Los Angeles

City and port in southwestern California, USA; population (2000 est) 3,694,800; Los Angeles–Riverside–Orange County consolidated metropolitan area (also known as Greater Los Angeles) (1994 est) 15,302,000. In size of population it is the second-largest city and the second-largest metropolitan area in the USA. The city occupies 1,204 sq km/465 sq mi. Industries include aerospace, electronics, motor vehicles, chemicals, clothing, building materials, printing, food processing, and films. Los Angeles was established as a Spanish settlement in 1781.

Physical

The city occupies the plain which lies south of the Santa Monica Mountains. The conurbation of Greater Los Angeles now stretches for some 80 km/50 mi from San Fernando in the northwest to Santa Ana in the southeast; and for 80 km/50 mi from Santa Monica on the coast to Ontario on the eastern edge.

Features

Hollywood, centre of the film industry since 1911; the Hollywood Bowl concert arena; the Los Angeles Music Centre; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; observatories at Mount Wilson and Mount Palomar; Disneyland; the Huntingdon Art Gallery and Library; and the J Paul Getty Museum of Art (a re-creation of a Roman villa) housing the classical collection, the rest of its exhibits being housed in the enlarged John Paul Getty Centre across the town in Brentwood. The Universal Studios theme park is a major tourist attraction. Educational institutions include the the University of Southern California (1880), the University of California at Los Angeles (1919), several campuses of the California State University, including California State University at Los Angeles (1964 based on a 1947 foundation), and Loyola Marymount University (1911).

Communications

The whole conurbation area is linked by a sprawling freeway network, which has a total length of 1,050 km/650 mi. An underground railway opened in 1993, linking with suburban light railways and totalling 645 km/400 mi. The new extension to Hollywood, part of the Metro Rail Red Line, opened in June 1999. By 1992 Los Angeles International Airport had become the world's third-busiest airport in terms of commercial airline traffic. In 1995 there were 5.8 million passenger cars registered in Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura counties (most of the metropolitan area).

Population

In 2000 Los Angeles classified its population according to ancestry as: Hispanic 46.5%; White 29.7%; Black (African American) 12%; Asian 11%.

History
Los Angeles, named in 1781 by the Spanish governor of California, grew rapidly in the 19th century after the US claimed California, and development was encouraged by the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876 and the Santa Fe Railroad in 1885. It was a farming region with orange groves until the early 20th century, when it annexed neighbouring communities and acquired distant water supplies (from the Sierras and Sacramento valley to the north), a deep-water port, and the film industry. In the 1920s large petroleum deposits were found in the area. The aircraft industry, with its need for year-round flying weather, developed here soon after and grew rapidly during World War II. There were serious inter-ethnic riots in the Watts district in 1965. In 1992 five days of riots, resulting in more than 50 deaths and extensive damage, followed a judge's acquittal of four white police officers charged with the beating of a black motorist (two of the officers were later convicted in a federal trial). In November 2000 three officers were convicted of filing false reports. Other officers at the same police station have been accused of various corruption charges, and the Los Angeles city attorney's office agreed to settle 29 lawsuits by paying US$10.9 million. Total damages resulting from the scandal were estimated at US$125 million.

In January 1994 an earthquake (6.6 on the Richter scale) struck the city, killing 61 people and displacing an estimated 25,000. Estimates of the damage ranged between US$15 billion and US$30 billion, with 45,000 homes damaged by the quake; of those, 15,000 were declared uninhabitable.

Port
By the mid-1990s the port of Los Angeles on San Pedro Bay (established in 1907) was handling more foreign and domestics ships and more cargo than any other (US) West Coast port. It was also handling a greater value of cargo than any other US port. Most of the trade with Japan, and much of that with other Pacific countries, passes through Los Angeles.

Buildings
Because of the danger of earthquakes, buildings taller than 46 m/150 ft were not allowed until 1957, when earthquake-proof construction was accepted as safe. Inner Los Angeles now has an impressive skyline, with several 50-storey buildings.

Environment
Los Angeles is severely troubled by air pollution. There are some 30,000 fast-food restaurants in the area. According to 1995 estimates by air-quality officials, these produce 13.7 tonnes of smoke particles a day, nine times as much as is produced by the area's buses each day.

Greater Los Angeles
This comprises 86 towns, including Long Beach, Redondo Beach, Venice, Santa Monica, Burbank, Compton, Beverly Hills, Glendale, Pasadena, and Pomona. It covers 10,000 sq km/4,000 sq mi and has been described as ‘a hundred suburbs in search of a city’.

Los Angeles

Capital of the province of Bío-Bío, in the larger region of the same name in central Chile; population (1996) 106,000. The town was founded as a military outpost in 1739, and it is linked with Concepción by rail. The major occupations in the surrounding district are wine-growing, cereal and fruit farming, and tree felling.

Los Angeles

River flowing through southwestern California and the city of Los Angeles, USA; length about 80 km/50 mi. It is formed by several streams in the San Fernando Valley and flows out to San Pedro Bay at Long Beach.

Course
The river flows east along the northern side of the Santa Monica Mountains, then turns south into downtown Los Angeles. Its tributaries include the Pacoima River, Tujunga Wash, and the Rio Hondo, which joins it from the east at South Gate.

The Spanish founders of Los Angeles chose a site in 1781 on what they called the Porciúncula River because it did not dry out like other local streams. The river was formerly variable, at times flowing through the ciénagas (marshes) of today's Westside, but has been controlled with dams and channelling.