The neighborhood councils are relatively autonomous and spontaneous in that they identify their own boundaries, establish their own bylaws, and elect their own officers. Mexican rule ended following the American Conquest of California, part of the larger Mexican-American War. Americans took control from the Californios after a series of battles, culminating with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847.54 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.

Notable people

It is very rare for temperatures to go below freezing near the coast but can occur further inland. The city receives about 15 inches (380 mm) of rain each year, although the amount can change a lot from year to year. Snow is very rare except on the mountain tops where some occasional light snow might fall. Metrolink provides service to numerous places within Southern California, including all counties in the region. Metrolink operates to 67 stations on eight lines within Southern California which mostly (except for the Inland Empire–Orange County Line and Arrow) radiate from Los Angeles Union Station. The Los Angeles metropolitan area has the third-largest metropolitan economy in the world, behind the Greater Tokyo Area and the New York metropolitan area.

Top Ten Things You Must Do & Places To Visit In Los Angeles

Southern California Gas Company serves a large majority of the Los Angeles metropolitan area except for Long Beach and southern Orange County. Since the city and the county are interwoven geographically, culturally, and economically, any consideration of Los Angeles must, to some degree, involve both entities. Population density around the metropolitan area varies greatly—as low as one person per square mile in mountainous areas and as high as 50,000 per square mile near downtown Los Angeles. Area city, 466 square miles (1,207 square km); county, 4,070 square miles (10,540 square km). (2010) 3,792,621; Los Angeles–Long Beach–Glendale Metro Division, 9,818,605; Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana Metro Area, 12,828,837; (2020) 3,898,747; Los Angeles–Long Beach–Glendale Metro Division, 10,014,009; Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim Metro Area, 13,200,998.

Los Angeles metropolitan area

Los Angeles (L.A.), officially the City of Los Angeles, is the largest city in California, in the United States. There are many ethnicities of people living in the city, and over 18 million people in the L.A. Los Angeles is the city with the second biggest population in the United States after New York, overtaking Chicago in the 1970s. There are two providers of heavy rail transportation in the region, Amtrak and Metrolink. Amtrak provides service to San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and points in between on the Pacific Surfliner.

Current Local Time in Los Angeles, California, USA

  • Both subway lines use an electrified third rail to provide power to the trains, rendering these lines unusable on the other three.
  • Don’t miss a ride on the world’s only solar-powered Ferris Wheel, where you can enjoy a spectacular aerial view of the coast.
  • Southern California Edison serves a large majority of the Los Angeles metropolitan area except for Los Angeles city limits, Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Azusa, Vernon, Anaheim, and southern Orange County.
  • The system shared dual gauge track with the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge Los Angeles Railway, “Yellow Car”, or “LARy” system on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles (directly in front of the 6th and Main terminal), on 4th Street, and along Hawthorne Boulevard south of downtown Los Angeles toward the cities of Hawthorne, Gardena, and Torrance.
  • Greater Los Angeles is home to a number of colleges and universities.
  • Central and southern Ventura County formerly consisted of small towns along the Pacific Coast until the expansion of U.S.

The area comprising present-day Los Angeles County was first settled by small groups of Native Americans for centuries before the first European contact in 1769 when Gaspar de Portola and a group of missionaries camped on what is now the banks of the Los Angeles River. The name Los Angeles comes from the Spanish language, and it means “The Angels”. The name is an abbreviation from the original name of the place. The original name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula” (in English, “The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the River Porciúncula”), giving it both one of the longest and shortest (referring to its shortening of “LA”) place names in the world.15 Los Angeles was founded in 1781 while the area was within the borders of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The area had been explored earlier by two Franciscan priests named Junipero Serra and Juan Crespi.
The breakdown by race was 34.9% White, 11.9% Asian, 8.6% Black, 1.7% Native American, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 29.5% from one other race, and 13.3% from two or more races. The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system in the world in the 1920s. Organized around the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, it connected cities in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County. Ventura County is mostly suburban and aphrodite casino rural and also has developed primarily through the growth of Los Angeles. Central and southern Ventura County formerly consisted of small towns along the Pacific Coast until the expansion of U.S.

  • The adobe, along with other historic buildings in the district such as the Plaza Firehouse, has been restored and is open for public tours.
  • Catch an intimate performance on the Grammy Museum soundstage or dance the night away at The Conga Room.
  • Pick up some sweet treats at Fugetsu-Do in Little Tokyo, which has been serving authentic Japanese mochi and manju since 1903.
  • Hiking from the Ferndell Nature Museum up to the Observatory rewards viewers with several clear shots of The Hollywood Sign along the way.
  • The name Los Angeles comes from the Spanish language, and it means “The Angels”.

The Los Angeles Unified School District serves the city of L.A., and other school districts serve the surrounding areas. Below is a list of many ethnic enclaves present in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Hispanic or Latinos, who may be of any race, are by far the largest group; Hispanics or Latinos make up 46.3% of the population.
Whether it’s popular shopping centers like Westfield Century City and The Grove; Hollywood hand-me-downs from your film or TV crush; or bargains galore at the Citadel Outlets, something is sure to catch your eye. Located on Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A., Walt Disney Concert Hall is home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry, with acoustics by Yasuhisa Toyota, the magnificent venue has received worldwide praise from critics and concertgoers alike for its stunning architecture and extraordinary sound.

Attend a concert by the acclaimed LA Phil and experience classical music as it was meant to be heard. We’ve all dreamed of being Julia Roberts shopping on Rodeo Drive, but very few of us could actually afford to shop in the designer boutiques and flagship stores seen in the film Pretty Woman. Along the $200-million ersatz European cobbled walkway Two Rodeo, browsing tourists mingle with serious spenders. Oh and if you’re still after the Pretty Woman experience, duck into the Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel where Roberts stays in the film, which boasts a luxe spa and a steakhouse by Wolfgang Puck. Stop and smell the flowers at the rest of the city’s best botanical gardens.
The Getty Center is packed full of artistic masterpieces and enjoys an awe-inspiring hilltop location with incredible views of L.A. The grounds and buildings here are so remarkable that you could never step inside a gallery and still probably walk away satisfied. But you absolutely should, particularly to see works by Rubens and Impressionists such as Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh and Cézanne—though the lovely French decorative arts galleries are our personal favorites. The museum’s predecessor, the Getty Villa, rewinds the clock a few millennia with Greek and Roman antiquities in an Italian-style estate; the palatial landmark reopened June 27 after a temporary closure due to the Palisades Fire. Catch an intimate performance on the Grammy Museum soundstage or dance the night away at The Conga Room.

Architecture and urban theory

Irvine is an exception, as it is a center of employment and is ethnically diverse. A growing alternative dividing marker between north and south is the El Toro Y interchange. Orange Coast or South Coast area is defined instead as consisting of some or all of the cities lining the coast. Many cities adjacent to Los Angeles also have their own daily newspapers whose coverage and availability overlap with certain Los Angeles neighborhoods. Examples include The Daily Breeze (serving the South Bay), and The Long Beach Press-Telegram. The primary airport serving the LA metro area is Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), one of the busiest airports in the United States.
Los Angelesb (LA) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With an estimated 3.88 million residents within the city limits as of 2024update,8 it is the second-most populous city in the United States, behind New York City. Los Angeles has an ethnically and culturally diverse population, and is the principal city of a metropolitan area of 12.9 million people (2024). Greater Los Angeles, a combined statistical area that includes the Los Angeles and Riverside–San Bernardino metropolitan areas, is a sprawling metropolis of over 18.5 million residents. In the 2020 census, there were 3,898,747 people, 1,410,260 households, and 839,676 families living in Los Angeles. The population density was 8,304.2 people per square mile (3,206.3/km²).
Since opening its gates in 1962, the storied ballpark has hosted 11 World Series and the Dodgers have won eight World Championships. Visit the Griffith Observatory and see why it’s been featured in films from Rebel Without a Cause to The Terminator, La La Land and beyond. Perched atop Mount Hollywood, the Observatory offers exhibits, the Samuel Oschin Planetarium and free public telescopes that are as fascinating as the surrounding 4,310 acres of Griffith Park. Hiking from the Ferndell Nature Museum up to the Observatory rewards viewers with several clear shots of The Hollywood Sign along the way. From the Observatory, hiking through the Berlin Forest to the Charlie Turner Trailhead gets you a bird’s-eye view of the city that’s even closer to the famous sign.