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Founded | 1888 |
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Focus | Business advocacy & federation |
Location |
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Area served | ![]() |
Key people | Maria S. Salinas, President & CEO |
Employees | 50 |
The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is Southern California's largest not-for-profit business federation, representing the interests of more than 235,000 businesses in L.A. County, more than 1,400 member companies and more than 722,430 employees.
The L.A. Area Chamber's early focus promoted the region's abundance of opportunities in agriculture and international trade. These early members successfully advocated for a deep water port and secured water resources for the city. As Los Angeles matured into a major metropolitan center, the Chamber transitioned its focus into civic and political activities. These activities include International Trade, Education, Environment, Transportation, Advocacy, and Arts and Culture. The Chamber has demonstrated a long-standing leadership role in the Los Angeles community on these issues. [1]
Los Angeles experienced dramatic population losses during the late 1880s. 1,000 people each month left the city, which caused the cities population to fall from an 1880 high of 70,000 to nearly 50,000. This exodus generated significant effects on the local economy, and there was sudden realization of the need for an effective agency to dismiss doubts and reinvigorate the courage of the citizens. On October 10, 1888, a group of men joined together to formulate plans for overcoming the reverses the city had suffered. The founding officers of the new Chamber of Commerce were business leaders Maj. Edward W. Jones, William W. Workman, Col. Harrison G. Otis, Samuel B. Lewis, [2] J.I. Redick and Thomas A. Lewis.
Early Chamber members formulated two objectives: stimulate migration and to market the area's products in other parts of the country. They decided to attract Midwestern farmers to Los Angeles because of their proven agricultural expertise. The Chamber undertook an ambitious expedition called “California on Wheels.” A railroad car outfitted with agricultural products of the state visited every town of importance in the Midwest and South. During its two-year tour, over a million passed through the exhibit doors and took home materials created by the chamber.
Frank Wiggins, the superintendent of events, conceived of the idea and pushed to feature California agricultural products at large national and international exhibitions; attracting nationwide fame to Los Angeles. Wiggins conceived of larger than life sized walnut elephant for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. 850 pounds of unusually large California walnuts covered a wire framework to create the animal. It achieved lasting fame for the city and the Chamber. Displays like the elephant demonstrated that Southern California offered more than climate, but that it produced a variety of marketable items.
In addition to exhibitions, the Chamber encouraged grass roots investments in several manufacturing enterprises. Beet sugar manufacture benefited from technological advancements that encouraged its growth. By the end of the 20th century local factories produced 15,000 tons of sugar per year valued at $1,300,000. These industries received a boost with the discovery of oil and the introduction of electric power generated from water. The chamber attracted aircraft manufacturing in 1920 through its support of international air meets at Dominguez field and communication of meteorological information that made flights safer for pilots. The local livestock market received a boost when the Chamber collaborated with Chicago entrepreneurs in 1921 to create an area called the Central Manufacturing District and Los Angeles Junction Railway.
After World War II, the Chamber transitioned from organization that sought to attract new business to Los Angeles County into one that now worked to address modern issues associated with a major metropolitan center. The organization converted from a county-sponsored organization to a private business organization funded solely by its members. Its advocacy efforts started to include issues that also affected the four other surrounding counties. In 1967, the Chamber changed its name to the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.
The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce takes up key issues that affect the business community in Los Angeles. These issues include affordable Health Care, Affordable Housing, Disaster Preparedness, Economic Development, Education & Workforce Development, Homeland Security, Improving L.A.'s Business Climate, Industrial Land Use, LAX Modernization, and Reducing Traffic Congestion.
Each year, the L.A. Area Chamber's Access advocacy series connects L.A. businesses with policymakers and elected officials at the local, state and federal levels. The Chamber's advocacy trips to the state's and nation's capitols date back to the 1890s when the organization led delegations to secure regulatory approval and funding to construct the L.A. Aqueduct and L.A. Harbor.
Mobility 21 is a regional effort involving five counties dedicated to the development of solutions to the transportation issues facing Southern California. Mobility 21 was created in 2002 to bring together elected officials, transportation providers, businesses, local municipalities, labor and community leaders to develop solutions to the transportation issues facing Los Angeles County. This initiative, led by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) in partnership with the Automobile Club of Southern California, was kicked off at the first Mobility 21 transportation summit on November 18, 2002.
In 2007, the Leadership L.A. Foundation and the Southern California Leadership Network merged and continued its partnership with the L.A. Area Chamber.
Southern California is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the South Coast region which contains the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban agglomeration in the United States. The region generally contains ten of California's 58 counties: Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties.
Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino County and Riverside County in the east, with Los Angeles County in the center and Orange County to the southeast. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Los Angeles–Anaheim–Riverside combined statistical area covers 33,954 square miles (87,940 km2), making it the largest metropolitan region in the United States by land area. Of this, the contiguous urban area is 2,281 square miles (5,910 km2), the remainder mostly consisting of mountain and desert areas. In addition to being the nexus of the global entertainment industry, Greater Los Angeles is also an important center of international trade, education, media, business, tourism, technology, and sports. It is the 3rd largest metropolitan area by nominal GDP in the world with an economy exceeding $1 trillion in output.
Glendora is a city in the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County, California, 26 miles (42 km) east of Los Angeles. As of the 2020 census, the population of Glendora was 52,558.
Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 173,516, making Lancaster the 153rd largest city in the United States and the 30th largest in California. Lancaster is part of a twin city complex with its southern neighbor Palmdale, and together they are the principal cities within the Antelope Valley region.
Ontario is a city in southwestern San Bernardino County in the U.S. state of California, 35 miles (56 km) east of downtown Los Angeles and 23 miles (37 km) west of downtown San Bernardino, the county seat. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire metropolitan area, it lies just east of Los Angeles County and is part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 175,265.
Northern California is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers include the San Francisco Bay Area, the Greater Sacramento area, the Redding, California, area south of the Cascade Range, and the Metropolitan Fresno area. Northern California also contains redwood forests, along with most of the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite Valley and part of Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta, and most of the Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), commonly branded as Metro, LA Metro, and L.A. Metro, is the state agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the transportation system in Los Angeles County. The agency directly operates a large transit system that includes bus, light rail, heavy rail (subway), and bus rapid transit services; and provides funding for transit it does not operate, including Metrolink commuter rail, municipal bus operators and paratransit services. Metro also provides funding and directs planning for railroad and highway projects within Los Angeles County. In 2021, the system had a total ridership of 227,718,700 and had a ridership of 781,800 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2022.
Toluca Lake is an affluent neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley 12 miles (19 km) northwest of downtown. The name is also given to a private natural lake fed by wells and maintained by neighboring property owners. Prior to the paving of the Los Angeles River in 1938 and L.A. well extraction in the late 19th and 20th century which lowered the water table, Toluca Lake was fed by artesian springs.
The San Gabriel Valley is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, lying immediately to the east of the eastern city limits of the city of Los Angeles and occupying the vast majority of the eastern part of Los Angeles County, California. Surrounding features include:
The Southern California Rapid Transit District was a public transportation agency established in 1964 to serve the Greater Los Angeles area. It was the successor to the original Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). California State Senator Thomas M. Rees sponsored the bill that created the RTD, which was meant to correct some deficiencies of the LAMTA, and took over all of the bus service operated by MTA on November 5, 1964. RTD was merged into the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 1993.
The economy of the State of California is the largest in the United States, with a $3.63 trillion gross state product (GSP) as of 2022. It is the largest sub-national economy in the world. If California were a sovereign nation (2022), it would rank in terms of nominal GDP as the world's fifth largest economy, behind Germany and ahead of India. Additionally, California's Silicon Valley is home to some of the world's most valuable technology companies, including Apple, Alphabet, and Nvidia. In total, over 10% of Fortune 1000 companies were based in California in 2018, the most of any state.
The Bus Riders Union (BRU) is a United States civil rights social movement organization established in Los Angeles, California in 1994. Led by a planning committee, its multilingual membership is drawn from the predominantly low-income, African-American, Latino and Asian mass transit ridership of Los Angeles County. The BRU's central focus has been policies of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) that it identifies as racial discrimination. The BRU attracted international attention when it successfully sued LACMTA under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act in 1994 and its example has inspired similar efforts to organize mass transit passengers.
TreePeople is an educational and training environmental advocacy organization based in Los Angeles, California. The TreePeople organization advocates and works to support a sustainable urban ecosystems in the Greater Los Angeles area through education, volunteer community-based action, and advocacy.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority operates a vast fleet of buses for its Metro Bus and Metro Busway services. As of September 2019, Metro has the third largest bus fleet in North America with 2,320 buses.
The Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture(TCCIA) is a Tanzanian government institution with a mandate to promote industry and business, and to facilitate an interface between the private sector and public sector in the country. TCCIA was founded in 1988 and its head offices are in Dar es Salaam. It has played in important role in the privatization and liberalization of Tanzania's economy.
The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce (GPCC) is the largest association of businesses in the state of Arizona, and one of the largest in the Southwestern United States, with more than 2,900 business members. Founded November 13, 1888 as the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, the organization was known as the Phoenix Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce from 1973 to 1987 and adopted its present name in 1998. Its mission is to support the growth and development of business, strengthen the quality of life in the community, champion the voice of business in government and keep its members informed, connected and prosperous.
The California Chamber of Commerce (CalChamber) is the largest broad-based business advocacy group in California. Membership represents one-quarter of the private sector jobs in California and includes firms of all sizes and companies from every industry within the state. The CalChamber provides products and services to help businesses and human resources (HR) professionals comply with both federal and state employment law. As a not-for-profit organization with roots dating to 1890, the CalChamber promotes international trade and investment to stimulate California's economy and create jobs.
Pacific Boulevard is a street and principal commercial thoroughfare in the city of Huntington Park, California and the Los Angeles County neighborhood of Walnut Park. It runs from Vernon and Santa Fe Avenues in Vernon to Cudahy Street in Walnut Park before changing to Long Beach Boulevard. The Pacific Boulevard commercial district is the third highest grossing commercial district in the County of Los Angeles. The Christmas Lane Parade, seen in millions of homes via television throughout the United States and parts of Europe, has run down Pacific Boulevard since 1946. As many as 300,000 people attend the annual Carnaval Primavera held on Pacific Boulevard each year. Pacific Boulevard is well known to Latino residents of the L.A. area, and a magnet for commerce, culture, and night life.
The Inland Empire (IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County to the west. It includes the cities of western Riverside County and southwestern San Bernardino County, and is considered to include the desert communities of the Coachella and Victor Valleys, respectively on the other sides of the San Gorgonio Pass and San Bernardino Mountains from the Santa Ana River watershed that forms the bulk of the Inland Empire; a much broader definition includes all of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The combined land area of the counties of the Inland Empire is larger than ten U.S. states—West Virginia, Maryland, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island.
The San Jose Chamber of Commerce, formerly known as the Silicon Valley Organization, is a chamber of commerce representing business interests in San Jose, California. It is the largest chamber of commerce in the Silicon Valley region. Founded in 1886, the chamber has played a role in the development of the local economy and politics.