In 1997, the local comedy show Almost Live aired a sketch about the region’s transition to the new 425 area code for Eastside residents (and 253 down in the Tacoma area). During a faux info session hosted by the telephone company, resident after resident—including a young Joel McHale—comes forward to express confusion about whether to dial a 1 when using all these new area codes. (You don’t.)

The main takeaway: people are dumb and don’t listen to instructions. But there’s one joke—tucked close to the end—that fans always remember.

Cast member Tracey Conway, dressed as a ’90s proto-Karen and clutching an actual strand of pearls, approaches the mic: “I see an error on your chart,” she says in her best haughty tone. “I live on the Eastside and you’ve mistakenly included Renton with us in the 425 area code.” She’s indignant to learn this isn’t an error: “Do you know what this is going to do to our property values?”

Confusion about dialing 10-digit numbers seems quaint in today’s smartphone landscape. But the crack about excluding certain towns from the Eastside? Now that’s a joke that holds up.

The term “Eastside” is a little bit like “hipster”—full of connotations, but little formal meaning. Broadly, it’s our regional vernacular for the cluster of towns east of Seattle, across Lake Washington. But is there a definitive list of which towns qualify?

Some towns are obvious, like Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Mercer Island, Sammamish, and Issaquah. Newcastle? Counts. A literal interpretation would include any town on the eastern side of Lake Washington. That would mean your Kenmores and Bothells and, yes, a chunk of Renton.

King County Council Member Claudia Balducci seemed like a good person to weigh in. She represents District 6, the heart of the Eastside. She was also previously the mayor of Bellevue (and is a current fan of that Almost Live sketch).

She pointed out that a few formal governmental definitions do exist, like the Eastside Transportation Partnership, which includes easterly towns like Carnation and North Bend. Definitions like the one on Wikipedia she describes as “purely social.”

“Also, there’s the longstanding debate about Renton,” Balducci said via email. “I consider it Eastside but it also has some affinity with South King County. I would be very interested to know what Renton thinks of itself!”

I did not dial a 1 when reaching out to the office of Renton mayor Armondo Pavone. City spokeswoman Laura Pettitt described Washington's ninth-largest town as the confluence of Seattle, Eastside, and the South Sound. "Kind of like where many rivers meet." She also offered this fantastic rule of thumb: "If you have to get on [Interstate] 405, most do consider themselves Eastsiders."

To make things more confusing, Council Member Balducci pointed out that residents elsewhere in Washington use “Eastside” to mean “the eastern half of the state.” She often sidesteps misunderstandings with the term “East King County.”

“Eastside” certainly carries some socioeconomic connotations. According to U.S. Census data, the median household income is $195,000 in Sammamish, $140,000 in Bellevue, and $122,000 in Kirkland. (Renton, by comparison, has a median household income of $84,000.)

There’s also the matter of how far east the Eastside extends. Snoqualmie, for instance, feels less Eastside, more East King County. One Seattle Met editor considers the border to be roughly where I-90 increases its speed limit to 70 miles per hour. Which is about as helpful a definition as any. Or maybe we borrow a famous one Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart used to define obscenity in 1964: “I know it when I see it.”