The adobe, along with other historic buildings in the district such as the Plaza Firehouse, has been restored and is open for public tours. For those meals when you can’t decide, Grand Central Market downtown has a little bit of everything. The city’s largest and oldest public market is home to some of its trendiest eats, like breakfast sandos at Eggslut and Korean lunch boxes at the mom-and-pop Shiku.
Census Bureau defines Greater Los Angeles, or officially, the Los Angeles–Long Beach Combined Statistical Area, to include both the above-mentioned areas along with the entirety of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.51 These areas are sparsely developed and are part of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. To the north, Interstate 15 crosses desolate desert landscape after passing Barstow, linking Greater Los Angeles with Las Vegas, with Baker being the only significant outpost along the route. To the east, lie the Mojave National Preserve and Joshua Tree National Park along with the towns of Needles and Blythe on the California-Arizona border. The traditional business district and historical downtown of Greater Los Angeles is Downtown Los Angeles. However, most commercial activity is found outside downtown Los Angeles in the edge cities of Century City, Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown, Hollywood, the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, Universal City, the Warner Center in Woodland Hills, and Sherman Oaks and Encino, notable for existing alongside extensive suburban development.
Character of the city
- The Japanese comprise 0.9% of the city’s population and have an established Little Tokyo in the city’s downtown, and another significant community of Japanese Americans is in the Sawtelle district of West Los Angeles.
- In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and became part of the United States.
- Whether it’s visiting a quiet museum, or attending a boisterous ball game, there are always things to do, interesting attractions and exciting events and places to go in LA. Read on for ten iconic “must see” places in Los Angeles.
- For some of L.A.’s best improv and sketch comedy, The Groundlings Theatre on Melrose Avenue delivers laughter and a chance to scope out emerging talent.
- Los Angeles Unified School District serves almost all of the city of Los Angeles, as well as several surrounding communities, with a student population of around 800,000.337 After Proposition 13 was approved in 1978, urban school districts had considerable trouble with funding.
- South County, defined variously as beginning with either Costa Mesa42 or Irvine43 and includes cities to the east and south such as Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, and San Clemente, is more residential, affluent, recently developed, and has a mostly white population.
Los Angeles is filled with world-famous landmarks and attractions but for an off-the-beaten path treat, visit legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s creation, designed for client Aline Barnsdall in his self-described “California Romanza” style. The Hollyhock House has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site – only the third such site in the entire state of California – and the grounds offer an art gallery, free studio classes for kids, and lush gardens sprinkled with its namesake flower. Opened in September 2021, the spectacular Academy Museum of Motion Pictures houses more than 13 million objects in a 300,000 square-foot campus designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Renzo Piano. Get up-close to iconic movie props like Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz and “Rosebud” from Citizen Kane. The museum’s immersive Oscars Experience transports you to the Dolby Theatre stage – after the standing ovation, you give your “thank you” speech with an Academy Award in hand. Be sure to stop by the Academy Museum Store for exclusive merch and local collabs.
The Los Angeles River also runs through the city some 51 miles (82 km). Los Angeles moves about one-quarter of an inch (6.3 millimeters) to the east every year.25 It is caused by the city’s tectonic plates and rough ground geography and since Los Angeles is at a close distance with the San Andreas Fault. This brings Los Angeles and San Francisco 2.5 inches (64 mm) closer together each year. Downtown L.A.’s museums have collections so stunning it makes skipping a beach day a no-brainer. Yayoi Kusama’s immersive Infinity Mirrored Room installation at The Broad should top any contemporary art buff’s to-do list (and it’s free!). Down the street, the Frank Gehry–designed Walt Disney Concert Hall is home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic during the orchestra’s regular season, October through June.
- 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.
- LAX is the only airport to serve as a hub for all three U.S. legacy airlines —American, Delta and United.
- Area city, 466 square miles (1,207 square km); county, 4,070 square miles (10,540 square km).
- 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.
- The name is an abbreviation from the original name of the place.
Los Angeles County Resorts
A decade in now and the arrival of the Broad still feels like a game-changer, thanks to the museum’s distinctive design, free admission and post-war art collection. Yayoi Kusama’s pair of Infinity Mirror Rooms in particular continue to pull in the crowds—one which transports viewers into a twinkling, pulsating starfield of LEDs (you can reserve a time slot), the other a smaller reflective chamber that you can pop your head into. Sure, light pollution and some old-timey optics mean that you can’t see all that much through its enormous telescope, but you can still spend a few hours browsing around the Griffith Observatory quite happily (closed Mon; grounds open daily).
Free Things to Do in Los Angeles
Take a whole day out to explore this fabulous Pasadena-adjacent place. Make sure to check out all of the free museum days before you visit. Latin American immigrants, particularly Mexican immigrants, brought tacos, burritos, quesadillas, tortas, tamales, and enchiladas served from food trucks and stands, taquerias, and cafés. Asian restaurants, many immigrant-owned, exist throughout the city with hotspots in Chinatown,251 Koreatown,252 and Little Tokyo.253 Los Angeles also carries an outsized offering of vegan, vegetarian, and plant-based options. The architecture of Los Angeles is influenced by its Spanish, Mexican, and American roots. Popular styles in the city include Spanish Colonial Revival style, Mission Revival style, California Churrigueresque style, Mediterranean Revival style, Art Deco style, and Mid-Century Modern style, among others.
History
LAX is in southwestern Los Angeles, 16 miles (26 km) from Downtown Los Angeles. LAX is the only airport to serve as a hub for all three U.S. legacy airlines —American, Delta and United. 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;116 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 was 2.0 inches (5 cm) on January 15, 1932.116123 While the most recent snowfall occurred in February 2019, the first snowfall since 1962,124125 with snow falling in areas adjacent to Los Angeles as recently as January 2021.126 Brief, localized instances of hail can occur on rare occasions, but are more common than snowfall. Los Angeles is a very large city, and the edges of the city are very far from the center, going from the beaches to the mountains. The Santa Monica Mountains run through the city, separating it into the San Fernando Valley to the north and the Los Angeles Basin to the south.
The main healthcare providers in the Los Angeles metropolitan area are Kaiser Permanente, Cedars-Sinai Health System, UCLA Health, Dignity Healthcare, and Providence Healthcare. LA Care and Care1st are also the main providers for those in the metropolitan area that have Medi-Cal. Sub-Saharan Africans were 0.7% (137,443) and Non-Hispanic Caribbean Blacks were 0.3% (62,419). Taste your way around the world at Grand Central Market, which has been serving up global cuisines since 1917.
In 2022, the combined statistical area of Greater Los Angeles (which includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the Inland Empire, and Ventura County) had a $1.528 trillion economy. During the 1970s and 1980s, the region leaned toward the Republican Party. Los Angeles County, aphrodite casino the most populous of the region, is a Democratic stronghold, although it voted twice for both Richard Nixon (1968 and 1972) and Ronald Reagan (1980 and 1984). Riverside County, San Bernardino County, and Orange County have historically leaned toward the Republican Party but have started shifting leftward in recent years. Despite the large footprint of the city of Los Angeles, a majority of the land area within Los Angeles County is unincorporated and under the primary jurisdiction of Los Angeles County.
Cities in Ventura County
Is a vibrant destination where creativity and self-expression have fueled the growth of art, music, architecture, and neighborhoods dedicated to cultural exploration. The major highways that connect LA to the rest of the nation include Interstate 5, which runs south through San Diego to Tijuana in Mexico and north through Sacramento, Portland, and Seattle to the Canada–US border; Interstate 10, the southernmost east–west, coast-to-coast Interstate Highway in the United States, going to Jacksonville, Florida; and U.S. Route 101, which heads to the California Central Coast, San Francisco, the Redwood Empire, and the Oregon and Washington coasts. Los Angeles is known for its large movie and television industry. Some military aircraft are also made there, as well as spacecraft.
Many movies, television shows and fashion shows are made in Hollywood and are often set in Los Angeles. Greater Los Angeles is home to a number of colleges and universities. The University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles, are among the largest, and the Claremont Colleges and California Institute of Technology are among the most academically renowned. Below is a list of some of the most well known colleges and universities within the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area.
Because of Los Angeles’s large multi-ethnic population, a wide variety of faiths are practiced, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Baháʼí, various Eastern Orthodox Churches, Sufism, Shintoism, Taoism, Confucianism, Chinese folk religion and countless others. Immigrants from Asia, for example, have formed several significant Buddhist congregations, making the city home to the greatest variety of Buddhists in the world. The first Buddhist joss house was founded in the city in 1875.187 Atheism and other secular beliefs are also common, as the city is the largest in the Western U.S. Unchurched Belt. 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.64 The money generated by the industry kept the city insulated from much of the economic loss suffered by the rest of the country during the Great Depression.65By 1930, the population surpassed one million.66 In 1932, the city hosted the Summer Olympics. 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.