Los Angeles

"Los Angeles" and "L.A." redirect here. For other uses, see Los Angeles (disambiguation) and La.

City of Los Angeles
File:LA05.jpg
Flag Seal
Nickname:  The City of Angels
Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California
State	California
County	Los Angeles County
Settled	1781
Incorporated	April 4 1850
Government
• Type	Mayor-Council
• Mayor	Antonio Villaraigosa
• City Attorney	Rocky Delgadillo
• Governing body	City Council
Area
• City	498.3 sq mi (1,290.6 km2)
• Land	469.1 sq mi (1,214.9 km2)
• Water	29.2 sq mi (75.7 km2)  5.8%
• Urban	1,667.9 sq mi (4,319.9 km2)
Elevation	0– 5,079 ft (0– 1,548 m)
Population  (2006)
• City	3,849,378
• Density	8,205/sq mi (3,168/km2)
• Urban	12,950,129
• Metro	17,775,984
Time zone	UTC-8 (PST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-7 (PDT)
Website	www.ci.la.ca.us/

Los Angeles (IPA: [lɒs ˈændʒəˌlɪs] in English and [los ˈaŋxeles] in Spanish) is the largest city in the state of California by population, the largest on the West Coast, and the second most populous city in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A., it is an alpha world city having an estimated 2006 population of 3,849,378and spanning 469.1 square miles (1,214.9 square kilometers). The Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana metropolitan area is the estimated home to nearly 13 million people. The Greater Los Angeles Area, encompassing a larger area of five counties, has an estimated population of over 17.7 million people. Los Angeles is the county seat of Los Angeles County and its inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos.

Los Angeles was founded in 1781 by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula). It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following independence from Spain and then a part of the United States in 1848 at the conclusion of the Mexican-American War. It was incorporated as a municipality on April 4 1850—five months before California achieved statehood.

Los Angeles is one of the world's centers of culture, science, technology, international trade, and higher education, and is home to world-renowned institutions in a broad range of professional and cultural fields. The city and its immediate vicinity lead the world in producing popular entertainment—such as motion picture, television, and recorded music—which forms the base of Los Angeles' international fame and global status.

History

Main article: History of Los Angeles, California

The old city plaza, 1869.

The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva (or Gabrieleños) and Chumash Native American tribes thousands of years ago. The first Europeans arrived in 1542 under Joao Cabrilho, a Portuguese explorer who claimed the area as the City of God for the Spanish Empire but continued with his voyage and did not establish a settlement. The next contact would not come until 227 years later when Gaspar de Portola, together with Franciscan missionary Juan Crespi, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2 1769. Crespi noted that the site had the potential to be developed into a large settlement.

In 1771, Franciscan friar Junipero Serra had the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel built near Whittier Narrows in what is now called San Gabriel Valley. In 1777, the new governor of California, Felipe de Neve, recommended to the viceroy of New Spain that the site previously recommended by Juan Crespi be developed into a pueblo. The town was founded on September 4, 1781 by a group of 44 settlers and was named "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula," ("The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels on the River Porciúncula"). These settlers were of Filipino, Native American, African, and Spanish ancestry, with two-thirds being mestizo or mulatto; a majority of the settlers had at least partial African ancestry. The settlement remained a small ranch town for decades, but by 1820 the population had increased to about 650 residents, making it the largest civilian (non-mission) community in Spanish California. Today, the look and feel of the pueblo is preserved in a historic monument called Olvera Street, the oldest part of Los Angeles.

New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, and the pueblo continued as a part of Mexico. Mexican rule ended during the Mexican-American War, when Americans took control from the Californios after a series of battles, culminating in the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. Later, with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, the Mexican government formally ceded Alta California and other territories to the United States.

File:LA05.jpg

Downtown Los Angeles from the Santa Ana Freeway.

Railroads arrived when the Southern Pacific completed its line to Los Angeles in 1876. Oil was discovered in 1892, and by 1923 Los Angeles was producing one-quarter of the world's petroleum. By 1900, the population had grown to more than 100,000 people , which began to tax Los Angeles' water supply. The 1913 completion of the Los Angeles aqueduct under the supervision of William Mulholland assured the continued growth of the city. In 1915, Los Angeles began the annexation of dozens of neighboring communities without water supplies of their own.

In the 1920s, the motion picture and aviation industries flocked to Los Angeles, eventually becoming cornerstones of the local economy. Los Angeles in 1932, now with a population past the 1 million mark, hosted the Summer Olympics. This period also saw the arrival of exiles from the increasing pre-war tension in Europe, including Thomas Mann, Fritz Lang, Bertolt Brecht, Arnold Schoenberg, and Lion Feuchtwanger. World War II brought new growth and prosperity to the city, although many of its Japanese-American residents were transported to internment camps for the duration of the war. The post-war years saw an even greater boom as urban sprawl expanded the city into the San Fernando Valley.

Much like the rest of the United States, Los Angeles in the 1960s and early 1970s had to come to terms with changing race relations; the Watts riots in 1965, the high school walkout by Chicano students in 1968, and the 1970 Chicano Moratorium were representative of the racial strife present within the city. In 1969, Los Angeles became one of the birthplaces of the Internet, as the first ARPANET transmission was sent from UCLA to SRI in Menlo Park.

Los Angeles was the first city where AIDS was discovered in the 1980s and the center of many hair metal bands of the decade. In 1984, it hosted the Summer Olympics for the second time. The rest of the 1980s was plagued by an increase in gang violence, as crack cocaine became widely available. Racial tensions surfaced again in the 1990s with the Rodney King controversy and the large-scale riots that followed. In 1994, the Northridge earthquake shook the city, causing 72 deaths. Also that year, O.J. Simpson led police on a chase before surrendering to face murder charges in the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend. Los Angeles faced the threat of losing its San Fernando Valley and Hollywood sections in 2002, but residents voted down secession by a wide margin. The 2000s has seen a rise in urban redevelopment and gentrification in various parts of the city, most notably Echo Park and Downtown.

Geography

See also: Los Angeles Basin; Los Angeles County, California; Maps of Los Angeles, California; and List of area codes in Southern California

Topography

Los Angeles has a total area of 498.3 square miles (1,290.6 km²), comprising 469.1 square miles (1,214.9 km²) of land and 29.2 square miles (75.7 km²) of water. This makes it the 14th largest city in land area in the United States. The city extends for 44 miles (71 km) longitudinally and for 29 miles (47 km) latitudinally. The perimeter of the city is 342 miles (550 km).

File:Viewfromsky.jpg

View of the Palos Verdes Peninsula with Los Angeles in the distance.

The highest point in Los Angeles is Mount Lukens, also called Sister Elsie Peak. Located at the far reaches of the northeastern San Fernando Valley, it reaches a height of 5,080 ft (1,548 m). The major river is the Los Angeles River, which begins in the Canoga Park district of the city and is largely seasonal. The river is lined in concrete for almost its entire length as it flows through the city into nearby Vernon on its way to the Pacific Ocean.

Geology

Los Angeles is subject to earthquakes due to its location in the Pacific Ring of Fire. The geologic instability produces numerous fault lines both above and below ground, which altogether cause approximately 10,000 earthquakes every year. One of the major fault lines is the San Andreas Fault. Located at the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, it is predicted to be the source of Southern California's next big earthquake. Major earthquakes to have hit the Los Angeles area include the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake, the 1971 San Fernando earthquake near Sylmar, and the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Nevertheless, all but a few quakes are of low intensity and are not felt. Parts of the city are also vulnerable to Pacific Ocean tsunamis; harbor areas were damaged by waves from the Great Chilean Earthquake in 1960.

Climate

The city is situated in a Mediterranean climate zone (Köppen climate classification Csb on the coast, Csa inland), experiencing mild, somewhat wet winters and warm to hot summers. Breezes from the Pacific Ocean tend to keep the beach communities of the Los Angeles area cooler in summer and warmer in winter than those further inland; summer temperatures can sometimes be as much as 18 °F (10 °C) warmer in the inland communities compared to that of the coastal communities. Coastal areas also see a phenomenon known as the "marine layer," a dense cloud cover caused by the proximity of the ocean that helps keep the temperatures cooler throughout the year. When the marine layer becomes more common and pervades farther inland during the months of May and June, it is called June Gloom.

Echo Park, as seen with Lotus Plants and Palm Trees.

Temperatures in the summer can get well over 90 °F (32 °C), but average summer daytime highs in downtown are 82 °F (27 °C), with overnight lows of 63 °F (17 °C). Winter daytime high temperatures will get up to around 65 °F (18 °C), on average, with overnight lows of 48 °F (10 °C) and during this season rain is common. The warmest month is August, followed by July and then September. This somewhat large case of seasonal lag is caused by Los Angeles' proximity to the ocean and its latitude of 34° north.

The median temperature in January is 57 °F (13 °C) and 73 °F (22 °C) in August. The highest temperature recorded within city borders was 119.0 °F (48.33 °C) in Woodland Hills on July 22, 2006; the lowest temperature recorded was 18.0 °F (−7.8 °C) in 1989, in Canoga Park. The highest temperature recorded for Downtown Los Angeles was 112.0 °F (44.4 °C) on June 26 1990, and the lowest temperature recorded was 24.0 °F (−5.0 °C) on January 9 1937.

Rain occurs mainly in the winter and spring months (February being the wettest month) with great annual variations in storm severity. Los Angeles averages 15 inches (38 cm) of precipitation per year. Snow is extraordinarily rare in the city basin, but the mountainous slopes within city limits typically receive snow every year. The greatest snowfall recorded in downtown Los Angeles was 2.0 inches (5 cm) on January 15, 1932.

Climate data for Los Angeles, California (downtown)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Source: weatherbase.com

Flora

The Los Angeles area is rich in native plant species due in part because of a diversity in habitats, including beaches, wetlands, and mountains. The most prevalent environment is coastal sage scrub, which covers the hillsides in combustible chaparral. Native plants include: California poppy, matilija poppy, toyon, coast live oak, and giant wild rye grass. Many of these native species, such as the Los Angeles sunflower, have become so rare as to be considered endangered. Though it is not native to the area, the official flower of Los Angeles is Strelitzia reginae.

Environmental issues

Hills of Griffith Park with smog and downtown L.A. in the background. Griffith Observatory is seen to the left, Downtown Los Angeles in the center.

Due to geography, heavy reliance on automobiles, and the L.A./Long Beach port complex, Los Angeles suffers from air pollution in the form of smog. The Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley are susceptible to atmospheric inversion, which holds in the fumes from road vehicles, airplanes, locomotives, shipping, manufacturing, and other sources. Unlike other large cities that rely on rain to clear smog, Los Angeles only gets 15 inches (381 mm) of rain each year, allowing pollution to accumulate over multiple consecutive days. This has brought much attention from the state of California to mandate low emissions vehicles. As a result, pollution levels have dropped in recent decades. The number of Stage 1 smog alerts has declined from over 100 per year in the 1970s to almost zero in the new millennium. Despite improvement, the 2006 annual report of the American Lung Association ranks the city as the most polluted in the country with short-term particle pollution and year-round particle pollution. In addition, the groundwater is increasingly threatened by MTBE from gas stations and perchlorate from rocket fuel. With pollution still a significant problem, the city continues to take steps to improve air and water conditions.

Cityscape

Main article: List of districts and neighborhoods of Los Angeles

The city is divided into many neighborhoods, many of which were towns that were annexed by the growing city. There are also several independent cities in and around Los Angeles, but they are popularly grouped with the city of Los Angeles, either due to being completely engulfed as enclaves by Los Angeles, or lying within its immediate vicinity. Generally, the city is divided into the following areas: Downtown Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, South Central, the Harbor Area, Hollywood, Wilshire, the Westside, and the San Fernando and Crescenta Valleys.

Some well-known communities of Los Angeles include Watts, Venice Beach, the Downtown Financial District, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Hollywood, Hancock Park, Koreatown, and the extremely affluent areas of Bel-Air, Hollywood Hills, Pacific Palisades, and Brentwood.

The Downtown Los Angeles skyline seen on an average hazy June day, from the Santa Ana Freeway. New Downtown is seen rising over the original Downtown, the Civic Center is seen far to the right. At 1,018 feet, 73 Floors, The US Bank Tower stands as the West Coast's tallest since 1989.

Landmarks

Important landmarks in Los Angeles include Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Disney Concert Hall, Kodak Theater, Griffith Observatory, Getty Center, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood sign, Hollywood Boulevard, Capitol Records Tower, Los Angeles City Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Watts Towers, Staples Center and La Placita Olvera.

• 
  Walt Disney Concert Hall
• 
  Hollywood Sign
• 
  Grauman's Chinese Theatre
• Griffith Observatory
  Griffith Observatory
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  Hollywood Bowl
• 
  Staples Center
• 
  Los Angeles Central Library
• 
  Watts Towers

Culture

The Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by award-winning architect Frank Gehry, is home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Main article: Arts and culture of Los Angeles

The people of Los Angeles are known as Angelenos. Nighttime hot spots include places such as Downtown Los Angeles, Silver Lake, Hollywood, and West Hollywood, which is the home of the world-famous Sunset Strip.

Some well-known shopping areas are the Hollywood and Highland complex, the Beverly Center, Melrose Avenue, Robertson Boulevard, Rodeo Drive, 3rd St. Promenade in Santa Monica, The Grove, Westside Pavillion, The Promenade at Howard Hughes Center and Venice Boardwalk.

See also: List of people from Los Angeles and List of songs about Los Angeles

Sports

Los Angeles is the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League, the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, the Los Angeles Galaxy and Club Deportivo Chivas USA of Major League Soccer, the Los Angeles Riptide of Major League Lacrosse, and the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League. Los Angeles is also home to USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins in the NCAA, both of which are Division I teams part of the Pacific 10 Conference. UCLA has more NCAA national championships, all sports combined, than any other university in America. USC has the third most NCAA national championships, all sports combined, in the United States. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Anaheim Ducks are both based in nearby Anaheim.

Dodger Stadium is the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

There is currently no NFL franchise in the Los Angeles Market, which is the second-largest television market in North America. However, for the past several years, several billionaire entrepreneurs have shown interest in returning football to L.A., with meetings both with the city and the NFL. Prior to 1995, the Rams called Memorial Coliseum (1946-1979) and Anaheim Stadium (1980-1994) home; and the Raiders played their home games at Memorial Coliseum from 1982 to 1994.

Los Angeles has twice played host to the summer Olympic Games, in 1932 and in 1984. When the tenth Olympic Games were hosted in 1932, the former 10th Street was renamed Olympic Blvd. The 1984 Summer Olympics inspired the creation of the Los Angeles Marathon, which has been held every year in March since 1986. Super Bowls I and VII were also held in the city as well as soccer's international World Cup in 1994. Los Angeles applied to represent the USOC in international bidding for the 2016 Summer Olympics, but lost to Chicago.

Beach volleyball and windsurfing were both invented in the area (though predecessors of both were invented in some form by Duke Kahanamoku in Hawaii). Venice, also known as Dogtown, is credited with being the birthplace of skateboarding and the place where Rollerblading first became popular. Area beaches are popular with parties, sunbathers, surfers, swimmers and barefooters, who have created their own subcultures.

File:Staples-centerLA.jpg

Staples Center, a premier venue for sports and entertainment, is home to five professional sports teams.

The Los Angeles area contains varied topography, notably the hills and mountains rising around the metropolis, making Los Angeles the only major city in the United States bisected by a mountain range; four mountain ranges extend into city boundaries. Thousands of miles of trails crisscross the city and neighboring areas, providing opportunities for exercise and wilderness access on foot, bike, or horse. Across the county a great variety of outdoor activities are available, such as skiing, rock climbing, gold panning, hang gliding, and windsurfing. Numerous outdoor clubs serve these sports, including the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club, which leads over 4,000 outings annually in the area.

Los Angeles also boasts a number of sports venues, including the Staples Center, a sports and entertainment complex that also hosts concerts and awards shows such as the Grammys. The Staples Center also serves as the home arena for the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL and the Avengers of the AFL.

Media

Main article: Media in Los Angeles

See also: List of television shows set in Los Angeles

The Fox Plaza, headquarters for 20th Century Fox, in Century City a major financial district for West Los Angeles.

The major daily newspaper in the area is The Los Angeles Times. La Opinión is the city's major Spanish-language paper. There are also a wide variety of smaller regional newspapers, alternative weeklies and magazines, including the Daily News (which focuses coverage on the San Fernando Valley), L.A. Weekly, Los Angeles CityBeat, Los Angeles magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Los Angeles Daily Journal (legal industry paper), The Hollywood Reporter and Variety (entertainment industry papers), and Los Angeles Downtown News. In addition to the English- and Spanish-language papers, numerous local periodicals serve immigrant communities in their native languages, including Armenian, Korean, Persian, Russian and Japanese.

Many cities adjacent to Los Angeles also have their own daily newspapers whose coverage and availability overlaps into certain Los Angeles neighborhoods. Examples include the Daily Breeze (serving the South Bay), and The Long Beach Press-Telegram.

The Los Angeles metro area is served by a wide variety of local television stations, and is the second-largest designated market area in the U.S. with 5,431,140 homes (4.956% of the U.S.).

Los Angeles is the only city to have all 7 VHF allocations possible assigned to it. Other markets have 7 VHF but they are split among different cities. For instance, New York City has 7 VHF allocations but two of these are assigned to cities in New Jersey.

Los Angeles Times Headquarters

Los Angeles, along with Washington, DC, is one of the few TV markets that did not have a VHF allocation reserved for public broadcasting.

The major network television affiliates include KABC-TV 7 (ABC), KCBS 2 (CBS), KNBC 4 (NBC), KTTV 11 (FOX), KTLA 5 (The CW), and KCOP 13 (My Network TV), and KPXN 30 (i). There are also four PBS stations in the area, including KVCR 24, KCET 28, KOCE 50, and KLCS 58. World TV operates on two channels, KNET-LP 25 and KSFV-LP 6. There are also several Spanish-language television networks, including KMEX 34 (Univision), KFTR 46 (Telefutura), KVEA 52 (Telemundo), and KAZA 54 (Azteca America). KTBN 40 (Trinity Broadcasting Network), is a religious station in the area.

Several independent television stations also operate in the area, including KCAL 9 (owned by CBS Corporation), KSCI 18 (focuses primarily on Asian language programming), KWHY 22 (Spanish-language), KNLA-LP 27 (Spanish-language), KSMV-LP 33 (variety) — a low power relay of Ventura-based KJLA 57 — KPAL-LP 38, KXLA 44, KDOC 56 (classic programming and local sports), KJLA 57 (variety), and KRCA 62 (Spanish-language).

Religion

Los Angeles is one of the most religiously diverse communities in the world.

Los Angeles is home to adherents of many religions, and has over 100 Christian denominations, with Roman Catholicism being the largest due to the high numbers of Hispanic, Filipino, and Irish Americans.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles leads the largest archdiocese in the country. Roger Cardinal Mahony oversaw construction of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, completed in 2002 at the north end of downtown.

Built in 1956 the Los Angeles California Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the second largest Mormon temple in the world.

The Los Angeles California Temple, the second largest temple operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is on Santa Monica Boulevard in the Westwood district of Los Angeles. Dedicated in 1956, it was the first Mormon temple built in California. The grounds includes a visitors' center open to the public, the Los Angeles Regional Family History Center, also open to the public, and the headquarters for the Los Angeles mission.

Los Angeles is home to the second largest population of Jews in the United States. Many synagogues of the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and Reconstructionist movements can be found throughout the city. Most are located in the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles. The area in West LA around Fairfax and Pico Boulevards contains a large amount of Orthodox Jews. The oldest synagogue in Los Angeles is the Breed Street Shul in East Los Angeles, which is being renovated.

The Azusa Street Revival (1906–1909) in Los Angeles was a key milestone in the history of the Pentecostal movement, not long after Christian Fundamentalism received its name and crucial promotion in Los Angeles. In 1909, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (B.I.O.L.A., now Biola University) published and widely distributed a set of books called The Fundamentals, which presented a defense of the traditional conservative interpretation of the Bible. The term fundamentalism is derived from these books.

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

In the 1920s, Aimee Semple McPherson established a thriving evangelical ministry, with her Angelus Temple in Echo Park open to both black and white church members of the Foursquare Church. Billy Graham became a celebrity during a successful revival campaign in Los Angeles in 1949. Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God used to have its headquarters in nearby Pasadena, now in Glendale. Until his death in 2005, Dr. Gene Scott was based near downtown. The Metropolitan Community Church, a fellowship of Christian congregations with a focus on outreach to gays and lesbians, was started in Los Angeles in 1968 by Troy Perry. Jack Chick, of "Chick Tracts," was born in Boyle Heights and lived in the area most of his life.

Because of Los Angeles' large multi-ethnic population, there are numerous organizations in the area representing a wide variety of faiths, including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Bahá'í, various Eastern Orthodox Churches, Sufism and others. Immigrants from Asia for example, have formed a number of significant Buddhist congregations making the city home to the biggest variety of Buddhists in the world. Los Angeles currently has the largest Buddhist population in the United States. There are over 300 temples in Los Angeles. Los Angeles has been a destination for Swamis and Gurus since as early as 1900, including Paramahansa Yogananda (1920). The Self-Realization Fellowship is headquartered in Hollywood and has a private park in Pacific Palisades. Los Angeles is the home to a number of Neopagans, as well as adherents of various other mystical religions. One wing of the Theosophist movement is centered in Los Angeles, and another is in neighboring Pasadena. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, considered a spiritual, rather than a religious leader, founded the Transcendental Meditation movement in Los Angeles in the late 1950s. The Kabbalah Centre is in the city. The Church of Scientology has had a presence in Los Angeles since it opened February 18, 1954, and it has several churches and museums in the area, most notably the Celebrity Centre in Hollywood, in fact the world's largest community of Scientologists can be found in LA.

Economy

Further information: [[:Los Angeles County Economy]]

See also: Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce

The Southern Portion of Downtown Los Angeles, consisting of many older buildings and towering skyscrapers. Companies such as Ernst & Young, Aon, Manulife, Paul Hastings, City National Bank, Union Bank of California and more have offices here.

The economy of Los Angeles is driven by international trade, entertainment (television, motion pictures, recorded music), aerospace, technology, petroleum, fashion, apparel, and tourism. Los Angeles is also the largest manufacturing center in the United States. The contiguous ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together comprise the most significant port in North America and one of the most important ports in the world, and they are vital to trade within the Pacific Rim. Other significant industries include media production, finance, telecommunications, law, health and medicine, and transportation.

For many years, up until the mid-1990s, Los Angeles was home to many major financial institutions in the western United States, including First Interstate Bank, which merged with Wells-Fargo in 1996, Great Western Bank, merged with Washington Mutual in 1998, and Security Pacific National Bank, which merged with Bank of America in 1992. Los Angeles was also home to the Pacific Stock Exchange until it closed in 2001.

The city is home to five major Fortune 500 companies, including aerospace contractor Northrop Grumman, energy company Occidental Petroleum, healthcare provider Health Net, homebuilding company KB Home, and metals distributor Reliance Steel & Aluminum. The University of Southern California (USC) is the city's largest private sector employer.

The Northern portion of Downtown Los Angeles consists of several large Glass Office Towers, Plazas, and Gardens. Companies like, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, KPMG, US Bank, Bank Of America, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and more have offices here.

Other companies headquartered in Los Angeles include Twentieth Century Fox, Latham & Watkins, Univision, Metro Interactive, LLC, Premier America, CB Richard Ellis, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Guess?, O'Melveny & Myers LLP, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, Tokyopop, The Jim Henson Company, Paramount Pictures, Robinsons-May, Sunkist, Fox Sports Net, Capital Group, 21st century Insurance, L.E.K. Consulting, and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

The metropolitan area contains the headquarters of even more companies, many of whom wish to escape the city's high taxes. For example, Los Angeles charges a gross receipts tax based on a percentage of business revenue, while many neighboring cities charge only small flat fees. The companies below benefit from their proximity to Los Angeles, while at the same time avoiding the city's taxes (and other problems). Some of the major companies headquartered in the cities of Los Angeles county are Shakey's Pizza (Alhambra), Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Beverly Hills), City National Bank (Beverly Hills), Hilton Hotels (Beverly Hills), DiC Entertainment (Burbank), The Walt Disney Company (Fortune 500 – Burbank), Warner Bros. (Burbank), Countrywide Financial Corporation (Fortune 500 – Calabasas), THQ (Calabasas), Belkin (Compton), Sony Pictures Entertainment (parent of Columbia Pictures, located in Culver City), Computer Sciences Corporation (Fortune 500 – El Segundo), DirecTV (El Segundo), Mattel (Fortune 500 – El Segundo), Unocal (Fortune 500 – El Segundo), DreamWorks SKG (Glendale), Sea Launch (Long Beach), ICANN (Marina Del Rey), Cunard Line (Santa Clarita), Princess Cruises (Santa Clarita), Activision (Santa Monica), and RAND (Santa Monica). The L.A. area is also home to the U.S. headquarters of all but two of the major Asian automobile manufacturers (Nissan North America is in the process of relocating its headquarters from Gardena to the Nashville area, and Subaru's U.S. operations are based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey). Further, virtually all the world's automakers have design and/or tech centers in the L.A. region.

Downtown Los Angeles also is the home of the Los Angeles Convention Center which hosts many popular events including the annual LA Auto Show in December.

Demographics

2000 census

Today, Los Angeles has a population of over 4 million, making it the second largest city in the nation.

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 3,694,820 people, 1,275,412 households, and 798,407 families residing in the city. The population density was 7,876.8 people per square mile (3,041.3/km²). There were 1,337,706 housing units at an average density of 2,851.8 per square mile (1,101.1/km²).

The racial makeup of the city was 46.9% White, 11.0% African-American, 10.0% Asian, 1.0% Native American, 25.9% from other races, and 5.2% from two or more races. 46.5% of the population were Hispanic or Latino (of any race) and 29.7% were White, not of Latino/Hispanic origins. 42.2% spoke English, 41.7% Spanish, 2.4% Korean, 2.3% Tagalog, 1.7% Armenian, 1.5% Chinese (including Cantonese and Mandarin) and 1.3% Persian as their first language. Since the mid-80's Los Angeles has been a minority-majority city. The city's non-Hispanic white population as of 2005 stands at 28.5% of the city's total population, down from 40% in 1990. As of 2005, the city is 48.9% Hispanic, 11.8% Asian, 10.5% Black.

According to the census, 33.5% of households had children under 18, 41.9% were married couples, 14.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.4% were non-families. 28.5% of households were made up of individuals and 7.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.83 and the average family size 3.56.

With the city's size comes the 73 Story US Bank Tower, the tallest building in the United States west of Chicago.

The age distribution was: 26.6% under 18, 11.1% from 18 to 24, 34.1% from 25 to 44, 18.6% from 45 to 64, and 9.7% who were 65 or older. The median age was 32. For every 100 females there were 99.4 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 97.5 males.

The median income for a household was $36,687, and for a family was $39,942. Males had a median income of $31,880, females $30,197. The per capita income was $20,671. 22.1% of the population and 18.3% of families were below the poverty line. 30.3% of those under the age of 18 and 12.6% of those aged 65 or older were below the poverty line.

It is also of interest to note that the post-1950 population increase did not take place exclusively in suburban or peripheral locations. While many other American cities had experienced central area population declines, the opposite has been true here. The increase in the central area population is due, in part, to Los Angeles' large immigrant population.

In the period from 1920 to 1960, African Americans from the Southeast U.S. arrived in Los Angeles and its population grew 15 times. Since 1990, the African-American population dropped as its middle class relocated to the suburbs, notably the Antelope Valley and Inland Empire and Latinos have moved into the once predominantly African-American district of South Los Angeles. African Americans still remain predominant in some portions of the city, including Hyde Park, Crenshaw District, Leimert Park, and Baldwin Hills (as well as neighboring View Park-Windsor Hills and Ladera Heights) which is considered to be one of the many wealthy majority-black neighborhoods in the United States. Los Angeles still has the largest African-American community of any city in the western United States.

National origins

City of Los Angeles Population by year [8]
1890	50,395
1900	102,479
1910	319,198
1920	576,673
1930	1,238,048
1940	1,504,277
1950	1,970,358
1960	2,479,015
1970	2,816,061
1980	2,966,850
1990	3,485,398
2000	3,694,820
2006	3,849,378

Of 2,182,114 U.S.-born people, 1,485,576 were born in California, 663,746 were born in a different state of the United States, and 61,792 were born in a United States territory.

Of 1,512,720 foreign-born people, 100,252 were born in Europe, 376,767 were born in Asia, 64,730 were born in Africa, 94,104 were born in Caribbean/Oceania, 996,996 were born in Latin America, and 13,859 were born in Canada. Of such foreign-born people, 569,771 entered between 1990 to March 2000. 509,841 are naturalized citizens and 1,002,879 are not citizens.

By the next national census, Los Angeles is expected to have a Latino majority for the first time since 1850. The Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the number one point of entry for immigrants in the country. The Latino, Asian American, and Caribbean populations are growing particularly quickly — the Asian-American population is the largest of any U.S. city. Los Angeles hosts the largest populations of Cambodians, Iranians, Armenians, Belizeans, Bulgarians, Ethiopians, Filipinos, Guatemalans, Hungarians, Koreans, Israelis, Mexicans, Salvadorans, Thais, and Pacific Islanders such as Samoans in both the U.S. and world outside of their respective countries. Los Angeles is also home to the largest populations of Japanese living in the United States, and has one of the largest Native American populations in the country. It is also home to the second largest concentration of Russians and people of Jewish descent (estimated at more than 550,000) in the Americas, after New York City. Los Angeles also has the second largest Nicaraguen community in the US after Miami. It also host a sizable South Asian community. Los Angeles experienced minor waves of European immigration in the late 1800s and early 1900s and the city has sizeable populations of German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Romanian/Gypsies, Polish, Portuguese, Serb, Spanish, Lebanese, Croatian and Ukrainian descent.

Los Angeles is home to people from more than 140 countries speaking at least 225 different languages. Ethnic enclaves like Chinatown, Historic Filipinotown, Koreatown, Little Armenia, Little Ethiopia, Little Persia, Little India, Little Tokyo, and Thai Town provide examples of the polyglot character of Los Angeles.

Government

The city is governed by a mayor-council system. The current mayor is Antonio Villaraigosa. There are 15 city council districts. Other elected city officials include the City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and the City Controller Laura Chick. The city attorney prosecutes misdemeanors within the city limits. The district attorney, elected by county voters, prosecutes misdemeanors in unincorporated areas and in 78 of the 88 cities in the county, as well as felonies throughout the county.

Los Angeles City Hall

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) polices the city of Los Angeles, but the city also maintains three specialized police agencies; The Office of Public Safety, within the General Services Department (which is responsible for security and law enforcement services at city facilities, including City Hall, city parks and libraries, the Los Angeles Zoo, and the Convention Center), the Port Police, within the Harbor Department (which is responsible for land, air and sea law enforcement services at the Port of Los Angeles), and the Airport Police, within the Los Angeles World Airports Department (which is responsible for law enforcement services at all four city-owned airports, including Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Ontario International Airport (ONT), Palmdale Regional Airport (PMD), and Van Nuys Airport (VNY), the busiest general aviation airport in the country).

LAPL, Los Angeles Public Library System and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) are among the largest such institutions in the country. LAUSD is the second largest school district in the United States; only the New York City Department of Education is larger. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power provides service to city residents and businesses.

The city government has been perceived as inefficient and ineffective by residents of some areas, which led to an unsuccessful secession effort by the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood in 2002. The campaign to defeat secession was led by then Mayor James Hahn. The most common complaint is that the city administration in Downtown gives priority to high-density neighborhoods like Mid-City and Downtown at the expense of its far-flung suburban neighborhoods.

As the city does not have officially named districts, most areas and neighborhoods are known either by the names given by tract developers when first developed, or by the names of principal neighborhood streets, or by the names of the formerly independent communities that were annexed by the city.

Neighborhood councils

Voters created neighborhood councils in the Charter Reform of 1999. First proposed by City Council member Joel Wachs in 1996, they were designed to promote public participation in government and make it more responsive to local needs.

The councils cover districts which are not necessarily identical to the traditional neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

Almost ninety neighborhood councils (NCs) are certified and all "stakeholders" — meaning anyone who lives, works or owns property in a neighborhood — may vote for members of the councils' governing bodies. Some council bylaws allow other people with a stake in the community to cast ballots as well.

The councils are official government bodies and so their governing bodies and committees must abide by California's Brown Act, which governs the meetings of deliberative assemblies.

The first notable concern of the neighborhood councils collectively was the opposition by some of them in March 2004 to an 18% increase in water rates by the city's Department of Water and Power. This led the City Council to approve only a limited increase pending independent review. More recently, some of the councils petitioned the City Council in summer 2006 to allow them to introduce ideas for legislative action, but the City Council put off a decision.

The neighborhood councils have been allocated $50,000 each for administration, outreach and approved neighborhood projects.

See also: List of elected officials in Los Angeles and List of mayors of Los Angeles, California

Crime and safety

The LAPD during May Day 2006 in front of the new Caltrans District 7 Headquarters.

The COMPSTAT unit of the LAPD tabulates Part I offenses (violent and property crimes) committed in the city. Los Angeles has been experiencing significant decline in Part I offenses since the mid-1990s, and hit a record low in 2006, with 29,737 acts of violence, of which 481 were homicides. Criminality peaked in 1992 with 72,667 recorded acts of violence — of which 1,096 were homicides — and 245,129 recorded property crimes. The year before, Los Angeles recorded 1,025 murders. The distribution of homicides in the city is uneven with nearly half of them occurring in the four stations of the South Bureau of the LAPD encompassing South Los Angeles and the Harbor area. A further quarter occur in the areas covered by the Central Bureau which covers Downtown and its environs. Property crimes were over three times more common than violent crimes; 102,297 were recorded in 2006. The LAPD makes live crime statistics available on the LAPD crimestats and epolice web site.

Los Angeles has a total crime index lower than that of Chicago, and Atlanta as of 2006.

Current mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.

Many movies and songs about Los Angeles depict the notion that the city is home to a large number of gangsters and professional criminals. According to a May 2001 Drug Threat Assessment by the National Drug Intelligence Center, Los Angeles County is home to 152,000 gang members organized into 1,350 gangs. Among the most infamous are the Crips, Bloods, 18th Street, Florencia 13, and MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha). This has led to the city being referred to as the "Gang Capital of America." Car chases happen more often than in most other major cities, with the city's complex freeway system allowing for lengthier pursuits. Other automobile-oriented crimes include car-to-car shootings, drive-by shootings, freeway shootings, hit-and-run accidents, and carjackings.

See also: Road rage

Education

Colleges and universities

• 
  UCLA
• 
  USC
• 
  CSULA
• LMU
  LMU
• CSUN
  CSUN
• 
  Occidental College

There are three public universities that reside in the city limits: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA)

Private schools in the city include the University of Southern California (USC), Antioch University's Los Angeles campus, Loyola Marymount University (LMU is also the parent university of Loyola Law School located in Los Angeles), Mount St. Mary's College, Occidental College ("Oxy"), Art Center College of Design (Art Center), Otis College of Art and Design (Otis), American InterContinental University, Alliant International University,Southwestern University School of Law, American Film Institute Conservatory, Charles R. Drew University, Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising's Los Angeles campus (FIDM), and Los Angeles Film School.

The community college system consists of nine campuses governed by the trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District: Los Angeles City College (LACC), Los Angeles Harbor College, Los Angeles Pierce College, Los Angeles Valley College (LAVC), Los Angeles Mission College, East Los Angeles College (ELAC), West Los Angeles College, Los Angeles Southwest College, and Los Angeles Trade Technical College.

Schools and libraries

File:Lapubliclibrary.jpg

The Los Angeles Central Library in Downtown Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Unified School District serves almost all of the city of Los Angeles, as well as several surrounding communities.

It is the second-largest school district in the United States, with over 700,000 students. After Proposition 13 was approved in 1978, urban school districts had considerable trouble with funding. LAUSD has become known for its underfunded, overcrowded and poorly maintained campuses, although its Magnet schools have won countless awards and score with compared to the top private schools in the state. Wealthy and upper-middle-class parents placed their children in elite private schools, while many middle-class families left for suburban school districts beyond LAUSD boundaries. Since then, LAUSD has embarked on an aggressive school construction program to relieve overcrowding.

Several small sections of Los Angeles are in the Las Virgenes Unified School District.

Los Angeles County Office of Education operates the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.

See also: Los Angeles County, California § Colleges and universities; and List of high schools in Los Angeles County, California

The Los Angeles Public Library system operates 72 public libraries in the city.

Transportation

High-capacity freeway interchange in Los Angeles

Main article: Transportation of Los Angeles

Los Angeles has one of the largest freeway systems in the world, with 27 intertwining freeways handling millions of commuters as they journey a daily collective migration of about 100 million miles (160 million km). Los Angeles is the most car-populated metropolis in the world with 1 registered automobile for every 1.8 people.

Rail transport

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and other agencies operate an extensive system of bus lines, as well as subway and light rail lines. True to reputation, Los Angeles' mass transit system does not have high ridership, with 10.5% of commuters using public transit, compared with 53% and 30% in New York and Chicago respectively. The rail system averages 276,900 trips a day, 0.4% of the 65 million commutes daily. The city's subway is the ninth busiest subway system in the United States and its light rail system is the third most ridden in the country.

File:La metro 1.jpg

Los Angeles subway at Wilshire/Vermont

Adding in trips taken by bus raises ridership to about 1.7 million. The rail system includes the Red and Purple subway lines, as well as the Gold, Blue, and Green light rail lines. The Orange Line, although a bus rapid transit line rather than a rail line, is usually considered part of the system. The special red Metro Rapid buses have also been highly touted as a prime example of a successful bus transit program since these buses operate like a rail line and run through the best-known parts of the city. However, during rush hour, they are apt to get mired in gridlock along with other vehicles, and the traffic signal holding or changing capability is of little help.

An extension of the Gold line running from Downtown to East Los Angeles is currently under construction, and is expected to open in late 2009. A second extension from Pasadena into the foothills is being considered. Also in the works is the new Expo Line, which will run from Downtown into Culver City. Construction of this line is expected to finish in the summer of 2010. Plans of a second phase extending the line into Santa Monica are currently being assessed. Momentum is slowly building to extend the Purple line under Wilshire Boulevard all the way to the ocean in Santa Monica, extending the city's public transportation system further. Rail passenger service is provided by Amtrak and Metrolink from historic Union Station. Rail shipping is handled by Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway.

Air Transport

LAX, the fifth busiest airport in the world.

The Los Angeles metropolitan area is served by more airports than any other city in the world. There are six commercial airports and many more general-aviation airports. The main Los Angeles airport is Los Angeles International Airport (IATA: LAX, ICAO: KLAX). The fifth busiest commercial airport in the world and the third busiest in the United States, LAX handled over 61 million passengers and 2 million tons of cargo in 2006.

Other major nearby commercial airports include:

• (IATA: ONT, ICAO: KONT) LA/Ontario International Airport, owned by the city of Los Angeles; serves the Inland Empire.
• (IATA: BUR, ICAO: KBUR) Bob Hope Airport, formerly known as Burbank Airport
• (IATA: LGB, ICAO: KLGB) Long Beach Municipal Airport
• (IATA: SNA, ICAO: KSNA) John Wayne Airport of Orange County.
• (IATA: PMD, ICAO: KPMD) Palmdale Regional Airport is owned by the city of Los Angeles and serves the northern outlying communities of the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valleys.

Los Angeles also has the world's busiest general-aviation airport, Van Nuys Airport (IATA: VNY, ICAO: KVNY).

Harbors

A view of the Vincent Thomas Bridge reaching Terminal Island. The Port of Los Angeles along with the Port of Long Beach comprise the largest seaport complex in the United States and the fifth busiest in the world.

The Port of Los Angeles is located in San Pedro Bay in the San Pedro neighborhood, approximately 20 miles (30 km) south of Downtown. Also called Los Angeles Harbor and WORLDPORT LA, the port complex occupies 7,500 acres (30 km²) of land and water along 43 miles (69 km) of waterfront. It adjoins the separate Port of Long Beach.

The sea ports of the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach together make up the Los Angeles – Long Beach Harbor, the busiest and overall third-largest container shipping port in the world. There are also smaller, non-industrial harbors along L.A.'s coastline. Most of these like Redondo Beach and Marina del Rey are used primarily by sailboats and yachts.

The port includes four bridges: the Vincent Thomas Bridge, Henry Ford Bridge, Gerald Desmond Bridge, and Commodore Schuyler F. Heim Bridge.

Sister Cities

A sign near City Hall points to the sister cities of Los Angeles.

Los Angeles has 25 sister cities:

Athens, Greece (1984) Auckland, New Zealand (1971) Beirut, Lebanon (2006) Berlin, Germany (1967) Bordeaux, France (1964) Busan, South Korea (1971) Eilat, Israel (1959) Giza, Egypt (1989) Guangzhou, People's Republic of China (1981) Ischia, Italy (2006) Jakarta, Indonesia (1990) Kaunas, Lithuania (1991) Lusaka, Zambia (1968) Makati City, Philippines (1992)

Mexico City, Mexico (1969) Mumbai, India (1972) Nagoya, Japan (1959) Salvador, Brazil (1962) San Salvador, El Salvador (2005) Split, Croatia (1993) St. Petersburg, Russia (1989) Taipei, Taiwan (1979) Tehran, Iran (1972) Vancouver, Canada (1986) Yerevan, Armenia (2007)

See also

• Large Cities Climate Leadership Group
• Pacific Electric Railway
• Los Angeles Now
• Los Angeles Railway
• United States cities by population
• Largest metropolitan areas in the Americas
• Metropolis

Further reading

• Reyner Banham, Los Angeles: The Architecture of the Four Ecologies, University of California Press, 1971.
• Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, Vintage Books, 1992
• Torin Monahan, Los Angeles Studies: The Emergence of a Specialty Field, City & Society XIV (2): 155-184, 2002
• Lynell George, No Crystal Stair: African Americans in the City of Angels, Verso, 1992
• Paul Glover, "Los Angeles: A History of the Future", Eco-Home Press, 1989
• Norman M. Klein, The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory, Verso, 1997
• Leonard Pitt & Dale Pitt, Los Angeles A to Z: An Encyclopedia of the City and County, University of California Press, 2000
• Peter Theroux, Translating LA: A Tour of the Rainbow City, Norton, 1994
• David L. Ulin (ed), Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, Library of America, 2002
• Richard White, It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own: A New History of the American West, University of Oklahoma Press, 1991
• Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water, Penguin, 1986.
• Robert M. Fogelson, The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles 1850-1930, University of California Press, 1967
• California History, Bancroft - http://www.1st-hand-history.org/Hhb/HHBindex.htm

External links

• City of Los Angeles Official Web Site
• ExperienceLA: LA's Official Cultural Calendar and Trip Planner
• About.com's Guide to Los Angeles
• LA INC.: Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Los Angeles Convention Center
• Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
• Los Angeles Police Department
• Los Angeles Public Library - 72 branches
• Los Angeles: Historic Sites Online, from the University of Southern California
• Los Angeles: Past, Present and Future, from the University of Southern California
• Los Angeles: A History of the Future
• Los Angeles Almanac
• Los Angeles magazine (print)
• Los Angeles Online Magazine LA2day
• Template:Wikitravel
• Historic Topographic Maps for\ Los Angeles County 1920s-1940s (Google Earth Required)