Angeles Mesa to Woodland Hills **

There are now 178 city-recognized communities in Los Angeles—at least thirty-six of them in the Valley, one more if you count Cahuenga Pass. Community is a loose term here though, since the list includes a few blocks of Ventura Boulevard that merchants recently dubbed Tarzana Safari Walk, the dubiously qualified Furniture & Decorative Arts District and Tom Gilmore's fictional creation to trick hipsters into leasing Skid Row lofts: the Old Bank District. The blog L.A. City Nerd kindly provides the entire list.

Also: L.A. City Nerd debunks the belief that Fargo Street in Echo Park is the city's steepest street. Baxter one block over and Highland Park's Eldred Street are steeper at a 33% grade, says the Nerd, but 28th Street in San Pedro has the raddest angle with a grade of 33.3% for a short stretch between Gaffey and Peck. And he oughta know. * Wednesday update: Several people have emailed to point out that the Times' Bob Pool did the story about Fargo, Eldred and 28th streets on Aug. 21, 2003. The photo that the blog uses ran with that story.

** Also: John Shannon emails to note that the list of communities omits the Byzantine-Latino Quarter west of downtown, which has an official sign on the Santa Monica Freeway (and a neon sign at Pico and Normandie.)