California

The U.S. See the Economy section of the Los Angeles County article for a list of such companies in Los Angeles County. Population. There are many other well-known companies with headquarters located in the County of Los Angeles or the greater Los Angeles area, but they are far beyond the City of Los Angeles (and the scope of this article). See also: California unemployment statistics. The companies below clearly benefit from their proximity to Los Angeles, while at the same time they also avoid the city's taxes (and other problems). Recent (Spring 2005) economic data (http://uclaforecast.com) indicates that economic growth has resumed in California, although still slightly below the national annualized forecast of 3.9%. For example, Los Angeles charges a gross receipts tax based on a percentage of business revenue, while most neighboring cities charge only small flat fees.

The high-technology sectors in Northern California, specifically Silicon Valley, in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, are currently emerging from economic depression caused by the dot.com bust, which caused the loss of over 250,000 jobs in Northern California alone. Few major companies are headquartered within the boundaries of the City of Los Angeles for a variety of reasons, such as the city's high taxes. While some coastal cities include some of the wealthiest per-capita areas in the U.S., notably San Francisco and Marin County, the non-agricultural central counties have some of the highest poverty rates in the U.S. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are vital to North American trade with the Pacific Rim countries. Most farm managers are highly educated, most with at least master's degrees. The most important industries in Los Angeles are entertainment, adult entertainment, and media production, aerospace, telecommunications, law, tourism, health and medicine, manufacturing and transportation. The Central Valley has the most extreme contrasts of income, with migrant farm workers making less than minimum wage, contrasted with farmers who frequently manage multimillion-dollar farms. Main article: Economy of Los Angeles.

Per capita income varies widely by geographic region and profession. County, Whittier, Long Beach area
Area code 626 - Pasadena, San Gabriel Valley
Area code 661 - Antelope Valley including Palmdale, Lancaster; Santa Clarita
Area code 818 - The San Fernando Valley, Glendale
Area code 909 - Pomona, parts of the east County. Per capita personal income is $33,415 as of 2003, ranking 12^th in the nation. Area code 213 - Downtown L.A.
Area code 323 - Doughnut-shaped area surrounding downtown, including greater Hollywood, the Fairfax neighborhood, East L.A., northern South-Central L.A.
Area code 310 - West L.A. and the South Bay
Area code 562 - South-West L.A. This is followed by aerospace; entertainment, primarily television by dollar volume, although many movies are still made in California; and light manufacturing including computer hardware and software, and the mining of borax.
Related topics:. The predominant industry, more than twice as large as the next largest, is agriculture, (including fruit, vegetables, dairy, and wine). (The "neighborhood councils" of Los Angeles began in 1999 and often follow different borders).

If California was considered as an independent self-sufficient economy, it would be ranked the 6th, ahead of France. Signs have been placed on major thoroughfares designating some of the communities, a practice going back decades. state, and every country in the world (by Purchasing Power Parity) save for the other combined 49 United States, China, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom. These divisions have no legal status but are of significance to residents for cultural and financial reasons. The state's GDP, which at $1.4 trillion USD (as of 2003), is greater than that of every other U.S. Most of the neighborhood names come either from farm towns that were annexed by the growing city, physical terrain features, major streets, or subdivision names coined by enterprising developers. California is responsible for 14% of the United States' gross domestic product (GDP). The city is divided into many neighborhoods.

Many California endemics have become endangered, as urbanization, logging, overgrazing, and the introduction of exotic species have encroached on their habitat. There are also unincorporated enclaves which are under Los Angeles County jurisdiction. California's great abundance of species of California lilac (Ceanothus) is an example of adaptive radiation. territory. Many other endemics originated through differentiation or adaptive radiation, whereby multiple species develop from a common ancestor to take advantage of diverse ecological conditions. San Fernando in the northern corner of the San Fernando Valley is also a separate city entirely surrounded by L.A. California endemics include relict species that have died out elsewhere, including the redwoods and the Catalina Ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus). Both Santa Monica and Marina del Rey are surrounded except on their ocean side.

California has a rather high percentage of endemic species. except where it shares a boundary with the unincorporated communities of Ladera Heights and Baldwin Hills. The state of California is part of the Nearctic ecozone, and spans a number of terrestrial ecoregions, and is perhaps the most ecologically diverse state in the United States. Culver City is surrounded by L.A. California's diverse geography, geology, soils and climate have generated a tremendous diversity of plant and animal life. For example, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood are completely surrounded by the City of Los Angeles except for a small border the two cities share. Ecologically, California is one of the richest and most diverse parts of the world, and includes some of the most endangered ecological communities. The city boundaries are quite complicated.

Main article: Ecology of California. The San Pedro/Harbor City area was annexed to the city of Los Angeles so the city could have access and control over the Port of Los Angeles and is only connected by a narrow Corridor with the rest of L.A, which follows the Harbor Freeway for the most part. Many Angelenos consider the Eastside to be the area east of the Los Angeles River, above Orange County. The low deserts east of the southern California mountains, including the Imperial and Coachella valleys and the lower Colorado River, are part of the Sonoran Desert, with hot summers and mild winters; the higher elevation deserts of eastern California, including the Mojave Desert, Owens Valley, and the Modoc Plateau, are part of the Great Basin region, with hot summers and cold winters. Adjoining areas that are outside the actual city boundaries of the incorporated city of Los Angeles include the South Bay, the San Gabriel Valley and the Foothills. California's desert climate regions lie east of the high Sierra Nevada and southern California's Transverse Ranges and Peninsular Ranges. (formerly known as South Central L.A.); and the San Pedro/Harbor City area. On the east side of the mountains is a drier "rain shadow". Some other areas of Los Angeles include the Westside; South L.A.

The high mountains, including the Sierra Nevada, have a mountain climate with snow in winter and moderate heat in summer. Or, consider the San Fernando Valley: Lying north-northwest of Downtown L.A., "The Valley" is a 15 mile (24 km) wide basin ringed by mountains. The Central Valley has a Mediterranean climate, but with greater temperature extremes than the coastal areas; parts of the valley are often filled with thick fog, similar to that found in the coastal valleys. For example, Downtown Los Angeles is the area of Los Angeles roughly enclosed by three freeways and one river: the Harbor Freeway to the west, the Hollywood Freeway to the north, the Los Angeles River to the east, and the Santa Monica Freeway to the south. Northwestern California has a temperate climate with rainfall of 15-40 inches (38-102 cm) per year. Some areas are bounded by natural features such as mountains or the ocean; others are marked by city boundaries, freeways, or other constructed landmarks. Westerly winds from the ocean also bring moisture, and the northern parts of the state generally receive higher rainfall than the south. California's mountain ranges influence the climate as well; moisture-laden air from the west cools as it ascends the mountains, dropping moisture; some of the rainiest parts of the state are west-facing mountain slopes. See also Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California..

As one moves away from the coast, the climate becomes more continental, with hotter summers and colder winters. The Los Angeles Downtown News keeps a list of ongoing development projects, updated every quarter, here (http://www.downtownnews.com/development/). The influence of the ocean generally moderates temperature extremes, creating cooler summers and warmer winters, and the cold oceanic California Current offshore often creates summer fog near the coast. For example, Downtown Los Angeles is gaining more skyscrapers (some of which are residential towers), the office vacancy rate is decreasing, and the value of housing units and homes continues to rise. Most of the state has a Mediterranean climate, with rainy winters and dry summers. sprawl has reached its geographic limits around 2000 (future expansion of the sprawl will involve leapfrogging across whole mountain ranges), so these numbers are beginning to change as real estate investment becomes focused towards the central areas of the city. Different regions of California have very different climates, depending on their latitude, elevation, and proximity to the coast. However, the L.A.

Other volcanoes include Lassen Peak, which erupted from 1914 and 1921, and Mount Shasta. In contrast to this, the extent of the region's suburban sprawl has been so thoroughly cultivated so as to result in a greater metropolitan area with a relatively high density of 7,070 people per square mile (2,730/km²) according to the 2000 census. California is also home to several volcanoes, some active such as Mammoth Mountain. This decentralization has resulted in the city of Los Angeles having a very low population density compared to other large American cities (less than one-third the density of New York City, and nearly half the density of Chicago). Notable movies in which the possible destruction of much of California by an earthquake includes the titles Earthquake, A View to a Kill, Escape from L.A. and Superman. Los Angeles became a real city as automobiles began to be mass-produced, and as a result it developed somewhat less densely. The fact that this scenario is completely implausible from a geologic standpoint does not lessen its acceptance in public conventional wisdom, or its exploitation by the producers of science fiction and fantasy media. At the same time, the area's reputation for sprawl is more historic than real in today's terms.

Popular legend has it that, eventually, a huge earthquake will result in the splitting of coastal California from the continent, either to sink into the ocean or form a new landmass. It is not always meaningful to refer to Los Angeles as a distinct city, but people outside of Southern California commonly refer to the entire region as "L.A.," even though there are five counties, more than 100 distinct municipalities, hundreds of neighborhoods and districts, and more people than any individual state except for Texas, New York, Florida, and, of course, California. While more powerful earthquakes in the United States have occurred in Alaska and along the Mississippi River, California earthquakes are notable in their frequency and location in highly populated areas. Greater Los Angeles (also referred to locally as "Southern California" or "The Southland") is such a sprawling area that residents refer to broad general sub-regions. California is famous for its earthquakes due partly to the presence of the San Andreas Fault. A major stretch of Wilshire Boulevard has high-rises outside of Century City, such as in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California and Mid-Wilshire. To the northeast of the Mojave lies Death Valley, which contains the lowest, hottest point in North America. The area around LAX as well as the stretch of Century Boulevard to the direct east of LAX also makes a small, mid-rise skyline.

The south-central desert is called the Mojave. Warner Center in the San Fernando Valley has a small skyline of commercial towers, with the tallest being around 25 stories. Encino, also in the San Fernando Valley, has many towers along Ventura Boulevard and nearby streets that have high-rises with story amounts in the 20's. In the south lie the Transverse Ranges and a large salt lake, the Salton Sea. Downtown has the tallest skyline, however, which mixes a few extremely tall high-rises with many lower high-rises (most around 12 stories) from the times when there was a low height limit. To the west is Clear Lake, California's largest freshwater lake by area. Century City and the parts of Wilshire Boulevard through Westwood together form a rather busy skyline that is often confused with the downtown skyline. To the east of the Sierra are Owens Valley and Mono Lake, an essential seabird habitat. The skyline of Los Angeles consists of several different clusters of high-rise buildings; most of these clusters are not directly connected to each other.

Also located in the Sierra are the world famous Yosemite National Park and a deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe, the largest lake in the state by volume. The recent "rise" of South Park, the low-rise district of downtown south of Bunker Hill (roughly south of 8th Street and north of the Santa Monica Freeway), is bringing skyscrapers that are high enough in quantity and height to create an extended downtown skyline within a few years from 2005. In the center and east of the state are the Sierra Nevada, containing the highest peak in the continental U.S., Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet (4421 m). This is a brief list, however, there are many more. With dredging, several of these rivers have become sufficiently large and deep that several inland cities, notably Stockton, California, are seaports. Some recent, new examples of skyscraper construction include:. Mountain-fed rivers, dams, and canals provide water to irrigate the Central Valley. Hence, what the office tower rush in the 1970s and 1980s added to the skyline is now occuring again in the form of residential.

Down the center of the state lies the Central Valley, a huge, fertile valley bounded by the coastal mountain ranges in the west, the granite Sierra Nevada to the east, the volcanic Cascade Range in the north and the Tehachapi Mountains in the south. Many of the new skyscrapers are housing, especially in Downtown. California has extremely varied geography. The skyline has seen rapid growth due to improvements in building standards, which has made some buildings highly earthquake-resistant. However, the capital, Sacramento is in the Central Valley. Despite its relative decentralization, Los Angeles has one of the largest skylines in the United States. Most major cities cling to the cool, pleasant seacoast along the Pacific, notably San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Santa Ana/Orange County, and San Diego. See also: Los Angeles Basin, San Fernando Valley.

With an area of 410,000 km² it is the third largest state in the U.S. The major waterway of Los Angeles is the Los Angeles River. The state has striking natural features, including an expansive central valley, high mountains, and hot dry deserts. Lukens. California borders the Pacific Ocean, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and the Mexican state of Baja California. The highest point in Los Angeles is Sister Elsie Peak, 5,080 feet at the far reaches of the northeastern San Fernando Valley, part of Mt. Main article: Geography of California. The total area is 5.86% water.

See also: List of California Governors, US Congressional Delegations from California, List of California counties, List of California ballot propositions. 1,214.9 km² (469.1 mi²) of it is land and 75.7 km² (29.2 mi²) of it is water. Bush received a majority of votes in more than half the counties, but still lost California by 9%. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1,290.6 km² (498.3 mi²). In 2004, George W. The extreme north-south distance is 44 miles (71 km), the extreme east-west distance is 29 miles (47 km), and the length of the city boundary is 342 miles (550 km). While California is among the most Democratic and liberal states in the nation, there are areas of California which are politically very conservative, notably Orange and San Diego counties. has a total area of 472.08 square miles (1,223 km²).

House of Representatives. L.A. 33 Democrats and 20 Republicans represent the state in the U.S. The city is situated in a semitropical Mediterranean climate zone. Senators from California are Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. Main article: Geography of Los Angeles. The two U.S. Notable sister cities include Athens, Jakarta, Berlin, Mumbai, Vancouver, Mexico City, Makati and St. Petersburg.

California has the most Congressmen and Presidential Electors of any state. Los Angeles has 20 Sister Cities, more than any other municipality in California. Electoral College. There are crime video games that take place in Los Angeles such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (which has a city named Los Santos which is based on Los Angeles) and True Crime: Streets of LA (which takes place in Los Angeles and is a close replica of the area). It has 55 electoral votes in the U.S. One interesting example is a report on ten freeway shootings within two months [3] (http://www.nbc4.tv/news/4449599/detail.html). At the national level, California is represented by two senators and 53 representatives. Numerous instances of all these crimes are documented on the LAPD press release Web site [2] (http://www.lapdonline.org/press_releases/press_releases.htm).

California's legal system is explicitly based on English common law but carries a few features from Spanish civil law. Other common crimes include: car-to-car shootings (see road rage), drive-by shootings, thrill killings, hit-and-run accidents, and carjackings. California judges are always appointed by the Governor but must be regularly reconfirmed by the electorate. The city's complex freeway system makes it easier to go on for miles, while still remaining in the same general area. California's giant judiciary is supervised by the seven Justices of the Supreme Court of California. In Los Angeles, car chases happen more often than in most major cities (sometimes a few times in one week). The capital moved to Sacramento for good on February 25, 1854, except for a four-month temporary move in 1862 to San Francisco due to severe flooding in Sacramento. Every day, the middle pages of Los Angeles newspapers are packed with reports of violent crimes which would be front page news in almost any other city in the United States.

The capital moved to Sacramento temporarily in 1852 when construction on a State House could not be completed in time in Vallejo. According to a May 2001 Drug Threat Assessment by the National Drug Intelligence Center[1] (http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs0/668/overview.htm), Los Angeles County is home to 152,000 gang members organized into 1,350 gangs. In California's early history, the capital was located in Monterey (1775-1849), San Jose (1849-1851), Vallejo (1852-1853), Benicia (1853-1854), and San Francisco (1862). As a result, people around the world know that the number 187 stands for murder in California. The state's capital is Sacramento. Many movies and songs about Los Angeles depict the fact that the city is home to a large number of gangsters and professional criminals. Schwarzenegger replaced Governor Gray Davis (1999-2003) who was removed from office by the October 2003 California recall election. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

Frazier). Of course, the court of last resort for both federal and state cases is the U.S. Schwarzenegger was only the second person in the history of the United States to be put into office by a recall of a sitting Governor (the first was the 1921 recall of North Dakota Governor Lynn J. Federal cases are appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which hears them at its branch building in Pasadena. The current Governor is the Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose current term lasts through January 2007. State cases are appealed to the Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District, which is also headquartered in the Civic Center, and then to the California Supreme Court, which is headquartered in San Francisco but also hears argument in Los Angeles (again, in the Civic Center). In the Senate, there are 25 Democrats and 15 Republicans. In 2003, the tabloid television show Extra (based in nearby Glendale) found itself running so many reports on the legal problems of local celebrities that it spun them off into a separate show, Celebrity Justice.

For the 2005-2006 session, there are 48 Democrats and 32 Republicans in the Assembly. Simpson are frequently seen in Los Angeles courts. The Senators from the even-numbered districts are elected in the intervening even-numbered years, in the gubernatorial election cycle. Thanks to Hollywood, celebrities like O.J. The Senators representing the odd-numbered districts are elected in years evenly divisible by four, i.e., presidential election years. As a result, both the county superior court and the federal district court are respectively the busiest courts of their type in the nation. The terms of the Senators are staggered so that half the membership is elected every two years. Unlike the largest city in the United States, New York, all of the city of Los Angeles and most of its important suburbs are located within a single county.

Senators serve four year terms and Assembly members two. Both are headquartered in a large cluster of government buildings in the city's Civic Center. The California State Legislature consists of a 40 member Senate and 80 member Assembly. District Court for the Central District of California hears all federal cases. The Governor of California and the other state constitutional officers serve four-year terms and may be reelected only once. The Los Angeles County Superior Court has jurisdiction over all cases arising under state law, while the U.S. The State also allows direct participation of the electorate by referendum, recall, and ratification. See also: List of mayors of Los Angeles, California.

California is governed as a republic, with three branches of government, the executive branch consisting of the Governor of California and the other elected constitutional officers, the legislative branch consisting of the Assembly and Senate, and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts. The first notable achievement of the neighborhood councils was their organized opposition in March 2004 to an 18% increase in water rates by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (a municipal monopoly), which led the city council to suspend the rate hike pending further study. Main article: California government and politics. These and other regulatory requirements have proven frustrating for activists unaccustomed to bureaucratic procedures. The state is liberal-leaning, technologically and culturally savvy, and a world center of engineering businesses, the film and television industry and, as mentioned above, American agricultural production. Though the councils have little actual power, they are still official government bodies and so must abide by California's Brown Act that strictly governs the meetings of deliberative assemblies. From 1965 to the present, this population completely changed and became one of the most diverse in the world. More than 90 neighborhood councils have been formed and all stakeholders in a district may vote for council members.

In the period from 1900 to 1965 the population grew from fewer than one million to become the most populous state in the Union, sending the most electors to the Electoral College to elect the President. The councils cover districts which are not necessarily identical to the traditional neighborhoods of Los Angeles, the borders of which often reflect those of cities that were annexed to Los Angeles (see Communities, neighborhoods and districts below). Citrus, oranges in particular, were widely grown, and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production of today. These advisory councils were first proposed by city council member Joel Wachs in 1996 and were incorporated in the Charter Reform of 1999. Out West, residents were discovering that California was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. To make the government more responsive and to help encourage the cohesiveness of neighborhood communities, the city council has promoted the formation of neighborhood councils. The connection of the far Pacific West to the eastern population centers came in 1869 with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. The main problem seems to be that the city administration in Downtown gives more priority to high-density neighborhoods like Mid-City and Downtown at the expense of its far-flung suburban neighborhoods.

During the American Civil War, popular support was divided 70% for the South and 30% for the North, and although California officially entered on the side of the North, many troops went east to fight with the Confederacy. The city government has been perceived as inefficient and ineffective by residents of some areas, which ultimately led to an unsuccessful secession movement by the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood in 2002. In 1850, the state was admitted to the Union. The district attorney, elected by the county voters, prosecutes misdemeanors in unincorporated areas and in 78 of the 88 cities in the county, as well as felonies everywhere in the county. But after gold was discovered, the population burgeoned with Americans and a few Europeans in the great California gold rush. The city attorney prosecutes misdemeanors within the city limits. In 1848, the Spanish-speaking population of distant upper California numbered around 4,000. Other elected city officials include the city attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, and the city controller, Laura Chick.

portion, Alta (upper) California, was to become the state of California. There are 15 city council districts. The western part of the U.S. The current mayor is James Hahn and the mayor-elect is Antonio Villaraigosa. The Mexican portion, Baja (lower) California was later divided into the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. The city has a mayor-council system. Following the Mexican-American War, the region was divided between Mexico and the United States. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department polices all unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County and some cities which have contracted for law enforcement services because they lack police departments of their own, including Calabasas, West Hollywood, and Compton.

Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into San Francisco Bay and claimed California for the United States. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) polices the city of Los Angeles. The Republic came to a sudden end when Commodore John D. Main article: Law and government of Los Angeles. In 1846, at the outset of the Mexican-American War, a California Republic was founded and the Bear Flag was flown that featured a golden bear and a star. area, such as Caltech, see Los Angeles County, California#Colleges and universities. Upon Mexican independence from Spain, the chain of missions became the property of the Mexican government, and they were quickly dissolved and abandoned. Note: For more colleges and universities in the L.A.

Beginning in the late 1700s, Spanish missionaries set up tiny settlements on enormous grants of land in the vast territory north of Baja California. ++Los Angeles Community College District. The first to explore the entire coast and claim possession of it was Francis Drake in 1579. Since then, the LAUSD has embarked on an aggressive school construction program to relieve overcrowding, and has developed high-quality magnet schools to nurture talented students and encourage them to remain within the public school system. The first European to explore parts of the coast was the Portuguese Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542. Wealthy and upper-middle-class parents placed their children in elite private schools like Harvard-Westlake, Crossroads School, The Buckley School, Milken Community High School, Notre Dame High School, Brentwood School (Los Angeles), and Marlborough School, while middle-class families fled into suburban school districts beyond LAUSD boundaries. Main article: History of California. After Proposition 13 in 1978, urban school districts had considerable trouble with funding and LAUSD became known for its underfunded, overcrowded and poorly maintained campuses.

(For further discussion, see: Origin of the name California.). The primary school district that serves Los Angeles is the Los Angeles Unified School District. The name comes from Las sergas de Espladián (Adventures of Spladian), a 16th century novel, by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, where there is an island paradise called California. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi founded the Transcendental Meditation movement in Los Angeles in the late 1950s. In these early times, the boundaries of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific coast were only partially explored and California was shown on early maps as an island. Los Angeles has been a destination for Swamis and Gurus as early as 1900, including Paramahansa Yogananda (1920). The entire region originally known as California was composed of the Mexican peninsula now known as Baja California and the land in the current states of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona and Wyoming, known as Alta California. Gene Scott was based near downtown.

The vast majority of the population lives within 50 miles (80 km) of the Pacific Ocean. California dominates American culture and economy, contributing significant advances in technology and legal reform, in addition to paying significantly more to the federal system than it receives in benefits. Until his death in 2005, Dr. Southern California is highly populated, while the larger northern California is less densely populated. Billy Graham became a celebrity during a successful revival campaign in Los Angeles. postal abbreviation is CA, and its Associated Press abbreviation is Calif.. In the 1920s, Aimee Semple McPherson established a thriving evangelic ministry, with her Angelus Temple in Echo Park open to both black and white congregants. California's U.S. The city has also been home to some very colorful religious leaders and icons.

The state's official nickname of "The Golden State" is often thought to be a reference to California’s 1849 gold rush but is in fact reference to the native grasses that turn a golden color during the dry season. One wing of the Theosophist movement is centered in Los Angeles, and another is set in neighboring Pasadena. California is both physically and demographically diverse. Los Angeles is the home to a number of Neopagans, as well as adherents of various other mystical religions. It is the most populous and third largest state in the U.S., has a population roughly the size of Canada and it is the sixth largest economy in the world. The Self-Realization Fellowship is also based in Hollywood and has a private park in Pacific Palisades. California is a state located in the western United States, bordering the Pacific Ocean. Today, the Church of Scientology has a major presence in Hollywood.

Walnut Creek (San Francisco Bay Area). Immigrants from Asia, for example, have formed a number of significant Buddhist congregations. Ventura (Greater Los Angeles). Los Angeles's large multi-ethnic population has fostered some of the less common religions of North America. Torrance (Greater Los Angeles). The Azusa Street Revival (1906–1909) in Los Angeles was a key milestone in the history of the Pentecostal movement. Thousand Oaks (Greater Los Angeles). Los Angeles has the second-largest Jewish community in the United States, rivaled only by New York City.

Temecula (equidistant between Inland Empire and San Diego Area). A major temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is situated in West Los Angeles. Sunnyvale (Silicon Valley). Roger Cardinal Mahony oversaw construction of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, completed in 2002 at the north end of downtown. Simi Valley (Greater Los Angeles). The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles leads the largest archdiocese in the country. Santa Clarita (Greater Los Angeles). Los Angeles is home to adherents of many religions.

Santa Clara (Silicon Valley). See: List of Los Angeles television stations. Santa Ana (Orange County). Examples include the Daily Breeze (serving the South Bay), and the Long Beach Press-Telegram. Pasadena (Greater Los Angeles). Many cities adjacent to Los Angeles also have their own daily newspapers whose coverage and availability overlaps into certain Los Angeles neighborhoods. Palo Alto (Silicon Valley). It strongly supports lowering taxes.

Burbank (Greater Los Angeles). Wisteria has been known to grow to house-lot-size, and in Descanso Gardens, there are forests of camellia trees. Berkeley (San Francisco Bay Area). If there were no city here, flower-growing could still flourish as an industry, as it does in Lompoc. Anaheim (Orange County). There are many exotic flowers and flowering trees that are blooming year-round, with subtle colors, including the jacaranda, hibiscus, phlox, bougainvillea, coral tree blossoms and bird of paradise. Important suburbs (within or near the above urbanized areas)