Los Angeles
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Where is Los Angeles located?
Los Angeles is in southern California, within Los Angeles County, which has varied geography including inland valleys, a coastal plain, low mountains, higher mountains, and a long seacoast. The city itself is huge and sprawling, occupying a sizable portion of the southern part of the county, with varied topography that rises from sea level to over 5,100 feet (1,550 meters). The city has grown from a small village through annexations of neighboring communities.
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Why is Los Angeles a famous city?
Los Angeles' fame stems from its rapid ascent to a world-class city despite lacking a natural harbor. It is known for its agreeable climate, leisure, outdoor recreation, and the aura of celebrity from Hollywood, which produces about half of all films shot in the United States. The annual Academy Awards broadcast attracts a massive global TV audience, and the entertainment industry significantly boosts the Los Angeles economy.
The city's cultural institutions, such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and numerous museums, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, contribute to its renown. Hosting the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and being home to professional sports teams like the Dodgers and Lakers add to Los Angeles's fame.
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What are some major industries in Los Angeles?
Los Angeles has a huge and diverse regional economy. Besides craft and fashion industries such as jewelry, clothing, toys and music, major industries include financial and business services and high-technology manufacturing.
The entertainment industry, with filmmaking at its core, is a major economic driver, generating billions of dollars annually and employing hundreds of thousands of people. The recording industry also has a large presence.
The service sector also constitutes a primary component of the Los Angeles economy. Trade and tourism are also important. In the early 21st century, the combined ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach accounted for nearly two-thirds of the West Coast’s foreign import cargo.
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How does Los Angeles influence entertainment and culture?
Los Angeles significantly shapes entertainment and culture through its diverse industries and artistic contributions. As Kevin Starr noted, Hollywood creates dreams and fantasies with tremendous cultural impact, and its "dream factories" are global, influencing people worldwide. The city's media business, with filmmaking at its core, injects billions into the Los Angeles economy annually and employs hundreds of thousands.
Los Angeles is home to major recording labels and is deeply involved in many aspects of entertainment, including theme parks. The city's cultural institutions are supported by wealthy art collectors, and its music scene is globally recognized. This combination of media, entertainment, and artistic expression establishes Los Angeles as a major cultural hub, both nationally and internationally.
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What are some challenges Los Angeles faces, like traffic or pollution?
Los Angeles faces a range of challenges common to large urban areas. The city has struggled to create a balanced mass transit system and is notably automobile-dependent, leading to traffic jams and smog-generating pollution.
Like other major cities, Los Angeles deals with increasing poverty, inadequate low-income housing, and ethnic and racial hostility. However, Los Angeles has a track record of confronting serious problems with inventive solutions. Strict control of auto exhaust emissions and industrial pollutants has noticeably improved air quality in the early 21st century.
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Los Angeles , city, seat of Los Angeles county, southern California, U.S. It is the second most populous city and metropolitan area (after New York City) in the United States. The city sprawls across a broad coastal plain situated between mountains and the Pacific Ocean; the much larger Los Angeles county, which encompasses the city, contains some 90 other incorporated cities, including Beverly Hills, Pasadena, and Long Beach. The county also encompasses two of the Channel Islands, Santa Catalina and San Clemente; Mount San Antonio, familiarly known as Mount Baldy or Old Baldy, 10,046 feet (3,062 metres) high; more than 900 square miles (2,330 square km) of desert; and 75 miles (120 km) of seacoast.
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). Pop. (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.
Character of the city
Los Angeles, the heart of southern California, became a world-class city very recently. At the start of the 20th century it was considered merely “a large village.” This ascendancy is all the more remarkable considering that the city originally lacked some of the essential building blocks associated with cityhood, such as a natural harbour. Yet it overcame natural deficiencies and established itself as an important centre of commerce, agriculture, tourism, and industry. For more than a century it has been indelibly associated with a benign climate, extensive leisure, and outdoor recreation, as well as the special aura of celebrity associated with Hollywood. The lifestyle of Los Angeles residents (who are called Angelenos) relies on the automobile, idealizes the single-family dwelling, and favours informality. With notable exceptions, the skyline is primarily horizontal rather than vertical. Los Angeles is a place of extraordinary ethnic and racial diversity, owing largely to immigration, and, like other world cities, it reflects a growing gap between rich and poor.
Los Angeles has endured the barbs of many detractors. Critics refer to it either as a laid-back “la-la land” or, conversely, as a place reeling from earthquakes, fire, smog, gang warfare, and riots. The city’s defenders admire its mild climate and geographic variety. They claim that its major social problems are similar to those of all big cities and are perhaps even less severe there than elsewhere. In fact, some observers regard it as the most modern and quintessential American city.