116-459: The ARK Theatre Company is an actor-driven repertory theatre ensemble working in Los Angeles , California . Ark Theatre Company is an ensemble of theatre professionals specializing in classical theatre, with an eye to contemporary plays that reflect the depth and interplay of language in classical works. The company was founded in 2000 by artistic director Paul Wagar, a former member of
232-653: A Mexican-American museum and cultural center opened in April 2011. The museum contains interactive exhibits designed by experience design expert Tali Krakowsky such as a reconstruction of a 1920s Main Street. The museum shares the stories of the history, cultures, values, and traditions of Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and all Latinos in Los Angeles and Southern California. Art institutions from Santa Barbara to San Diego are joining together to create programs that highlighted
348-605: A gross metropolitan product of over $ 1.0 trillion, making it the city with the third-largest GDP in the world, after New York and Tokyo . Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984 , and will also host in 2028 . Despite a business exodus from Downtown Los Angeles since the COVID-19 pandemic , the city's urban core is evolving as a cultural center with the world's largest showcase of architecture designed by Frank Gehry . On September 4, 1781,
464-613: A metropolitan area of 12.8 million people (2023). Greater Los Angeles , which includes the Los Angeles and Riverside–San Bernardino metropolitan areas, is a sprawling metropolis of over 18.3 million residents. The majority of the city proper lies in a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending partly through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into
580-595: A punk and noise music venue. Los Angeles County is home to three professional art colleges , Art Center College of Design , founded on 1930 in downtown Los Angeles as the Art Center School, Otis College of Art and Design , which was founded in 1917 as Otis Art Institute, and California Institute of the Arts , founded in 1961 as successor of the Chouinard Art Institute . Los Angeles
696-579: A Down , Rage Against the Machine , Crazy Town , No Doubt , Linkin Park , The Calling , Incubus , Hoobastank , Lifehouse , Eve 6 , Sugar Ray , Deftones , Papa Roach , Alien Ant Farm , In This Moment , Avenged Sevenfold , AFI , Saosin , and Thirty Seconds to Mars . In addition, the gangsta rap of N.W.A , and later the solo careers of Dr. Dre , Eazy-E , Ice Cube , 2Pac and Snoop Dogg , among related acts, reestablished Los Angeles (particularly
812-408: A common genre for stories about the city. During the 20th century, fiction portraying the city has highlighted the complexity of the city and the discontinuities between its public image and the reality of living there. The size and scale of the city have also provided crime writers with a suitably complex city against which to set their stories. Works that explore life in the city include: Los Angeles
928-478: A diverse economy with a broad range of industries. Despite a steep exodus of film and television production since the COVID-19 pandemic , Los Angeles is still one of the largest hubs of American film production , the world's largest by revenue; the city is an important site in the history of film . It also has one of the busiest container ports in the Americas. In 2018, the Los Angeles metropolitan area had
1044-614: A group of 44 settlers known as " Los Pobladores " founded the pueblo (town) they called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles , 'The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels';. The original name of the settlement is disputed; the Guinness Book of World Records rendered it as "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula "; other sources have shortened or alternate versions of
1160-529: A novelist. The best known local poet was Charles Bukowski , who mostly lived in Hollywood but in the later part of his life lived in San Pedro . Tens of thousands of screenplays have been written by L.A. city residents, and the movie business has attracted many authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald , Aldous Huxley , Tennessee Williams , Evelyn Waugh , and William Faulkner . Los Angeles County boasts
1276-616: A permanent settlement in what is now Downtown Los Angeles , as instructed by Spanish Governor of Las Californias , Felipe de Neve , and authorized by Viceroy Antonio María de Bucareli . This piece of history has been marked by a monument named "El Pueblo". After sovereignty changed from Mexico to the United States in 1848, great changes came from the completion of the Santa Fe railroad line from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1885. "Overlanders" flooded in, mostly white Protestants from
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#17327879996031392-661: A plethora of independent bookstores like Book Soup and Skylight Books, as well as a number of literary magazines like The Los Angeles Review, Slake, The Santa Monica Review, and Black Clock . Los Angeles has many public library branches, including the architecturally renowned Central Library . This city is also home to The Last Bookstore , which is the largest in California, and in West Coast Besides Powell's Books . Los Angeles has provided fertile territory for writers of fiction with crime fiction being
1508-425: A profit; the other, according to an analysis of contemporary newspaper reports, was the 1932 Summer Olympics , also held in Los Angeles. Racial tensions erupted on April 29, 1992, with the acquittal by a Simi Valley jury of four Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers captured on videotape beating Rodney King , culminating in large-scale riots . In 1994, the magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake shook
1624-559: A series of battles, culminating with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. The Mexican Cession was formalized in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which ceded Los Angeles and the rest of Alta California to the United States. 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. Petroleum
1740-507: 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
1856-776: A tourist destination and popular public space. See List of museums in Los Angeles There are 841 museums and art galleries in Los Angeles County . In fact, Los Angeles has more museums per capita than any other city in the world. Some of the notable museums are the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (the largest art museum in the Western United States ), the Getty Center (part of the larger J. Paul Getty Trust ,
1972-548: A trend in California to give places Spanish, or Spanish-sounding, names and pronunciations. In 1908, librarian Charles Fletcher Lummis , who argued for the name's pronunciation with a hard g ( / ɡ / ), reported that there were at least 12 pronunciation variants. In the early 1900s, the Los Angeles Times advocated for pronouncing it Loce AHNG-hayl-ais ( / l oʊ s ˈ ɑː ŋ h eɪ l eɪ s / ), approximating Spanish [los ˈaŋxeles] , by printing
2088-438: Is Mount San Antonio , locally known as Mount Baldy, which reaches 10,064 feet (3,068 m). Further afield, the highest point in southern California is San Gorgonio Mountain , 81 miles (130 km) east of downtown Los Angeles, with a height of 11,503 feet (3,506 m). The Los Angeles River , which is largely seasonal, is the primary drainage channel . It was straightened and lined in 51 miles (82 km) of concrete by
2204-651: Is a common problem in this population. Although Serieys et al. 2014 find selection of immune genetics at several loci they do not demonstrate that this produces a real difference which helps the bobcats to survive future mange outbreaks . Los Angeles is subject to earthquakes because of its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire . The geologic instability has produced numerous faults , which cause approximately 10,000 earthquakes annually in Southern California, though most of them are too small to be felt. The strike-slip San Andreas Fault system, which sits at
2320-703: Is a staple of Los Angeles' haute cuisine scene with places like Urasawa in Beverly Hills , Nobu in Malibu and Koi in Hollywood . California-styled cuisine is considered to be highly influenced by Asian seafood, as well as by Mediterranean cooking. The popularity of Asian food inspired food festivals such as 626 Night Market in Arcadia , where vendors sell traditional night market foods such as stinky tofu and skewers as well as modern fusion food such as ramen burgers and pho tacos. The greater Los Angeles area
2436-415: Is also one of the most important cities in the world for the recorded music industry. The landmark Capitol Records building, which resembles a stack of albums, is representative of this. A&M Records long occupied a studio off Sunset Boulevard built by Charlie Chaplin (who wrote the music for his own films). The Warner Brothers built a major recording business in addition to their film business. At
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#17327879996032552-1039: Is also the residence of the Los Angeles Opera and Dance at the Music Center. The Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, and the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, are home to the Center Theatre Group, directed by Michael Ritchie. Contemporary Opera Los Angeles presents performances that are sung in English and set in a contemporary style and their proceeds benefit local children's education charities and animal rescue charities. The demands of scoring thousands of hours of soundtracks for TV and movies also provides work for composers and classically trained musicians, bands, orchestras, and symphonies. The Los Angeles metropolitan area
2668-452: 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 (69 km) long, while Foothill Boulevard is over 60 miles (97 km) long, reaching as far east as San Bernardino. Drivers in Los Angeles suffer from one of
2784-437: Is divided into many different districts and neighborhoods, some of which had been separately incorporated cities that eventually merged with Los Angeles. These neighborhoods were developed piecemeal, and are well-defined enough that the city has signage which marks nearly all of them. The city's street patterns generally follow a grid plan , with uniform block lengths and occasional roads that cut across blocks. However, this
2900-502: 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. Despite improvement, the 2006 and 2007 annual reports of the American Lung Association ranked
3016-408: Is notable as the home of the U.S. film industry, including several of its historic studios, and its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry and the people in it. Although film production in Los Angeles remains the most important center for the medium, Hollywood has become more international, thus it faces increasing competition, however, from other parts of the United States and from
3132-488: Is rich in native plant species partly because of its diversity of habitats, including beaches, wetlands , and mountains. The most prevalent plant communities are coastal sage scrub , chaparral shrubland, and riparian woodland . Native plants include: the California poppy , matilija poppy , toyon , Ceanothus , Chamise , Coast Live Oak , sycamore , willow and Giant Wildrye . Many of these native species, such as
3248-411: Is the most populous city in the U.S. state of California . With an estimated 3,820,914 residents within the city limits as of 2023 , it is the second-most populous city in the United States, behind only New York City ; it is also the commercial, financial and cultural center of Southern California . Los Angeles has an ethnically and culturally diverse population, and is the principal city of
3364-596: Is the home of the Cobb Salad , invented in the Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood , the French-Dip sandwich , originated early in the 20th century by either Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet or Phillippe's —both of which still exist downtown, the ice blended coffee drink by Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Original Tommy's Hamburger . In 2018, PETA declared Los Angeles to be the "most vegan-friendly city" in
3480-501: Is the most important site in the United States for movie and television production. This has drawn not only actors, but also writers, composers, artists, and other creative individuals to the area. The area is home to many institutes that give awards annually for movie and television production such as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences . There are many Film festivals , like
3596-413: 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. 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. The money generated by
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3712-805: The Army Corps of Engineers to act as a flood control channel. 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 . Los Angeles
3828-477: The Canadian cities of Vancouver, British Columbia and Toronto, Ontario as well as numerous other countries around the world such as Romania and Australasia that provide Hollywood with lower production costs. The phenomenon of entertainment companies running away to other locales in search of lower labor and production costs is known as " runaway production " although the trend shows signs of reversing due to
3944-578: The Chicano art movement took a strong hold in Los Angeles. Much of the work produced followed the Mexican muralist tradition of sending potent social messages. Works produced in this era included East Los Streetscapers , Judy Baca and others. Chicano arts in Los Angeles also gave rise to the internationally renowned Self Help Graphics & Art , known for its Corita Kent -influenced serigraphs and its annual Día de los Muertos festival. Public Art in
4060-934: The Hammer Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles . Los Angeles is known for its expansive collections of contemporary art- the Museum of Contemporary Art has three separate incarnations: the Geffen Contemporary, for larger installation pieces by more renowned artists, the MOCA Downtown, its standard collection, and the Pacific Palisades, a large, multi-purpose building in modernist style that houses offices as well as stores and showrooms for contemporary graphic design, architecture, and interior design. Other smaller art museums in
4176-547: The Hillside Stranglers murder cases in 1977–1978. 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, and the second Olympics to turn
4292-487: The Los Angeles sunflower , have become so rare as to be considered endangered. Mexican Fan Palms , Canary Island Palms , Queen Palms , Date Palms , and California Fan Palms are common in the Los Angeles area, although only the last is native to California, though still not native to the City of Los Angeles. Los Angeles has a number of official flora: The city has an urban population of bobcats ( Lynx rufus ). Mange
4408-428: The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), and the Hammer Museum . In the 1920s and 1930s Will Durant and Ariel Durant , Arnold Schoenberg and other intellectuals were the representatives of culture, in addition to the movie writers and directors. As the city flourished financially in the middle of the 20th century, culture followed. Boosters such as Dorothy Buffum Chandler and other philanthropists raised funds for
4524-490: The Pasadena Art Museum , it organized some of the most adventurous and cutting edge shows of contemporary art in the region, notably, an early Pop art show in 1962, and a Marcel Duchamp retrospective in 1963. Although the city had a long tradition of visual arts supported by private collectors and galleries, Los Angeles did not have a comprehensive museum of art until 1965, when LACMA opened its doors. At about
4640-714: The Red Hot Chili Peppers . Softer rock acts also flourished, as evidenced by the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt during the 1970s. There was a sizeable punk rock movement which spawned the hardcore punk movement featuring bands like X , Black Flag and Wasted Youth . In the 1980s, the Paisley Underground movement was native to Los Angeles. In the 1990s and early 21st century, Los Angeles' contribution to rock music continued with acclaimed artists such as Beck , Sublime of Long Beach , Tool , System of
4756-539: The Royal Shakespeare Company . The Honorary Advisory Board of Directors consists of: Marshall Borden, Kitty Felde, Doug Jocelyn, Patricia Johnson, Lee Meriwether , Karen Morrow, Lisa Rosen, Michael Rosen, Jennifer Rowland, Martin Sheen , Mindy Steinman, and Gore Vidal . Ark Theatre Company was cited by LA Weekly as being among the "Los Angeles actor-driven ensembles with staying power," adding that
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4872-567: The San Fernando Valley , with the city bordering the San Gabriel Valley to its east. It covers about 469 square miles (1,210 km ), and is the county seat of Los Angeles County , which is the most populous county in the United States with an estimated 9.86 million residents as of 2022 . It is the third-most visited city in the U.S. with over 2.7 million visitors as of 2023. The area that became Los Angeles
4988-505: The respelling under its masthead for several years. This did not find favor. Since the 1930s, / l ɔː s ˈ æ n dʒ əl ə s / has been most common. In 1934, the United States Board on Geographic Names decreed that this pronunciation be used by the federal government. This was also endorsed in 1952 by a "jury" appointed by Mayor Fletcher Bowron to devise an official pronunciation. Common pronunciations in
5104-845: The 1930s and 1940s before disappearing in the 1950s. In the 1960s, the Sunset Strip became a breeding ground for bands like The Byrds , Buffalo Springfield , and The Doors . Randy Newman also started his career during this time, and the Beach Boys were founded in nearby Hawthorne during this same decade as well. Much hard rock has come out of Los Angeles, including legendary hard rockers Van Halen from nearby Pasadena , "hair bands" like Mötley Crüe , Ratt , W.A.S.P. , and Guns N' Roses , thrash metal acts like Megadeth , Metallica (who later relocated to San Francisco ) and Slayer (from Huntington Park ), and also 1990s rock bands such as Jane's Addiction , Korn , The Offspring , and
5220-600: The 1960s, Corita Kent , then known as Sister Mary Corita of Immaculate Heart College , created bright, bold serigraphs carrying the messages of love and peace. See List of public art in Los Angeles The oldest known public artwork in Los Angeles is the 1900 sculpture of a United States soldier by architects S. M. Goddard and Kilpatrick (no known sculptor), part of the , located in Pershing Square . The 1926 Central Library designed by Bertram Goodhue
5336-418: The 1990s, coupled with substantial subway and light rail transit in the 1990s, created public art installations in new rail stations and public spaces throughout the city and beyond. Chris Burden's Urban Light (2008) in front of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wilshire Boulevard attracts hundreds of visitors daily, has been featured in several films as an iconic image of Los Angeles, and has become
5452-507: 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. Racial tensions led to the Watts riots in 1965, resulting in 34 deaths and over 1,000 injuries. In 1969, California became
5568-403: The Angels'. The present-day city has the largest Roman Catholic archdiocese in the United States. Two-thirds of the Mexican or ( New Spain ) settlers were mestizo or mulatto , a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small ranch town for decades, but by 1820, the population had increased to about 650 residents. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in
5684-582: The Chandler tradition into the 1950s, and in the 1960s and 1970s blended it with themes of classical tragedy . Walter Mosley , James Ellroy and Joseph Hansen are among the local successors to Chandler. Nathanael West 's book, The Day of the Locust , depicted a raw side to the Hollywood dream. Ray Bradbury wrote science fiction after moving to the city in 1934. Actress Carrie Fisher found success as
5800-801: The Colburn School of Performing Arts, and the Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra now performs at Walt Disney Concert Hall after having spent many years in residence at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion , and performs summer concerts at the Hollywood Bowl . The Los Angeles Master Chorale also calls the Walt Disney Concert Hall home. The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
5916-623: The Forbidden Planet , directed by Vanessa Claire Smith; Les Miller's staging of Ibsen 's Hedda Gabler ; Lloyd's Prayer by Kevin Kling and Christopher Durang 's Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You , both directed by Susan Lee Johnson; and Caryl Churchill 's sexual fantasmagoria Cloud 9 , and a reconceptualization of William Shakespeare 's The Merchant of Venice , both directed by Paul Wagar. Los Angeles Los Angeles , often referred to by its initials L.A. ,
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#17327879996036032-678: The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival conducted by Outfest and Dances with Films held at the TCL Chinese Theatre . Specialty theatres like Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema and art houses like the Nuart Theatre screen eclectic mixes of new and historic movies. Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. This ethnically diverse, densely populated neighborhood
6148-629: The Los Angeles area include the 1933 Long Beach , 1971 San Fernando , 1987 Whittier Narrows , and the 1994 Northridge events. All but a few are of low intensity and are not felt. The USGS has released the UCERF California earthquake forecast , which models earthquake occurrence in California. Parts of the city are also vulnerable to tsunamis ; harbor areas were damaged by waves from Aleutian Islands earthquake in 1946, Valdivia earthquake in 1960, Alaska earthquake in 1964, Chile earthquake in 2010 and Japan earthquake in 2011. The city
6264-502: 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
6380-506: The Los Angeles area. Instrumental in the development of the genre was the California Art Club (est. 1909) that provided numerous exhibitions and lectures. The art form continues to be recognized as a signature style of California art. Much of the energy in the city's art scene in the 1945 to 1980 stretch came from private collectors, artists' collectives, print shops, art schools and especially from commercial galleries. In
6496-548: The Los Angeles region. 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. Mexican rule ended during following the American Conquest of California , part of the larger Mexican-American War . Americans took control from the Californios after
6612-610: 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. The smog season lasts from approximately May to October. While other large cities rely on rain to clear smog, Los Angeles gets only 15 inches (380 mm) of rain each year: pollution accumulates over many consecutive days. Issues of air quality in Los Angeles and other major cities led to
6728-495: The Lower Midwest and South . Los Angeles began to grow as the built their first firehouse station in 1884 and the first home was built by Francisco Avila in 1818. Los Angeles had a strong economic base in farming, oil, tourism, real estate and movies. It grew rapidly with many suburban areas inside and outside the city limits. Its motion picture industry made the city world-famous, and World War II brought new industry, especially high-tech aircraft construction. Politically
6844-430: 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." After the end of World War II Los Angeles grew more rapidly than ever, sprawling into the San Fernando Valley . The expansion of the state owned Interstate Highway System during the 1950s and 1960s helped propel suburban growth and signaled
6960-404: The San Fernando Valley. Other hilly parts of Los Angeles include the Mt. Washington area north of Downtown, eastern parts such as Boyle Heights , the Crenshaw district around the Baldwin Hills , and the San Pedro district. 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
7076-455: 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. More recently, statewide droughts in California have further strained the city's water security . Downtown Los Angeles averages 14.67 in (373 mm) of precipitation annually, mainly occurring between November and March, generally in
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#17327879996037192-487: The Spanish founded the Pueblo de Los Ángeles . Iyáangẚ has also been translated as "the valley of smoke". Maritime explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area of southern California for the Spanish Empire in 1542, while on an official military exploring expedition, as he was moving northward along the Pacific coast from earlier colonizing bases of New Spain in Central and South America. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí reached
7308-419: The United Kingdom include / l ɒ s ˈ æ n dʒ ɪ l iː z , - l ɪ z , - l ɪ s / loss AN -jil-eez, -iz, -iss . Phonetician Jack Windsor Lewis described the most common one, / l ɒ s ˈ æ n dʒ ɪ l iː z / , as a spelling pronunciation based on analogy to Greek words ending in -es , "reflecting a time when the classics were familiar if Spanish
7424-406: The United States's preeminent city to eat regional Mexican food." The city of Glendale has among the highest concentration of Armenian restaurants in the country. Given its close proximity to Asia and constant flow of Asian immigrants, Asian food has a large foothold in Los Angeles. Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Thai restaurants are extremely common place. Japanese food in particular
7540-438: The birthplace of the Internet, as the first ARPANET transmission was sent from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park . 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
7656-499: The boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate , passes through the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The segment of the fault passing through Southern California experiences a major earthquake roughly every 110 to 140 years, and seismologists have warned about the next "big one", as the last major earthquake was the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake . The Los Angeles basin and metropolitan area are also at risk from blind thrust earthquakes . Major earthquakes that have hit
7772-428: The boundary of a Mediterranean climate ( Köppen : Csb on the coast, Csa otherwise). Daytime temperatures are generally temperate all year round. In winter, they average around 68 °F (20 °C). 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
7888-404: The city as the most polluted in the country with short-term particle pollution and year-round particle pollution. In 2008, the city was ranked the second most polluted and again had the highest year-round particulate pollution. The city met its goal of providing 20 percent of the city's power from renewable sources in 2010. The American Lung Association's 2013 survey ranks the metro area as having
8004-403: The city include the Craft Contemporary , the California African American Museum , and many sculpture gardens throughout the city, including those at the American Jewish University and the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden . Private art collections that are open to the public are the ones by Eli Broad and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation . The growth of Los Angeles as an art capital
8120-403: The city is 342 miles (550 km). Los Angeles is both flat and hilly. The highest point in the city proper is Mount Lukens at 5,074 ft (1,547 m), located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains at the north extent of the Crescenta Valley . The eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains stretches from Downtown to the Pacific Ocean and separates the Los Angeles Basin from
8236-608: The city was moderately conservative, with a weak labor union sector. Since the 1960s, growth has slowed—and traffic delays have become infamous. Los Angeles was a pioneer in freeway development as the public transit system deteriorated. New arrivals, especially from Mexico and Asia , have transformed the demographic base since the 1960s. Old industries have declined, including farming, oil, military and aircraft, but tourism, entertainment and high-tech remain strong. Over time, droughts and wildfires have increased in frequency and become less seasonal and more year-round, further straining
8352-532: The city's water security . Los Angeles has many different types of architectural styles scattered throughout the city and nearby satellite cities. Los Angeles has a rich and diverse history of architectural works, having been known throughout professional architectural circles as a testbed for architecture. The case study houses in particular revolutionized residential architecture. Architects such as Richard Neutra , Jack Charney , Pierre Koenig , John Lautner and Frank Lloyd Wright all have important works in
8468-560: The city, causing $ 12.5 billion in damage and 72 deaths. The century ended with the Rampart scandal , one of the most extensive documented cases of police misconduct in American history. 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. In 2022 , Karen Bass became the city's first female mayor , making Los Angeles
8584-497: 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
8700-461: The city. Some of the different types of architectural styles throughout the city and metropolitan area are Mission Revival , Spanish colonial revival , craftsman , Norman French provincial , French chateau, English Tudor , beaux arts , art deco , and streamline moderne . In downtown Los Angeles, there are several buildings constructed in the Art Deco style. In recognition of this heritage,
8816-940: The communities of Long Beach and Compton ) as a center of African-American musical development and G-funk as one of hip-hop's major living styles. The 2000s saw a further flourishing of the Los Angeles rock scene with acclaimed acts such as Maroon 5 and a resurgence in West Coast hip hop in the form of rappers such as The Game . The Black Eyed Peas gained even greater popularity during this decade. The pop singers such as Belinda Carlisle , Paula Abdul , Justin Timberlake , Gwen Stefani , Fergie , Hilary Duff , Ashlee Simpson , Jesse McCartney , Aly & AJ , Vanessa Hudgens , Ashley Tisdale , Miley Cyrus , Selena Gomez , Demi Lovato , Colbie Caillat , Sara Bareilles , Katy Perry , Kesha , and Ariana Grande also anchored their singing careers in Los Angeles area as well. In
8932-486: The company "performs classics with a rock & roll sloppiness; equal parts aggravating and scintillating, always worth watching." Ark Theatre Company has, since its inception, produced a wide variety of material, from Edward II by Christopher Marlowe to Charles Ludlam 's The Mystery of Irma Vep . The Ugly Man by Brad Frazier, The Maids by Jean Genet , and F*cking Hollywood, adapted from Arthur Schnitzler 's La Ronde by Paul Wagar, are all testament to
9048-438: The company's intrinsic eclecticism. Ark Theatre' s controversial 2003 production of Anthony Burgess ' A Clockwork Orange , directed by Brad Mays , was nominated for three LA Weekly Theatre Awards , for Best Direction, Best Revival Production (of a 20th-century work), and Best Actress. Vanessa Claire Smith won Best Actress for her gender-bending portrayal of Alex , the story's music-loving teenaged sociopath . Richard Tatum
9164-739: The context where such statements would normally appear. An example of this is Nice Hot Vegetables Larry Bell , for example, explored the interaction of a sculpture to its environment, demonstrating that the boundaries are usually not entirely clear. David Hockney , an English immigrant, produced figurative paintings set in idyllic Southern California locales, such as swimming pools in the bright sunlight, belonging to modernist houses. Although these paintings are representational, they seem to be composed of small color patches, somewhat like collages. Finish Fetish —a style that emphasized gleaming surfaces—and Light and Space —art about perception—were other Ferus-bred styles that allowed L.A. to distinguish itself from
9280-598: The continued growth of the city. 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. 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
9396-477: 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. 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 . In the second half of
9512-617: The difference between the average daily low and the average daily high is over 30 °F (17 °C). 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. 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. Due to
9628-471: The downtown area of Los Angeles during the 1970s was characterized by large abstract sculptures such as Herbert Bayer's Double Ascension (1973), and Alexander Calder's Four Arches (1973) installed with the commercial redevelopment of Bunker Hill . In 1989 the City passed an ordinance requiring developers to contribute one percent of the cost of construction of new buildings to a public art fund. The resulting funds for public art and public art programs in
9744-520: The establishment of art museums, music centers and theaters. Today, the Southland cultural scene is as complex, sophisticated and varied as any in the world. Los Angeles is strongly influenced by Mexican American culture due to California formerly being part of Mexico and, previously, the Spanish Empire. The history of Los Angeles began in 1781 when 44 settlers from New Spain established
9860-407: 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
9976-634: The heart of downtown Los Angeles is the Music Center of Los Angeles County. The Music Center consists of the new Walt Disney Concert Hall , the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion , the Ahmanson Theatre , and the Mark Taper Forum . The courtyard, fountain, and public art make it a beautiful location. Adding to its cultural importance, on the same street are the Los Angeles Central Library, the Museum of Contemporary Art ,
10092-418: The historic district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street , the oldest part of Los Angeles. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, and the pueblo now existed within the new Mexican Republic . During Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles the regional capital of Alta California . By this time, the new republic introduced more secularization acts within
10208-501: The industry kept the city insulated from much of the economic loss suffered by the rest of the country during the Great Depression . By 1930, the population surpassed one million. 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
10324-521: 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 5–10 in (130–250 mm) rainfall, followed by one or two wet years with more than 20 in (510 mm). 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
10440-575: The largest U.S. city to have ever had a woman as mayor. Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games , making Los Angeles the third city to host the Olympics three times. The city of Los Angeles covers a total area of 502.7 square miles (1,302 km ), comprising 468.7 square miles (1,214 km ) of land and 34.0 square miles (88 km ) of water. The city extends for 44 miles (71 km) from north to south and for 29 miles (47 km) from east to west. The perimeter of
10556-514: The longer name. 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 / l ɔː s ˈ æ n dʒ əl ə s / lawss AN -jəl-əs was established following the 1850 incorporation of the city and that since the 1880s the pronunciation / l oʊ s ˈ æ ŋ ɡ əl ə s / lohss ANG -gəl-əs emerged from
10672-490: The lowest is 28 °F (−2 °C), on January 4, 1949. 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 . 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
10788-505: 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; 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
10904-546: 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 (24 km) away. The city, like much of
11020-403: The nation's worst smog, and fourth in both short-term and year-round pollution amounts. Culture of Los Angeles The culture of Los Angeles is rich with arts and ethnically diverse. The greater Los Angeles metro area has several notable art museums including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the J. Paul Getty Museum on the Santa Monica Mountains overlooking the Pacific,
11136-457: The other end of the business, local Rhino Records began a reissue boom by digging through archives of old recordings and repackaging them for modern audiences. Los Angeles had a vibrant African-American musical community even when it was relatively small: a number of musical artists congregated around Central Avenue , and the community produced a number of great talents, including Charles Mingus , Buddy Collette , Gerald Wilson , and others in
11252-514: 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. More recently, the state of California has led the nation in working to limit pollution by mandating low-emission vehicles . Smog
11368-486: The present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769. In 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel , the first mission in the area. On September 4, 1781, a group of 44 settlers known as " Los Pobladores " founded the pueblo (town) they called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles , 'The Town of Our Lady the Queen of
11484-501: The recently built Metropolitan Transit Authority building incorporates subtle Art Deco characteristics. Modern architecture in the city ranges from the works of pioneering African-American architect Paul Williams , to the iconoclastic deconstructivist forms of Frank Gehry , a long-time resident of the city. Charles Eames and his wife Ray Eames designed famous chairs and other domestic goods. The plein air movement of impressionistic landscape painting found early adherents in
11600-429: The region's vibrant artistic scene." [1] Culver City 's La Cienega Boulevard features one of the highest concentrations of fine art galleries and studios in Southern California. The trendy bohemian neighborhoods of Silver Lake and Los Feliz are home to numerous smaller galleries, showcasing local or underground art. Gallery Row downtown is known for its small DIY galleries, such as The Smell , which doubles as
11716-536: The rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and became part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood . The discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The city was further expanded with the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, which delivers water from Eastern California . Los Angeles has
11832-646: The rest of the art world. It was during this period that the contemporary arts scene in Los Angeles began to command the attention of collectors and museum directors internationally. Some of the most respected art museums in the world can be found in Los Angeles. They include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art , the Broad , the J. Paul Getty Museum , the Norton Simon Museum , the Huntington Library art collection and botanical gardens, and
11948-563: 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
12064-523: The same time, La Cienega Boulevard became home to many art galleries, most notably Ferus , featuring works by artists who lived in the area, Dwan Gallery , and Riko Mizuno Gallery. Although Andy Warhol was based in New York, the famous "soup cans" were first exhibited at Ferus. A local exponent of pop art was Ed Ruscha , some of whose work was representational, others consisted of simple slogans or mottoes which were usually humorous, being so far out of
12180-718: The state's current Film & Television Tax Credit Program administered by the California Film Commission . The motion picture and TV industries have helped create the image that defines Los Angeles across the world. Many tourists flock to see Hollywood-related landmarks such as the Walk of Fame and the Hollywood Sign . Los Angeles's literary history includes legendary authors like Raymond Chandler , whose hard-boiled detective stories were set in pre-war and immediate post-war L.A. Ross Macdonald carried on
12296-610: The world's wealthiest art institution ), the Battleship Iowa , and the Museum of Contemporary Art . A significant number of art galleries are located on Gallery Row , and tens of thousands attend the monthly Downtown Art Walk there. In 1943, a community-run arts association in Pasadena merged with the better funded Pasadena Art Institute and moved into what is now the home of the Pacific Asia Museum . Renamed
12412-553: The world. The strength of the city's scene is in "ethnic" dining and it is considered to be one of the most dynamic scenes in the world in terms of range and depth. The DineLA Restaurant Week offers twice a year a sample of the enormous variety of restaurants in Los Angeles. In its predominantly African American neighborhoods are soul food restaurants such as Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles . According to Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America , Los Angeles "remains
12528-635: 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. 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
12644-587: The year, with an average of only 35 days with measurable precipitation annually. 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. Temperatures in the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys are considerably warmer. Temperatures are subject to substantial daily swings; in inland areas
12760-502: Was 2.0 inches (5 cm) on January 15, 1932. While the most recent snowfall occurred in February 2019, the first snowfall since 1962, with snow falling in areas adjacent to Los Angeles as recently as January 2021. 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, while
12876-407: Was an architectural masterpiece incorporating murals and sculptures throughout, notably four rotunda murals by Dean Cornwell depicting California history. Los Angeles is known for its murals , and many outdoor public art murals have been painted throughout the 20th century by early Mexican muralists Diego Rivera , David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco . During the 1960s and 1970s,
12992-435: 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. By 1900, the population had grown to more than 102,000, putting pressure on the city's water supply . The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, under the supervision of William Mulholland , ensured
13108-572: Was first comprehensively documented in a series of exhibitions partially funded and spearheaded by the Getty, but held at all major museums during the Fall of 2011. "The exhibitions, and the events that accompanied them as part of "Pacific Standard Time" demonstrated the pivotal role played by Southern California in national and international artistic movements since the middle of the 20th century. LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes (The culture square and arts museum)
13224-565: Was likewise nominated for an LA Weekly Theatre Award for his performance in Ibsen 's A Doll's House . Other representative productions include director Richard Tatum 's staging of The Country Wife by William Wycherley for which Tatum received an LA Weekly Theatre Award nomination for Best Adaptation; Richard Tatum's staging of On the Verge by Eric Overmeyer ; Steven Shields' production of William Shakespeare 's The Tempest ; Return to
13340-515: Was not". The settlement of Indigenous Californians in the modern Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley was dominated by the Tongva (now also known as the Gabrieleño since the era of Spanish colonization). The historic center of Tongva power in the region was the settlement of Yaanga ( Tongva : Iyáangẚ ), meaning "place of the poison oak ", which would one day be the site where
13456-600: Was originally inhabited by the indigenous Tongva people and later claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542. The city was founded on September 4, 1781, under Spanish governor Felipe de Neve , on the village of Yaanga . It became a part of the First Mexican Empire in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence . In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War , Los Angeles and
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