Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
It's fun how downtown Chicago and downtown LA are inversions of each other.
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Basically by design.
Back in 1947 when area codes were created in the US, the cities with the largest amount of long distance calls made to it were given priority with lower numbered area codes, because back then all phones had rotary dials, and it was faster to dial "213" vs., say, "808" (Hawaii) because of the amount of pulses it takes to make/amount of time it takes for the rotary dial to get back to its position.
NYC: 212
Los Angeles: 213
Chicago: 312
Detroit: 313
Philadelphia: 215
I'm old enough to remember when all of Los Angeles County south of the San Gabriel Mountains was 213, and 714 was not only just Orange County, but the Inland Empire and San Diego too. I remember when 415 also included the East Bay and the Peninsula south of San Francisco to the San Jose area, where it's 408.
Now, I think California has 41 area codes. Greater LA has so many area codes now, I can't keep up. I think the notion of the OP is already outdated. 213 is now overlaid with 323 and 738. 310 is overlaid with 424. Most if not all of California has 10 digit dialing now, including within geographical area codes without overlays. But with speed dialing and being able to program your contacts, that doesn't really matter anymore unless you're calling someone or a business that's not in your contacts.
It's funny, because last year, my partner and I finally got rid of our land line, which we've had since 1998. It was a 626 area code number. The rep my partner spoke with at the phone company even said "are you sure you don't want to transfer that number to another phone? You've had that number for so long." Hehe of course my partner said no. And this year, my parents finally got rid of their land line, which they've had since 1978. The rep asked the same thing, and added "some people are really attached to their phone numbers, especially if they've had them for so long. Are you sure you don't want to transfer it to another line?" My parents didn't care. It was a 562 number. Their cell phone (they share) is a 562 number. My cell is 562, my partner's is 626. It's funny because my parents have lived in the same house since 1978, they've had the same number since then too, but they've had 3 area codes because of geographical area code splits (before overlays became a thing): 213, which later changed to 310, which later changed to 562.
My sister and her husband, even though they haven't lived in Hawaii since 2011 or 2012, kept their cell phone numbers. They like their 808 area code; maybe they think of it as proof they've lived in Hawaii?
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