Welcome to LOS ANGELES

Los Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over 498.3 square miles (1,290.6 km2) in Southern California. Additionally, the Los Angeles metropolitan area is home to nearly 12.9 million residents. Los Angeles is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most diverse counties in the United States. Its inhabitants are known as "Angelenos".

Los Angeles was founded September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of the river of Porziuncola). It became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its independence from Spain. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican-American War, Los Angeles and California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States; Mexico retained the territory of Baja California. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood.

Los Angeles is one of the world's centers of business, international trade, entertainment, culture, media, fashion, science, technology, and education. It is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. As the home base of Hollywood, it is known as the "Entertainment Capital of the World", leading the world in the creation of motion pictures, television production and recorded music. The importance of the entertainment business to the city has led many celebrities to call Los Angeles and its surrounding suburbs home.

Understand

Even before O.J. drove the Bronco or "The Terminator" became governor, Frank Lloyd Wright said, "Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles."

The Los Angeles metro area has been a "boomtown" since the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1876, first attracting "the folks" from the Midwest with a blessedly warm and dry climate- and becoming a gateway to a remarkable diversity of immigration from throughout the Pacific Rim and Latin America.

L.A. is a sprawling megalopolis; one could start in one end of L.A. and drive for more than two hours without leaving the county's influence. The metro area includes smaller cities, such as Santa Monica, Burbank, Pasadena and Long Beach, which were founded around the end of the nineteenth century and retain distinct identities. Geographically, there is no clear method as to what is part of the city of L.A. For example, Hollywood is not a separate city (it's part of the City of LA) but adjacent West Hollywood and Beverly Hills are independent cities. Nonetheless, they are all within Los Angeles County and culturally are very much a part of the city itself.

The city's primary newspapers are the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Daily News. The free LA Weekly comes out on Thursdays and is a good source for concerts, movies and other local information. Local areas may have their own free neighborhood papers as well. LosAngelesNomad.com is a good resource for travelers trying to find hidden gems, as are local review sites such as TryOurLA.com and EyeSpyLA.com.

People

Los Angeles is a very diverse city with nearly half of its population being born outside the United States. It has the third largest Mexican population in the world behind Mexico City and Guadalajara, and is home to many other large immigrant populations such as Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Iranians, Armenians, Thais, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Indians, Koreans, Cambodians, Vietnamese, Israelis, and Samoans. Spread throughout the city are many ethnic enclaves such as Koreatown, Chinatown, Filipinotown, Little Tokyo, Little Armenia, Thai Town, Little Persia, and Little India. For the most part it's also a fairly gay-friendly city, especially the Westside, Hollywood, and West Hollywood where even the police cars bear rainbows.

Climate

The city enjoys a temperate climate for most of the year. Summers are warm and occasionally hot, and bring the famously dirty air (though the smog has reduced in recent years, and much of what you hear about was overhyped to begin with). Fall and Winter bring some of the clearest weather and often some of the most beautiful days of the year... it's not uncommon to spend the day at the beach mid-January and wind up with a healthy tan. Spring brings a mix of sunny warm days and gloomy rain.

Temperatures can also fluctuate wildy depending where you are in the city — it's entirely possible for it to be 80 degrees in Santa Monica and 105 degrees in Burbank on the same day in mid-July. The coast tends to stay a bit cooler, and gets quite chilly at night even in the summer, don't forget a sweater and pants if you're staying for dinner.

Talk

English is the dominant language in Los Angeles. However, like much of California with a large Latino population and a history under Spanish and Mexican rule, Spanish is very widely spoken in Los Angeles. The city's name is even a Spanish phrase, meaning "The Angels". In fact, Los Angeles has one of the largest Spanish speaking populations in the world, with street and store signs in certain parts of the city printed in both English and Spanish. According to the U.S. Census, roughly 70% of Los Angeles' population speaks English either as their first or second language, while roughly 44% of Los Angeles speaks Spanish as a first or second language. With Los Angeles' large immigrant population, many other languages such as Tagalog, Chinese, Japanese, Persian, Russian, Korean, Hindi, and Vietnamese are also widely spoken. Street signs in ethnic enclaves will often be printed in one of these languages. For example, street signs in Chinatown will be printed in English and Chinese.

Los Angeles Zoo

The Los Angeles Zoo, founded in 1966, is a large zoo located in Los Angeles, California, USA. The City of Los Angeles owns the entire zoo, its land and facilities, and the animals. Animal care, grounds maintenance, construction, education, public information, and administrative staff are city employees.

The zoo is open from 10am - 5pm every day of the year except December 25.

The zoo, located in Los Angeles' Griffith Park, is home to 1,100 animals from around the world.

It has been successful in its breeding program of the rare California Condor, helping to grow the number of condors in the world from a low of 22 in the 1980s to over 330 today.

In 1998, the zoo opened Chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains, followed by Red Ape RainForest in 2000, The Komodo Dragon Exhibit, The Winnick Family Children Zoo in 2001, The Entry Plaza, Children's Discovery Centre and Sea Lion Cliffs (Now Sea Life Cliffs) in 2005, And Campo Gorilla Reserve in November 2007.

The Zoo also has many upcoming exhibits including Pachyderm Forest in Summer 2010, the Reptile and Insect Interpretive Center in 2011 and the Rainforest of the Americas in 2011/2012.

Talked about exhibits have included an African Savanna, a new lion habitat and a revamp to the australia area.

Sports

Los Angeles is the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League, the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association, the Los Angeles D-Fenders an NBA Development team owned by the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, and the Los Angeles Riptide. Los Angeles is also home to the USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins in the NCAA, both of which are Division I teams in the Pacific-10 Conference. The Los Angeles Galaxy and Club Deportivo Chivas USA of Major League Soccer are based in Carson. The city is the largest in the U.S. without an NFL team. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Major League Baseball and the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League are also based in the suburb of Anaheim in near by Orange County.

There was a time when Los Angeles boasted two NFL teams, the Rams and the Raiders. Both left the city in 1995, with the Rams moving to St. Louis and the Raiders heading back to Oakland. Los Angeles is the second-largest city and television market in the United States, but has no NFL team (see List of television stations in North America by media market). Prior to 1995, the Rams called Memorial Coliseum (1946-1979) and Anaheim Stadium (1980-1994) home; and the Raiders played their home games at Memorial Coliseum from 1982 to 1994.

Since the franchise's departures the NFL as an organization, and individual NFL owners, have attempted to relocate a team to the city. Immediately following the 1995 NFL season, Seattle Seahawks owner Ken Behring went as far as packing up moving vans to start play in the Rose Bowl under a new team name and logo for the 1996 season. The State of Washington filed a law suit to successfully prevent the move. In 2003, then NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue indicated L.A. would get a new expansion team, a thirty-third franchise, after the choice of Houston over L.A. in the 2002 league expansion round. When the New Orleans Saints were displaced from the Superdome by Hurricane Katrina media outlets reported the NFL was planning to move the team to Los Angeles permanently. Despite these efforts, and the failure to build a new stadium for an NFL team, L.A. is still expected to return to the league through expansion or relocation.

Los Angeles has twice played host to the summer Olympic Games, in 1932 and in 1984. When the tenth Olympic Games were hosted in 1932, the former 10th Street was renamed Olympic Blvd. Super Bowls I and VII were also held in the city as well as soccer's international World Cup in 1994.

Los Angeles also boasts a number of sports venues, including Staples Center, a sports and entertainment complex that also hosts concerts and awards shows such as the Grammys. Staples Center also serves as the home arena for the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA, the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL and the Avengers of the AFL.