Los Angeles (USA, California)
Los Angeles (also known as L.A. or City of Angels) – is a city in the USA, in the south of California State and on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. It is the biggest city of the state by population and second biggest in the country (as of 2006 – 4,097,000 citizens). The city is a center of so called Greater Los Angeles Area – an agglomeration populated by more than 17 million people. Los Angeles citizens are also called «Angelenos».
Los Angeles – is one of world’s largest cultural, scientific, business, and educational centers. The city is also one of the biggest centers of entertainment industry in the world (motion pictures, music, and television production).
The district where the present-day city is located was populated by indigenous North Americans for many thousand years. The coastal area, where Los Angeles lies now, was settled by the Tongva, Chumash and other Native American tribes for centuries. Europeans arrived here first in 1542, when Californian coast was visited by an expedition of a Spanish pioneer Juan Cabrillo.
Los Angeles was founded on September 4, 1781 under the name of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles sobre El Río Porciúncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels on the Porciúncula River, in Spanish) by a group of Spanish colonists of forty six people. For a few decades the new settlement remained as a small town, but by 1820 its population reached 650 people, to make it the largest civil settlement in Spanish California.
After the declaration of Independence by Mexico State, Los Angeles was included in its territory. In 1847, during the American-Mexican war, the city passed on to the United States. In 1850 Los Angeles received the status of a city.
In 1876, Southern Pacific Company finished building the railroad to Los Angeles. The future development of the city was prompted by the discovery of oil in the area of the city in 1892. In 1923, in Los Angeles region one forth of the entire productions of gasoline in the world was concentrated. In 1913, construction of an aqueduct was completed to supply water for the needs of the growing city. In the 1920s, the motion picture and aviation industries flocked to Los Angeles. In 1932 the city hosted X Summer Olympics.
With the beginning of the World War II the development of the city received a new impulse. At this period a number of German scientists, artists and writers moved to Los Angeles as they fled from Nazism (among them are Lion Feuchtwanger, Thomas Mann, Fritz Lang, Berthold Brecht and others). At the same time one has to indicate the fact that during the war thousands of Japanese Americans were interned to enclosed camps.
In the post-war years the city boomed and sprawled: many business centers and traffic intersections were built. In 1984, Summer Olympic Games were held in Los Angeles again, but athletes from Socialist camp countries did not take part in them. In 1992 the city became the scene of large-scale riots and violence, caused by racial controversies; and in 1994 it survived a devastating earthquake which damaged many buildings and objects of the city’s infrastructure. After these events campaign for the seceding of Hollywood and San Fernando Valley from Los Angeles became prevailing but the general vote of 2002 did not allow these plans to be fulfilled.
Now Los Angeles is one of the most attractive and fast growing cities in the United States.
The city is situated on coastal lowland, edged with mountains of San Gabriel, Santa Monica, and Santa Ana.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the general area of Los Angeles is 1290,6 sq. km., dry land – 1214,9 sq. km, and water – 75,7 sq. km. (5,86 %). The maximum length of the city is 71 kilometers from north to south, width – 47 kilometers from east to west, the length of the city border – 550 kilometers. The city area holds the ninth place by area in the continental part of the USA (that is, excluding Juno in Alaska and Honolulu on the Hawaiian Islands).
The Greater Los Angeles Area (agglomeration) is stretching for almost 200 kilometers between the cities of Ventura and San Bernardino.
The highest point in Los Angeles – is Sister Elsie Peak (1548 m). The biggest river of the city is Los Angeles River that heads from San Fernando Valley (for the most part it flows in a concrete bed and in draughty seasons it dries up almost completely).
The official flower of Los Angeles is the Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae).
The abundance of nature zones in the city area (such as beaches, dunes, wetlands, mountains, hills, and rivers) creates the environment for a variety of biological communities. Los Angeles is mainly surrounded with arid subtropical light forests with an abundance of gaily blossoming flowers. At the same time, an extreme urbanization of the landscape results in decreasing the spreading of and extinction of many biological species within the city limits and its vicinities. Los Angeles streets, parks and public gardens are planted with numerous rare and exotic ornamental plants, among which are different species of palm trees, camellias, etc.
Due to its closeness to San Andreas Fault, Los Angeles is situated in an active seismic zone. The most recent major earthquake was a devastating earthquake in 1994, with an epicenter in the northern part of San Fernando Valley. This natural disaster, which happened less than two years after large-scale street violence in Los Angeles, came as a real shock to Californians, causing the material damage of billions of dollars.
Other major earthquakes of the XX century took place in this region in 1987, 1971 and 1933. Howbeit, most earthquakes happening in the city area are felt only as light shakes (small oscillations are registered by seismometers virtually every day).
The huge city includes many districts that for the most part originally were separate towns and became parts of Los Angeles. There are also several satellite cities (as well as cities-enclaves surrounded on all sides by the territory of Los Angeles) the population of which belongs to that of Los Angeles.
The main districts of the city that are usually mentioned are: Downtown, East Los Angeles, South Los Angeles, South Bay/Harbor, Hollywood; Mid Wilshire (or Mid City), Westside (which includes West Los Angeles, and the towns of Santa Monica and West Hollywood); San Fernando Valley.
The city is located in subtropical etesian climate due to which fact the region is characterized with mild relatively wet winter and warm, even hot, and most often draughty summer. Breezes blowing from the Pacific Ocean make the climate of adjourning the coast districts of the city cooler in summer and warmer in winter in comparison with more continental districts.
Daily temperature may be way over 32 °C, while the mean maximum usually stays close to 29 °C; mean night minimum temperature is usually around 18 °C. In winter mean maximum temperature is 21 °C, mean night minimum – around 8 °C. The absolute temperature maximum in all years of observation was 48.33 °C (July 22, 2006), minimum – in the winter of 1989: -7.8 °C.