Westside : A Neighborhood in Need of a Name

Visit Ballona Shores, L.A.’s newest beach resort.

OK, it’s not a resort. It’s really a neighborhood near the Ballona Creek drainage channel, and the name is a joke. Sort of.

It came up when officials of the Los Angeles County Flood Control Management District had bad news and good news to share with residents of the area near Venice and La Cienega boulevards.

The bad: Work is beginning on a new drain project that will gather rainwater from the Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood and dump it--along with toxic runoff and garbage--from a 25-foot-wide pipe into the channel that runs through their neighborhood.

The good: Shade trees, new roads, better drainage for the channel and a sign identifying the neighborhood. What was it called, again?

That’s just the problem--the neighborhood doesn’t have a name. When the floor was opened for suggestions, Ballona Shores got the most laughs.

Work began earlier this month, but the neighborhood still has no name. Motorists will feel the pain all the way up to Sunset Boulevard as stretches of Crescent Heights Boulevard are dug up for the next four years . . .