Initially founded on September 4, 1781, as part of New Spain, the
settlement was named by its Franciscan founders as El Pueblo de Nuestra
Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula ("the town of Our Lady, Queen
of the Angels at the Little Portion). The "little portion" referred to the
tiny property (or porziuncola in Italian) on which St. Francis of Assisi
lived in the 13th century in a ruined chapel. After St. Francis' death, the
chapel became a place of pilgrimage with a fresco being painted on the wall
behind the altar depicting the Virgin Mary surrounded by angels. Hence the
chapel became known as "Saint Mary of the Angels at the Little Portion" ,
and the Californian settlement took its name from that original Franciscan
chapel.
Los Angeles was incorporated as a city in the U.S. state of California on
April 4, 1850.
The Los Angeles metropolitan area (frequently termed the "Southland")
consists of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties, and
is home to more than sixteen million people of diverse ethnic and economic
backgrounds. The Greater Los Angeles area is sometimes inaccurately referred
to as Southern California, but geographically that term more properly
includes both the Los Angeles metroplex and Imperial, Kern, San Diego, Santa
Barbara and Ventura counties.
History
The history includes earthquakes, riots, mudslides, movie stars, oil rigs,
aerospace pioneers, surfers, politicians and palm trees.
Historical population
Year Population
1800 315
1830 770
1850 1,610
1870 5,730
1880 11,200
1890 50,400
1900 102,500
1910 319,200
1920 576,700
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
At the end of 2004, population is estimated to be 3,912,200.
Culture
The greater Los Angeles area is the most important site in the United States
for movie and television production. It is also one of the most important
sites in the world for the recorded music industry. It faces increasing
competition, however, from other parts of the United States and from the
Canadian cities of Vancouver and Toronto.
The phenomenon of entertainment companies running away to other locales in
search of lower labor and production costs is known as "runaway production."
Food
While the cuisines of many cultures have taken root in Los Angeles, it is
the home of the Cobb Salad, invented in the Brown Derby restaurant in
Hollywood, the French-Dip sandwich, originated by either Cole's or
Phillippe's restaurant in downtown, the ice blended coffee drink by Coffee
Bean & Tea Leaf and the Tommy's Hamburger.
Heritage
The greater Los Angeles metro area has several notable art museums including
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the J. Paul Getty Center on
the Santa Monica mountains overlooking the Pacific, the Museum of
Contemporary Art (MOCA), the UCLA Hammer Museum and the Norton Simon Museum.
In the 1920s and 1930s Will Durant and Ariel Durant, Arnold Schoenberg and
other intellectuals were the representatives of culture, in contrast to the
movie writers and directors. But, until the 1960s the region was something
of a "cultural wasteland" compared to San Francisco and New York--if culture
is defined as the "high arts" of ballet, opera, classical music and
legitimate theater. However, as the city flourished financially in the
middle of the 20th century, the culture followed. Boosters such as Dorothy
Buffum Chandler and other philanthropists raised funds for the establishment
of art museums, music centers and theaters. Today, the Southland cultural
scene is as complex, sophisticated and varied as any in the world.
Art
Los Angeles is known for its mural art, and its thousands of examples of
wall art are believe to outnumber those in every other city in the world.
The city also has a famous "public art" program which requires developers to
contribute one percent of the cost of construction of new buildings to a
public art fund. Much of this money has been spent in downtown Los Angeles.
In downtown Los Angeles, there are several buildings constructed in the Art
Deco style. In recognition of this heritage, the recently built Metropolitan
Transit Authority building incorporates subtle Art Deco characteristics.
Music
Los Angeles had a vibrant African-American musical community even when it
was relatively small: a number of musical artists congregated around Central
Avenue, and the community produced a number of great talents, including
Charles Mingus, Buddy Collette, Gerald Wilson, and others in the 1930s and
1940s. While that scene disappeared in the 1950s, Los Angeles continues as
an important center for music, including rock and rap, both performed live
and recorded. Much hard rock has come out of Los Angeles, including "hair
bands" like Mötley Crüe, thrash metal acts like Slayer, and also 90s rock
bands such as Korn. Metallica got their start in L.A., but made their fame
in the Bay Area. The hardcore punk movement also had an offshoot here,
featuring bands like X, Black Flag and Wasted Youth.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra now performs at Walt Disney Concert
Hall after having spent many years in residence at the Dorothy Chandler
Pavilion.
Sports
Los Angeles is the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, the Los
Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers men's basketball teams, the Los
Angeles Sparks women's basketball team, the Los Angeles Kings hockey team,
the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team, and the Los Angeles Avengers arena
football team.
Anaheim, about 25 miles to the south-east, is home to the Mighty Ducks of
Anaheim hockey team and the Anaheim Angels baseball team.
The city is credited with being the birthplace of skateboarding.
Los Angeles has twice played host to the summer Olympic Games: in 1932 and
in 1984.
Flora
There are many exotic flowers and flowering trees that are blooming 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 take special attention in this Mediterranean
climate.
Media
Los Angeles is served by the Los Angeles Times and La Opinión (the city's
major Spanish-language paper.), as well as smaller regional newspapers,
alternative weeklies and magazine, including the Daily News (which focuses
coverage on the Valley), L.A. Weekly, L.A. City Beat, Los Angeles magazine,
Los Angeles Business Journal, Los Angeles Daily Journal (legal industry
paper), Daily Variety, (show-biz industry paper), and Los Angeles Downtown
News.
Religion
Los Angeles is home to adherents of many religions. The cathedral of the
Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels (at the north end of downtown) was completed in 2002. A major temple
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is situated in West Los
Angeles.
Los Angeles' large multi-ethnic population has fostered some of the less
common religions of North America . Immigrants from Asia, for example, have
formed a number of significant Buddhist congregations.
Los Angeles is also home to a number of Neopagans and other mystical
religions.
The city has also been home to some very colorful religious leaders and
icons. In the 1920s, Aimee Semple McPherson established a thriving evangelic
ministry, open to both black and white congregants. The Church of
Scientology today has a major presence in the city.
Stereotypes
Los Angeles has been derided by many in the rest of the United States for
most of the last century; to quote one dyspeptic observer, the city "oozed
up through the unstable earth like some noxious tropical plant growing and
spreading over the plain and sending forth strange fruit to contaminate the
rest of the country". H.L. Mencken complained about the stink of oranges,
while Bertolt Brecht compared Los Angeles to hell with "endless processions
of cars/Lighter than their own shadows, faster than/Mad thoughts, gleaming
vehicles in which/Jolly-looking people come from nowhere and are nowhere
bound". The current stereotype appears to be Los Angeles as dystopia, as
portrayed in movies such as Blade Runner, and promulgated in part by
socialist urban critic Mike Davis, author of the influential nonfiction
works City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear.
Other perceptions of Los Angeles suggest a town full of surfers, gang
members and sleazy show biz types.
Education
The primary school district that serves Los Angeles is Los Angeles Unified
School District.
Colleges and universities
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
University of Southern California (USC)
California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA)
California State University, Northridge (CSUN)
Loyola Marymount University (LMU)
Los Angeles City College (LACC)
Occidental College (Oxy)
Southwestern University School of Law
Note: for more colleges and universities in the L.A. area, such as Caltech,
see Los Angeles County, California#Colleges and Universities
Sites of interest
Angels Flight
Biltmore Hotel
Bonaventure Hotel
Central Los Angeles Library
Chinatown
Exposition Park
Farmers Market
J. Paul Getty Center
Grauman's Chinese Theater
Griffith Observatory
Griffith Park
Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Walk of Fame
Little Tokyo
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Los Angeles Zoo
La Brea Tar Pits
Museum of Tolerance
Olvera Street
Peterson Automotive Museum
Southwest Museum
Union Station
Universal Studios
U.S. Bank Tower
Watts Towers
Law and government
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) polices the city of Los Angeles. (The
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department polices all areas of L.A. county
that do not have independent city police departments.)
The city has a mayor-council system. The current mayor is James Hahn. There
are 15 city council districts. Other elected city officials are the city
attorney and the city controller. The city attorney prosecutes misdemeanors
within the city limits. The district attorney, elected by the county voters,
prosecutes misdemeanors in unincorporated areas and in 78 of the 88 cities
in the county, as well as felonies everywhere in the county.
Los Angeles has 20 Sister Cities, more than any other municipality in
California. Notable sister cities include Athens, Jakarta, Berlin, Mumbai,
Vancouver, Mexico City and St. Petersburg.
Geography
The city is situated in a semitropical Mediterranean climate zone.
L.A. has a total area of 472.08 square miles. The extreme north-south
distance is 44 miles, the extreme east-west distance is 29 miles, and the
length of the city boundary is 342 miles.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of
1,290.6 km² (498.3 mi²). 1,214.9 km² (469.1 mi²) of it is land and 75.7 km²
(29.2 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 5.86% water.
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
city is mostly at sea level elevation or a few feet above.
The major waterway of Los Angeles is the Los Angeles River, and water rights
and battles have been a major part of the city's history.
Urban layout
Greater Los Angeles (also referred to locally as "Southern California" or "The
Southland") is such a sprawling area that residents refer to broad general
sub-regions. It is not always meaningful to refer to Los Angeles as a
distinct city, but people outside of Southern California commonly refer to
the entire region as "L.A.," even though there are five counties, more than
100 distinct municipalities, hundreds of neighborhoods and districts, and
more people than any individual state except for Texas, New York, Florida,
and, of course, California.
Some areas are defined by natural features such as mountains or the ocean;
others are marked by city boundaries, freeways, or other constructed
landmarks. For example, Downtown Los Angeles is the area of Los Angeles
roughly enclosed by three freeways and one river: The Harbor Freeway to the
west, the Hollywood Freeway to the north, the Los Angeles River to the east,
and the Santa Monica Freeway to the south. Or, consider the San Fernando
Valley: Lying north-northwest of Downtown L.A., "The Valley" is a 15 mile-wide
basin ringed by mountains.
Some other areas of Los Angeles include the Westside; South L.A. (formerly
known as South Central L.A.); and the San Pedro/Harbor City area. Adjoining
areas that are outside the actual city boundaries of the incorporated city
of Los Angeles include the South Bay, the San Gabriel Valley and the
Foothills.
The city boundaries are quite complicated. Some areas such as Beverly Hills
and San Fernando are separate cities and are independent of Los Angeles, yet
are entirely surrounded by L.A. territory. There are also unincorporated
enclaves which are under County jurisdiction.
Communities, neighborhoods and districts
These are districts and neighborhoods within the city proper: Arleta, Arroyo
Seco, Atwater Village, Baldwin Hills, Bel-Air, Beverlywood, Boyle Heights,
Brentwood, Byzantine-Latino Quarter, Canoga Park, Century City, Chatsworth,
Cheviot Hills, Chinatown, Downtown Los Angeles, Eagle Rock, Echo Park, El
Sereno, Elysian Valley, Encino, Fairfax District, Glassell Park, Granada
Hills, Hancock Park, Highland Park, Hollywood, Holmby Hills, Koreatown,
Leimert Park, Lincoln Heights, Little Tokyo, Los Feliz, Mar Vista, Mission
Hills, Montecito Heights, Mt. Washington, North Hills, North Hollywood,
Northridge, Olive View, Pacific Palisades, Pacoima, Palms, Panorama City,
Pico-Union, Playa del Rey, Porter Ranch, Rancho Park, Reseda, San Pedro,
Sawtelle, Sepulveda, Sherman Oaks, Silver Lake, South Central Los Angeles (now
formally South Los Angeles), Studio City, Sunland, Sunset Junction, Sun
Valley, Sylmar, Tarzana, Toluca Lake, Tujunga, Universal City, Van Nuys,
Venice, Watts, West Adams, West Alameda, Westchester, West Hills, Westlake/MacArthur
Park, Westwood, Wilmington, Winnetka, Woodland Hills
Area codes
Area code 213 - Downtown L.A.
Area code 323 - Donut around downtown including greater Hollywood, East L.A.,
northern South-Central L.A.
Area code 310 - West L.A. and the South Bay
Area code 562 - South-West L.A. County, Whittier, Long Beach area
Area code 626 - Pasadena, San Gabriel Valley
Area code 661 - Antelope Valley including Palmdale, Lancaster; Santa Clarita
Area code 818 - The San Fernando Valley, Glendale
Area code 909 - Pomona, parts of the east County
Economy
Main article: Economy of Los Angeles
The most important industries in Los Angeles are entertainment and media
production, aerospace, telecommunications, law, tourism, health and
medicine, manufacturing and transportation. The ports of Los Angeles and
Long Beach are vital to North American trade with the Pacific Rim countries.
Major companies headquartered in Los Angeles
TokyoPop
Entertainment companies headquartered near Los Angeles
The Walt Disney Company and Warner Brothers are based in nearby Burbank,
California. Sony Pictures Entertainment (parent of Columbia Pictures) is
based in Culver City, California.
None of the major film companies are headquartered within the boundaries of
the City of Los Angeles for a variety of reasons, such as the city's high
taxes. For example, Los Angeles charges a gross receipts tax on business
revenue, while practically all neighboring cities do not.
Transportation
Intercity
Most visitors to the the City of Los Angeles arrive by air at Los Angeles
International Airport. Visitors from within California, nearby states, or
Mexico often choose to drive instead.
When approaching Los Angeles International Airport from the east, nighttime
airline travelers will glimpse the lights of the greater Los Angeles area
for over 30 minutes before landing. The greater Los Angeles area sprawls
over 120 miles from Ventura to San Bernardino.
L.A.'s Union Station (a terminus) is the train station for Amtrak and
Metrolink. Amtrak operates a somewhat less than hourly service to San Diego
and less frequent services to the north, including the Coast Starlight to
Seattle, once a day, a 34 hours ride. There is also daily service once a day
to Chicago and three times a week to Orlando, Florida.
As for visitors arriving by car or bus, the major routes are Interstate 5,
Interstate 15, U.S. Highway 101, and Interstate 10. Interstates 5 and 15
connect to all cities to the north and south. Highway 101 runs west towards
Santa Barbara before veering north towards San Francisco. Interstate 10
connects to all cities to the east.
Intracity
The City of Los Angeles is served by a huge freeway network, an even larger
street grid, and an extensive public transportation system.
There are at least a dozen major freeways. The original freeway, known as
the Arroyo Seco Parkway, running between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena,
opened January 1, 1940, when the first California freeway "traffic jam"
occurred. Major freeways of Los Angeles include the San Diego (405) freeway,
Ventura (101) freeway, Santa Monica (10) freeway, Harbor (110) freeway,
Century (105) freeway, Simi Valley (118) freeway, the Foothill (210) freeway,
Long Beach (710) freeway and the Golden State (5) freeway.
The city's streets are often as congested as its freeways; besides the lack
of capacity, the city is also notorious for poor street maintenance. Streets
were a major issue during an unsuccessful campaign in 2002 by some Hollywood
and San Fernando Valley residents to secede from Los Angeles. The city is
often contrasted unfavorably by the news media against neighboring
communities, in terms of filling potholes, adding dedicated left-turn
traffic signals, and resurfacing older concrete roads with asphalt.
L.A. is also far behind many other cities in complying with a state law that
requires conversion of 70 percent of traffic signal lights from incandescent
light bulbs to light emitting diodes.
The primary regional public transportation agency is the Los Angeles County
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, commonly referred to as MTA or Metro.
MTA has developed a sophisticated and modern subway, as well as an extensive
bus system. Additionally, a light rail system has been built connecting
downtown L.A. to outlying suburbs like Long Beach and Pasadena. Expansion of
the subway system was halted by voter referendum after several accidents
during the construction of the Red Line subway, but MTA is continuing with
expansion of the light rail network to the Westside and East Los Angeles,
and with expansion of the bus network along dedicated busways.
The City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) also runs
several short bus lines to fill gaps in the huge MTA countywide bus network,
and many bordering cities operate their own bus companies with service into
the City of Los Angeles. To make its buses stand out from the chaos on L.A.
streets, the City of Santa Monica pioneered the practice of painting its
"Big Blue Buses" all blue. City of Culver City buses are painted in a
predominantly green pattern, and MTA local buses are now painted in an
orange design. MTA also has special Metro Rapid buses which are painted red.
LADOT buses are white.
People
The people of Los Angeles are known as "Angelenos". L.A. can truly be
described as a "world city"--it has one of the largest and most diverse
populations of any municipality anywhere. The Hispanic and Asian-American
populations are growing particularly quickly--the Asian-American population
is the largest of any city in the U.S. Los Angeles hosts the largest
populations of Armenians, Cambodians, Filipinos, Guatemalans, Koreans,
Thais, Mexicans, and Salvadorans outside of their respective countries. Los
Angeles is also home to the largest populations of Japanese, Iranians, and
Cambodians living in the U.S. L.A. also has one of the largest Native
American populations in the country.
L.A. is home to people from more than 140 countries, who speak at least 92
different languages. Ethnic enclaves like Little Persia, Thai Town and
Little Ethiopia give testimony to the polyglot character of Los Angeles
