Los Angeles, to say the least, is a patch-work quilt of enclaves, cultures, and ethnicities.
Few other cities share the immense cultural diversity than this scramble of modern American society.
However, Los Angeles has not always embodied such a multicultural hodgepodge of Western America.
Discovered by forty-four settlers on September 4, 1781, El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles initially provided fertile farmland for Mexican settlers to cultivate grain and other natural foods.
Soon enough, the region's population began to swell as more adventurous Americans from the East came to explore the country's other coastline during the boom of the 1880s.
In 1907, the beginning of the movie industry generated greater publicity for the city as a new land of opportunity and promise.
With its dreamlike mystique, Los Angeles quickly adopted its own list of sobriquets: "City of Angels," "Home of the Stars," "City of Quartz," and "La La Land." But the conclusion of World War II ultimately brought new life to a dynamic city that had yet to be fully discovered.
By the 1970s, a substantial influx of Mexicans, Koreans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans produced a wave of urban sprawl that saw ethnic and racial groups dividing into communities across the city and extending into the San Fernando Valley.
From the largely Vietnamese-based city of Garden Grove up to Thai Town and over to the Latino community of Boyle Heights, Los Angeles remains home to almost four million people today.
Only New York City ranks higher, providing homes to more than eight million inhabitants. However, the sheer size and breadth of Los Angeles remains incomparable to any other American city.
The major industrial, commercial, and financial center west of the Mississippi River, Los Angeles expands 465 square miles, more than any other metropolis in the United States.
From a bird's eye view, the city appears to be endless.
At night, looking down at the field of lights can be almost overwhelming.
Quite frankly, Los Angeles could be its own country.
Thus, it's no mystery why Los Angeles is the most car-populated city in the world, averaging roughly 1.8 cars per person; each day, ten million cars drive along one of the city's twenty-seven criss-crossing freeways.
The first architects and engineers that designed the city must not have believed in vertical planning and construction.
In fact, some have applied the phrase "100 suburbs in search of a city" to most accurately describe the vast layout of Los Angeles.
For the most part, the city is made up of a large number of communities running into each other without any distinct borders except for the "Welcome To..." signs off the side of the road.
As Guns N' Roses rock star Axel Rose once screamed fifteen years ago: "Welcome to the Jungle." Rose may have been familiar with Jack Kerouac's On The Road, for the Beat writer seemed to divulge a similar sentiment about the city in his cross-country travels during the 1950s.
As he put it, "LA is the loneliest and most brutal of American cities...LA is a jungle." To Kerouac's dismay, the jungle has only continued to spread to even greater proportions. Since the city's original formation, downtown has stood as the core of Los Angeles.
In many ways, Los Angeles can still be thought of as a sprawling mega-city made up of concentric rings around downtown.
Originally established between the Los Angeles River on the east and hills on the west, Los Angeles quickly expanded with Prudent Beaudry's development of residential neighborhoods on Bunker Hill.
In the city's earliest days, Pershing Square park along Olive Street represented the heart of downtown Los Angeles life and culture.
Today, the frequently remodeled park includes the swanky Biltmore Hotel and Grauman's Metropolitan Theater.
By the end of the 19th century, Spring Street transformed into a lively main street and commercial downtown center for up-and-coming hotels, businesses, and restaurants.
At 200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles City Hall stands twenty-eight stories high and reflects classical Byzantine and Romanesque architecture with a central rotunda layered in white marble.
While the City Hall tower dominated the city's skyline after being completed in 1928, neighboring skyscrapers were developed throughout the downtown area starting in the 1950s. Down the street, Main Street stood as the city's earliest civic center before the development of Spring Street.
Here, the Commercial Bank, Grand Central Hotel, and Merced Theater lined the street during the city's commercial boom.
At the northern end of Central Avenue and 42nd Street, the Dunbar Hotel stood at the center of African-American social and artistic life from the 1920s to the 1960s.
After opening in 1928, the Dunbar immediately earned its keep as the official hotel of the 19th annual N.A.A.C.P.
conference in Los Angeles.
In later years, famous black jazz musicians-Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, and Lionel Hampton-performed at the hotel or at a wealth of nightclubs along Central Avenue.
But the lively nightlife of this Los Angeles corridor eventually declined in the 1960s as many clubs closed, leaving the Dunbar to slowly decay.
As more immigrants began to settle in the center of town over the twentieth century, wealthier, more established families fled the downtown scene and moved into quiet, suburban communities.
These early stages of "white flight" left the center-city area neglected.
With the downtown area vacated, Los Angeles' metropolitan core soon became infested with a wave of crime, drugs, homelessness, and prostitution.
The emergence of Skid Row set back the city of Los Angeles, and it is not until quite recently that city officials and the Los Angeles Police Department have collaborated to impose a drastic change. Between 1852 and 1890, a distinct community of roughly 3,000 Chinese immigrants congregated just outside of Los Angeles' downtown center.
Originally located between El Pueblo Plaza and Old Arcadia Street, Chinatown peaked at the turn of the century, boasting a Chinese Opera theatre, three temples, its own newspaper, and a telephone exchange.
But by 1910, Chinatown had spiraled out of control, plagued with gambling houses, opium dens, and vicious tong (Chinese gangs) warfare.
As more rumors circulated about possible city redevelopment, Chinatown landlords refused to maintain their properties, and housing conditions plummeted.
With the town quickly crumbling from its state of disarray, change desperately needed to take place.
Peter Soo Hoo had an answer, working with the local community on a design of the New Chinatown.
Soon after, Chinatown developed into a major tourist attraction with the construction of the Central Plaza.
While many of these older buildings have been converted into art galleries and nightclubs, the 1980s introduced new shopping centers and mini-malls that greatly improved Chinatown's public appeal. Today, underneath the Chinese arches of Old Chinatown Plaza, visitors can sit down for dim sum any day of the week and spend the afternoon hours browsing through shops for fine silk, inlaid furniture, and meticulously-crafted Asian art.
Nearby, Monterey Park has transformed into a miniature modern-day China with Asian Americans representing more than sixty percent of the community's population-the first city in the United States with an Asian majority.
These Chinese immigrants are quite fond of their city, which they regularly identify as "Little Taipei." Just south of the Pomona Freeway, a Mediterranean-style shopping center adds a unique flavor to the city's cultural diversity.
But three blocks north on Atlantic Boulevard, the only words spelled in English are the traffic signs as Chinese businesses dominate both sides of the street.
As Garvey Avenue meets Atlantic, the city's landscape closely mirrors Hong Kong, Shanghai, or Taipei.
In one strip mall, a Diho market sells fresh fish, live crabs, rice, and other Asian snacks.
Just up the street, drivers passing through can point out the red-tile roof and distinct Chinese architecture of the Atlantic Place Shopping Center and the surrounding Chinese businesses, including authentic music stores, hair salons, restaurants, and realty companies. Just outside the downtown skyline, the Exposition Park Gardens receives countless visits from tourists and residents eager to take in the soft, soothing smell of fresh roses or for those just seeking refuge for the day.
Next door, the Natural History Museum, Los Angeles' second oldest cultural institution, retains more than thirty-three million artifacts and specimens dating back to the days of Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops.
Also within the park's confines, the Los Angeles Coliseum has played host to a long list of sporting events, including the 1932 and 1984 Olympic Games, since opening in 1923.
Across the Harbor Freeway, the Staples Center has mostly recently taken over as the city's premier venue for high-profile sports and entertainment events.
Adjacent to the city's Convention Center on Figueroa Street, the multi-sport arena opened up in 1999 and has hosted more than 250 events each year.
Already recognized as a Los Angeles icon, the Staples Center remains home to the five professional sports franchises, which, most notably, includes the Los Angeles Lakers. There was a time when the Lakers brought the game right into your living room.
Back in 1986, professional basketball witnessed some of its fondest moments with the purple and gold at the Los Angeles Forum in Inglewood.
With Magic Johnson running the point, James Worthy on the wing, and Kareem Abul-Jabbar in the post, the "Showtime Lakers" often left viewers and fans staring at the television screen in awe.
And no one captivated an audience's attention with his play-by-play more than Chick Hearn did for 3,338 consecutive games, spanning over forty-two years.
He created his own language of basketball, first mouthing familiar terms like "slam dunk," "air-ball," "dribble-drive," and the "finger roll." Whether Lakers fans liked it or not, Hearn always told the truth whatever the scoreboard read.
Glory did return to Los Angeles in the twenty-first century after the acquisition of Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant presented the Lakers with a new one-two punch.
They captured three straight World Championships and it looked as if they had a fourth gold ring coming in the 2004 NBA Finals-until the Detroit Pistons stepped onto the court and quickly made an embarrassment of owner Jerry Buss, head coach Phil Jackson, and of course, Kobe and Shaq.
What followed was even more disastrous: the Kobe-Shaq soap opera, Phil Jackson's book, O'Neal's indignant departure to Miami, and the sudden resignation of new coach Rudy Tomjanovich half way into the 2004-2005 season. Since then, the organization has taken far too many steps back.
Once a championship contender, the Lakers have fallen into the middle of the Western Conference Division even with Bryant contributing to the highlight reels every night and capturing the scoring title with an average of thirty-five points per game.
While the current framework of the Los Angeles Lakers remains a question mark for team management, Bryant continues to dazzle fans with his fade-away jumpers, aerobatic dunks, and no-look passes.
At home games, you can always count on spotting the mob of movie stars and celebrities sitting courtside, from die-hard fan Jack Nicholson to the flamboyant Pamela Anderson to every teenager's favorite, Snoop Doggy Dogg.
These stars are just some of many high-profile regulars, including Edward Norton, Denzel Washington, and Leonardo Dicaprio, who shell out big bucks for season tickets next to the Lakers' bench.
But recently there's been another team in town, and with the play of all-star Elton Brand, the once-forgotten Clippers have rather quickly rejuvenated a basketball rivalry in the heart of Los Angeles.
For most Southern Californians though, the Lakers will always be Los Angeles' team for its rich history of Hall of Fame players, championship dynasties, and distinguished fans. For over twenty years now, impoverished communities surrounding downtown have dominated the greater metropolitan area.
Off the Harbor Freeway, South Central neighborhoods just miles from the University of Southern California campus continue to harvest gang wars, drug deals, and robberies amidst single-family homes and mom-and-pop stores.
Crossing the Los Angeles river on the Fourth Street Bridge, Boyle Heights has formed a large Hispanic contingent after serving as home to many Jewish families after World War II.
Decorated with broken bits of glass, pottery, sea shells, and mirror pieces over a metal framework, the Watts Towers still stand as a cultural landmark of Los Angeles on 1765 East 107th Street.
In Watts, large numbers of African-Americans still live in housing projects built back at the start of World War II.
Once a multi-ethnic farming community at the turn of the century, Watts has struggled with riots in 1965, gangs throughout the 1970s, and the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic.
Starting in the 1970s, many African-Americans left Watts to live in other sections of South Los Angeles and later found residence in the Antelope Valley, Inland Empire, and the San Joaquin Valley through the Grapevine.
In the last fifteen years however, transgressions from the Grape Street Watts Cripps, Bounty Hunter Watts Bloods, and PJ Watts Cripps have resulted in over 200 homicides.
Consequently, the city's notorious reputation for violence and poverty has stirred up neighborhood leaders to speak out in an effort to overcome these hardships. But with the recent urban redevelopment and gentrification of the downtown area, communities just west of the Harbor Freeway in Silver Lake, Echo Park, and Los Feliz have become popular niches for young adults and college graduates to reside without paying the astronomical prices for an apartment on the west side of town.
Nowadays, Santa Monica, Brentwood, Malibu, and the Pacific Palisades have remained reserved primarily for accountants, dentists, attorneys, business and film executives, and movie stars.
While the downtown center continues to improve and develop, traveling north on the 110 leads into the cities of Old Pasadena, La Canada, and San Marino, where affluent, conservative families sport luxury sedans and attend theatrical performances at the Pasadena Playhouse.
On the eastern edge of the metropolis, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Pomona have all reached record population numbers over the past two decades.
In Ventura and Orange County, teenage surfers with bleach-blonde hair prowl along the beach hoping to land a ride on the perfect wave.
Though quite dispersed from one another, each of these regional pockets offers its own unique flavor of life in Los Angeles.
For many outsiders, the flare, glamour, and materialism of Los Angeles mixed with the adventure and fantasy of life out West presents an intriguing and liberating opportunity to finally achieve their California dreams.
It's no wonder why so many Southern Californians refuse to live anywhere else after spending time in the greater Los Angeles area. Even so, life in Los Angeles carries with it a wealth of cultural stereotypes.
Through the eyes of the mass media, Southern Californians have often been targeted as a distinct breed of Americana.
Their wardrobes do not contain long underwear, fleece gloves, steel-toe boots, or the traditional winter coat.
Dress shirts and sweaters are not worn together.
Most have never worn a wool scarf in their lives.
Rather, leather flip-flops, designer sunglasses, and retro, screen-printed t-shirts more appropriately fit the look-eighty-five degrees and sunny in January or February is just another afternoon at the beach for the locals.
Buried deep in their purses and handbags live 24-hour fitness center membership cards, Motorola Razors, and iPods.
Pink sport bras and tight, yellow spandex represent the standard uniform for female joggers at the crack of dawn each day.
Middle-aged mothers drive their kids to soccer and karate practice in their newest sports utility vehicle but rarely ever go camping or backpacking.
Some buy Hummers even when gas prices have exceeded three dollars per gallon.
Business men drive high-powered, luxurious sport cars to work, yet spend the entire commute in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Los Angelinos follow the commandments of the South Beach Diet as if they were reading the Bible.
They don't go out for pizza or buffalo wings-they go out for sushi or tapas.
They order salad as an entrée and eat fish tacos on a weekly basis.
For these types, In N' Out Burger is not your typical fast food.
Their latest obsession with juice bars rivals Seattle's coffee craze with Starbucks.
In every strip mall and shopping center, another health food nut is opening a store lined with vegetarian and vegan products.
Entering a supermarket, Southern Californians are constantly bombarded with the word, "organic," yet most have no clue as to what the word actually means.
On the weekends, they make a trip to Costco, loading their shopping carts with huge boxes of fresh-picked strawberries, jumbo-size packages of paper towels, and discounted wines.
Dinner discussions revolve around traffic jams on the 405 or a newly-discovered shortcut to work.
And they always make time to reveal the latest joke about President Bush or Governor Schwarzenegger. Back in 1853, one adobe hut marked the first site of Hollywood.
It wasn't long after that an agricultural community sprouted up in the immediate area and quickly flourished with its plethora of crops.
By the early 1900s, production companies from New York and New Jersey began migrating to Southern California due to the region's favorable weather.
In 1909, the Selig Polyscope Company opened the first studio in Edendale, just east of Hollywood, while Nestor Studios followed two years later with their own motion picture building.
As motion picture executives continued to build studios and theatres across the city of Los Angeles, Hollywood evolved as the new entertainment capital of the world.
Today, tourists and visitors can still spot their favorite actors, actresses, musicians, and performers on the world-renowned Hollywood Walk of Fame stretching eighteen blocks.
Outside the classic Grauman's Chinese Theatre, movie stars and celebrities have left over 200 handprints and footprints on the venue's wall since its establishment in 1927.
This tradition among Hollywood's famous has long been accredited to actress Norman Talmadge, who accidentally stepped in wet concrete during the theater's construction.
But many of these former movie palaces have been converted into porn theaters and gentlemen's clubs.
Atop Beachwood Canyon in the Hollywood hills sits the famous 50-foot sign that first read "Hollywoodland" until 1949.
This is the Hollywood we all know, land of the stars.
In Lauren Canyon, Lookout Mountain has also offered those willing to make the hike a stunning view of Hollywood since the turn of the century.
During the 1960s, singer Joni Mitchell and other rock musicians lived in the canyon and wrote many of her songs in inspiration of the area's natural beauty.
On Hollywood Boulevard at Highland Avenue, the Kodak Theatre, home of the Oscars, has replaced what was once the historic Hollywood Hotel.
In the shape of a vinyl record stack, the famous Capitol Records building on Vine Street opened in 1956 as a private recording studio.
At one time, Vine Street remained home to Herbert Somborn's Brown Derby Restaurant after the original on Wilshire Boulevard was built three years earlier.
For over forty years, movie stars dined at the local eatery, making it a must-see stop for any tourist back in the 1930s and 1940s. To some, the city is known to them as "Hollyweird" for its community of young, impressionable individuals in search of enlightenment and an identity.
Out on the streets lives an eclectic mix of vintage-clad hipsters, long-haired head bangers, and teenage misfits.
While homeless straggle along Sunset Avenue, an abundance of tattoo parlors, piercing stores, and sex shops blend in with trendy bars and nightclubs, where partiers can wait in line for hours before actually entering the scene.
The Roxy, a legendary club along the Sunset Strip, attracts all ages as well as all styles and tastes: pierced and tattooed, bleached and spiked, or swank and sexy.
The legendary bicoastal club, The Knitting Factory, on Hollywood Boulevard also caters to this diverse clientele, booking acts that range from Japanese punk rock to Finnish heavy metal.
On the next block, the Whiskey A Go-Go was once considered by many to be the first American discothèque before eventually turning to the evolving rock n' roll scene of the 1960s.
Unfortunately, times haven't always been good at the Whiskey.
In 1982, the club had to close its doors as punk rock faded and gave way to Seattle's Grunge movement.
Four years later, the Whiskey reopened as a "four-wall," allowing promoters and bands to rent out the venue for an evening.
At 9081 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood's Troubadour has been another longstanding nightclub in the area, earning its name as a major center for folk music in the early 1960s.
But Hollywood's mass appeal also attracted many desperate runaways during this time.
Each year, hundreds of teenagers throughout the United States run off to Hollywood in hope of starting an acting career.
But their far-fetched dream quickly fades, realizing that they hold a rather slim chance of outperforming professionally trained actors at casting calls and auditions.
Some return home, while others join the parade of prostitutes and panhandlers living on the Hollywood streets or head for Skid Row in downtown. The city of Santa Monica represents a large share of what area residents most often term "the west side" of Los Angeles.
Stretching eight miles long, the city combines the chaos of an urban center with the beauty and charm of a beach community.
On average, Santa Monica sees 325 days of sunshine a year.
Running along the scenic Ocean Avenue atop the city's sandstone cliffs, the 26-acre Palisades Park overlooks the beach and Catalina Island far in the distance.
In the backdrop, the Santa Monica Mountains peak over the city skyline with waterfalls and naturalistic hiking trails.
South of the volleyball courts at Muscle Beach, golden-brown, burly bodies perform stunts on chin bars, parallel bars, rings, and bench press.
In the mid-1930s, crowds convened along the sand to watch the first musclemen perform somersaults, handstands, and the human tower.
Such former fitness buffs as Buster Crabbe, Mae West, and Jane Russell have all earned public recognition at this renowned seaside workout venue. In Chess Park, public chess tables draw both competitive and friendly players to sit down for a free game.
On Third Street Promenade, fashionable clothing stores, first-rate restaurants, and movie houses overflow with visiting shoppers and young couples.
With more than 120 museums, galleries, and public art displays, Santa Monica offers art enthusiasts a large selection of work encompassing a variety of particular tastes.
At Broadway and 20th Street, the Broadway Gallery features local and international contemporary art while the Santa Monica Museum of Art displays experimental forms of design, architecture, sculpture, and painting on Michigan Avenue.
Two blocks from the beach on Main Street, vintage clothing stores, designer studios, and fine boutiques attract customers to the latest trends in fashion, art, and culture.
Teenage runaways and singing hobos line the sidewalks looking for handouts while guitarist and saxophonists wail on their instruments for even the smallest tip or communal applause.
Immersed within the street crowd, paparazzi clutch their Nikon cameras and two-foot-long telephoto lens anxiously waiting to snap a quick shot of another passing celebrity. At the foot of Colorado Avenue past the famous arch and sign stands the historic Santa Monica Pier.
Since its establishment in 1909, the Pier has served as a prominent recreational and entertainment venue for visitors and locals with its assortment of circus rides, quaint retail shops, and cheap food stands.
During the summer months, the Pier still sees plenty of action as children and tourists enjoy bumper cars, the Ferris wheel, and the five-story roller coaster while local and foreign musicians perform in the background.
On the boardwalk, children stuff their mouths with cotton candy and popcorn and chase after soap bubbles dancing in the air.
For many photographers and filmmakers, the Pier offers a picture-perfect backdrop for magazine layouts, movies, television shows, commercials, and videos; the panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean often distinguishes Santa Monica as one of Southern Californian's most exquisite beaches.
In the early morning hours, walkers and runners can often catch a glimpse of dolphins slicing through the dark blue sea with their shining, silver dorsals.
Whether enjoying the day in the sun at Santa Monica State Beach, dining at a world-class seafood restaurant, or exploring the nightlife among a myriad of bars and clubs, Santa Monica introduces a unique blend of excitement and entertainment to Southern Californians and visitors of all kinds. In 1890, Abbot Kinney had a vision.
A wealthy tobacco tycoon, Kinney dreamed that one day the Del Rey peninsula south of Ocean Park would signify the "Venice of America." Picturing a resort town marked with canals, gondolas, amusement piers, hotels, and Venetian-styled structures, Kinney purchased this land now known as Venice and set out to accomplish his goal.
By the fall of 1904, sixteen miles of canals had been dug in the city of Venice before they were eventually filled and converted into roads twenty-five years later.
As Venice residents continued to grow in numbers and local businesses boomed, Kinney delved into the amusement industry, calling for the construction of two piers-Abbot Kinney Pier and Fraser's "Million Dollar Pier"-featuring all sorts of attractions, including a dance hall, fun house, Ferris wheel, and Japanese Tea House.
And with electric trolley cars (known as the "red cars" up through the 1920s) providing frequent service from the downtown area to Santa Monica, visitors had easy access to Venice to observe Kinney's canal network, Venetian-style business district, and collection of amusement rides located on the piers.
Kinney's fascination with outdoor entertainment established Venice as the "Playland of the Pacific." But by 1946, Kinney's lease for his pier had expired and the city of Los Angeles refused to grant a renewal. Venice has always been a place where things were happening.
Back in the '60s, you could often catch The Doors playing a show at the Cheetah on Ocean Park Pier.
Jim Morrison even made his home on the Venice canals.
In fact, Morrison refers to his home in one of his poems: "an appearance of the devil/ on a Venice canal./ Running, I saw a Satan/ or Satyr, moving beside/ me....." Many Venice locals still honor the rock legend today, saluting Rip Cronk's towering mural just off of 18th Avenue.
Carroll Hall Shelby also found success living in Venice, breaking grounds in the automobile industry with the opening of his first manufacturing plant in 1964.
Once considered one of America's premier sports car drivers, Shelby designed a Ford Mustang that would outmuscle any driving machine that had come before it.
With a loud, gusty engine, the Shelby Mustang eventually transformed the car market as the first legal street-car before production stopped in 1970. In the early 1960s, Venice desperately needed redevelopment and refurbishment.
Beatniks, bohemians, and artists had begun to establish homes along the canals, centering their lives on art, poetry, and the ever-growing avant-garde jazz movement.
These creative, spontaneous types rejected American middle-class values and instead stressed spiritual liberation, ecological consciousness, and the evolution of rock n' roll.
Living in a community tolerant of such alternative lifestyles, hippies would soon take over for the "Beats" in Venice.
Flower children of this '60s generation headed to Venice in search of free expression during their "summer of love." Residing in the canals, they hosted pot parties, love-ins, and drunken frenzies before their homes were eventually acquired by affluent realtors just a decade later.
Their record collections consisted of Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, and Jefferson Airplane.
Originating on college campuses throughout the country, this wave of 1960s youth rebellion feverously rejected the conservative political tendencies and social norms of the 1950s and tenaciously protested the military's intervention in the Vietnam War.
Back on the Pacific shoreline, outdoor skating had reached new heights in Venice with the invention of the polyurethane skate wheel in 1976.
As tourists flocked to the beach to observe this new sport, Venice experienced new life as street performers, sidewalk artists, and t-shirt stands opened up along Ocean Front Walk. Just south of the Santa Monica city limits, the spirit of the 1960s counterculture movement returns to the Venice Beach boardwalk today.
This community of artsy, alternative intellectuals has always marked a classic attraction for visitors and tourists.
With several film studious located in the city, Venice has been known to appear in such motion pictures as Speed, Breathless, and the Baywatch television series.
Strolling along Ocean Front Walk, crowds gather around street performers dressed in extravagant costumes, watching intently for their next trick.
Sometimes Robert Gruenberg can even be found chasing onlookers along the beach while juggling chainsaws in a ring of fire.
At other times, Harry Perry can be spotted playing a tune on the strand with his acoustic guitar while waving through crowds of people in his black-and-white roller hockey blades.
For some of these Venice locals, performing on the street represents more than just a way to make a few hard-earned dollars.
But most often these dancers, comedians, acrobats, and artists are left with little reward for their efforts.
For some, it seems that Venice will always hold that feeling of liberation.
Today, unshaven and long-haired hippies stand on the boardwalk, playing acoustic guitars and beating on bongo drums while vendors sell tie-died t-shirts of music legends: Jerry Garcia, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Marley.
One after another lined along the path, Rastafarian merchants display boxes of flavored incense sticks and wooden crafts with intricate layering and design.
In every third store, glass cases loaded with drug paraphernalia and water pipes catch the eyes of walkers, joggers, bike-riders, and skateboarders.
Just a block from the beach, several tattoo parlors and piercing stores add to the funky, carefree nature of Venice's beachfront counterculture. Further south into the city of Westchester, the Los Angeles International Airport serves as the international gateway to Asia and the Pacific islands.
Built in 1928 and first recognized as Mines Field, the LAX site serviced military operations early on before running commercial flights at the end of 1946.
Designed by architects Gable and Wyant, the Hanger No.
1 building operated as the airport's first structure for the Curtiss Wright Flying Service.
But only until recently has Hangar No.
1 regained its landmark status as a Los Angeles Cultural Monument.
As the fifth busiest airport in the world today with nearly ninety airlines, LAX generates $60 billion of the city's annual economy.
Thus, it's not uncommon to witness departing passengers waiting in security lines that string past the designated terminal building.
Then they wait just as long at the gate, hoping that the attendant at the counter will at last call for boarding passes.
Other travelers wait in business centers or use internet kiosks before their departure.
At LAX, traveling never comes easily-getting on the plane can be just as hard as leaving the airport.
One after another, cars, taxis, rental car and hotel buses, and Super shuttles file into the airport to pick up arriving passengers, jamming traffic back through the Sepulveda tunnel.
Completed in 1953 as the first of its kind, the tunnel has allowed automobiles to pass under the airport's runways for more than fifty years now.
Back at the airport, arriving passengers continue to stand outside the baggage claim, peering through the sea of moving vehicles while attempting to signal for a ride home.
In the center of the airport seventy feet above the ground, the retro Encounter Restaurant takes the form of a four-legged flying saucer straight out of a Jetson's episode.
Originally constructed and finished in 1961, the "Theme Building" as it was once named, now overlooks the airport as a cultural and historical monument of Los Angeles.
Under the final approach of runways 24 L&R, spectators can watch low-flying commercial planes touch down on California soil.
More recently, fourteen Plexiglas cylinders standing ten stories high on Sepulveda and Century Boulevard cycle through a rainbow of colors, illuminating the airport with a fantastic, iridescent glow.
But with LAX notorious for its poor navigation and long delays, passengers can expect to spend a good amount of time within the airport's confines, again, waiting. On a large scale, Los Angelinos are infatuated with cars.
In Los Angeles, a reliable public transportation system does not exist.
Sadly, you can't go anywhere without a car.
The bus system is slow.
The metro rail only has stops in Long Beach, LAX, Downtown, and Pasadena.
And taxis are just too expensive for getting around town on a daily basis.
So it's understandable why driving in Los Angeles could drive any man to the point of insanity.
As Burt Bacharach and Hal David once sang, "L.A.
is a great big freeway." Even a trip to the dentist's office doesn't compare to the pain of sitting in traffic on the San Diego 405 Freeway.
The 405 is a driver's worst nightmare-more than half the day the freeway becomes a parking lot beginning at the airport and continuing all the way up to Westwood.
Rush-hour traffic begins at five in the morning and continues all day until eight or even nine in the evening.
Hence, it's easy to see why a layer of smog hovers over downtown each morning, tarnishing the picturesque view of the San Gabriel Mountains in the distance.
Recently, the city has taken action with the construction of an extended carpool lane further north on the 405.
Still, no one can be sure how well such a plan can resolve the ever-growing traffic dilemma.
When there isn't traffic on the freeways, Los Angelinos drive maniacal.
Unlike most drivers in this country, they don't drive in the right lane and pass on the left.
They drive wherever they want, fast or slow.
Too often cars creep up behind a car traveling in the freeway's fast lane at only the posted speed limit.
After awhile, tailing drivers become frustrated, finally zooming by these inconsiderate, oblivious drivers in the right lanes at eight-five miles per hour.
Getting around the city is no easy task either.
Spiraling, interlaced freeway ramps and interchanges can easily cause a driver to miss a turn onto the next interstate highway.
And with the most recent energy crisis, gas prices in Los Angeles have soared to some of the highest in the nation.
Driving in Los Angeles is anything but a blessing. Crawling north past the airport on the 405, a giant honey-glazed doughnut emerges from an army of trees and brush just off the Manchester exit.
Positioned on the store's roof, the 22-diameter snack looks as if it could roll right off into traffic at any second.
Roadside archaeologists have defined this spectacle as a product of "vernacular architecture." Often appearing in magazine ads, postcards, montages, movie backdrops, and television commercials, Randy's Donuts has undoubtedly acquired national exposure despite its uninspired façade.
Even pop singer Randy Newman felt inclined enough to mention the 1952 establishment in his widely-known tune "I Love LA." But Robert Graham's doughnut sculpture doesn't tell the whole story of this 24-hour drive-thru.
With its hallmark jelly donut, Randy's has certainly gained a reputation as Los Angeles' premiere doughnut bakery.
While the building's outdated exterior might throw some first-timers off, the doughnuts never seem to disappoint.
Whether in the mood for an apple fritter, bear claw or chocolate-glazed donut, customers can always count on their pastries to be freshly-baked right out of the oven.
Bordering West Hollywood and Hollywood at the intersection of La Brea and Santa Monica, Pink's hot dog stand has been a longtime treat for Los Angelinos.
Since 1939, this family-owned business has been serving the sloppiest chili dog in Los Angeles.
No matter what time of the day, there is always a line.
Even those hungry for a late-night snack are guaranteed to wait at least thirty minutes before arriving at the counter to order.
Yet few other stands rank as high in quality and service.
Pink's caters to all types-movie stars, eminent dignitaries, burned-out musicians, businessmen, housewives, and school children have all sunk their teeth into a Pink's hot dog. At the corner of Ninth Street and South Figueroa in the center of downtown, groups of business men and night crawlers sit down for an inexpensive all-American meal at The Original Pantry.
Inside, the bleak lights, Formica tables, black-and-white city photos, and high-security cashier's cage all shape the noir style of this antiquated Los Angeles landmark eatery.
Owned by former mayor Richard Riordan, The Pantry has become a favorite breakfast spot for politicians working at City Hall or for Lakers fans looking to catch a late-night bite after the game.
Since opening in 1924, there's never been a dull moment at the 24-hour diner.
As the restaurant's motto states, "Never Closed, Never Without A Customer." Customers can always expect a line before sitting down to a heaping stack of buckwheat hotcakes, a hearty omelet, or a cut of top sirloin topped off with the house's signature steak sauce.
Nearby on North Alameda Street, Phillippe the Original Restaurant has established a local fan base with the first-ever French-dipped sandwich since owner Philippe Mathieu emigrated from France in 1908.
With sawdust on the floor, clown posters on the wall, a room filled with miniature trains, and pickled eggs on the counter, Phillippe's run-down décor often reminds long-time Los Angelinos of life in the 1930s.
But the city of Los Angeles offers much more than just its landmark donut shops, hot dog stands, and archaic restaurants.
As the second largest metropolis in America, Los Angeles certainly knows food.
Whether biting into a piece of seared rare tuna at Wolf Gang Puck's celebrated Spago in Beverly Hills or crispy duck breast at Pasadena's Bistro 45, residents and visitors of Los Angeles can taste some of the finest and most sophisticated cuisine throughout Southern California, from West Los Angeles all the way down to Long Beach. For many tourists traveling to Los Angeles, Hollywood and Beverly Hills seem to be one in the same.
While movie stars, glitz, and glamour all come to mind when thinking about Hollywood, Beverly Hills, in actuality, is the city that provides the opulence most first-time visitors expect.
Beginning as a small train station named Morocco Junction, Beverly Hills would later become a full-fledged city in 1927 as the movie industry and its celebrities moved into mansions decorated with lavish gardens and more than just one pool.
On Rodeo Drive, buses filled with Japanese tourists constantly roll down the finest shopping strip in the world anxiously looking for an opportunity to snap a picture of the latest Gucci and Versace products.
Lined with stretch limos, sleek Ferraris and polished Mercedes, this world-renowned street has represented the cornerstone of a small Los Angeles town built on wealth and prosperity for the past thirty years.
For those fortunate enough to live in such comfort, Beverly Hills signifies a place of absolute beauty and security. Along Sunset Boulevard, the palm trees and pink decor of the Beverly Hills Hotel can not be missed.
Only by chance did Gonzo journalist Hunter S.
Thompson get his break here on a hot summer day in 1971.
Sitting on the patio of the hotel's famed Polo Lounge and sipping Singapore Slings with mescal on the side and beer chasers, Thompson made a phone call to Sports Illustrated that would later change the face of traditional American journalism.
While he certainly could not have predicted this monumental feat at the time, Thompson's correspondence with the sporting magazine initially left him packing for a weekend in Las Vegas.
His assignment: the Mint 400.
In the words of Thompson, the Mint 400 epitomized "the richest off-the-road race for motorcycles and dune-buggies in the history of organized sport." For some racing fanatics, the Mint 400 was a "far, far better thing than the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Derby and the Lower Oakland Roller Derby Finals all rolled into one." But what was supposed to be a 250-word caption for the magazine quickly turned into a wild, episodic 200-page novel loaded with drug binges, violence, debauchery, massive hotel bills, and extreme paranoia.
Thompson realized that he could not separate himself from the story and that the only way to speak the truth was through his deranged, drug-induced experiences.
So he locked himself up in a room at the Ramada Inn in Arcadia, just up the road from Pasadena and right across the street from the Santa Anita racetrack.
There, hopped on speed and a galaxy of uppers, Thompson pounded away at his IBM Selectric typewriter in between sips of Chivas Regal.
Developing his own style of reporting, Thompson captured the spirit and ideology of the 1960s counterculture movement in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream.
The book, however, was not what Thompson had envisioned.
He firmly believed that the eye and mind of the journalist should function as a camera, for this method could assure that the writing would not only be selective but unedited; that is, free of any alterations.
In his eyes, the Vegas trip was ultimately a "failed experiment in Gonzo journalism," a "vile epitaph for the Drug Culture of the Sixties." But to his critics, Thompson's novelistic and personal approach to his subject ultimately transcended the customary practices of American journalism.
Although Thompson's unexpected death last year proved to be a sad day for the entire journalism community, he left his mark on Los Angeles, from Hollywood to East Los Angeles, in a fire-apple convertible with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, twisted on every drug imaginable. Bordered by West Hollywood on the north and Beverly Hills on the west, the Fairfax District has commonly garnered such titles as Park La Brea and the curious Beverly Hills Adjacent.
On the busy Fairfax Avenue, traditional Jewish businesses line a section of the street that Angelinos still refer to as Kosher Canyon or even "The Bagel District." Since the early 20th century, the Fairfax District has stood as the center of Los Angeles' Jewish community.
With the increasing influx of Mexican immigrants in the greater Los Angeles area, middle class Jewish families moved west from Boyle Heights, City Terrace, East Los Angeles, and Montebello to seek out new housing across town.
What they soon discovered was a unique village centered on a main street consisting of kosher delis, restaurants, butcher's and baker's shops, and fish markets.
Not long after, religious schools began to spring up throughout the neighborhood while the construction of a Jewish Community Center brought Jews from all different backgrounds together.
As more establishments developed around the district during this time, Jewish immigrants fled from Israel and Russia to begin a new life in Los Angeles.
More synagogues were built throughout the 1930s, and by 1945, the tally was already up to twelve.
At the conclusion of World War II, Fairfax continued to flourish as more Jews, particularly Holocaust survivors, began to infiltrate into the community.
But by the late 1970s, some Jewish families had vacated the Fairfax District and spread out to other sections of West Los Angeles.
This next generation of Jews did not follow their parents, attending college and securing white-collar careers instead of owning one of the traditional shops along Fairfax Avenue.
Subsequently, many of the storefronts from these early days have vanished and been replaced with modern-day shops.
For the most part, the center of Jewish life in Los Angeles has migrated southwest to Pico and Robertson Boulevards just miles east of Century City. Even so, many Jewish families have remained loyal to the Fairfax District today.
Walking down Fairfax Avenue, Hebrew music pours out of the local Jewish record store while Hasidic men and young boys stroll along the district's sidewalks in black suits, white dress shirts, tzitzit, and yamakas.
Down the street, the famous Canter's Delicatessen has served Los Angelinos for seventy-five years and counting.
Starting as a family-run business in Jersey City, New Jersey, the restaurant moved to Boyle Heights before relocating to the Fairfax District.
Over the years, hundreds of celebrities, from Muhammad Ali to John Travolta, have walked through the deli's doors for a Canter's Fairfax-a house specialty that features a half-pound of corn beef and pastrami on a two pieces of rye bread.
In the 1950s, Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller could often be spotted sitting down for a bite to eat.
Other customers favor the chicken matzoth ball soup, which has also earned public recognition as "the Jewish penicillin," to cure a common cold or the flu.
Next door, the Kibitz Room has become a musical haven for local rock and jazz musicians over the years.
In the early 1990s, The Wallflowers regularly appeared at the club's Tuesday night jams, introducing many of their soulful, folk-rock tunes to crowds itching to hear songs void of glitz and glamour. Ever since Arthur Fremont Gilmore struck oil at the turn of the century on his Los Angeles ranch, the Gilmore Island has developed into a Los Angeles landmark.
While Gilmore really was just seeking a new home for his family on the booming West Coast, his world-renowned institution started as a purchase of two Los Angeles ranches.
But when Gilmore and his partner decided to split, they drew straws.
With the acquisition of 256 acres, Gilmore's straw helped shape a highly successful dairy farm.
And one day around the turn of the century, he struck oil while inconsequently drilling for water to give his herd of dairy cows.
Five years later, the dairy had been replaced by the Gilmore Oil Company, providing the fuel that would give birth to the first automobiles. In 1921, a new Gilmore generation took control of the property.
Earl Bell Gilmore, Arthur's son, established an extensive oil and gas distribution network with his independent oil company, the largest in the west at the time.
Roger Dahlhjelm and Fred Beck, two entrepreneurs fighting against the struggles of the Great Depression, approached "E.B." with a business plan that would transform the district's landscape into a village square.
There, artisans could offer handmade goods to customers while farmers sell their produce to a pack of housewives.
With Gilmore's widespread acreage, the architectural vision of these two businessman was born.
The construction of wooden stalls followed, and Dahlhjelm and Beck proposed a modest business approach where farmers were charged fifty cents per day for rent.
At the intersection of Fairfax Avenue and 3rd Street, the Farmers Market has attracted many Jewish families to its open-air vegetable stalls and cafes as part of their weekly shopping routine.
This open-air supermarket first got its start in 1934 when a group of eighteen farmers drove up and parked on a strip of vacant land at Gilmore Ranch.
There, in a muddled dirt parking lot, they sold fresh produce-fruit, vegetables, and flowers-to locals out of the back of their trucks. With fresh goods and an atmosphere that was quite casual, the Farmer's Market brought Los Angelinos together to converse as well as shop.
Inside these cream-colored buildings laced with green roofs and brick-colored trim, butchers, bakers, and other vendors sell various candies, nuts, and gourmet cheese.
Passing by the stands, visitors can often hear over twenty different languages being spoken among them and sometimes, they even catch themselves taking a second look to verify a celebrity sighting-the Los Angeles Times still ranks the Farmers Market as the top location for spotting Los Angeles movie stars.
In fact, A.F.
Gilmore had no idea that moving from Illinois to Los Angeles in 1870 would have so much reward.
By the end of the 1920s, the Farmers Market had grossed more than six million dollars, but monetary gain had not been Gilmore's primary goal for building his popular marketplace.
Rather, this vacant land at Third Street and Fairfax Avenue represented a central meeting place for Angelinos and a tourist attraction for out-of-towners, hosting circus acts, parades, petting zoos, and stargazing. Only a few months before the Farmers Market opened, the younger Gilmore built the first race track for midget racers out of his love for the sport.
He made winners out of his racers, taking them to the Winner's Circle at the Indianapolis 500.
A member of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame and the Sprint Car Hall of Fame, Gilmore would later pitch the idea to develop the sport of modern stock car racing.
But Gilmore's fascination with cars extended further than just the construction of Gilmore Stadium, which also remained home to the Bulldogs, Los Angeles' first professional team, rodeos, wrestling matches, and even swimming meets.
Art Aragon, the Golden Boy of boxing, also fought in front of a packed crowd at the 18,000 seat stadium, and President Harry Truman delivered his classic "stiff upper lip" speech inside its doors.
In 1938, the Hollywood Stars, a minor league professional baseball team owned by jazz musician Bing Crosby, actress Barbara Stanwyck, and movie director Cecil B.
DeMille, moved into Gilmore Stadium with young prospects Spark Anderson and Chuck Connors, "The Rifleman." With the stadium seats right on top of the field, Los Angelinos quickly fell in love with America's pastime, and by 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers were headed to Los Angeles to begin its first season on the West Coast. In 1941, Farmers Market featured the newly-constructed Clock Tower with the word's "An Idea" inscribed into its surface to honor the entrepreneurship of Gilmore, Dahlhjelm, and Beck.
With the arrival of a new millennium, the A.F.
Gilmore Company dedicated a large majority of the available property to shopping and entertainment venues.
The North Market, home of the original Gilmore Bank, played host to a number of street-level and two-story office buildings.
Today, CBS Television City dominates the northern section of the Fairfax District while the southern portion has been converted into the "Grove," an outdoor shopping mall and theater complex decorated in early 1900s architecture.
With its small-town atmosphere, this upscale mega-mall offers a host of quality clothing stores, including Nordstrom and Banana Republic, for tourists and high-class shoppers to explore. Winding along the four sun-soaked lanes of Pacific Coast Highway 1, surfboards jut out the back of Volkswagen buses and mini vans.
Beach houses crammed one next to the other watch the waves crumble into white wash, and each block another surf shop appears with boards stacked outside.
One highway road sign says it all: "Malibu, 27 miles of scenic beauty." Perched on the brush hillsides overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Spanish-style houses and other elaborate homes decorate these Malibu neighborhoods.
Acquiring property in Malibu requires a fat pocketbook-residential lots can range from five million dollars all the way up to twenty-five.
Peppered along the coastline, Duke's, the Chart House, and other pricey surf-and-turf restaurants invite surfers, professionals, and wide-eyed tourists to sink their teeth into filet mignon or a grilled piece of Ono.
At Neptune's Net, customers can enjoy fresh lobster, crab, or shrimp from the live wells all while taking in the sound of waves crashing on the beach.
Other Malibu locals flock to Malibu Seafood for a fish-n-chips basket, a bowl of clam chowder, or fresh Maine lobster in a more casual, yet scenic setting. When it comes to spotting a celebrity in Los Angeles, Malibu has its own community of Hollywood stars.
After the sale of La Costa area for six million dollars in 1928, a wave of movie stars fled to Southern California to lease beachfront homes from real estate developer Art Jones.
From Tom Hanks to Mel Brooks to Bill Murray, the Malibu Colony has become a favorite vacation hideout for movie stars since the early 1930s.
Today, this gated community still serves as an oceanfront playground for members of the movie and music industries along with distinguished writers, producers, and business types.
In the last few years however, state officials have begun to favor the public's right to share Malibu's coastline.
While the California Coastal Commission hopes to open up these privately-accessed beaches to the public with new pathways, this celebrity community continues to fight relentlessly to keep surfers and tourists out of their backyards. There is no doubt that Los Angeles has distinguished itself throughout the world as a classic surf destination.
Long before surfing came to California, Hawaiians living on the Big Island in the late 18th century learned to stand erect on heavy timber "plank" boards and cruise down the face of a wave.
By 1907, Hawaiian George Freeth had introduced this concept of surfing in Southern California, but it wasn't until 1927 when the renowned Duke Kahanamoku began to teach the sport to early Malibu surfers for the first time.
Adjacent to the Malibu Pier on the 2300 block of PCH, Surfrider Beach marks the beginning of surfing in America and on a good day, can offer one of the best right breaks in the world.
With twenty-one miles of coastline, Malibu has developed over time other hot surf spots-Point Dume, Pirate's Cove, Trancas, and El Pescador-for locals and surfing aficionados to explore.
At Leo Carrillo State Park, tide pools, offshore reefs, and canyon streams invite surfers, explorers, and backpackers to esteem the coast's natural resources. Out on the water, middle-aged men climb onto their long boards and glide across the ocean's glassy surface, tip-toeing up to the nose of the board and back as if they were balancing on a circus tight rope.
Younger surfers catch the next set that comes in, scaling across the wave before instantly whipping the nose of the board in a 180-degree turn back down the face.
Other surfers pop off the lip of the wave, soaring through the crisp California air while grabbing the edge of the board for additional style points.
On some occasions, the wave's push tweaks human balance, knocking the rider over the side of the surfboard-even surf wax does not always provide surfers with the best grip to steer out of traffic.
Emerging from the water's surface, the surfer spots his board, jumps on, and paddles out to stand up on the next promising wave.
Over the weekends, large crowds make it difficult for anyone to stand up for a clean ride.
Sometimes competition can become fierce between locals and visitors-stealing waves from each other, cutting off another rider or trash talking are all part of this game out on the ocean's surface. On the other side of Los Angeles, the city of Anaheim contains a diverse racial and ethnic composition of Latinos, Vietnamese, and African-Americans.
Originally settled as a German colony, Anaheim's rural, agricultural landscape rapidly transformed into a bustling industrial center with the production of electronics, aircraft parts, and canned fruit soaring to new heights.
Surprisingly, the Ku Klux Klan made Anaheim its home in the 1920s, secretly electing four of its members to the city's Board of Trustees.
Even more frightening, in fact, was that nine of Anaheim's ten-man police squad actually acted as Klansmen.
Yet as World War II came to a close, Anaheim grew with the arrival of military serviceman eager to experience the constant sunshine and new opportunities that Southern California offers its residents. Discharged from his military term in France, Walter Elias Disney ultimately gave new life to Anaheim in the mid-1950s.
After heading one of Hollywood's most successful movie studios with his brother in 1923, Disney had plans for a permanent family fun park.
Using television as his source of advertisement, he created the show, "Disneyland," for the American Broadcasting Company.
With the financial support of the television network, Disney's dream soon came true in the summer of 1955 with the opening of Disneyland as the first member of the Magic Kingdom.
From day one, crowds have flocked to the park, and many people today still travel to Anaheim for a vacation with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Snow White.
By the 1990s, Disneyland underwent major construction, turning the theme park into a designated vacation resort with the Grand Californian Hotel right inside its gates.
Just five years ago, the park expanded with the opening of Disney's California Adventure Park and the recent restorations of Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, and Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room in 2004 set the stage for the park's fiftieth anniversary celebration, the "Happiest Homecoming on Earth," a year later. Even with these recent additions, Disneyland isn't what it's all cracked up to be.
A versatile playground for children and other lively youngsters, the world-renowned park rolls a day's worth of cheap thrills, long lines, and overpriced fast food all into one unaffordable ticket price of fifty-nine dollars.
Southern Californians looking for a real rollercoaster often make the drive north out to Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, where guests can take a ride on the spinning and looping Riddler's Revenge or scream from the 250-foot opening drop and high speeds (an average of eighty-five miles per hour) of Goliath.
Other theme park enthusiasts can make their way up to Universal City to jump on Jurassic Park...The Ride or experience the eye-popping, hair-raising effects of Shrek 4 at Universal Studios Hollywood.
And in Buena Park next door to Anaheim, Knott's Berry Farm, America's first theme park, has its own mix of screamers, spinners, and family rides.
Originally established as a small farmland on Highway 39 for cultivating the world's first boysenberry, the amusement park invites children and adults from all corners of Los Angeles to enjoy over 165 rides, attractions, and theatrical shows for less than forty dollars per person.
In any case, the city of Anaheim has been regarded as a world-class destination for both leisure and business.
Recognized for its hip, rich youth culture, this major metropolitan center forty minutes south of Los Angeles presents endless opportunities for surf bums, fashion goers, and ritzy executives.
And with contemporary television shows like FOX's The O.C.
and MTV's Laguna Beach: The Real O.C., the Orange County region has grabbed the national spotlight with its vibrant assortment of theme parks, distinguished shopping centers, plentiful sunshine, sandy beaches, and renowned surf culture. Sitting on the southern cliffs that overlook the dark blue Pacific Ocean, Palos Verdes has grown to be a safe haven for high-class corporate executives, physicians, and attorneys.
Tucked away along the coastline's Peninsula, this Los Angeles suburb has been rated as one of the best places to live in the world due to its close proximity to the ocean and host of golf courses and country clubs.
In fact, finding available property these days can take several years for those hoping to live in one of the Peninsula's four cities: Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, and Palos Verdes Estates.
But long ago in 1827, Palos Verdes first came to life at the hands of Don Dolores Sepulveda.
The rancher from Mexico took control of the area after receiving an original land grant to Rancho Palos Verdes, the "range of green trees." Soon after, the 75,000 acres of rolling hills herded thousands of cattle along with a booming hacienda.
In the early twentieth century, New York banker Fred Vanderlip purchased the entire peninsula for only 1.5 million dollars, the value of most homes in the immediate area nowadays. Today, joggers, cyclists, and horseback riders often spend time along the snaking two-lane roads and switch-backs that cover both sides of the hill.
At the center of the Peninsula, the outdoor shopping mall, the Avenue, combines trendy clothing stores with family entertainment, including a multiplex cinema, year-round ice rink, and center plaza fountain.
Off dry land, surfers, scuba divers, and fishermen often relish the natural wonders of the Pacific at Abalone Cove and Long Point, now a popular spot for filming movies and television series.
Along the city's coastline, Point Vicente represents a popular location in February for viewing gray whales heading south to Baja California.
And across the channel, Santa Catalina Island offers an escape from the big-city atmosphere for millions of tourists and boy scouts with its abundance of hiking trails, endangered plant life, and distinct wildlife.
At Lunada Bay, one surf spot has remained a well-kept secret due to a vicious local surf gang.
Known by locals as the "Bay Boys," these PV surfers show no mercy for non-locals.
In fact, they have been known to harass, intimidate, and assault outsiders hoping to surf the Bay's perfect curl during the winter months.
Several strangers and other aspiring surfers from outside the area should expect a hostile greeting when traveling t o surf Lunada Bay's break, which can reach heights of twelve to fifteen feet on a big day.
This infamous gang of PV surfers regularly waits on the beach for non-locals to return from a session out on the water before confronting them, leaving their surfboards cracked in half and their car tires slashed.
But with its rolling hills and cool off-shore breeze, Palos Verdes is more of a vacation resort than a place for permanent residence.
Whether golfing, hiking, or just savoring the brilliant color of an afternoon sunset, Palos Verdes presents its residents with a quiet, reserved community hidden away from the daily hustle-and-bustle, smog, and bumper-to-bumper traffic that habitually comes with living in the ever-chaotic city of Los Angeles.
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