The local English pronunciation of the name of the city has varied over time. A 1953 article in the journal of the American Name Society asserts that the pronunciation /lɔːsˈændʒələs/lawss AN-jəl-əs was established following the 1850 incorporation of the city and that since the 1880s the pronunciation /loʊsˈæŋɡələs/lohss ANG-gəl-əs emerged from a trend in California to give places Spanish, or Spanish-sounding, names and pronunciations.[32] In 1908, librarian Charles Fletcher Lummis, who argued for the name's pronunciation with a hard g (/ɡ/),[33][34] reported that there were at least 12 pronunciation variants.[35] In the early 1900s, the Los Angeles Times advocated for pronouncing it Loce AHNG-hayl-ais (/loʊsˈɑːŋheɪleɪs/), approximating Spanish [losˈaŋxeles], by printing the respelling under its masthead for several years.[36] This did not find favor.[37]
New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, and the pueblo now existed within the new Mexican Republic. During Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles the regional capital of Alta California.[51] By this time, the new republic introduced more secularization acts within the Los Angeles region.[52] In 1846, during the wider Mexican-American war, marines from the United States occupied the pueblo. This resulted in the siege of Los Angeles where 150 Mexican militias fought the occupiers which eventually surrendered.[53]
Railroads arrived with the completion of the transcontinental Southern Pacific line from New Orleans to Los Angeles in 1876 and the Santa Fe Railroad in 1885.[55] Petroleum was discovered in the city and surrounding area in 1892, and by 1923, the discoveries had helped California become the country's largest oil producer, accounting for about one-quarter of the world's petroleum output.[56]
By 1900, the population had grown to more than 102,000,[57] putting pressure on the city's water supply.[58] The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, under the supervision of William Mulholland, ensured the continued growth of the city.[59] Because of clauses in the city's charter that prevented the City of Los Angeles from selling or providing water from the aqueduct to any area outside its borders, many adjacent cities and communities felt compelled to join Los Angeles.[60][61][62]
In the early 20th century, Hollywood studios, like Paramount Pictures, helped transform Hollywood into the world capital of film and helped solidify LA as a global economic hub.
Los Angeles created the first municipal zoning ordinance in the United States. On September 14, 1908, the Los Angeles City Council promulgated residential and industrial land use zones. The new ordinance established three residential zones of a single type, where industrial uses were prohibited. The proscriptions included barns, lumber yards, and any industrial land use employing machine-powered equipment. These laws were enforced against industrial properties after the fact. These prohibitions were in addition to existing activities that were already regulated as nuisances. These included explosives warehousing, gas works, oil drilling, slaughterhouses, and tanneries. Los Angeles City Council also designated seven industrial zones within the city. However, between 1908 and 1915, the Los Angeles City Council created various exceptions to the broad proscriptions that applied to these three residential zones, and as a consequence, some industrial uses emerged within them. There are two differences between the 1908 Residence District Ordinance and later zoning laws in the United States. First, the 1908 laws did not establish a comprehensive zoning map as the 1916 New York City Zoning Ordinance did. Second, the residential zones did not distinguish types of housing; they treated apartments, hotels, and detached-single-family housing equally.[63]
In 1910, Hollywood merged into Los Angeles, with 10 movie companies already operating in the city at the time. By 1921, more than 80 percent of the world's film industry was concentrated in L.A.[64] The money generated by the industry kept the city insulated from much of the economic loss suffered by the rest of the country during the Great Depression.[65] By 1930, the population surpassed one million.[66] In 1932, the city hosted the Summer Olympics.
During World War II Los Angeles was a major center of wartime manufacturing, such as shipbuilding and aircraft. Calship built hundreds of Liberty Ships and Victory Ships on Terminal Island, and the Los Angeles area was the headquarters of six of the country's major aircraft manufacturers (Douglas Aircraft Company, Hughes Aircraft, Lockheed, North American Aviation, Northrop Corporation, and Vultee). During the war, more aircraft were produced in one year than in all the pre-war years since the Wright brothers flew the first airplane in 1903, combined. Manufacturing in Los Angeles skyrocketed, and as William S. Knudsen, of the National Defense Advisory Commission put it, "We won because we smothered the enemy in an avalanche of production, the like of which he had never seen, nor dreamed possible."[67]
After the end of World War II Los Angeles grew more rapidly than ever, sprawling into the San Fernando Valley.[68] The expansion of the state owned Interstate Highway System during the 1950s and 1960s helped propel suburban growth and signaled the demise of the city's privately owned electrified rail system, once the world's largest. As a consequence of World War II, suburban growth, and population density, many amusement parks were built and operated in this area.[69] An example is Beverly Park, which was located at the corner of Beverly Boulevard and La Cienega before being closed and substituted by the Beverly Center.[70]
In the second half of the 20th century, Los Angeles substantially reduced the amount of housing that could be built by drastically downzoning the city. In 1960, the city had a total zoned capacity for approximately 10 million people. By 1990, that capacity had fallen to 4.5 million as a result of policy decisions to ban housing through zoning.[71]
Racial tensions led to the Watts riots in 1965, resulting in 34 deaths and over 1,000 injuries.[72]
In 1973, Tom Bradley was elected as the city's first African American mayor, serving for five terms until retiring in 1993. Other events in the city during the 1970s included the Symbionese Liberation Army's South Central standoff in 1974 and the Hillside Stranglers murder cases in 1977–1978.[74]
In early 1984, the city surpassed Chicago in population, thus becoming the second largest city in the United States.
In 1984, the city hosted the Summer Olympic Games for the second time. Despite being boycotted by 14 Communist countries, the 1984 Olympics became more financially successful than any previous,[75] and the second Olympics to turn a profit; the other, according to an analysis of contemporary newspaper reports, was the 1932 Summer Olympics, also held in Los Angeles.[76]
In 1994, the magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake shook the city, causing $12.5billion in damage and 72 deaths.[79] The century ended with the Rampart scandal, one of the most extensive documented cases of police misconduct in American history.[80]
21st century
In 2002, Mayor James Hahn led the campaign against secession, resulting in voters defeating efforts by the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood to secede from the city.[81]
In 2022, Karen Bass became the city's first female mayor, making Los Angeles the largest U.S. city to have ever had a woman as mayor.[82]
The city of Los Angeles covers a total area of 502.7 square miles (1,302km2), comprising 468.7 square miles (1,214km2) of land and 34.0 square miles (88km2) of water.[85] The city extends for 44 miles (71km) from north to south and for 29 miles (47km) from east to west. The perimeter of the city is 342 miles (550km).
Surrounding the city are much higher mountains. Immediately to the north lie the San Gabriel Mountains, which is a popular recreation area for Angelenos. Its high point is Mount San Antonio, locally known as Mount Baldy, which reaches 10,064 feet (3,068m). Further afield, the highest point in southern California is San Gorgonio Mountain, 81 miles (130km) east of downtown Los Angeles,[88] with a height of 11,503 feet (3,506m).
The Los Angeles River, which is largely seasonal, is the primary drainage channel. It was straightened and lined in 51 miles (82km) of concrete by the Army Corps of Engineers to act as a flood control channel.[89] The river begins in the Canoga Park district of the city, flows east from the San Fernando Valley along the north edge of the Santa Monica Mountains, and turns south through the city center, flowing to its mouth in the Port of Long Beach at the Pacific Ocean. The smaller Ballona Creek flows into the Santa Monica Bay at Playa del Rey.
The city is divided into many different districts and neighborhoods,[99][100] some of which had been separately incorporated cities that eventually merged with Los Angeles.[101] These neighborhoods were developed piecemeal, and are well-defined enough that the city has signage which marks nearly all of them.[102]
The city's street patterns generally follow a grid plan, with uniform block lengths and occasional roads that cut across blocks. However, this is complicated by rugged terrain, which has necessitated having different grids for each of the valleys that Los Angeles covers. Major streets are designed to move large volumes of traffic through many parts of the city, many of which are extremely long; Sepulveda Boulevard is 43 miles (69km) long, while Foothill Boulevard is over 60 miles (97km) long, reaching as far east as San Bernardino. Drivers in Los Angeles suffer from one of the worst rush hour periods in the world, according to an annual traffic index by navigation system maker, TomTom. LA drivers spend an additional 92 hours in traffic each year. During the peak rush hour, there is 80% congestion, according to the index.[103]
Los Angeles is often characterized by the presence of low-rise buildings, in contrast to New York City. Outside of a few centers such as Downtown, Warner Center, Century City, Koreatown, Miracle Mile, Hollywood, and Westwood, skyscrapers and high-rise buildings are not common in Los Angeles. The few skyscrapers built outside of those areas often stand out above the rest of the surrounding landscape. Most construction is done in separate units, rather than wall-to-wall. However, Downtown Los Angeles itself has many buildings over 30 stories, with fourteen over 50 stories, and two over 70 stories, the tallest of which is the Wilshire Grand Center.
Los Angeles has a two-season semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSh) with dry summers and very mild winters, but it receives more annual precipitation than most semi-arid climates, narrowly missing the boundary of a Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb on the coast, Csa otherwise).[105] Daytime temperatures are generally temperate all year round. In winter, they average around 68°F (20°C).[106] Autumn months tend to be hot, with major heat waves a common occurrence in September and October, while the spring months tend to be cooler and experience more precipitation. Los Angeles has plenty of sunshine throughout the year, with an average of only 35 days with measurable precipitation annually.[107]
Temperatures in the coastal basin exceed 90°F (32°C) on a dozen or so days in the year, from one day a month in April, May, June and November to three days a month in July, August, October and to five days in September.[107] Temperatures in the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys are considerably warmer. Temperatures are subject to substantial daily swings; in inland areas the difference between the average daily low and the average daily high is over 30°F (17°C).[108] The average annual temperature of the sea is 63°F (17°C), from 58°F (14°C) in January to 68°F (20°C) in August.[109] Hours of sunshine total more than 3,000 per year, from an average of 7 hours of sunshine per day in December to an average of 12 in July.[110]
Due to the mountainous terrain of the surrounding region, the Los Angeles area contains a large number of distinct microclimates, causing extreme variations in temperature in close physical proximity to each other. For example, the average July maximum temperature at the Santa Monica Pier is 70°F (21°C) whereas it is 95°F (35°C) in Canoga Park, 15 miles (24km) away.[111] The city, like much of the Southern Californian coast, is subject to a late spring/early summer weather phenomenon called "June Gloom". This involves overcast or foggy skies in the morning that yield to sun by early afternoon.[112]
More recently, statewide droughts in California have further strained the city's water security.[113] Downtown Los Angeles averages 14.67in (373mm) of precipitation annually, mainly occurring between November and March,[114][108] generally in the form of moderate rain showers, but sometimes as heavy rainfall during winter storms. Rainfall is usually higher in the hills and coastal slopes of the mountains because of orographic uplift. Summer days are usually rainless. Rarely, an incursion of moist air from the south or east can bring brief thunderstorms in late summer, especially to the mountains. The coast gets slightly less rainfall, while the inland and mountain areas get considerably more. Years of average rainfall are rare. The usual pattern is a year-to-year variability, with a short string of dry years of 5–10in (130–250mm) rainfall, followed by one or two wet years with more than 20in (510mm).[108] Wet years are usually associated with warm water El Niño conditions in the Pacific, dry years with cooler water La Niña episodes. A series of rainy days can bring floods to the lowlands and mudslides to the hills, especially after wildfires have denuded the slopes.
Both freezing temperatures and snowfall are extremely rare in the city basin and along the coast, with the last occurrence of a 32°F (0°C) reading at the downtown station being January 29, 1979;[108] freezing temperatures occur nearly every year in valley locations while the mountains within city limits typically receive snowfall every winter. The greatest snowfall recorded in downtown Los Angeles was 2.0 inches (5cm) on January 15, 1932.[108][115] While the most recent snowfall occurred in February 2019, the first snowfall since 1962,[116][117] with snow falling in areas adjacent to Los Angeles as recently as January 2021.[118] Brief, localized instances of hail can occur on rare occasions, but are more common than snowfall. At the official downtown station, the highest recorded temperature is 113°F (45°C) on September 27, 2010,[108][119] while the lowest is 28°F (−2°C),[108] on January 4, 1949.[108] Within the City of Los Angeles, the highest temperature ever officially recorded is 121°F (49°C), on September 6, 2020, at the weather station at Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Woodland Hills.[120] During autumn and winter, Santa Ana winds sometimes bring much warmer and drier conditions to Los Angeles, and raise wildfire risk.
Owing 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.[128]
Viewable smog in Los Angeles in December 2005
The smog season lasts from approximately May to October.[129] While other large cities rely on rain to clear smog, Los Angeles gets only 15 inches (380mm) of rain each year: pollution accumulates over many 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. When the act was passed, California was unable to create a State Implementation Plan that would enable it to meet the new air quality standards, largely because of the level of pollution in Los Angeles generated by older vehicles.[130] More recently, the state of California has led the nation in working to limit pollution by mandating low-emission vehicles. Smog is expected to continue to drop in the coming years because of aggressive steps to reduce it, which include electric and hybrid cars, improvements in mass transit, and other measures.
The number of Stage 1 smog alerts in Los Angeles has declined from over 100 per year in the 1970s to almost zero in the new millennium.[131] Despite improvement, the 2006 and 2007 annual reports of the American Lung Association ranked the city as the most polluted in the country with short-term particle pollution and year-round particle pollution.[132] In 2008, the city was ranked the second most polluted and again had the highest year-round particulate pollution.[133] The city met its goal of providing 20 percent of the city's power from renewable sources in 2010.[134] The American Lung Association's 2013 survey ranks the metro area as having the nation's worst smog, and fourth in both short-term and year-round pollution amounts.[135]
Los Angeles is also home to the nation's largest urban oil field. There are more than 700 active oil wells within 1,500 feet (460m) of homes, churches, schools and hospitals in the city, a situation about which the EPA has voiced serious concerns.[136]
United States Census Bureau[138] 2010–2020, 2021[8]
The 2010 U.S. census[139] reported Los Angeles had a population of 3,792,621.[140] The population density was 8,092.3 peopleper square mile (3,124.5 people/km2). The age distribution was 874,525 people (23.1%) under 18, 434,478 people (11.5%) from 18 to 24, 1,209,367 people (31.9%) from 25 to 44, 877,555 people (23.1%) from 45 to 64, and 396,696 people (10.5%) who were 65 or older.[140] The median age was 34.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.6 males.[140]
There were 1,413,995 housing units—up from 1,298,350 during 2005–2009[140]—at an average density of 2,812.8 householdsper square mile (1,086.0 households/km2), of which 503,863 (38.2%) were owner-occupied, and 814,305 (61.8%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.1%; the rental vacancy rate was 6.1%. 1,535,444 people (40.5% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 2,172,576 people (57.3%) lived in rental housing units.[140]
According to the 2010 United States Census, Los Angeles had a median household income of $49,497, with 22.0% of the population living below the federal poverty line.[140]
Percentage of households with incomes above $150k across Los Angeles County census tracts
Non-Hispanic Whites were 28.7% of the population in 2010,[140] compared to 86.3% in 1940.[141] The majority of the Non-Hispanic White population is living in areas along the Pacific coast as well as in neighborhoods near and on the Santa Monica Mountains from the Pacific Palisades to Los Feliz.
Mexican ancestry makes up the largest ethnic group of Hispanics at 31.9% of the city's population, followed by those of Salvadoran (6.0%) and Guatemalan (3.6%) heritage. The Hispanic population has a long established Mexican-American and Central American community and is spread throughout the entire city of Los Angeles and its metropolitan area. It is most heavily concentrated in regions around Downtown, such as East Los Angeles, Northeast Los Angeles and Westlake. Furthermore, a vast majority of residents in neighborhoods in eastern South Los Angeles towards Downey are of Hispanic origin.[144]
Map of racial and ethnic distribution in Los Angeles as of the 2010 U.S. Census. Each dot is 25 people: ⬤White⬤Black⬤Asian⬤Hispanic⬤Other
The largest Asian ethnic groups are Filipinos (3.2%) and Koreans (2.9%), which have their own established ethnic enclaves—Koreatown in the Wilshire Center and Historic Filipinotown.[145]Chinese people, which make up 1.8% of Los Angeles's population, reside mostly outside of Los Angeles city limits, in the San Gabriel Valley of eastern Los Angeles County, but make a sizable presence in the city, notably in Chinatown.[146] Chinatown and Thaitown are also home to many Thais and Cambodians, which make up 0.3% and 0.1% of Los Angeles's population, respectively. The Japanese comprise 0.9% of the city's population and have an established Little Tokyo in the city's downtown, and another significant community of Japanese Americans is in the Sawtelle district of West Los Angeles. Vietnamese make up 0.5% of Los Angeles's population. Indians make up 0.9% of the city's population. Los Angeles is also home to Armenians, Assyrians, and Iranians, many of whom live in enclaves like Little Armenia and Tehrangeles.[147][148]
Los Angeles has the second-largest Mexican, Armenian, Salvadoran, Filipino, and Guatemalan populations by city in the world, the third-largest Canadian population in the world, and has the largest Japanese, Iranian/Persian, Cambodian, and Romani (Gypsy) populations in the country.[151] The Italian community is concentrated in San Pedro.[152]
In 2011, the once common, but ultimately lapsed, custom of conducting a procession and Mass in honor of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, in commemoration of the founding of the City of Los Angeles in 1781, was revived by the Queen of Angels Foundation and its founder Mark Albert, with the support of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as well as several civic leaders.[158] The recently revived custom is a continuation of the original processions and Masses that commenced on the first anniversary of the founding of Los Angeles in 1782 and continued for nearly a century thereafter.
With 621,000 Jews in the metropolitan area, the region has the second-largest population of Jews in the United States, after New York City.[159] Many of Los Angeles's Jews now live on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley, though Boyle Heights once had a large Jewish population prior to World War II due to restrictive housing covenants. Major Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods include Hancock Park, Pico-Robertson, and Valley Village, while Jewish Israelis are well represented in the Encino and Tarzana neighborhoods, and Persian Jews in Beverly Hills. Many varieties of Judaism are represented in the greater Los Angeles area, including Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and Reconstructionist. The Breed Street Shul in East Los Angeles, built in 1923, was the largest synagogue west of Chicago in its early decades; it is no longer in daily use as a synagogue and is being converted to a museum and community center.[160][161] The Kabbalah Centre also has a presence in the city.[162]
As of January 2020, there are 41,290 homeless people in the City of Los Angeles, comprising roughly 62% of the homeless population of LA County.[169] This is an increase of 14.2% over the previous year (with a 12.7% increase in the overall homeless population of LA County).[170][171] The epicenter of homelessness in Los Angeles is the Skid Row neighborhood, which contains 8,000 homeless people, one of the largest stable populations of homeless people in the United States.[172][173] The increased homeless population in Los Angeles has been attributed to lack of housing affordability[171] and to substance abuse.[174] Almost 60 percent of the 82,955 people who became newly homeless in 2019 said their homelessness was because of economic hardship.[170] In Los Angeles, black people are roughly four times more likely to experience homelessness.[170][175]
The economy of Los Angeles is driven by international trade, entertainment (television, motion pictures, video games, music recording, and production), aerospace, technology, petroleum, fashion, apparel, and tourism.[176] Other significant industries include finance, telecommunications, law, healthcare, and transportation. In the 2017 Global Financial Centres Index, Los Angeles was ranked the 19th most competitive financial center in the world and sixth most competitive in the U.S. after New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and Washington, D.C.[177] Although many businesses have left Downtown Los Angeles following the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts are underway to re-invent the neighborhood as a cultural center with a large architectural showcase in Bunker Hill designed by Frank Gehry.[28]
Los Angeles is the largest manufacturing center in the United States.[179] The contiguous ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together comprise the busiest port in the United States by some measures and the fifth busiest port in the world, vital to trade within the Pacific Rim.[180]
The Department of Cannabis Regulation enforces cannabis legislation after the legalization of the sale and distribution of cannabis in 2016.[182]As of October2019[update], more than 300 existing cannabis businesses (both retailers and their suppliers) have been granted approval to operate in what is considered the nation's largest market.[183][184]
At the end of the second quarter of 2024, Los Angeles saw an office space vacancy rate of 31.5%, a 33.5% increase year-over-year.[187][188][187] Retail vacancy stood at 8.6%, a 15% increase year-over-year.[188]
Los Angeles is often billed as the creative capital of the world because one in every six of its residents works in a creative industry[190] and there are more artists, writers, filmmakers, actors, dancers and musicians living and working in Los Angeles than any other city at any other time in world history.[191] Los Angeles is strongly influenced by Mexican American culture due to California formerly being part of Mexico and, previously, the Spanish Empire.[192] The city is also known for its prolific murals.[193]
The city's Hollywood neighborhood has been recognized as the center of the motion picture industry, having held this distinction since the early 20th century, and the Los Angeles area is also associated with being the center of the television industry.[213] The city is home to major film studios as well as major record labels. Los Angeles plays host to the annual Academy Awards, the Primetime Emmy Awards, the Grammy Awards as well as many other entertainment industry awards shows. Los Angeles is the site of the USC School of Cinematic Arts which is the oldest film school in the United States.[214]
Los Angeles' food culture is a fusion of global cuisine brought on by the city's rich immigrant history and population. As of 2022, the Michelin Guide recognized 10 restaurants granting 2 restaurants two stars and eight restaurants one star.[227]
Los Angeles is the second-largest city in the United States but hosted no NFL team between 1995 and 2015. At one time, the Los Angeles area hosted two NFL teams: the Rams and the Raiders. Both left the city in 1995, with the Rams moving to St. Louis, and the Raiders moving back to their original home of Oakland. After 21 seasons in St. Louis, on January 12, 2016, the NFL announced the Rams would be moving back to Los Angeles for the 2016 NFL season with its home games played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for four seasons.[243][244][245] Prior to 1995, the Rams played their home games in the Coliseum from 1946 to 1979 which made them the first professional sports team to play in Los Angeles, and then moved to Anaheim Stadium from 1980 until 1994. The San Diego Chargers announced on January 12, 2017, that they would also relocate back to Los Angeles (the first since its inaugural season in 1960) and become the Los Angeles Chargers beginning in the 2017 NFL season and played at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, for three seasons.[246] The Rams and the Chargers would soon move to the newly built SoFi Stadium, located in nearby Inglewood during the 2020 season.[247]
Los Angeles is one of six North American cities to have won championships in all five of its major leagues (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA and MLS), having completed the feat with the Kings' 2012 Stanley Cup title.[258]
The charter of the City of Los Angeles ratified by voters in 1999 created a system of advisory neighborhood councils that would represent the diversity of stakeholders, defined as those who live, work or own property in the neighborhood. The neighborhood councils are relatively autonomous and spontaneous in that they identify their own boundaries, establish their own bylaws, and elect their own officers. There are about 90 neighborhood councils.
Residents of Los Angeles elect supervisors for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th supervisorial districts.
The LAPD on May Day 2006 in front of the new Caltrans District 7 Headquarters
In 1992, the city of Los Angeles recorded 1,092 murders.[270] Los Angeles experienced a significant decline in crime in the 1990s and late 2000s and reached a 50-year low in 2009 with 314 homicides.[271][272] This is a rate of 7.85 per 100,000 population—a major decrease from 1980 when a homicide rate of 34.2 per 100,000 was reported.[273][274] This included 15 officer-involved shootings. One shooting led to the death of a SWAT team member, Randal Simmons, the first in LAPD's history.[275] Los Angeles in the year of 2013 totaled 251 murders, a decrease of 16 percent from the previous year. Police speculate the drop resulted from a number of factors, including young people spending more time online.[276] In 2021, murders rose to the highest level since 2008 and there were 348.[277]
In 2015, it was revealed that the LAPD had been under-reporting crime for eight years, making the crime rate in the city appear much lower than it really was.[278][279]
The Dragna crime family and Mickey Cohen dominated organized crime in the city during the Prohibition era[280] and reached its peak during the 1940s and 1950s with the "Battle of Sunset Strip" as part of the American Mafia, but has gradually declined since then with the rise of various black and Hispanic gangs in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[280]
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the city is home to 45,000 gang members, organized into 450 gangs.[281] Among them are the Crips and Bloods, which are both African American street gangs that originated in the South Los Angeles region. Latino street gangs such as the Sureños, a Mexican American street gang, and Mara Salvatrucha, which has mainly members of Salvadoran descent, as well as other Central American descents, all originated in Los Angeles. This has led to the city being referred to as the "Gang Capital of America".[282]
There are numerous additional colleges and universities outside the city limits in the Greater Los Angeles area, including the Claremont Colleges consortium, which includes the most selective liberal arts colleges in the U.S., and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), one of the top STEM-focused research institutions in the world.
Los Angeles Unified School District serves almost all of the city of Los Angeles, as well as several surrounding communities, with a student population around 800,000.[314] After Proposition 13 was approved in 1978, urban school districts had considerable trouble with funding. LAUSD has become known for its underfunded, overcrowded and poorly maintained campuses, although its 162 Magnet schools help compete with local private schools.
The Los Angeles metro area is the second-largest broadcast designated market area in the U.S. (after New York) with 5,431,140 homes (4.956% of the U.S.), which is served by a wide variety of local AM and FM radio and television stations. Los Angeles and New York City are the only two media markets to have seven VHF allocations assigned to them.[317]
The major daily English-language newspaper in the area is the Los Angeles Times.[318]La Opinión is the city's major daily Spanish-language paper.[319]The Korea Times is the city's major daily Korean-language paper while The World Journal is the city and county's major Chinese newspaper. The Los Angeles Sentinel is the city's major African-American weekly paper, boasting the largest African-American readership in the Western United States.[320]Investor's Business Daily is distributed from its LA corporate offices, which are headquartered in Playa del Rey.[321]
As part of the region's aforementioned creative industry, the Big Five major broadcast television networks, ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and The CW, all have production facilities and offices throughout various areas of Los Angeles. All four major broadcast television networks, plus major Spanish-language networks Telemundo and Univision, also own and operate stations that both serve the Los Angeles market and serve as each network's West Coast flagship station: ABC's KABC-TV (Channel 7),[322] CBS's KCBS-TV (Channel 2), Fox's KTTV-TV (Channel 11),[323] NBC's KNBC-TV (Channel 4),[324] The CW's KTLA-TV (Channel 5), MyNetworkTV's KCOP-TV (Channel 13), Telemundo's KVEA-TV (Channel 52), and Univision's KMEX-TV (Channel 34). The region also has four PBS member stations, with KCET, re-joining the network as secondary affiliate in August 2019, after spending the previous eight years as the nation's largest independent public television station. KTBN (Channel 40) is the flagship station of the religious Trinity Broadcasting Network, based out of Santa Ana. A variety of independent television stations, such as KCAL-TV (Channel 9), also operate in the area.
There are also a number of smaller regional newspapers, alternative weeklies and magazines, including the Los Angeles Register, Los Angeles Community News, (which focuses on coverage of the greater Los Angeles area), Los Angeles Daily News (which focuses coverage on the San Fernando Valley), LA Weekly, L.A. Record (which focuses coverage on the music scene in the Greater Los Angeles Area), Los Angeles Magazine, the Los Angeles Business Journal, the Los Angeles Daily Journal (legal industry paper), The Hollywood Reporter, Variety (both entertainment industry papers), and Los Angeles Downtown News.[325] In addition to the major papers, numerous local periodicals serve immigrant communities in their native languages, including Armenian, English, Korean, Persian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, and Arabic. Many cities adjacent to Los Angeles also have their own daily newspapers whose coverage and availability overlaps with certain Los Angeles neighborhoods. Examples include The Daily Breeze (serving the South Bay), and The Long Beach Press-Telegram.
Los Angeles arts, culture and nightlife news is also covered by a number of local and national online guides, including Time Out Los Angeles, Thrillist, Kristin's List, DailyCandy, Diversity News Magazine, LAist, and Flavorpill.[326][327][328][329]
The city and the rest of the Los Angeles metropolitan area are served by an extensive network of freeways and highways. Texas Transportation Institute's annual Urban Mobility Report ranked Los Angeles area roads the most congested in the United States in 2019 as measured by annual delay per traveler, area residents experiencing a cumulative average of 119 hours waiting in traffic that year.[330] Los Angeles was followed by San Francisco/Oakland, Washington, D.C., and Miami. Despite the congestion in the city, the mean daily travel time for commuters in Los Angeles is shorter than other major cities, including New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago. Los Angeles's mean travel time for work commutes in 2006 was 29.2 minutes, similar to those of San Francisco and Washington, D.C.[331]
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA; branded as Metro) and other regional agencies provide a comprehensive bus system that covers Los Angeles County. While the Los Angeles Department of Transportation is responsible for contracting local and commuter bus services primarily within the city limits of Los Angeles and several immediate neighboring municipalities in southwest Los Angeles County,[332] the largest bus system in the city is operated by Metro.[333] Called Los Angeles Metro Bus, the system consists of 117 routes (excluding Metro Busway) throughout Los Angeles and neighboring cities primarily in southwestern Los Angeles County, with most routes following along a particular street in the city's street grid and run to or through Downtown Los Angeles.[334] As of the third quarter of 2023, the system had an average ridership of approximately 692,500 per weekday, with a total of 197,950,700 riders in 2022.[335] Metro also runs two Metro Busway lines, the G and J lines, which are bus rapid transit lines with stops and frequencies similar to those of Los Angeles's light rail system.
There are also smaller regional public transit systems that mainly serve specific cities or regions in Los Angeles County. For example, the Big Blue Bus provides extensive bus service in Santa Monica and western Los Angeles County, while Foothill Transit focuses on routes in the San Gabriel Valley in southeast Los Angeles County with one express route going into downtown Los Angeles. Los Angeles World Airports also runs two frequent FlyAway express bus routes (via freeways) from Los Angeles Union Station and Van Nuys to Los Angeles International Airport.[336]
While cash is accepted on all buses, the primary payment method for Los Angeles Metro Bus, Metro Busway, and 27 other regional bus agencies is a TAP card, a contactless stored-value card.[337] According to the 2016 American Community Survey, 9.2% of working Los Angeles (city) residents made the journey to work via public transportation.[338]
Map of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system (as of June 16, 2023).
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority also operate a subway and light rail system across Los Angeles and its county. The system is called Los Angeles Metro Rail and consists of the B and D subway lines, as well as the A, C, E, and K light rail lines.[334] TAP cards are required for all Metro Rail trips.[339] As of the third quarter of 2023, the city's subway system is the ninth busiest in the United States, and its light rail system is the country's second busiest.[335] In 2022, the system had a ridership of 57,299,800, or about 189,200 per weekday, in the third quarter of 2023.[335]
Since the opening of the first line, the A Line, in 1990, the system has been extended significantly, with more extensions currently in progress. Today, the system serves numerous areas across the county on 107.4mi (172.8km) of rail, including Long Beach, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Norwalk, El Segundo, North Hollywood, Inglewood, and Downtown Los Angeles. As of 2023, there are 101 stations in the Metro Rail system.[340]
Los Angeles is also center of its county's commuter rail system, Metrolink, which links Los Angeles to Ventura, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego Counties. The system consists of eight lines and 69 stations operating on 545.6 miles (878.1 kilometres) of track.[341] Metrolink averages 42,600 trips per weekday, the busiest line being the San Bernardino Line.[342] Apart from Metrolink, Los Angeles is also connected to other cities by intercity passenger trains from Amtrak on five different lines.[343] One of the lines is the Pacific Surfliner route which operates multiple daily round trips between San Diego and San Luis Obispo, California through Union Station.[344] It is Amtrak's busiest line outside the Northeast Corridor.[345]
The main rail station in the city is Union Station which opened in 1939, and it is the largest passenger rail terminal in the Western United States.[346] The station is a major regional train station for Amtrak, Metrolink and Metro Rail. The station is Amtrak's fifth busiest station, having 1.4 million Amtrak boardings and de-boardings in 2019.[347] Union Station also offers access to Metro Bus, Greyhound, LAX FlyAway, and other buses from different agencies.[348]
The main international and domestic airport serving Los Angeles is Los Angeles International Airport, commonly referred to by its airport code, LAX.[349] It is located on the Westside of Los Angeles near the Sofi Stadium in Inglewood.
Hollywood Burbank Airport, jointly owned by the cities of Burbank, Glendale, and Pasadena. Formerly known as Bob Hope Airport and Burbank Airport, it is the closest airport to Downtown Los Angeles and serves the San Fernando, San Gabriel, and Antelope Valleys.[351]
The Port of Los Angeles is in San Pedro Bay in the San Pedro neighborhood, approximately 20 miles (32km) south of Downtown. Also called Los Angeles Harbor and WORLDPORT LA, the port complex occupies 7,500 acres (30km2) of land and water along 43 miles (69km) of waterfront. It adjoins the separate Port of Long Beach.[354]
The sea ports of the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach together make up the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor.[355][356] Together, both ports are the fifth busiest container port in the world, with a trade volume of over 14.2million TEU's in 2008.[357] Singly, the Port of Los Angeles is the busiest container port in the United States and the largest cruise ship center on the West Coast of the United States– The Port of Los Angeles's World Cruise Center served about 590,000 passengers in 2014.[358]
California is a state in the Western United States, lying on the American Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California to the south. With nearly 39million residents across an area of 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), it is the most populous U.S. state, the third-largest by area, and most populated subnational entity in North America.
Orange County is a county located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, and more populous than 19 American states and Washington, D.C. Although largely suburban, it is the second-most-densely-populated county in the state behind San Francisco County. The county's three most-populous cities are Anaheim, Santa Ana, and Irvine, each of which has a population exceeding 300,000. Santa Ana is also the county seat. Six cities in Orange County are on the Pacific coast: Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, and San Clemente.
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,861,224 residents estimated in 2022. Its population is greater than that of 40 individual U.S. states. Comprising 88 incorporated cities and many unincorporated areas within a total area of 4,083 square miles (10,570 km2), it is home to more than a quarter of Californians and is one of the most ethnically diverse U.S. counties. The county's seat, Los Angeles, is the second most populous city in the United States, with 3,822,238 residents estimated in 2022. The county has been world-renowned as the domicile of the U.S. motion picture industry since the latter's inception in the early 20th century.
San Bernardino County, officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,181,654, making it the fifth-most populous county in California and the 14th-most populous in the United States. The county seat is San Bernardino.
Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California, United States.
Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 U.S. Census the population was 196,543, up from 191,719 at the 2010 census, making it the 4th-most populous city in Los Angeles County and the 24th-most populous city in California. It is located about 10 miles (16 km) north of downtown Los Angeles.
Greater Los Angeles is the most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. state of California, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino County and Riverside County in the east, with the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County at its center, and Orange County to the southeast. The Los Angeles–Anaheim–Riverside combined statistical area (CSA) covers 33,954 square miles (87,940 km2), making it the largest metropolitan region in the United States by land area. The contiguous urban area is 2,281 square miles (5,910 km2), whereas the remainder mostly consists of mountain and desert areas. With an estimated population of over 18.3 million, it is the second-largest metropolitan area in the country, behind New York, as well as one of the largest megacities in the world.
Carson is a city in the South Bay and the Harbor regions of Los Angeles County, California, located 13 miles (21 km) south of downtown Los Angeles and approximately 14 miles (23 km) away from Los Angeles International Airport. It was incorporated on February 20, 1968. The city is locally known for its plurality of Filipino-Americans and immigrants. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 95,558.
Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, in the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It is in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, near Los Angeles International Airport.
La Cañada Flintridge, commonly known as just La Cañada, is a city in the foothills of the Verdugo Mountains in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located in the Crescenta Valley, in the western edge of the San Gabriel Valley, it is the location of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Rancho Palos Verdes is a coastal city located in south Los Angeles County, California. Incorporated on September 7, 1973, the city has a population of 42,287 as reported in the 2020 United States Census. Rancho Palos Verdes sits atop the bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, neighboring three other cities in the Palos Verdes Hills, namely Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills, and Rolling Hills Estates. It is known for its extensive nature preserves and hiking trails, school district, as well as high property values.
San Bernardino is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the 18th-largest city in California. San Bernardino is the economic, cultural, and political hub of the San Bernardino Valley and the Inland Empire. The governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico have established the metropolitan area's only consulates in the downtown area of the city. Additionally, San Bernardino serves as an anchor city to the 3rd largest metropolitan area in California and the 12th largest metropolitan area in the United States; the San Bernardino-Riverside MSA. Furthermore, the city's University District serves as a college town, as home to California State University, San Bernardino.
Chula Vista is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. It is the second-most populous city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the seventh-most populous city in Southern California, the 15th-most populous city in the state of California, and the 82nd-most populous city in the United States. The population was 275,487 as of the 2020 census, up from 243,916 as of the 2010 census. Located in the South Bay, about halfway—7.5 miles (12.1 km)—between the two downtowns of the San Diego–Tijuana region. Chula Vista is named for its scenic location between San Diego Bay and coastal mountain foothills.
San Pedro is a neighborhood located within the South Bay and Harbor region of the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los Angeles in 1909. The Port of Los Angeles, a major international seaport, is partially located within San Pedro. The district has grown from being dominated by the fishing industry, to a working-class community within the city of Los Angeles, to an increasingly dense and diverse community.
Wilmington is a neighborhood in the South Bay and Harbor region of Los Angeles, California, covering 9.14 square miles (23.7 km2).
Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of the city of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a 5.84 sq mi (15.1 km2) area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents, with an estimated daytime population of over 200,000 people prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
California is the most populous US state, with an estimated population of 38.9 million as of 2023. It has people from a wide variety of ethnic, racial, national, and religious backgrounds.
The demographics of Los Angeles are determined by population surveys such as the American Community Survey and the United States Census. According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, Los Angeles' population was 3,979,576 in 2019.
Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the United States. The name was derived from the city of Riverside, which is the county seat.
↑ Barrows, H.D. (1899). "Felepe de Neve". Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly. Vol.4. p.151ff. Archived from the original on November 6, 2023. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
↑ Gordon J. MacDonald. "Environment: Evolution of a Concept"(PDF). p.2. Archived(PDF) from the original on June 27, 2013. Retrieved April 16, 2013. The Native American name for Los Angeles was Yang na, which translates into "the valley of smoke."
↑ Sullivan, Ron (December 7, 2002). "Roots of native names". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on December 18, 2014. Retrieved January 7, 2015. Los Angeles itself was built over a Gabrielino village called Yangna or iyaanga', 'poison oak place.'
↑ Weiss, Marc A (1987). The Rise of the Community Builders: The American Real Estate Industry and Urban Land Planning. New York: Columbia University Press. pp.80–86. ISBN978-0-231-06505-4.
↑ Parker, Dana T. Building Victory: Aircraft Manufacturing in the Los Angeles Area in World War II, pp.5–8, 14, 26, 36, 50, 60, 78, 94, 108, 122, Cypress, CA, 2013. ISBN978-0-9897906-0-4.
↑ "Flower". Los Angeles Magazine. Emmis Communications. April 2003. p.62. ISSN1522-9149. Archived from the original on November 6, 2023. Retrieved October 6, 2011.
↑ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Los Angeles/Oxnard". National Weather Service Forecast Office. Archived from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
↑ "Early Implementation of the Clean Air Act of 1970 in California." EPA Alumni Association. Video, TranscriptArchived April 12, 2019, at the Wayback Machine (see p7,10). July 12, 2016.
↑ Treat, Jeremy (April 15, 2016). "A Mini History of the L.A. Clippers". Lamag - Culture, Food, Fashion, News & Los Angeles. Archived from the original on October 10, 2021. Retrieved October 9, 2021.
↑ "2021 Urban Mobility Report"(PDF). Texas Transportation Institute. June 2021. Archived(PDF) from the original on November 2, 2021. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
↑ "Gradovi prijatelji Splita"[Split Twin Towns]. Grad Split [Split Official City Website] (in Croatian). Archived from the original on March 24, 2012. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
Abu-Lughod, Janet L. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America's global cities (U of Minnesota Press, 1999). ISBN978-0-8166-3336-4. online
Holli, Melvin G., and Jones, Peter d'A., eds. Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820-1980 (Greenwood Press, 1981) short scholarly biographies each of the city's mayors 1820 to 1980. online; see index at p.409 for list.
Leonard Pitt & Dale Pitt (2000). Los Angeles A to Z: An Encyclopedia of the City and County. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN978-0-520-20530-7.
George, Lynell (1992). No Crystal Stair: African Americans in the City of Angels. Verso. ISBN978-0-86091-389-4.
Sides, Josh (2006). L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN978-0-520-24830-4.
Eduardo Obregón Pagán (2006). Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A. The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN978-0-8078-5494-5.
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