Los Angeles

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

City of Los Angeles
Flag Seal
Nickname:  City of Angels
Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California
State	California
County	Los Angeles County
Incorporated	April 4 1850
Government
• Type	Mayor-Council
• Mayor	Antonio Villaraigosa (D)
• City Attorney	Rocky Delgadillo
• Governing body	City Council
Elevation	0– 5,079 ft ( m)
Population  (2005)
• City	3,731,437[4]
• Urban	12,923,548
• Metro	12,923,548
Time zone	UTC-8 (PST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-7 (PDT)
Website	www.lacity.org

Los Angeles — often simply called L.A. — is the largest city in the state of California and the second-largest in the United States. It is an Alpha world city having a population of 3.8 million people and spanning 465 square miles. The Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana metropolitan area is home to 12.9 million people.

Los Angeles was founded in 1781 by Spanish Captain Rivera y Moncada, yet it was not incorporated as a municipality until April 4 1850—five months before California achieved statehood. It is the seat of Los Angeles County.

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 surrounding 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 Los Angeles coastal area was inhabited by the Tongva (or Gabrieleños), Chumash, and earlier Native American nations for thousands of years. The first Europeans to arrive came in 1542, led by João Cabrilho, a Portuguese explorer who claimed the area for the Spanish Empire but did not stay. The next contact came 227 years later when Gaspar de Portolà, together with Franciscan padre Juan Crespi, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2 1769.

In 1771, Father Junípero Serra had the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel built near Whittier Narrows in what is now called San Gabriel Valley. On September 4, 1781, a group of 52 settlers from New Spain, which were predominantly of African descent, set out from the San Gabriel mission to establish a settlement along the banks of the Porciúncula River (now Los Angeles River). These settlers were of Filipino,Indian and Spanish ancestry, of whom two-thirds were mestizo .

In 1777, the new governor of California, Felipe de Neve, recommended to the viceroy of New Spain that the site be developed into a pueblo (town). The area was duly 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"). It 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 outline of the Pueblo is preserved in a historic monument familiarly called Olvera Street, formerly Wine Street, which was named after Agustin Olvera.

Olvera Street.

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 that included the Battle of San Pascual, the Battle of Dominguez Rancho, and ultimately, the Battle of Rio San Gabriel in 1847. The Treaty of Cahuenga, signed on January 13, 1847, ended hostilities in California. Later, with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, the Mexican government formally ceded Alta California and other territories to the United States. Europeans and Americans solidified control over the city after they immigrated into California during the California Gold Rush and secured the subsequent admission of California into the United States in 1850.

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 supplying one-quarter of the world's petroleum. Even more important to the city's growth was water. In 1913, led by William Mulholland, the aqueduct's completion assured the city's growth. In 1915, the City of Los Angeles began annexation of dozens of neighboring communities without water supplies of their own. The 1974 motion picture Chinatown presents a fictionalized account of the Owens Valley Water War.

In the 1920s the motion picture and aviation industries both flocked to Los Angeles and helped with its further development. The city was the proud host of the 1932 Summer Olympics which saw the development of Baldwin Hills as the original Olympic Village. This period also saw the arrival of the exiles from the increasing pre-war tension in Europe, including such notables as 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.

The Watts riots in 1965 and Chicano High School "blowouts" along with the 1970 Chicano Moratorium showed the nation the deep racial divisions that existed in the city. In 1969, Los Angeles was one of two birthplaces of the Internet, as the first ARPANET transmission was sent from UCLA to SRI in Menlo Park.

The XXIII Olympiad was hosted in Los Angeles in 1984. The city was once again tested by the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and in 2002, the attempted secession by the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood sections of the city both of which were defeated at the polls. Urban redevelopment and gentrification have been taking place in various parts of the city, most notably Downtown.

Geography

Topography

Santa Monica, Westwood, and Marina del Rey, and the San Fernando Valley behind the mountains

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 465.0 square miles (1,290.6 km²)—469.1 square miles (1,214.9 km²) of it is land and 29.2 square miles (75.7 km²) of it is water.

The city extends for 44 miles (71 km) north-to-south at the longest point and similary in the east-west direction for 29 miles (47 km). The perimeter of the city boundary is 342 miles (550 km). The land area is the 9th largest among cities in the Continental United States.

The highest point in Los Angeles is Sister Elsie Peak (5,080 feet) at the far reaches of the northeastern San Fernando Valley, part of Mt. Lukens. The Los Angeles River is a largely seasonal river flowing through the city, with headwaters in the San Fernando Valley. Its length is almost entirely lined in concrete.

The Los Angeles area is remarkably rich in native plant species. With its beaches, dunes, wetlands, hills, mountains, and rivers, the area contains a number of important biological communities. The most prevalent of these is coastal sage scrub, which covers the hillsides in combustible chaparral. Native plants include: California poppy, matilija poppy, toyon, coast live oak, giant wild rye grass, and hundreds of others. Unfortunately, many of these native species, such as the Los Angeles sunflower, have become so rare as to be considered endangered.

There are many exotic flowers and flowering trees that bloom year-round, with subtle colors, including the jacaranda, hibiscus, phlox, bougainvillea, coral tree blossoms and bird of paradise. If there were no city here, flower-growing could still flourish as an industry, as it does in Lompoc. Wisteria has been known to grow to house-lot size, and in Descanso Gardens there are forests of camellia trees. Orchids require special attention in this Mediterranean climate.

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

Geology

Los Angeles is subject to earthquakes due to its proximity to the San Andreas Fault, as well as to the smaller San Jacinto and Banning faults. The most recent major earthquake was the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which was centered in the northern San Fernando Valley. Coming less than two years after the 1992 riots, the Northridge earthquake was an emotional shock to Southern Californians, and caused physical damage totalling billions of dollars. Other major earthquakes in the Los Angeles area include the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake, the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, and the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Nevertheless, most earthquakes are of relatively low intensity. Many areas in Los Angeles witness one or two minor earthquakes per year, usually inflicting little or no damage. Imperceptible quakes are detected by seismometers on a daily basis. 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

Palm tree-lined street.

The city is situated in a Mediterranean climate zone (Koppen climate classification Csb on the coast, Csa inland), experiencing mild, reasonably wet winters and warm to hot, mildly humid summers. Generally the weather is dry in all seasons, but can be cool in the winter. 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, and summer temperatures can sometimes be as much as 25 °F warmer in the inland communities compared to that of the coastal communities. The coastal communities of Los Angeles are commonly affected by a phenomenon known as a "marine layer," a dense cloud cover caused by the proximity of the ocean, that helps keep the temperatures cooler throughout the year.

Temperatures in the summer can get well over 90 °F (32 °C), but average summer daytime highs are 73 °F (23 °C), with overnight lows of 61 °F (19 °C). Winter daytime high temperatures will get up to around 65 °F (18 °C), on average, with overnight lows of 45 °F (7 °C) and during this season rain is common. The median temperature in January is 58.3 °F (14.6 °C) and 74.3 °F (23.5 °C) in July. 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 ever recorded for Downtown Los Angeles was 112.0 °F (44.4 °C) on June 26 1990, and the lowest temperature ever 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 (381 mm) 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 National Weather Service reports the greatest snowfall in downtown Los Angeles was 2.0 inches on January 15, 1932. With weather permitting, it is possible to snow ski and surf on the same day in the Los Angeles area.

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

Environmental issues

Hills of Griffith Park with smog and downtown L.A. in the background

Due to the city's geography, which makes it susceptible to atmospheric inversion, heavy reliance on automobiles as a major form of transportation, and the L.A./Long Beach port complex, the city suffers from air pollution in the form of smog. The Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley hold in the fumes from automobiles, diesel trucks, shipping, and locomotive engines, as well as manufacturing and other sources. In addition, the groundwater is increasingly threatened by MTBE from gas stations and perchlorate from rocket fuel. Unlike other large cities that rely on rain to clear smog, Los Angeles only gets 15 inches (381 mm) of rain each year, so the smog is able to accumulate over multiple consecutive days. This has brought much attention from the state of California to explore 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 this success, 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. Smog from the basin is pushed towards the mountains, where the pollutants harm trees. However, the city is taking even more aggressive steps to improve air quality.

Cityscape

Downtown from City Hall

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 L.A., East L.A., South Los Angeles, the Harbor Area, Hollywood, Wilshire, the Westside, and the San Fernando and Crescenta valleys.

Some well-known communities of Los Angeles include 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.

Landmarks

Important landmarks in Los Angeles include Mann's Chinese Theater, Hollywood sign, Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles City Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Chinatown, Disney Concert Hall, Kodak Theater, Griffith Observatory, Getty Center, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Staples Center and La Placita Olvera, the birthplace of Los Angeles

See also: Greater Los Angeles Area and Downtown Los Angeles

Culture

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.

Disney Hall, designed by Frank Gehry, home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The official flower of LA, Strelitzia reginae

Some well-known shopping areas are the Hollywood and Highland complex, the Beverly Center, Melrose Avenue, Robertson Boulevard, 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 NHL, the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA, 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 second most NCAA national championships, all sports combined, in America. There is 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 entrepeneurs have shown interest in returning football to L.A., with meetings both with the City and 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. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Anaheim Ducks are both based in nearby Anaheim.

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 surfers, who have created their own subculture.

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 is also hoping to be the host of the 2016 Olympics.

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 Sparks of the WNBA, The Los Angeles Lakers, and Los Angeles Clippers of the NBA, and the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL.

As a whole, the Los Angeles area has more national championships, all sports combined (college and professional), than any other city in the United States, with over four times as many championships as the entire state of Texas, and just over twice that of New York City.

Media

Main article: Media in Los Angeles

See also: List of television shows set in Los Angeles

Religion

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. The Los Angeles Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is their second-largest temple and is located in West Los Angeles. L.A. had a wave of Mormon settlers in the 1860s to generate a fairly large community of members of that church.

Los Angeles is home to the third largest population of Jewish people 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.

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. 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 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, museums, and recruiting sites 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

The U.S. Bank Tower from Hope and 8th

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 three major Fortune 500 companies, including aerospace contractor Northrop Grumman, energy company Occidental Petroleum Corporation, and homebuilding company KB Home. The University of Southern California (USC) is the city's largest private sector employer.

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, Health Net, Inc., 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 most neighboring cities charge only small flat fees. The companies below clearly 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 is also the home of the Los Angeles Convention Center which hosts many popular events including the annual LA Auto Show in January.

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

Demographics

2000 census

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, 12.0% 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.

There were 1,275,412 households of which 33.5% 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.

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 age 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 occur exclusively in suburban or peripheral locations. The increase in the central area population—while many other American cities have experienced central area population declines—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 in half 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 wealthiest 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 [5]
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

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 Northern America. 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 city has the second largest percentage of foreign-born citizens of any major U.S. city, after Miami. The Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the number one entry for immigrants in the country. The Hispanic (Mexico, Central America and South America), Asian American, and Caribbean populations are growing particularly quickly — the Asian-American population is the largest of any U.S. city, which contains the largest concentration of Los Angeles County's 1.4 million Asians. Los Angeles hosts the largest populations of Iranians, Armenians, Bulgarians, Ethiopians, Filipinos, Guatemalans, Hungarians, Koreans, Mexicans, Nicaraguans, 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 in the Americas, after New York City. 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, Polish, Portuguese, Serb, Spanish, Croatian and Ukrainian descent.

Los Angeles is home to people from more than 140 countries, who speak at least 224 different languages. Ethnic enclaves like Chinatown, Historic Filipinotown, Koreatown, Little Armenia, Little Ethiopia, Little Persia, Little Tokyo, and Thai Town provide examples of the polyglot character of Los Angeles.

Government

Los Angeles City Hall

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.

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 throughout the city, 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).

The LAPL, Los Angeles Public Library System and Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) are among the largest such organizations in the country. The 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 movement by the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood in 2002. The campaign to defeat secession was led by then Mayor James Hahn. The most often raised complaint is that 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

To promote public participation in government and make government more responsive to local needs, voters created neighborhood councils in the Charter Reform of 1999. The councils were first proposed by City Council member Joel Wachs in 1996 and were hotly contested for a number of years. Indeed, they are still hotly contested ten years later.

The councils cover districts which are not necessarily identical to the traditional neighborhoods of Los Angeles, the borders of which often reflect those of cities that were annexed to Los Angeles.

86 neighborhood councils are certified and all "stakeholders" – meaning anyone who lives, works or owns property in a neighborhood – may vote for council members. Participation in NC elections has, for the most part, been proportionally as narrow as in city, state and federal elections.

Though the councils are strictly advisory, and have little actual power, they are still official government bodies and so must abide by California's Brown Act, which strictly governs the meetings of deliberative assemblies. These and other regulatory requirements have proven frustrating for some activists unaccustomed to bureaucratic procedures. For those with organizing experience, or the administrative ability to overcome regulatory hurdles, the councils have been effective advocates for community interests.

The first notable achievement of the neighborhood councils, collectively, was their organized opposition in March 2004 to an 18% increase in water rates by the Department of Water and Power (a municipal monopoly), which led the City Council to approve only a limited increase pending independent review. More recently, the councils petitioned the City Council in summer, 2006 to allow them to independently introduce ideas for legislative action, but the City Council voted to give the idea further study (this, despite 18 months of committee hearings).

As Mayor, James Hahn provided each council with $50,000 for any project of their choice and an additional $100,000 for street improvements in their neighborhood. These financial commitments have been maintained by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

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

Crime

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 2005, with 43,231 acts of violence, of which 487 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 distribution of homicides in the city is uneven with nearly half of such crimes 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 three times more common than violent crimes; 110,231 were recorded in 2005. 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 San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta as of 2006. Among the largest cities in the United States, only New York City has a lower overall crime rate.

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 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, hit-and-run accidents, and carjackings.

See also: Road rage

Education

Colleges and universities

• 
  UCLA
• USC
  USC
• CSULA
  CSULA
• LMU
  LMU

There are several public colleges and universities in the city, including the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA), and California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Public universities nearby Los Angeles include: California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), and California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), Pepperdine, and University of California, Irvine (UCI).

Private schools in or near the city include the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of Southern California (USC), Antioch University's Los Angeles campus, Southern California University of Health Sciences, Pepperdine University, Loyola Marymount University (LMU), Mount St. Mary's College, Occidental College (Oxy), Otis College of Art and Design (Otis), American InterContinental University, Art Center College of Design, Alliant International University, Southwestern University School of Law, American Film Institute, Charles R. Drew University, Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising's Los Angeles campus, Los Angeles Film School, and Loyola Law School Los Angeles.

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. The nearby Santa Monica College in Santa Monica and El Camino College in Torrance (part of Los Angeles County, but with separate school districts) are popular among the local community, as well as foreign students.

Schools and libraries

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 in 1978, urban school districts had considerable trouble with funding and LAUSD became known for its underfunded, overcrowded and poorly maintained campuses, although its magnet schools have won countless award and score with 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, the 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 [6] 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.

Infrastructure

High-capacity freeway interchange in 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.

Transportation

Main article: Transportation of Los Angeles

File:La metro 1.jpg

LA subway at Wilshire/Vermont

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. As the city is not as densely populated as New York City or Chicago, Los Angeles' mass transit system does not have high commuter ridership per capita; 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. This compares with ridership of 699,599 trips for Washington DC's Metrorail's subway, 664,700 trips for Boston's subway T, the city of Chicago's L with 644,200, and New York City's 6.0 million average daily weekday trips taken. Adding in trips taken by bus raises this number 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.

The Los Angeles metropolitan area is served by more airports than any major city in the world, with 5 major 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. LAX handled 55 million passengers and 2 million tons of cargo in 2003.

Other major nearby commercial airports include:

L.A./Ontario International Airport (IATA: ONT, ICAO: KONT), owned by the city of Los Angeles.

Bob Hope Airport (IATA: BUR, ICAO: KBUR), formerly known as Burbank Airport

Long Beach Municipal Airport (IATA: LGB, ICAO: KLGB)

John Wayne Airport (IATA: SNA, ICAO: KSNA) of Orange County.

Palmdale Regional Airport (IATA: PMD, ICAO: KPMD) is owned by the city of Los Angeles and serves the northern outlying communities of the Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley's.

Los Angeles also has the world's busiest general-aviation airport:

Van Nuys Airport (IATA: VNY, ICAO: KVNY).

Harbors

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 contain sailboats and yachts, like Redondo Beach and Marina del Rey.

Sister cities

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

Los Angeles has 25 sister cities:

Athens, Greece Auckland, New Zealand Beirut, Lebanon Berlin, Germany Bordeaux, France Busan, South Korea Eilat, Israel Giza, Egypt Guangzhou, People's Republic of China Ischia, Italy Jakarta, Indonesia Kaunas, Lithuania Lusaka, Zambia

Makati City, Philippines Mexico City, Mexico Mumbai, India Nagoya, Japan St. Petersburg, Russia Salvador, Brazil San Salvador, El Salvador Split, Croatia Taipei, Taiwan Tehran, Iran Vancouver, Canada Yerevan, Armenia

See also

• Large Cities Climate Leadership Group
• Pacific Electric Railway
• Los Angeles Now
• Los Angeles Railway

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.

External links

• City of Los Angeles Official Web Site
• ExperienceLA: LA's Official Cultural Calendar and Trip Planner
• LA INC.: Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Los Angeles Convention Center
• Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
• 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
• Template:Wikitravel
• Historic Topographic Maps for\ Los Angeles County 1920s-1940s (Google Earth Required)
• Los Angeles city guide