(310) Threatened

The Times reported on Saturday that the Westside’s beloved 310 area code is in danger of running out of phone numbers and being overlayed with the new 424 code.

They take a look at the mystique associated with our 310 area code, which covers Brentwood, Westwood, Beverly Hills and Century City, but only prove how absurd area code elitism really is. One of the Times’ examples: 310 Tattoo & Body Piercing, which is at 310 W. Pacific Coast Highway in Wilmington and has a 310 phone number. You have to wonder how much extra tattoo business these guys actually get because of the 310 association. Or that 310 Lounge & Bistro on Pico? The Times helpfully asks the guy with a financial stake in it why he named it so. “It stirs up feeling of ‘Ah, Ooh,’” says one of the owners. This guy seriously needs some help if he really Ahhs and Oohs over 310 area codes. I wonder how much of his club’s clientele he wants coming up from Compton or Hawthorne? (Both of which are also 310 territory.)

But perhaps most disturbing is the note that internet phone providers (Vonage, et al) are giving away precious 310 phone numbers to slack-jawed yokels that live out of town, even out of state. If you want 310 digits, you come down here and pay our high rents and mortgages, sit in our traffic, choke in our air, and have your screenplays sit unproduced like the rest of us. You got to pay tha cost to be da boss.

Legit 310er’s: Get your area code bling here.