Expansion continued throughout the 1960s. Hundreds of new buildings were constructed, and new urban areas around the city continued to grow. There was immense growth in suburban Los Angeles in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1965 the state legislature recognized the growth of Los Angeles County by substantially increasing its representation in both houses.

After a local law limiting building heights was repealed in 1957, the downtown area of the city began to grow upward. In the 1960s the city's administrative center was redesigned, and a massive urban renewal program was undertaken in the Boyle Heights and Bunker Hill areas. Today Los Angeles has a dramatic skyline. Decentralized growth has continued, too. By 1992 Century City, a planned community built away from downtown in West Los Angeles, had 27 buildings exceeding the pre-1957 height limit.

Los Angeles suffered several disasters in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1965 ghetto conditions sparked a six-day riot in which parts of Watts were destroyed, costing 34 lives and $40 million in property damage. In 1971 the worst earthquake to strike southern California in 40 years hit 64 km (40 mi) north of Los Angeles and was especially severe in the San Fernando Valley. It caused the deaths of about 60 people and property damage estimated at nearly $1 billion.

In 1973 Thomas Bradley was elected as the first black mayor of Los Angeles. Bradley was reelected four times and served until he retired in 1993. During the 1970s the city's economy became increasingly diversified. Manufacturing of aircraft and military equipment remained important, but a wide variety of other manufactured goods were produced. While Los Angeles continued to be the main center of U.S. motion-picture production and distribution, other sectors of the entertainment industry, including television and music recording, also became important. Service industries such as health care and banking grew rapidly. During the 1980s and 1990s city politics focused on reducing the budget, lowering taxes, and allocating funds to an ever increasing population that was politically segmented along economic, racial, and ethnic lines. A new city charter approved by voters in 1999 gave more power to the mayor and created neighborhood advisory councils and planning boards that increased local control over planning and zoning decisions.

In April 1992 one of the worst riots in U.S. history erupted in South Central Los Angeles after four white officers of the Los Angeles Police Department were acquitted on charges of beating a black suspect, Rodney King; 58 people died in the rioting. In April 1993 the officers were tried again on the separate but related charge of violating King's civil rights. This time two of the officers were convicted. The police department again came under investigation in 1999. Officers in the Rampart Division precinct of the department were accused of corruption, brutality, and fabricating testimony. These allegations led to the largest police corruption investigation in the city's history and to the overturning of dozens of convictions.

In the mid-1990s a series of natural disasters struck the Los Angeles region. In October and November 1993 brushfires broke out in the expensive neighborhoods in the canyons west of the city. Pushed by high winds and fueled by tinder-dry grass and brush, the fires destroyed more than 700 homes before being extinguished. Later, rains caused extensive mudslides in the fire-scarred region. In January 1994 a powerful earthquake struck Los Angeles, collapsing three major freeways and disabling the city's road system. Fifty-seven people were killed, and thousands of buildings were damaged or destroyed. Severe rains and flooding attributed to the weather phenomenon known as El Niño also caused mudslides, sinkholes, and extensive property loss during the winter of 1998.