Los Angeles County at a Glance

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Population & Education

LA County Baby Names

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Divided by mountains, bordered by the Pacific, Los Angeles is a diverse and dynamic metropolis identified in two ways, by city and by county. www.mccormacks.com

The City of Los Angeles is inhabited by 4,094,764 residents and is the largest city in Los Angeles County.

Los Angeles County has a population of 10,441,080 and includes about 125 other cities and towns, some world famous: Beverly Hills, Burbank, Long Beach, Malibu, Pasadena, Santa Monica.

Often L.A. the City and L.A. the County are spoken of as one. "I'm going to L.A." could mean that I'm going to L.A. the City or the County (or one of the other cities in the county) and for most situations no harm is done. But if you are moving into L.A., it is important to distinguish between the two.

This guide covers all of Los Angeles County and pays special attention to its largest city. See maps.

Dimensions

In land, Los Angeles County covers about 4,061 square miles, about half the size of Israel or Massachusetts. It is not the largest county in California. That honor goes to its neighbor, San Bernardino, about five times its size. www.mccormacks.com

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Los Angeles the City covers about 465 square miles. It is the largest and most populous city in California and in comparison to its reputed rival, San Francisco, a giant. San Francisco covers only 48 square miles.

If you drove a freeway east to west across L.A. County at about its middle, the distance covered would be about 55-65 miles. In the dead of night, L.A. County can be traversed in less than an hour. At peak commute hours, the story is much different.

Although the most populous county in the nation, Los Angeles in many places is sparsely inhabited. The San Gabriel Mountains, with their cliffs and steep ravines, run across the center of the county. Mt. San Antonio, also known as Mt. Baldy, is the highest peak, 10,064 feet.

In Los Angeles County, it is possible to hike a desert, ski a mountain and surf an ocean wave, all in the same day.

You can also sail off to an island. Santa Catalina, 22 miles into the Pacific, is part of L.A. County. So too is a section of Edwards Air Force Base, where adventures into space often begin. www.mccormacks.com

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Towns and Cities

If you don't understand the distinction between them - an easy job - little else will make sense.

In California, cities are legal entities with precise boundaries and specific political powers. Cities are run by city councils. A city may be large or small, it may have many or few people. Los Angeles, population 4 million, is a city. So is Monterey Park, population 64,434.

In power and influence, Los Angeles far exceeds Monterey Park but within its borders Monterey Park decides what will be built, how lots will be zoned, how much police protection will be provided, and more.

Many cities have their own police departments but some cities contract with the sheriff's office to provide police protection.

Los Angeles County has 88 legal cities. Among them are Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Claremont, Pomona, Pasadena, Lancaster, Redondo Beach and Malibu. www.mccormacks.com

"Towns" of the City of L.A.

Want to start a fight? Just tell someone from Brentwood or Bel Air or Pacific Palisades or Northridge or Watts or Van Nuys that he or she is a Los Angeleno.

All these "towns" are part of the City of Los Angeles and legally all their residents are L.A. City residents. All are protected by the L.A. Police Department and governed by the L.A. City Council.

But all have strong local identities and go by their traditional names. The closest equivalent is probably the City of New York and its boroughs: Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens.

In its formative years, L.A. seized control of the water supply and told outlying communities that if they wanted water, they would have to annex to L.A. Many communities came in begrudgingly and retained their identities.

When their names come up on television or radio or in the newspaper, almost never are they identified as part of L.A. City. Instead, they are Reseda, Encino, San Pedro and so on. The same holds for private conversation. www.mccormacks.com

The Getty Museum was erected in Brentwood but it's very much a part of the City of Los Angeles.

Although they lack formal powers, town and neighborhood groups exercise a lot of indirect power because the politicians listen to them and use them to sound out voter opinions.

Nonetheless, many towns want to quit the City of Los Angeles and incorporate themselves as legal cities. In 2002, voters were asked to split Los Angeles into, effectively, two cities. After much hemming and hawing, they decided to keep Los Angeles intact.

Towns Unincorporated

Everything outside a city is considered unincorporated. Much of the unincorporated land is sparsely inhabited but where development takes place, often "town" names follow.

Unincorporated towns are governed by the County Board of Supervisors and patrolled by sheriff's deputies. www.mccormacks.com

Altadena, Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights and Baldwin Hills are unincorporated towns. About 12 percent of the county's residents live in unincorporated areas.

Regions

In everyday conversation and in the media, Los Angeles County is often divided into the San Fernando Valley (also known as The Valley), the Basin, the San Gabriel Valley, the South Bay (the shore cities south of LAX) and the High Desert (Lancaster and Palmdale).

Diversity and Politics

Los Angeles has experienced heavy immigration from Mexico and Latin America and has its ethnic communities where this or that minority greatly outnumbers all others. In recent years many people of Asian descent have settled in the San Gabriel Valley.

But rare is the community where one group, even Caucasians, forms 100 percent of the population. School districts, even in the rich towns, often enroll a diverse group of students. Integration efforts through the schools help mix the kids.

The 2000 census counted 2,959,614 Caucasians, 4,242,213 Hispanics, 1,137,500 Asians, 930,957 African-Americans, 76,988 American Indians and 27,053 Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. www.mccormacks.com

All this is not to say that L.A. is one big happy melting pot of ethnic groups. It has the same tensions, the same divisions found in urban America. In the past 40 years, racial tensions in South Central L.A. have sparked two riots that cost dozens of lives and did severe property damage.

Neither is it to say that everyone is at each other's throat. Many people get along and go along and try to resolve conflicts amicably.

In the last presidential election, Los Angeles County favored Barack Obama over John McCain, 2,295,853 to 956,425.

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Official County Website: http://portal.lacounty.gov/wps/portal/lac/home