What we don't get, though, are borders. And for some reason that I can't quite shake, that sort of bugs me. The official "Highland Park" signs that greet us on York, near , and North Fig, near , feel more like suggestions than mandates.

Now, I'm sure many of you can easily provide your own "official" coordinates for the neighborhood's boundaries. Here's how I see it. For argument's sake, let's say York Boulevard runs (roughly) southeast to northwest and N. Figueroa St. runs southwest to northeast. I'll open another can of worms and merge Garvanza and Highland Park. Therefore, the southeastern border of Highland Park, in my opinion, is Judson Studios on S. Ave. 66 while the northwestern border is Troy's Burgers. Along Figueroa, I consider Optimist High School to be the northeast border and the Lummis House at 200 E. Ave. 43 the southwestern boundary.

Some argue that if you live within the 90042 zip code, then you're a Highland Park resident. But what of Hermon and Monterey Hills residents?

So where's the trump card? I've drawn my lines in the sand around Highland Park, but anybody's free to come along and wipe them away, redraw them and unofficially expand the population and square footage of the neighborhood.

Highland Park residents are independent and generally used to going about their business without too much civic interference. For better or worse, there's not a lot of citations being put in Highland Park's mailboxes telling residents to trim their trees. The residents of Highland Park figure things out own their own, because more often than not, the mayor and city council have better things to do than to meddle in their business. One of the many things Highland Park residents get to figure out on there, I guess, are the boundaries of their neighborhood.

So what about you? Where does your Highland Park begin and end?