Los Angeles, California

Urban Development

Los Angeles's rapid ascent over the last century to an economic powerhouse and a leading world city is surprising, given its unfavorable environmental conditions compared to its regional competitors. The Los Angeles River carries a trickle of water during the dry summer months, hampering agricultural development. The proximity to the San Andreas Fault line makes the region prone to earthquakes. The San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains provide natural barriers to freight shipping, while the geography of the ports is less ideal than other stretches of the coast. Also, because of its geographic location in a basin surrounded by water and mountains, Los Angeles is prone to smog, a situation further exacerbated by the region's excessive reliance on automobiles as the main means of transportation. So, early on, all signs pointed to San Francisco, Seattle, or San Diego as more likely candidates for the leading West Coast trade hub.

Working in favor of Los Angeles, however, was the unrelenting boosterism of its political and civic elites during the early twentieth century. These elites included such key figures as the water baron Walter Mulholland (prominently featured in the classic film Chinatown), the Los Angeles Times publisher and investor Harry Chandler, and the railroad and real estate tycoon Henry Huntington. The pleasant climatic conditions in the Land of Sunshine further encouraged the relocation of the entertainment industry, particularly the motion picture industry, from the East Coast in the 1920s.

But Los Angeles was a late bloomer compared to other leading American cities. Founded in 1777 in the viceroy-ruled territory of the Spanish Empire under the name of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula, the area had 650 residents in 1820. The economic development of the region rapidly accelerated only with the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876, the discovery of oil in 1892, and the completion of a much needed water aqueduct in 1913. Between 1890 and 1930, Los Angeles's increasingly diverse population grew from 50,400 to 1,200,000. The old Mexican ran-chos were quickly replaced by citrus groves and endless subdivisions of single-family detached homes.

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