Torrance’s Delthorne Neighborhood and the Article That Caused a Conflict

A Writing Project

More than a decade ago, a real estate firm hired writers from the defunct Helium writing platform to write brief descriptive articles about several neighborhoods throughout the United States.

The job was lucrative. At 300 word maximum, these articles required a minimal study of Google maps and just a brief description of the places. And at $20 to $30 dollars per profile one could knock out three to four of these articles in a day.

The project lasted for six months, and seemingly, every week they dumped assignments for various city neighborhoods. This particular article arrived in a huge batch of neighborhoods throughout California. A bunch of them focused on neighborhoods in Torrance, my home town. I thought it would be a piece of cake; however, the firm responsible for this also hired editors from Helium. And if anyone who had to work with Helium will know, editors were few and far between and were often made up of writers that had very little experience as editors.

An inexperienced Editor

Often, I completed an article, turned it in and received acknowledgement that they were accepted. However, the process wasn't smooth with one particular editor. She kept returning my articles for neighborhoods such as Southwood (where I grew up) for including that the article shouldn’t have “opinions” such as it is windswept and relatively cool, compared to the rest of the city and neighboring communities.

I was flabbergasted. My inclusion of this information was something unique to the neighborhood (which they wanted) because it is within a mile of the ocean and was often breezy. I was in no mood to argue with it. Thus, I removed that portion and did what I could. Due to the need to trim the story to its desired length, it was easy to remove this.

But, things got extremely ridiculous when it came to writing about Delthorne, a neighborhood named for the nearby crossroads of Del Amo and Hawthorne Boulevard. In addition, the dominant park in this neighborhood was named Delthorne Park and gave it its name.

This article was returned to me by the same editor that returned my previous article. Her reasoning was that I misspelled the neighborhood’s name. . Her claim was that the Google Map she used said so, but it was obvious I spelled it correctly. I resubmitted the article, stating that there is nothing wrong with the name. After three frustrating tries to resubmit the article, she finally stated that the name of the neighborhood is “Delthome.” Keep in mind that this was a neighborhood I regularly traveled and shopped in.

I relented, and reluctantly changed the name to Delthome (why did she think it was named this? I'd later discover that it had to do with the confusing font on Google Map that made the R and N look like an M). This should have been the end of the story, but there’s more to it (and you can read about that in another post).

Anyway, here is the original article with the proper name of the neighborhood. I have no idea if it is still on the real estate firm’s site; however, as of this writing, 15 years has passed since it was sent to them.

The Community of Delthorne

The community of Delthorne derives its name from two streets that form its western and northern borders -- Hawthorne Boulevard and Del Amo Boulevard. Yet, this contraction of two names is indicative of this vital Torrance community.

Delthorne is a combination of residential neighborhoods, commercial sectors, and industrial zones. It’s located near important sites in Torrance such as its main public library, city hall, Los Angeles County Courthouse, the heavily commercialized Hawthorne Boulevard, and Del Amo Fashion Center.

Besides being Torrance’s economic, political and legal center, it’s a critical region for all the cities and communities of the South Bay, as well as the rest of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

Just east of Madrona Avenue (its eastern border) is Mobil’s Torrance Oil Refinery. It is a massive installation and has been the physical and economic mainstay in the region long before Torrance was incorporated as a city.

This industrial landscape is balanced by Delthorne Park on the western side of Madrona Avenue. The “L”-shaped park is a moderate sized park with rolling green knolls. Like most parks it’s made for the family. There’s a picnic area under the shades of pine trees.

Also, it has a fully equipped playground and a basketball court. The park also has a trail that reaches nearly every corner. This is part of the reason it is often used by local high school cross-country teams for tournaments.

Another popular destination for high school athletes, especially for members of the Torrance Unified School District Swim team is the Victor E. Bernstead Plunge (or the Plunge as the locals know it). The swim team comprises students from Torrance, North, South and West High School. This is one of the few times the students from these four high schools will put differences aside and unite.