Los Angeles The Southland Metropolis

The city of Los Angeles covers a land area of 1,214.2 sq km (468.8 sq mi) and is situated on a low, hilly coastal plain. Santa Monica Bay forms its western edge and San Pedro Bay is to the south. The city limits extend from the ocean on the west to the San Gabriel Mountains on the east and from San Fernando Valley on the north to San Pedro Bay on the south. However, the boundary is irregular. A narrow southward extension, called the Shoestring Strip, links the harbor to the rest of the city.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach metropolitan area covers Los Angeles County and is 10,515 sq km (4,060 sq mi) in land area. In addition to Los Angeles and Long Beach, a major industrial and residential city, the metropolitan area contains many other large cities, such as Glendale, Torrance, Pasadena, Santa Clarita, Inglewood, and El Monte, all with more than 100,000 residents. While a map of the county is a checkerboard of city jurisdictions, on the ground there is rarely a noticeable distinction between one town and another. A change in city names on large street signs at major intersections is often the only indication that one has crossed from one city into another. Instead, geography, economic function and class, and racial heritage are what most often divide the region into separate zones.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach metropolitan area is itself part of an even vaster collection of people. Called the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area, it includes the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura. While the region contains large cities such as Santa Ana, Anaheim, and Riverside, the conglomeration is often referred to by the shorthand Los Angeles.

The explosive growth of Los Angeles in the 20th century from just over 100,000 people in 1900 to almost 3.5 million in 1990 was mostly unplanned. Residential developments spread across the land, as have shopping malls and a variety of low-rise commercial buildings. Because of concerns about the safety of tall buildings in earthquakes, a local law once prohibited buildings taller than 46 m (150 ft)—about 12 stories—although City Hall, which was built in 1928, rises 138 m (454 ft). The law was repealed in 1957 after earthquake-proof construction was accepted as safe, and the city's once quiet downtown area began to grow upward.

The downtown or central business district of Los Angeles, located 22 km (14 mi) inland from Santa Monica Bay, is on the site of the first Spanish settlement. The downtown is small compared with the size of the metropolitan area. Little remains from the city's early days except the Old Plaza (now a park) and a few buildings dating from the early 19th century. Also downtown are Olvera Street, which has been restored as a Mexican street market; New Chinatown; Little Tokyo; and the modern Civic Center.

A short distance from downtown over Sepulveda Pass is West Los Angeles, centered on Westwood Village and the University of California at Los Angeles campus and containing a mix of Spanish Revival architecture, fancy boutiques, and designer novelty shops. Nearby is Beverly Hills, a separate city famous for its movie-star residents and the glamorous Rodeo Drive shopping district. In the South Bay area of Venice and Marina del Rey are located more modest suburban homes near the long sand beaches of the California coast. Farther east, against the Santa Monica Mountains, is West Hollywood and Sunset Strip, an area known for dance clubs, designer clothes shops, and tattoo parlors. The Fairfax district is the center of the Jewish community, with temples, kosher butcher shops, and delicatessens. Hollywood used to be the home of the entertainment industry and is still associated with it. Yet today, many of the movie studios have relocated to nearby areas. In the South Central and Watts areas residents are primarily Hispanic and black and are among the poorest in the city. In the north is the San Fernando Valley, a part of the city where about one-third of its people live, mostly in single-family homes. It is separated from Hollywood and downtown by the Santa Monica Mountains and by Griffith Park, the city's major outdoor recreation area.