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Los Angeles, California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| City of Los Angeles | |||
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| Nickname: The City of Angels, L.A. | |||
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| Coordinates: | |||
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| 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 | 233 (city hall) ft (71 m) | ||
| Population (2006) | |||
| - City | 3,849,368 | ||
| - Density | 8,205/sq mi (3,168/km²) | ||
| - Metro | 12,950,119 | ||
| - Demonym | Angeleno | ||
| Time zone | PST (UTC-8) | ||
| - Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) | ||
| Website: www.ci.la.ca.us/ | |||
Los Angeles (IPA: /lɑˈsændʒʌlʌs/) is the largest city in the state of California and the second-largest in the United States of America.[1] Often abbreviated as L.A., it is an alpha world city having an estimated 2006 population of 3.8 million.[2] and spanning over 469.1 square miles (1,214.9 square kilometers) in Southern California. Additionally, the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana metropolitan area is home to nearly 13 million people who hail from all over the globe. They speak more than a hundred different languages.[3] Los Angeles is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States. Its inhabitants call themselves "Angelenos." The city's most popular nickname is the "City of Angels".
Los Angeles was founded in the year of 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 Porciúncula). It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its independence from Spain. In 1848 at the end of the Mexican-American War, Los Angeles and California became part of the United States. It was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850—five months before California achieved statehood.
Los Angeles is one of the world's most prominent centers of culture, technology, and international trade. It is home to world-renowned institutions covering 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.
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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 João 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.[4] 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.[5]
In 1771, Franciscan friar Junipero Serra built the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel near Whittier Narrows, in what is now called San Gabriel Valley.[6] In 1777, the new governor of California, Felipe de Neve, recommended to the viceroy of New Spain that the site 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").[7] These settlers were of Filipino, Native American, African, and Spanish ancestry, with two-thirds being mestizo or mulatto. A majority of the settlers had some African ancestry.[8] The settlement remained a small ranch town for decades, but by 1820 the population had increased to about 650 residents.[9] Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the historic district Olvera Street, the oldest part of Los Angeles.[10]
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.
Railroads arrived when the Southern Pacific completed its line to Los Angeles in 1876.[11] Oil was discovered in 1892, and by 1923 Los Angeles was producing one-quarter of the world's petroleum.[12]
By 1900, the population had grown to more than 100,000 people [13], which began to put pressure on the city's water supply.[14] 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 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. In 1932, with population surpassing one million[15], the city 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 and the expansion of defense industries brought new growth and prosperity to the city. Thousands of African Americans migrated from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi to work in the expanding industries. The state also succumbed to war fears and transported most Japanese-American residents from Los Angeles and other cities to distant 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.[16]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.[17]
As in other major cities, long-unresolved racial problems erupted in the 1960s and 1970s. Los Angeles grappled with the Watts riots in 1965, the high school walkout by Chicano students in 1968, and the 1970 Chicano Moratorium, as representative of racial strife within the city. Los Angeles was one of those who passed gay rights bils during the 1970s after years of pressure from prominent performing arts members, and the first one where AIDS was discovered and centered on during the 1980s. Also in the 1980s Los Angeles was the center of most of the heavy metal esp. hair metal bands.
In 1984, the city hosted the Summer Olympics for the second time. The rest of the 1980s was plagued by an increase in gang violence, when crack cocaine became wildly available, and police corruption. Racial tensions surfaced again in 1991 with the Rodney King controversy and the large-scale riots that followed the acquittal of his attackers. In 1994, the Northridge earthquake shook the city and caused 72 deaths.[18]
Despite propositions by San Fernando Valley and Hollywood sections to secede from the city in 2002, residents voted down secession.[19] The 2000s has seen a rise in urban redevelopment and gentrification in various parts of the city, most notably Echo Park and Downtown.[20]
- See also: Los Angeles Basin, Los Angeles County, California, Maps of Los Angeles, California, and List of area codes in Southern California
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.[21] 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). It is the only major city in the United States bisected by a mountain range.
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.
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.[22] 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.[23] 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.[24] Parts of the city are also vulnerable to Pacific Ocean tsunamis; harbor areas were damaged by waves from the Great Chilean Earthquake in 1960.[25]
The city is situated in a Mediterranean climate or Dry-Summer Subtropical zone (Köppen climate classification Csb on the coast, Csa inland), USDA Zones 8-11, 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. A few coastal "micro-climates" have never recorded a temperature below freezing. 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 May Gray or June Gloom.[26]
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;[27] 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.[28]
| Weather averages for Los Angeles, California (downtown) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 90 (32) | 92 (33) | 93 (33) | 96 (35) | 99 (37) | 104 (40) | 103 (39) | 102 (39) | 110 (43) | 104 (40) | 96 (35) | 92 (33) | 110 (43) |
| Average high °F (°C) | 65 (18) | 66 (18) | 68 (20) | 70 (21) | 73 (22) | 76 (24) | 84 (29) | 82 (27) | 81 (27) | 77 (25) | 73 (22) | 68 (20) | 73 (22) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 48 (8) | 49 (9) | 50 (10) | 53 (11) | 56 (13) | 58 (14) | 63 (16) | 63 (17) | 61 (16) | 58 (14) | 53 (11) | 50 (10) | 55 (12) |
| Record low °F (°C) | 28 (-2) | 34 (1) | 38 (3) | 41 (5) | 43 (6) | 50 (10) | 54 (12) | 51 (10) | 50 (10) | 46 (8) | 40 (4) | 24 (-4) | 24 (-4) |
| Precipitation inch (cm) | 2.7 (6) | 3.1 (7) | 2.2 (5) | 1.3 (3.3) | 0.3 (0.8) | 0.1 (0.2) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0.2 (0.5) | 0.4 (1) | 1.1 (2) | 2.5 (6) | 14 (35) |
| Source: weatherbase.com[29] Jun 2007 | |||||||||||||
The Los Angeles area is rich in native plant species due in part to a diversity in habitats, including beaches, wetlands, and mountains. The most prevalent botanical 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 they are not native to the area, the official tree of Los Angeles is the tropical Coral Tree and the official flower of Los Angeles is the Bird of Paradise, Strelitzia reginae.[30]
Due to geography, heavy reliance on automobiles, and the Los Angeles/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 exhausts from road vehicles, airplanes, locomotives, shipping, manufacturing, and other sources.[31] Unlike other large cities that rely on rain to clear smog, Los Angeles gets only 15 inches (381 mm) of rain each year. Pollution accumulates over multiple consecutive days. Issues of air quality in Los Angeles and other major cities led to the passage of early national environmental legislation, including the Clean Air Act. More recently, the state of California has led the nation in working to limit pollution by mandating low emissions vehicles.[32]
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.[33][34] 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.[35][36]
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, the Eastside, 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 West Adams, Watts, Compton, Venice Beach, the Downtown Financial District, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Hollywood, Hancock Park, Koreatown, Westwood and the more affluent areas of Bel-Air, Benedict Canyon,Hollywood Hills, Pacific Palisades, and Brentwood.
Important landmarks in Los Angeles include Chinatown, Koreatown, 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, Dodger Stadium and La Placita Olvera/Olvera Street.
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 Pavilion, The Promenade at Howard Hughes Center and Venice Boardwalk.
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 number 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, Chinese 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 metropolitan area is served by a variety of local television stations and is the second-largest media market in North America (behind New York City. Number three is Chicago and four is Toronto).
Los Angeles and New York City are the only two media markets to have all seven VHF allocations possible assigned to them.[37]
The major network-affiliated television stations in this city are 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 three PBS stations in the area, including 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 nine (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).
Los Angeles is home to adherents of many religions, with Roman Catholicism the largest due to the high numbers of Hispanics.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles leads the largest archdiocese in the country.[38] Roger Cardinal Mahony oversaw construction of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, completed in 2002 at the north end of downtown. Construction of the cathedral marked a coming of age of the Catholic, heavily Latino community. There are numerous Catholic churches and parishes throughout the city.
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 and it was the largest in the world when completed.[39] 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.
With 621,000 Jews in the metropolitan area (490,000 in city proper), the region has the second largest population of Jews in the United States.[40][41] 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 Los Angeles around Fairfax and Pico Boulevards contains a large amount of Orthodox Jews. The Breed Street Shul in East Los Angeles, built in 1923, was the largest synagogue west of Chicago in its early decades.[42] (It is no longer a sacred space and is being converted to a museum and community center.)[43] The Kabbalah Centre, devoted to one line of Jewish mysticism, is also in the city.
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. Los Angeles is also a major hub of the House Church Movement. Dr. Gabe Veas is one of the leaders of this group, pastoring the house church network known as Authentic LA.
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, a wide variety of faiths are practiced, 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 greatest variety of Buddhists in the world. Los Angeles currently has the largest Buddhist population in the United States. There are more than 300 Buddhist 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. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, considered a spiritual, rather than a religious leader,[44] founded the Transcendental Meditation movement in Los Angeles in the late 1950s.
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.
The Church of Scientology has had a presence in Los Angeles since it opened February 18, 1954. It has several churches and museums in the area, most notably the Celebrity Centre in Hollywood.
- See also: Sports in Los Angeles
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 Riptide of Major League Lacrosse, and the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League. Los Angeles is also home to the USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins in the NCAA, both of which are Division I teams in 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. Several more teams are in the greater Los Angeles media market: the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Anaheim Ducks are both based in nearby Anaheim; and the Los Angeles Galaxy and Club Deportivo Chivas USA of Major League Soccer are both based in neighboring Carson.
There was a time when the Los Angeles media market boasted two NFL teams, the Rams and the Raiders. Both left the media market in the same year (1995), with the Rams moving to Anaheim in 1980 before St. Louis and the Raiders heading back to Oakland. Through the 2007-8 season there is no NFL franchise in the Los Angeles market, which is the second-largest city and television market in the United States[45]. Prior to 1995, the Rams called Memorial Coliseum (1946-1979) and Anaheim Stadium (1980-1994) home;[46] and the Raiders played their home games at Memorial Coliseum from 1982 to 1994.[47]
Since the franchise's departures the NFL as an organization, and individual NFL owners, have attempted to relocate a team to the city. Immediately following the 1995 NFL season, Seattle Seahawks owner Ken Behring went as far as packing up moving vans to start play in the Rose Bowl under a new team name and logo for the 1996 season. The State of Washington filed a law suit to successfully prevent the move.[48] In 2003, then NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue indicated L.A. would get a new expansion team, a thirty-third franchise, after the choice of Houston over L.A. in the 2002 league expansion round.[49] When the New Orleans Saints were displaced from the Superdome by Hurricane Katrina media outlets reported the NFL was planning to move the team to Los Angeles permanently.[50] Despite these efforts, and the failure to build a new stadium for an NFL team, L.A. is still expected to return to the league through expansion or relocation.
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.
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 Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL and the Avengers of the AFL.
- Further information: Los Angeles County Economy
- See also: Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
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.[51] The contiguous ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together comprise the most significant port in North America. They are one of the most important ports in the world, and vital to trade within the Pacific Rim.[51] Other significant industries include media production, finance, telecommunications, law, health and medicine, and transportation.
Until the mid-1990s, Los Angeles was home to many major financial institutions in the western United States. Mergers meant reporting to headquarters in other cities. For instance, First Interstate Bank merged with Wells-Fargo in 1996, Great Western Bank merged with Washington Mutual in 1998, and Security Pacific National Bank merged with Bank of America in 1992. Los Angeles was also home to the Pacific Stock Exchange, until it closed in 2001.
The city has 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.[52]
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 companies who moved outside of the city to escape its taxes but keep the benefits of proximity.[53] 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.[54] 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. 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.
As of the censusGR2 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).
Los Angeles has become a multi-ethnic city, with major new groups of Latino and Asian immigrants in recent decades. The racial makeup of the city was 46.9% White (29.7% White/non-Hispanic[55]), 11.24% African American, 10.0% Asian, 0.8% Native American, 0.16% Pacific Islander, 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).[56] 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.[57] Since the mid-1980s, Los Angeles has been a minority-majority city.
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.
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.
In the period from 1920 to 1960, African Americans from the Southeast U.S. migrated to Los Angeles for job and life opportunities. The population expanded 15 times past its number in 1920.[citation needed]
Since 1990, the African American population in the city has dropped as its middle class relocated to the suburbs, notably the Antelope Valley and Inland Empire. African Americans still remain predominant in some portions of the city, including Hyde Park, Crenshaw District, Leimert Park, and Baldwin Hills.[citation needed]
| Historical populations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1850 | 1,610 |
|
|
| 1860 | 4,385 | 172.4% | |
| 1870 | 5,728 | 30.6% | |
| 1880 | 11,183 | 95.2% | |
| 1890 | 50,395 | 350.6% | |
| 1900 | 102,479 | 103.4% | |
| 1910 | 319,198 | 211.5% | |
| 1920 | 576,673 | 80.7% | |
| 1930 | 1,238,048 | 114.7% | |
| 1940 | 1,504,277 | 21.5% | |
| 1950 | 1,970,358 | 31.0% | |
| 1960 | 2,479,015 | 25.8% | |
| 1970 | 2,816,061 | 13.6% | |
| 1980 | 2,966,850 | 5.4% | |
| 1990 | 3,485,398 | 17.5% | |
| 2000 | 3,694,820 | 6.0% | |
| Est. 2006 | 3,849,378 | 4.2% | |
The Greater Los Angeles Area is estimated to the second largest concentration in the Americas of people of Jewish descent (estimated at 621,000)[41] after New York City.
Los Angeles is home to people from more than 140 countries speaking 224 different languages.[58] 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.
The city is governed by a mayor-council system. The current mayor is