LA Times geography throws USC a curve

For whatever reasons, grokking the inner map of Los Angeles is just not one of the LA Times' strengths. Tonight, it's USC that pays the price. Perhaps it's a small price, but the university's image has recently been stung by the killing of the two Chinese graduate students, and the resulting media stories about safety around the South LA campus. Tonight, the Times linked the concerns about USC security to another violent shooting. See below:

Problem is, that shooting the Times calls "in a neighborhood near USC" actually occurred five miles west of the campus, as the Google Maps robot clocks it. That's in Baldwin Hills, which might appear to be "near USC" if you consider anything in the greater South Los Angeles region as USC proximate. (Both are in the LAPD's Southwest division, so there's that.) For anyone with a basic grasp of Los Angeles street geography, the giveaway should have been the address: the 5500 block of Coliseum Street. That's not close to the Coliseum, aka USC. The 5500 hundred block of any east-west street is way out west of La Brea — in this case, almost to La Cienega.

You know what's actually closer to USC than the 5500 block of Coliseum, according to Google Maps? The Los Angeles Times building downtown.

Previously on LA Observed:
Funky geography redux
Oops, Google Maps robot drinking again
LA geography baffles the Times again
Jackson good for L.A. Times numbers