Los Angeles, Spanish for "the angels") is the largest city in the state of
California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as
L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated
population of 3.8 million and spans over 498.3 square miles (1,290.6 km2) in
Southern California. Additionally, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area is home
to nearly 12.9 million residents. Los Angeles is the seat of Los Angeles
County, the most populated and one of the most diverse counties in the
United States. Its inhabitants are known as "Angelenos". In 2008, Los
Angeles was named the world's eighth most economically powerful city by
Forbes.com, ahead of Shanghai and Toronto but behind Chicago and Paris.
Los Angeles was founded September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de
Neve as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de
Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of the river
of Porziuncola). 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 the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States; Mexico
retained the territory of Baja California. Los Angeles was incorporated as a
municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved
statehood.
Los Angeles is one of the world's centers of business, international trade,
entertainment, culture, media, fashion, science, technology, and education.
It is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional
and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines
within the United States. As the home base of Hollywood, it is known as the
Entertainment Capital of the World", leading the world in the creation of
motion pictures, television production and recorded music. The importance of
the entertainment business to the city has led many celebrities to call Los
Angeles and its surrounding suburbs home.
History
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 in an expedition organized by the viceroy of
New Spain and commanded by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese-born
explorer who claimed the area of southern California for the Spanish Empire.
However, he continued with his voyage up the coast and did not establish a
settlement. The next contact would not come until 227 years later, when
Gaspar de Portolà, along with Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the
present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769. Crespí noted that the site
had the potential to be developed into a large settlement.
In 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra built the Mission San Gabriel
Arcangel near Whittier Narrows, in what is now called San Gabriel Valley. In
1777, the new governor of California, Felipe de Neve, recommended to Antonio
María de Bucareli y Ursúa, viceroy of New Spain, that the site noted by Juan
Crespí be developed into a pueblo. The town was officially founded on
September 4, 1781, by a group of forty-four settlers known as "Los
Pobladores". Tradition has it that on this day they were escorted by four
Spanish colonial soldiers, two priests from the Mission and Governor de Neve
The town 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
Porciúncula River). These pueblo settlers came from the common Hispanic
culture that had emerged in northern Mexico among a racially mixed society.
Two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto, and therefore, had
African and Indian ancestry. More importantly, they were intermarrying. The
settlement remained a small ranch town for decades, but by 1820 the
population had increased to about 650 residents. Today, the pueblo is
commemorated in the historic district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera
Street, the oldest part of Los Angeles.
New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, and the
pueblo continued as a part of Mexico. During Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico
made Los Angeles Alta California's regional capital. Mexican rule ended
during the Mexican–American War: Americans took control from the Californios
after a series of battles, culminating with the signing of the Treaty of
Cahuenga on January 13, 1847.
Los Angeles City Hall, shown here in 1931, was built in 1928 and was the
tallest structure in the city until 1964, when height restrictions were
removed.
Railroads arrived when the Southern Pacific completed its line to Los
Angeles in 1876. Oil was discovered in 1892, and by 1923 Los Angeles was
producing one-quarter of the world's petroleum.
By 1900, the population had grown to more than 102,000 people, putting
pressure on the city's water supply. 1913's completion of the Los Angeles
Aqueduct, under the supervision of William Mulholland, assured the continued
growth of the city.
In the 1920s, the motion picture and aviation industries flocked to Los
Angeles, with continuing growth ensuring that the city suffered less during
the Great Depression. In 1932, with population surpassing one million, the
city hosted the Summer Olympics.
The post-war years saw an even greater boom, as urban sprawl expanded the
city into the San Fernando Valley. 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.
In 1984, the city hosted the Summer Olympic Games for the second time.
Despite being boycotted by 14 Communist countries, the 1984 Olympics became
the most financially successful in history, and only the second Olympics to
turn a profit – the other being the 1932 Summer Olympics, also held in Los
Angeles.
During the remaining decades of the 20th century, the city was plagued by
increasing gang warfare, drug trades, and police corruption. Racial tensions
erupted again in 1992 with the Rodney King controversy and the large-scale
riots that followed the acquittal of his police attackers. In 1994, the 6.7
Northridge earthquake shook the city, causing $12.5 billion in damage and 72
deaths.
Gentrification and urban redevelopment have occurred in many parts of the
city, most notably Hollywood, Koreatown, Silver Lake, Echo Park and Downtown
Climate
Los Angeles has a Mediterranean climate or Dry-Summer Subtropical (Köppen
climate classification Csb on the coast, Csa inland), and receives just
enough annual precipitation to avoid Köppen's BSh (warm semi-arid climate)
classification. Los Angeles enjoys plenty of sunshine throughout the year,
with an average of 263 sunshine days and only 35 days with measurable
precipitation annually.
Economy
Companies such as US Bancorp, Ernst & Young, Aon, Manulife Financial, City
National Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Deloitte, KPMG and the Union
Bank of California have offices in the Downtown Financial District
The economy of Los Angeles is driven by international trade, entertainment
(television, motion pictures, interactive games, recorded music), aerospace,
technology, petroleum, fashion, apparel, and tourism. Los Angeles is also
the largest manufacturing center in the western United States. The
contiguous ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together comprise the fifth
busiest port in the world and the most significant port in the Western
Hemisphere and is vital to trade within the Pacific Rim. Other significant
industries include media production, finance, telecommunications, law,
healthcare, and transportation. The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside
combined statistical area (CSA) has a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of
$831 billion (as of 2008), making it the third largest economic center in
the world, after the Greater Tokyo Area and the New York-Newark-Bridgeport
CSA. If counted as a country, the Greater Los Angeles CSA has the 15th
largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP, placing it just below
Australia and above the Netherlands, Turkey, Sweden, Belgium, and Indonesia.
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 Bancorp merged
with Wells Fargo in 1996, Great Western Bank merged with Washington Mutual
in 1998, and Security Pacific Bank merged with Bank of America in 1992. Los
Angeles was also home to the Pacific Exchange, until it closed in 2001.
The city is home to six Fortune 500 companies. They are aerospace contractor
Northrop Grumman, energy company Occidental Petroleum, healthcare provider
Health Net, metals distributor Reliance Steel & Aluminum, engineering firm
AECOM, and real estate group CB Richard Ellis.
Other companies headquartered in Los Angeles include City National Bank,
20th Century Fox, Latham & Watkins, Univision, Metro Interactive, LLC,
Premier America, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, DeviantArt, Guess?, O'Melveny &
Myers; Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, Tokyopop, The Jim Henson Company,
Paramount Pictures, Robinsons-May, Sunkist Growers, Incorporated, Tutor
Perini, Fox Sports Net, Capital Group, 21st Century Insurance, and The
Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Korean Air's US passenger and cargo operations
headquarters are located in two separate offices in Los Angeles.
The metropolitan area contains the headquarters of companies who moved
outside of the city to escape its taxes but keep the benefits of proximity.
For example, Los Angeles charges a gross receipts tax based on a percentage
of business revenue, while many neighboring cities charge only small flat
fees. The companies below benefit from their proximity to Los Angeles, while
at the same time avoiding the city's taxes (and other problems). Some of the
major companies headquartered in the cities of Los Angeles county are Shakey
s Pizza (Alhambra), Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Beverly
Hills), Hilton Hotels (Beverly Hills), DIC Entertainment (Burbank), The Walt
Disney Company (Fortune 500 – Burbank), Warner Bros. (Burbank), Countrywide
Financial (Fortune 500 – Calabasas), THQ (Calabasas), Belkin (Compton), Sony
Pictures Entertainment (parent of Columbia Pictures, located in Culver City)
DirecTV (El Segundo), Mattel (Fortune 500 – El Segundo), Unocal Corporation
(Fortune 500 – El Segundo), DreamWorks (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 University of Southern California (USC) is the city's largest private
sector employer and contributes $4 billion annually to the local economy.
Los Angeles is classified as a "beta+ world city" in a 2008 study by a
research group at Loughborough University in England.
Crime and safety
The Crime in Los Angeles has been a major problem in Southern California and
concern for Angelenos. Los Angeles is informally known as the "Gang Capital
of the Nation".
Los Angeles has been experiencing significant decline in crime since the
mid-1990s, and reached a 37 year low in 2007 with 392 homicides. Antonio
Villaraigosa is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition.
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 Sureños, 18th
Street, Mara Salvatrucha, Crips, Bloods street gangs. This has led to the
city being referred to as the "Gang Capital of America".
In the first half of 2008, Los Angeles reports 198 homicides - which corresponds to a rate of 9.6 (per 100,000 population) - a major decrease from 1993, when the all time homicide rate of over 21.1 (per 100,000 population) was reported for the year. This included 15 officer-involved shootings. One shooting led to a SWAT member's death, Randal Simmons, the first in LAPD's history.
No comments:
Post a Comment