Los Angeles [ lɒs ændʒələs ] (from Spanish Los Ángeles [ losaŋxeles ] The angels’), or simply LA , is the largest city in the U.S. state of California . It lies on the Pacific Ocean and the Los Angeles River .
Los Angeles has a population of 3,831,868 (2009) [1] in the city after New York ‘s second largest city in the United States . [2] With 11.8 million inhabitants in the agglomeration , [3] almost 13 million inhabitants in the metropolitan region ( Metropolitan Statistical Area) and 17.8 million in the extended metropolitan area is the Greater Los Angeles Area among the largest metropolitan regions in the world on 17 Place. [4] The population of Los Angeles are Angelenos ( ændʒəlinoʊz ) called.
Los Angeles is the capital and administrative seat of Los Angeles County . The city is the economic, business and culture of California with numerous universities, colleges, research institutes, theaters and museums. Los Angeles is the world’s largest site for the aircraft – and space industry and known for the resident film and television industry ( Hollywood ) and music scene.
he city was on the 4th September 1781 officially by Governor Felipe de Neve as El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles ( Spanish “The Village of Queen of Angels”) was founded. [5] The current name of Los Angeles, a shortening of the foundation’s name to “the angel”.
Widespread originally was the unofficial name of El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciuncula [ pweβlo el de la Reina de los nwestɾa seɲoɾa Anxeles del rio de poɾsiuŋkula ] (The Village of Our Lady , Queen of the angels of the river Portiuncula ). [5]
Contrary to popular opinion, that the original name was so scientists from official documents of Governor Felipe de Neve, General Commander Theodore de Croix and Viceroy Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursua noted that the settlement was simply the name of El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles was wearing.
Which is often (also colloquially) used abbreviation “LA”. Because of the importance of the Spanish city name the city bears the nickname City of Angels (City of Angels) .
Geography
Geography
Satellite image of the Bay of Santa Monica
The ancient town and the suburbs of Los Angeles are located in a hilly coastal region average 100 m above sea level . [6] In the west and south of the city adjacent to the Santa Monica Bay of the Pacific Ocean . In the east and north it is surrounded by mountain ranges. Also in the north of the city, the San Fernando Valley , where around a third of residents in single family homes. The valley is the Griffith Park and the Santa Monica Mountains from Hollywood and cut off the city center.
The administrative city has an area of 1290.6 km. Of these, 1214.9 km ² of land area and 75.7 sq km water area. The urban area extends 71 km in the north-south direction and 47 km from east to west. It is through a system of freeways out of steel and concrete structures together. The city is burdened by the largest motor vehicle density in the world, the automobile and industrial emissions have become a pressing environmental problem. Therefore, Los Angeles is one of the cities with the largest exposure to smog in the United States.
The city is sometimes called the city horizontally (horizontal city), because they are relatively few skyscrapers and owns the entire metropolitan area is very spacious. High land prices in downtown Los Angeles lead to the same, high-rise buildings that now prevail there also. The agglomeration, ie continuous built-up area occupies an area of 4320 square kilometers.
The metropolitan region of Los Angeles there are several definitions:
The Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes the 15 districts ( districts ) of Los Angeles and the two counties Los Angeles (Los Angeles Metropolitan Division-Long Beach-Glendale) and Orange (Metropolitan Division Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario). It has a floor area of 12 562 square kilometers.
For Combined Statistical Area (CSA) includes 173 separate towns. It includes the counties Los Angeles, San Bernardino , Riverside , Ventura and Orange. The extended metropolitan region thus extends to the border of Nevada and has an area of 87 941 square kilometers. It will be only a fraction of this area of urban use, and most of the area consists of uninhabited parts of the Mojave Desert and the Joshua Tree National Park , located in Riverside and San Bernardino County.
Geology
3D representation of the Los Angeles Basin using a satellite image
By the Northridge earthquake of 1994 damaged bridge, 10 Freeway at La Cienega Boulevard
On the eastern edge of the metropolitan region runs the San Andreas Fault , also located directly under the city, the Puente Hills Fault . The resulting seismic hazard explains the strict building codes throughout the Southern California earthquake zone are applied. Since 1800, Los Angeles has nine large earthquakes with a magnitude six and above, and shaken by thousands of smaller quakes. Many buildings are earthquake-proof construction, which reduces the number of deaths in earthquakes much.
Until 1958, there was also a statutory requirement that the upper limit for building 45 meters and 14 floors is not allowed to exceed. An exception was the only city hall in 1928 with 138 meters. Earthquake-proof constructions made after the law unnecessary. The hazards caused by earthquakes, the departure of the dense development and establishment of a mission statement, which Los Angeles rather a kind of “City in the Garden” (city garden) should be standing, as the idea behind this provision. This is also an explanation for the expansion of the city.
The worst earthquake in recent history was the Fort Tejon earthquake, on 9 January 1857, near the present communities Wrightwood and Palmdale . The quake of magnitude 7.9 caused only minor damage, since the region was inhabited at that time only slightly. Such a quake would occur today, would arise a loss of several billion U.S. dollars, the loss of human life would be significant.
On 10 March 1933 called for an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 120 fatalities. In Long Beach and other places property damage was 50 million U.S. dollars. Many of the damaged buildings were not built to withstand earthquakes. Another major earthquake occurred on 9 February 1971 with a strength of 6.6. The so-called San Fernando earthquake of 1971 (including Sylmar earthquake ) caused in the San Fernando Valley, a damage of 500 million U.S. dollars and demanded 65 deaths. The earthquake on 28 June 1991 had a magnitude of 5.8, but caused no surface rupture due to its depth. It still caused damage amounting to 40 million U.S. dollars, mainly in the San Gabriel Valley .
On 17 January 1994 an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 shook the city of Los Angeles. The epicenter of the Northridge earthquake was in the Reseda neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. 57 people were killed, 12,000 people were injured. Many public transport links and an estimated 100,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to property in the amount of EUR 40 billion U.S. dollars. [7]
Published in 2008 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Southern California Earthquake Center, a new study. The researchers predicted it for California by 2038 with a 99.7 percent probability of a severe earthquake of magnitude 6.7. A quake of magnitude 7.5 or more was predicted with a 46-percent probability. The Greater Los Angeles is slightly more at risk than San Francisco in the north of the state. Thus, the possibility of an earthquake of intensity 6.7 in Los Angeles at 67 percent and in San Francisco at 63 percent. [8]
On 29 July 2008 was registered at 11:42 clock time an earthquake of magnitude 5.4. The epicenter was located about 46 km east-south-east from the city center, near Chino Hills . [9]
City arrangement
View from Mount Wilson to the Los Angeles Basin at night
Los Angeles is divided into 15 counties (districts). The population figures refer to the census of 1 April 2000. [10]
Climate
The city is situated in the subtropical climate zone . The average annual temperature is 18 degrees Celsius and the annual rainfall 305 mm on average. The warmest months are July and August with an average of 22.8 degrees Celsius and the coldest January with 13.2 degrees Celsius on average. Almost the entire annual rainfall occurs during the period from November to April, accordingly, it is mostly dry from May to October.
In summer, prevailing in Los Angeles daytime temperatures usually around 22 to 25 degrees Celsius. Without the location on the Pacific coast, it would be even warmer as the wind weakens, the temperatures of the sea. In winter, it’s a bit colder, with temperatures rarely fall below 15 degrees Celsius. At night the temperature drops from an average of about ten degrees Celsius. The humidity is 50 to 75 percent.
Typical of the climate in the region of Los Angeles are also several, relatively clearly distinguishable minor climatic zones. The reason for this lies in the different mountain ranges, which the Los Angeles basin, for example, from the San Fernando Valley and other inland areas further away. In the San Fernando Valley, for example, it is often several degrees warmer in summer than the coast, while in winter it is noticeably cooler there.
Every two or three years there will be heat waves, where the temperatures can climb above 40 degrees Celsius. This is caused by the so-called Santa Ana winds , which the Santa Ana Mountains come out of the city lying east of the desert. Here there are always extensive forest and bush fires. On 3 Died October 1933 in Griffith Park at one of the worst bush fires in the United States 29 firefighters. Between late October and early November 1993 fire destroyed the city of Los Angeles area thousands of hectares of cultivated land. [11] The highest
The big concern is air pollution – high levels of ozone – nitrogen oxides – and hydrocarbon – in Los Angeles, caused by the resident industry and traffic. The Greater Los Angeles / Long Beach / Riverside counted in 2007 after a report by the American Lung Association to the urban area with the highest air pollution in the United States. [15] In addition to industries and everyday traffic of private cars and trucks the air pollution to a large extent the Single-port traffic are attributed, ie the trucks that carry cargo between the quay and storage and which are often the engines at idle. Remedy to provide electric heavy trucks that will be introduced since 2009. [16]
The pollutant concentrations are particularly in the morning and evening rush-hour traffic is highest. The photochemical smog , whose main component is ozone, however, reached its highest concentration at noon. Since the city is surrounded by mountain ranges, the air exchange with the surrounding area is inhibited. The sea breeze reaches only the Los Angeles basin, without the temperature inversion break over the city.
Ozone and other chemicals in the population lead to coughing, eye irritation, headache, and pulmonary dysfunction. Since the early 1980s, efforts to solve the problem are made. So still 1979, 120 days a year increased pollution levels were measured in 1996 – after the introduction of catalytic converters – just seven days. In the new millennium, the number of Smogtagen is decreased almost to zero. Despite the greater Los Angeles dismisses still one of the nation’s largest quantities of toxic gases into the atmosphere. The main reason is the low level of public transport.
Air pollution in Los Angeles endangered, the more remote mountain lakes and snow-covered regions of the Sierra Nevada and is responsible for the death of forests . Strong winds carry pollutants up to Palm Springs in Riverside County , where they lead to increased pollutant concentrations.
The first European explorers in the region was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo , the 1542 land for Spain claimed, but without creating a settlement. 1771 Spanish monks founded the Franciscan Order of the mission “San Gabriel” near Whittier Narrows, which later formed the starting point for the settlement of the region. The Spanish missions in California should expand the influence of Spain and the power of the Church. To protect them from attacks of the local indigenous people to protect the mission was mounted by a fort.
After the mission had been established, sent the Spanish governor of California, Felipe de Neve, eleven families to till the land. On 4 September 1781 the community of Los Angeles with 44 settlers in the area of Tongvá Native-founded. At that time there was still mainly animal husbandry.
1803 sent U.S. President Thomas Jefferson , the officers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark with the mission to the region to explore the land to the west coast. After eight months, the expedition reached thanks to the support of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Ocean coast. In the following decades established the first American settlers in the region.
1821 was Los Angeles to Mexico , which had won its independence after a long war of Spain. In 1835 the settlement of the Mexican Congress to the city and was also the capital of Mexico’s most northern region of Alta California collected. The second part of the decree, however, was never enforced, and revised again soon. So there was Monterey to 1849, the capital of California. The population grew to 1836 in 2228 to residents to temporarily go back again later. Until the mid-19th Century Los Angeles was a Mexican community, which was composed mainly of American settlers, poor Chinese laborers and a few wealthy Mexican landowners.
1846 proclaimed the independence of the schoolmaster William Ide California. The Republic existed for only a short time. During the Mexican-American War 1846-1848 Alta California were so busy and also Los Angeles by U.S. soldiers and U.S. affiliated. In 1848, north of Sacramento, found gold, which the famous gold rush triggered. Many gold seekers arrived in the region, which also benefited Los Angeles by meat, fruit and vegetables to the Digger sold.
Industrialization
Oil production facilities near Los Angeles 1896
Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in the Mojave Desert , 1909
Quinn’s Superba Theatre, 518 South Broadway, 1920
The place was christened on 4 April 1850, the U.S. city charter as part of the founding of the State of California by the United States, he then had 1610 inhabitants. From the Civil War (1861-1865) between the well-trodden from the United States, South – the Confederacy – and the remaining in the Union Northern States , Los Angeles remained virtually untouched.
1861/62 floods and a subsequent devastating drought led to the ruin of many specialized livestock on farms. At the same time began, mainly by real estate speculation, a new upswing. The result was an increase in land prices and the influx of many Chinese, Japanese, European and Jewish immigrants.
The rejection of Chinese immigrants through large parts of the U.S. population increased in the economic crisis of the 1870s to an anti-Chinese hysteria. On 24 October 1871 it was in Los Angeles to a racist uprising after a war between rival Chinese gangs happened to a white man was killed. In the course of the uprising occurred mob of more than 500 European origin people in Chinatown, killing 19 of the residents. Those killed only one of the original band was involved in war. In addition, a white man had been killed, who had tried to prevent the killing.
The largest immigrant group came from the Midwest, from states like Iowa and Indiana , and triggered a new political class from the old Mexican elite. Soon large farms were parceled out the old and the population grew. Between 1870 and 1900 increased the population of the town of about 6,000 to about 102,000 inhabitants. In the ten years to 1910, that number tripled to 320,000 more inhabitants, with this growth also contributed extensive reorganizations, including the cities of Wilmington and San Pedro (both 1909) in the South and Hollywood (1910) in the West. From 1899 to 1914 in San Pedro today was the Port of Los Angeles built.
As an important driver of development for the next few decades should prove to the railroad. In 1869 the first railway line was opened in Los Angeles. It ran over 34 kilometers from the city center today to San Pedro then independent, now home of the Port of Los Angeles. But only after the connection to the Union Pacific Railroad in 1876 and the railway line to Santa Fe in 1885, accelerated the growth of the city. At that time, new irrigation techniques tested and found suitable for the region-growing products such as oranges. The city soon became a synonym for good health, a clean environment, abundant sun and endless citrus groves.
From 1890, coal promoted. As far more important for the further development proved to be the extensive oil reserves beneath the city, the first time in 1892 near the present-day Dodger Stadium were drilled. From then on, spread the oil rigs in a short time in many parts of the region. In the first half of the 20th Century Los Angeles was one of the most important centers of oil production in 1923 was even a quarter of world output produced in the region of Los Angeles. Even today, the oil production plays a certain role.
To ensure the enormous growth also for the future, made themselves the leaders of the city in the years before the turn of the century concerned about the water supply of Los Angeles. For a semi-arid climatic zone situated town was and is a very important issue. Until that was Los Angeles through the nearby Los Angeles River supplies drinking and industrial water. Not more than its water supplies were sufficient, in 1913 became the first in the North Los Angeles aqueduct built, the water is 300 kilometers away from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles promoted. Using the cheap water supplies Los Angeles was in the years before and after 1910 einzugemeinden able, many surrounding communities, including Wilmington , San Pedro (both 1909) and Hollywood (1910).
1910 discovered the Los Angeles film producer, the region as an ideal production site and moved from New York and Chicago to Hollywood. In the following years, achieved Gilbert M. Anderson , with its Western and Mack Sennett and his slapstick comedies worldwide success. As the 1927 film The Jazz Singer to break the sound film, helped put an upswing again. The film industry based in Hollywood was one of the most important industries in the United States and attracted many newcomers to Los Angeles. The first film in color Monumental – David O. Selznick movie Gone With the Wind – was released in 1939 and won ten Oscars .
In the 1920s it came to the incorporation of numerous other neighboring communities such Sawtelle (1922), Hyde Park (1923), Eagle Rock (1923), Venice (1925), Watts (1926), Barnes City (1927) and Tujunga (1932). Santa Monica and Beverly Hills , which are considered economically and culturally as parts of Los Angeles could, for administrative purposes but retain their independence until today.
Among the important events of the thirties certainly include the Olympic Games of 1932 . For the first time in the history of the Games was on this occasion for the male participants Olympic Village built. Today the village is a part of the district of Baldwin Hills . In the same year 1932 the population of Los Angeles rose to over one million.
Business Center
1938 North Figueroa Bridge
Already in the middle of the 20th Century was the little suburban house with swimming pool and double garage to become a permanent symbol of the city. A major upswing during the Second World War, one with the aviation and aerospace industry, which settled in large numbers due to the war in the greater Los Angeles.
Numerous German artists and intellectuals chose Los Angeles as a refuge from the Nazis . These included Bertolt Brecht , Marlene Dietrich , Lion Feuchtwanger , Otto Klemperer , Fritz Lang , Ernst Lubitsch , Heinrich Mann , Thomas Mann , Luise Rainer and Billy Wilder . But also artists from other countries here to find a new home: Luis Buñuel , Jean Renoir , Igor Stravinsky , Arturo Toscanini and many others. Many great works of poets, conductors, directors and painters emerged in exile, the refugees made the Los Angeles of the 1940s into a vibrant center of European culture.
But even with racist violence, the city had continued to face. 1943 saw a series of riots, as the Zoot Suit Riots were included in the story. It inflamed among soldiers stationed in the city and Mexican-American youth gangs, led by so-called Pachucos , because of the Zoot Suit , which they wore, were known.
Already in the twenties had, despite a high-performance light rail system, the automobile as the preferred transport of Angelenos developed. Thus, in this decade in Los Angeles more cars relative to population than any other American city. On 1 January 1940, the Arroyo Seco Parkway , the first urban freeway, between Pasadena and opened in the northern city center. In order for the course for the further development was characterized. After the war, bought companies like General Motors , Greyhound Lines and the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company on the transport network and then dismantled it – this process came as the Great American streetcar scandal in history. In its place arose an extensive motorway network. Following the premise of the 1950s, citizens should not live more than six miles from a highway. In 1960, the first office tower in the formerly low silhouette of the city was built, the tallest structure until then, the Rathaus ( City Hall ) in 1928 was.
In August 1965 there were serious riots in Los Angeles’ southern district of Watts . As the Watts riot designated within six days of rioting claimed 32 lives and left 874 injured. The material damage amounted to 45 million U.S. dollars.
Train the “Gold Line” of metro Los Angeles near Pasadena
The rapidly growing automobile traffic from the late 1970s led to initial problems. smog , decentralization and a strong increase in crime shaped the image of the city. Since the early 1990s, but again LA is working on building a light rail transit system , after the public transport of the metropolis had almost three decades to make do with buses. The financial and administrative burden for the construction of the metro is much greater than for the construction of the original network, since not only the city is now built at much higher densities, but the construction of underground lines and consideration of earthquake must be taken.
The Los Angeles riots of 29 April to 2 May 1992 featured one of the largest race riots in U.S. history was triggered by the dar. acquittals of four white police officers race to the mistreatment of African American Rodney King were indicted. The rioting, 53 people died, 2383 injured, the damage amounted to 800 million U.S. dollars. [17]
The skyline of Los Angeles
With the end of the Cold War in 1990 was an important industry of the city’s air and space industry, hard hit. After the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 and the reorientation of defense strategy to fight terrorism, this industry has another big economic and strategic importance to the U.S.. Beginning of the 21st Century, the status of the city as a cultural and economic center of the region without controversy. Problems faced by the city, are unemployment, the huge traffic, pollution, and recurrent race riots.
Population
Religions
Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
Mormon Temple (“Temple Los Angeles, California”)
Los Angeles is home to adherents of many religions. Among the more than 100 Christian denominations is the Roman Catholic Church because of the high number of Hispanics dominate. Other major Christian denominations are the Adventists , Baptists , Lutherans , Methodists , Orthodox churches and Jehovah’s Witnesses . Smaller religious groups are followers of the Bahai religion , of Buddhism , Hinduism , Islam , the Jewish religion, Mormonism , Sikhism , Sufism and Zoroastrianism .
The Roman Catholic church in the region is in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles organized. It was the first Established as a diocese in June 1922 Los Angeles-San Diego and 11 July 1936 to the archbishopric collected. With 4.2 million believers (2004), it is considered the largest diocese in the United States. [18] It is typical of a cardinal seats the Catholic Church, whose archbishop to perform his pastoral duties six auxiliary bishops are available. The ecclesiastical province includes the dioceses of today, Fresno , Monterey , Orange , San Bernardino and San Diego . Archbishop of Los Angeles since 1985, Roger Michael Mahony . In 2002, designed by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo completed Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels) is the Episcopal Church of the Archdiocese.
The city is built with the 1956 “Los Angeles California Temple” (following the Salt Lake Temple) second largest sanctuary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). The temple is 112 feet long, 82 meters wide and has a height of 78 meters. At the top of the temple tower is a statue of the angel and prophet Moroni appropriate. [19]
Los Angeles has with 490,000 people (2001) on which (according to New York and Miami ) third-largest Jewish community in the United States. [20] Many synagogues are located in the city, most in the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles.
Due to the many immigrants from Asia, the Buddhist community recorded in recent years a strong increase. Los Angeles currently has the largest Buddhist population in the United States and hosts a wide variety of systems and schools of Buddhism . There are more than 300 Buddhist temples across the city.
Practiced in Los Angeles since the early 20th Century, many Hindu swamis and gurus . The Self-Realization Fellowship (community of self-realization) is headquartered in Hollywood and has a private park in Pacific Palisades . The non-profit religious society was founded in 1920 in Los Angeles by Paramahansa Yogananda founded as a “church of all religions.” Also, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi practiced in the city. He brought Transcendental Meditation , one of the ideas in Vedas based meditation technique on one of his world travels to Los Angeles in 1959.
Population Development
Downtown L. A.
The population explosion in the 20th Century – 1900, the city had only 102,000 inhabitants – Los Angeles met entirely unprepared. The inhabitants were spread over a large area, and several low-rise buildings (commercial buildings, shopping centers) were constructed. The population of Los Angeles will also now be continuous; a significant role is also played by immigration from Latin America (especially Mexico ) and Asia . More than a third of the population of Los Angeles was born outside the United States.
In Los Angeles, people from 140 countries, they speak 224 different languages. According to Census 2000, the 1.7 million Hispanics ( Latinos ) accounted for 46.5 percent of the total population of Los Angeles. In a few years, more people in Los Angeles speak Spanish than English. The Latinos have a much higher birth rate than the English-speaking inhabitants of the city.
A rapidly increasing population are Asians, and immigrants from the Pacific Islands. They account for 11.0 percent of the total population of the city (African American: 12.0 percent). These are mostly Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Thais, Filipinos and Iranians. The natives play with 29 412 persons (0.8 percent), only a minor role in the life of the city. 29.7 percent of the residents of Los Angeles include the white population group (without Latin) at.
According to the census of 2000 there were 3.69482 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area, 1,275,412 households, and 798 719 families who were resident in the city. The population density was 4923 inhabitants per square kilometer. The median of the income per household was U.S. $ 36 687, the median income for a family of U.S. $ 39,942. The largest groups by ethnic origin in the city were: German 167 160 (4.5 percent), Ireland 139 188 (3.8 percent), English 127 632 (3.5 percent), Italians, 95 263 (2.6 percent), Russians 87 419 (2 , 4 percent), Poland 56 670 (1.5 percent) and French 49 415 (1.3 percent). [21]
On 1 July 2006 were living in the city of Los Angeles administrative 3,877,129 people. [2] The population density was 3191 inhabitants per square kilometer. In the Metropolitan Region (Metropolitan Statistical Area), there were 12,950,129 people. The population density was 1031 inhabitants per square kilometer. In the extended metropolitan region (Combined Statistical Area), there were 17,775,984 people. [4] The population density was 202 inhabitants per square kilometer.
The following table shows the population of the city proper to the respective territorial status. From 1800 to 2000, is Census 2008 results and an estimate of the California Department of Finance. [22]