Greater Los Angeles Area
Encyclopedia : G : GR : GRE : Greater Los Angeles Area
 Common name: Greater Los Angeles Area | |
| Largest city Other cities | Los Angeles - Anaheim - Long Beach - Oxnard - Riverside - San Bernardino - Santa Ana |
| Population | Ranked 2nd in the U.S. |
- Total
| 18,080,413 (2006 est.)[[Citing sources citation needed]] | |
- Density
| 517/sq. mi. 199/km² | |
| Area | 33,953 sq. mi. 87,972 km² |
| State(s) | California |
| Elevation | |
- Highest point
| N/A feet (N/A m) | |
- Lowest point
| 0 feet (0 m) | |
The Greater Los Angeles Area is the agglomeration of urbanized area around the city of Los Angeles, California. It is sprawled over five counties in the southern part of California, namely: Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura. It is referred to locally as "Southern California", "SoCal" or "The Southland". It is also referred to simply as L.A. especially by the residents of Los Angeles County and by outsiders. It is such a sprawling area that residents refer to broad general sub-regions. It is not always meaningful to refer to Los Angeles as a distinct city, and 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. As of 2006, the official estimate of the population of the Greater Los Angeles area is 18,080,413 [link]. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Greater Los Angeles Area has a total area of 87,972 km² (33,953 mi²), but more than half of this is the sparsely populated eastern areas of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
Geography
Sprawl
The area's reputation for sprawl is more historic than real in today's terms. Los Angeles became a major city just as automobiles began to be mass-produced, and as a result it developed somewhat less densely. 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). It is, however, essential to understand that this statistic is deceptively low because the municipal boundary encloses the sparsely-inhabited Santa Monica Mountains. South of this mountain range, which separates the Los Angeles Basin from the San Fernando Valley, lies some of the most densely-populated urban land in the U.S.
The extent of the region's suburban sprawl has been so thoroughly cultivated so as to result in an urbanized area with a relatively high density of 7,070 people per square mile (2,730/km²) according to the 2000 census. However, the L.A. sprawl reached its geographic limits around 2000, and future expansion of the sprawl will involve leapfrogging across whole mountain ranges. As real-estate investment becomes focused towards the central areas of the city, these numbers are beginning to change. 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. The Los Angeles Downtown News keeps a list of ongoing development projects, updated every quarter, [here].
Identity
Due to the decentralized nature of Southern California, there is no universally accepted definition of the terms “Greater Los Angeles Area” or “Southland,” the definition varies from one region of Southern California to the next. Although some people, especially those outside of Southern California and some of those in Los Angeles proper, view the terms Greater Los Angeles Area and Southland as being synonymous, in many other parts of Southern California the term Greater Los Angeles Area is considered to be a sub-section of the Southland, along with the other sub-sections: Orange County Area, Inland Empire, and Ventura. With the counties of Southern California being the size of states on the east coast, the lack of one vibrant downtown area to serve this massive region, and the fact that mass transit does not work well due to its decentralized nature, most people outside of Los Angeles County do not go there and therefore do not assimilate with it. The people of Orange County use the term Greater Los Angeles to refer to the area to the north of Orange County’s borders. To use the term Greater Los Angeles to refer to areas outside of Los Angeles County causes a great deal of confusion when used in other parts of Southern California, especially in Orange County. Residents of Orange County, which like those of neighboring San Diego County have their own employment base, arts, and other metropolitan amenities in the middle of their own county, thereby resulting in the residents not needing to leave the county and thereby not closely identifying with a larger area.
Boundaries
Some areas are bounded by natural features such as mountains or the ocean; others are marked by city boundaries, freeways, or other constructed landmarks. 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 U.S. Route 101 to the north, the Los Angeles River to the east, and the Santa Monica Freeway to the south. 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.
Some other areas of Los Angeles include the Westside; South L.A. (formerly known as South Central L.A.); and the San Pedro/Harbor City area. 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. The San Pedro/Harbor City area was annexed by the city of Los Angeles so the city could have access and control over the Port of Los Angeles, and is connected by only a narrow Corridor, which follows the Harbor Freeway for the most part, with the rest of L.A. Many Angelenos consider the Eastside to be the area east of the Los Angeles River, above Orange County.
The city boundaries are quite complicated. 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. Culver City is surrounded by L.A. except where it shares a boundary with the unincorporated communities of Ladera Heights and Baldwin Hills. Both Santa Monica and the unicorporated area of Marina del Rey are surrounded except on their ocean side. San Fernando in the northern corner of the San Fernando Valley is also a separate city entirely surrounded by L.A. territory. There are also unincorporated enclaves which are under Los Angeles County jurisdiction.
Counties in the Southland
Regions of the Southland
- Antelope Valley
- San Fernando Valley
- San Gabriel Valley
- Santa Clarita Valley
- Conejo Valley
- Oxnard Plain
- Inland Empire
- Orange County
- West Los Angeles (also known as the 'Westside')
- Gateway Cities
- South Bay
- Central Los Angeles
- East Los Angeles (also known as the 'Eastside')
- South Los Angeles (formerly known as 'South Central')
Anchor Cities of the Southland
- Anaheim
- Burbank (Airport: Bob Hope Airport)
- Glendale
- Irvine
- Long Beach (Airport: Long Beach Municipal Airport)
- Los Angeles (Airport: Los Angeles International Airport)
- Ontario (Major airport: Ontario International Airport)
- Oxnard (Major airport: Oxnard Airport
- Palmdale (Airport Palmdale Regional Airport)
- Pasadena
- Riverside (Airport: Riverside Executive Municipal)
- San Bernardino (Airport: San Bernardino International Airport)
- Santa Ana (Major Airport: John Wayne-Orange County Airport)
Other suburbs with more than 100,000 inhabitants
- Corona
- Costa Mesa
- Downey
- East Los Angeles
- El Monte
- Fontana
- Fullerton
- Garden Grove
- Huntington Beach
- Inglewood
- Lancaster
- Moreno Valley
- Norwalk
- Orange
- Pomona
- Rancho Cucamonga
- Santa Clarita
- Santa Monica
- Simi Valley
- Thousand Oaks
- Torrance
- Ventura
- West Covina
Cities
- Further information: List of towns in the Greater Los Angeles Area
See also
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