david@indetech.com (David Kuder) (10/19/89)
This appeared in the Tuesday, Oct. 17, 1989 [Los Angeles Times].
Typed in without permission. All views are those of Robert A. Jones.
One editorial observation, East L.A. is largely Hispanic,
South-Central is largely black. Both are lower income areas. The
Westside is an upper income area where the only color that counts is
the color of your money.
"Forget Signs - What's Your Area Code?" by Robert A. Jones
There is a building in Pasadena where they make new area codes for
Southern California. If you call directory assistance, the operator
will not admit this building exists. Its number is unlisted. But
somewhere in the dungeons of this Pac Bell office, right now, a new
area code is being planned for L.A.
Not all of L.A., of course. Just certain parts. Once again, the city
has outgrown 213 and some neighborhoods must be marked for exile to a
new number, a new identity. Eventually, in the next three or four
years, a visitation will take place in the dark of night. Whole
blocks, small cities, will be taken away, never to see 213 again.
If you don't understand the repercussions, think of it this way: there
are only three area codes that mean anything in this country. They
are 212 in Manhattan, 202 in D.C., and our own 213. Everyday, from
dawn to midnight, 212 gets on the horn to 213 and vice versa. In
turn, both 212 and 213 light up the fiber-optics to 202. These three
form a troika of codes; they run the country, and you're either in
this troika or you're out. Soon, a big chunk of L.A. will be out.
Take a look at a map of 213 and you will see how hard the choice will
be. Compared to this, the 818 thing was easy. With 818, Pac Bell
simply ran the boundary down the ridge line of the Hollywood Hills.
Everyone to the north was out. Ther was such a logic to it that the
whining of the 818's was fruitless.
This time there is no geography to use. That means the company has to
make its decision on cultural grounds. Should the Westside be lopped
off? Just picture the wailing. Or should downtown become the
cultural amputee, cut off from its telephonic roots?
In truth, Pac Bell could go after the smaller players, like East L.A.
or South-Central. There's one major problem with this strategy: it
would leave the company vunerable to the charge that Latinos and
Blacks had been gerrymandered out of the code, leaving 213 to the rich
whites. As I say, this could get ugly.
And there's the matter of the new number itself. This country has
been gobbling areas codes so fast that only a few remain available.
The phone company won't reveal these numbers, but that's O.K. We've
made a our own calculations, based on the arcane rules of area code
formation. This list of possibilites looks pretty much like this:
310, 410, 903, 909, 910.
In my mind, there is only one choice. The numbers ending in 10 are
entirely too friendly for L.A. They're codes for suburbs. And 903 is
nowhere, a nebbish. That leaves 909, a great code. Nine-Oh-Nine has
dark power, it's sort of a Darth Vader number. Nine-Oh-Nine could
carry on the struggle with New York.
All of which leads me to my modest proposal. As we know, show biz has
always existed as a separate community in L.A., a world that's hidden
and unavailable to the minions. Swell. Let's recognize that, draw a
circle around the show biz neighborhoods and give them this new power
code, 909. Then the rest of the city, with the old 213, could
disengage and go its own way.
===========================
[Moderator's Note: I won't even bother to correct some of his errors, but
I have to wonder where he gets the impression that 212/202/213 is all that
matters in the network. And I suppose the same sort of sinister implications
could be made about our impending 312/708 split: Chicago (the minority is
in the majority; blacks and latinos are about 2/3'rds of our population)
gets 312, and the rich, white people in the suburbs get 708. To me, they
are just numbers, and frankly, I think the author of this piece in the
El Lay Times is one doughnut short of a full dozen. PT]cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) (10/19/89)
According to earlier articles in Telecom, 903 is already set aside for upcoming split of 214 in Texas. And when N0X/N1X area codes run out, area codes will have to generalize to the NXX form. Also, I believe it's Bellcore that assigns new area codes (but it's the local companies that draw the boundaries?). Also, 917 is unused.
levin@bbn.com (Joel B Levin) (10/19/89)
>Date: Wed, 18 Oct 89 13:15 PDT >From: David Kuder <david@indetech.com> > >This appeared in the Tuesday, Oct. 17, 1989 [Los Angeles Times]. >"Forget Signs - What's Your Area Code?" by Robert A. Jones ... >[Moderator's Note: I won't even bother to correct some of his errors, but >I have to wonder where he gets the impression that 212/202/213 is all that >matters in the network. . . . I think the author of this piece in the >El Lay Times is one doughnut short of a full dozen. PT] David does not say whether this is an [op-]editorial or other column or a news story. I thought it was meant as a humorous column, and not bad at that. That's not a place I believe actual facts necessarily have any use. Regards / JBL [Moderator's Note: Interesting you mention it. Some of my detractors say the same thing about this Digest: the part about the actual facts having any use. PT]
david@indetech.com (David Kuder) (10/20/89)
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 89 10:22:38 EDT
From: Carl Moore (VLD/VMB) <cmoore@BRL.MIL>
To: David Kuder <indetech.com!david>
Cc: eecs.nwu.edu!telecom
Subject: Re: Yet Another Area Code Split
Message-Id: <8910191022.aa27204@VMB.BRL.MIL>
According to earlier articles in Telecom, 903 is already set
aside for upcoming split of 214 in Texas. And when N0X/N1X
area codes run out, area codes will have to generalize to the
NXX form. Also, I believe it's Bellcore that assigns new area
codes (but it's the local companies that draw the
boundaries?).
I guess I wasn't clear enough in the header of my news article. That
was a transcription of a L.A. Times article. All the first person
references are those of Robert A. Jones, the author of the article. I
am aware (from reading the Telecom Digest) that his list of area codes
was incorrect. Forgive me for not editorializing the transcription.
Let me reiterate for the readers of the digest that other than the
first paragraph of my message, the article was the work of and the
opinions of and the knowledge of Robert A. Jones.
David A. Kuder Comp.lang.perl, the time is now!
415 438-2003 david@indetech.com {uunet,sun,sharkey,pacbell}!indetech!david