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| City Guide - Los Angeles - City Overview | ||
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City Overview Los Angeles, America's second largest city after New York, sprawls - and sprawls - along the Pacific coast of southern California. Its coastline stretches 122km (76 miles) from Malibu to Long Beach, while inland the city spreads out to fill a vast, flat, arid basin ringed by the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains. Downtown LA lies 26km (16 miles) inland from the coast. To the northeast is Pasadena; to the west and northwest are Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Century City, as well as the sprawling San Fernando Valley; to the south is Long Beach and along the west coast are Santa Monica and Venice Beach. The Mexican settlers who founded the city in 1781 gave it the unwieldy name of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula (the Town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula). Since then it has been called everything from Lotus Land to Tinseltown, but is most commonly known simply as LA. In fact, Los Angeles proper is only the largest of 88 incorporated cities that make up the metropolitan area we think of as LA. Over the decades, the city grew from a cowtown to a Gold Rush boomtown to an oil town. By the end of the nineteenth century, a steady stream of settlers had headed west, lured by the same thing that still attracts newcomers today: the mild climate, beautiful landscape and sunshine. On average, LA enjoys 329 sunny days each year, cooled by gentle ocean breezes and little rain. But the turning point in the city's fortunes came in the 1920s, when it became the centre of the fledgling film industry. Today, with the world's major studios such as Paramount, Universal, Fox and Warner Brothers, located here, it is the 'Entertainment Capital of the World'. Despite that, however, there is more to LA than Hollywood. Disneyland, America's favourite fun factory, is the area's most popular site, but the city is also home to world-renowned cultural institutions of a more high-brow nature, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art or the LA Philharmonic. Visitors do come to see the massive Hollywood sign and the mansions of the rich and famous in Beverly Hills, but also to experience the nightlife on Sunset Strip, the beach life, the car culture and to ogle at the people. LA is exuberant - there are few places in the world where the phrase 'Express Yourself' is taken so literally. Hippy health fanatics, muscly fitness freaks, off-beat religions, Art Deco, Bohos, hipsters in their classic cars all exist alongside modern glitz, glamour, silicone - and wealth. For LA is a city of dreams for thousands seeking fame and fortune or a new life. Los Angeles is the country's gateway for immigrants from Asian countries of the Pacific Rim, and from Mexico and Latin America. People from 160 countries, speaking 96 different languages, all call LA home. Although the entertainment industry continues to mushroom, it is not Los Angeles' biggest earner. Business and management services, health services including medical manufacturing, tourism and international trade are the leading industries. LA's 'Digital Coast' outshines northern California's Silicon Valley as a multimedia centre. Like all mega-cities, Los Angeles has its problems: smog, occasional earthquakes, limited water for its growing population and a fairly ghettoised population. The black areas (mainly South Central LA and the Crenshaw District) are poor and crime rates are high, but visitors are unlikely to go to these areas and the crime - like the gangster rap that started here - barely impinges on the rest of the city. Nothing really seems to overshadow LA's sunny disposition - this is a city of fabulous fads, fashions, creativity and the good life. |
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