Chapter 5 Manufacturing and Industry

Manufacturing and Industry


Manufacturing in Los angeles employees over 660,000 people, this is second to the service industry, which employees almost 1.5 million people. In the table below from the L.A Almanac it shows the number of different industries and the amount of people employed in each.

Business Establishments, Employment and Payroll Los Angeles County, 1997 All Industries Industry Number of Employees Annual Payroll ($1,000) Number of Establishments 1-19 Employees 2-99 Employees 100-499 Employees 500+ Employees Total 3,588,831 115,824,320 218,878 187,124 26,484 4,728 542 Agricultural Services, Forestry, & Fishing 16,675 345,490 1,848 1,663 170 14 1 Mining 4,504 281,378 178 137 33 6 2 Construction 115,339 3,820,400 11,617 10,413 1,064 130 10 Manufacturing 668,505 23,676,151 18,139 12,036 4,784 1,201 118 Transportation & Public Utilities 210,691 7,963,735 8,117 6,451 1,298 330 38 Wholesale Trade 291,436 11,108,178 23,151 19,942 2,810 373 26 Retail Trade 592,001 10,070,406 42,297 35,020 6,550 698 29 Finance, Insurance, & Real Estate 240,603 11,363,771 20,357 18,144 1,867 299 47 Services 1,447,365 47,123,321 90,699 80,850 7,901 1,677 271 Unclassified Establishments 1,712 71,490 2,475 2,468 7 0 0

According to figures compiled by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, if Los Angeles County, with a gross metropolitan product of $410.8 billion in 2003, were a separate nation, it would rank 14th in the world for gross product. Its gross economic output in 2003 was larger than that of either Australia, the Netherlands, Russia, Taiwan, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Saudi Arabia, or Norway. Los Angeles County ranks second
nationally only to New York City ($488.8 billion in 2003).






The movie industry employees over 160,000 people in the L.A. Region, these jobs can range from a Producer/Director to the ticket handler at your local theater.


What's crazy about the table below is how many households in Los Angeles have an income of less than $10,000 annually.  The average  median household income 1999 was $42,189. 

Household Income
Los Angeles County Households, 1999

Household Income	Households	Percent
Total Households	3,136,279	100.00%
Less than $10;000	330,000	10.52%
$10;000 to $14;999	203,819	6.50%
$15;000 to $19;999	196,731	6.27%
$20;000 to $24;999	201,561	6.43%
$25;000 to $29;999	191,887	6.12%
$30;000 to $34;999	189,179	6.03%
$35;000 to $39;999	169,484	5.40%
$40;000 to $44;999	162,317	5.18%
$45;000 to $49;999	140,505	4.48%
$50;000 to $59;999	253,707	8.09%
$60;000 to $74;999	304,843	9.72%
$75;000 to $99;999	318,521	10.16%
$100;000 to $124;999	181,732	5.79%
$125;000 to $149;999	95,240	3.04%
$150;000 to $199;999	87,864	2.80%
$200;000 or more	108,889	3.47%

Sources:


LA Almanac
http://www.laalmanac.com/

Chapter 4 Megaloplis

Megalopolis

The term Megalopolis is derived from Greek and means "very large city." A group of Ancient Greeks actually planned to construct a huge city on the Peloponnese Peninsula. Their plan didn't work out but the small city of Megalopolis was constructed and exists to this day. 

Los Angeles is definitely on par with the Megalopolis on the east coast that connects Boston and Washington D.C. into one giant city. Los Angeles county on its own covers more than 4000 square miles and has a population of nearly 10 million. When counting all of Southern California's counties the population exceeds  20 million, which is just over 60 percent of the states total population.                                                                                    




If not for Camp Pendleton located between Orange and San Diego counties the urban environment radiating off of Los Angeles would connect into one mega-city stretching from the eastern cities of Ventura through Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego counties, and it would end somewhere down below Tijauna in Mexico.  

   

Chapter 3 Settlement

Settlement 

Before the arrival of the Spanish there was about 25 Tongva villages existing in what will become Los Angeles County with a population about 300 to 500 people. 

The Tongva also called the Gabrielino Indians were thought to have migrated from the Mojave area somewhere between 200-500 A.D. They intermingled and sometime displaced the Chumash who dominated the northwesten portions of the county.

Governor Felipe de Neve visits the future site of the new pueblo to clear the land and mark it off. Forty-four men, women, and children begin life at the new pueblo, El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Porciuncula River)(September 4). Only two of the original adult settlers are white Spaniards. The other settlers are of Indian, Mestizo, African, and Mulatto descent. Twenty-two are children.  

In 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed and the Mexican-American War ends. California is ceded over to the United States (February 2). Governor Mason appoints Stephen C. Foster to be Alcalde (Mayor) of Los Angeles.

In 1881 Los Angeles is linked to the rest of the nation by the Southern Pacific Railroad and later in 1885, a second rail line is opened by the Santa Fe Railroad spurring competition and a fare war begins, the price of a ticket drops to one dollar from Kansas City to Los Angeles and the population explodes from 11,000 in 1880 to 50,000 in 1890. Also, in 1877 the refrigerator boxcar is invented and California produce inundates the country with fresh products as the myth of Southern California continues to grow in the minds of Americans. 

In 1911 the first Hollywood production company, Nestor Film Company opens in an abandoned tavern. Soon, neighbors erect signs reading “No dogs, no actors.” Later in 1913 Cecil B. de Mille shoots the first Hollywood movie called “Squaw Man,” The climate allows for year around filming and there is influx of artist and businessmen from the east coast of the United States. 

WWII - Shipbuilding becomes the primary business of the Port of Los Angeles, employing some 90,000 workers. One-third of U.S. warplanes are manufactured in Los Angeles. After the war in 1950 the population grows again as suburbs and cheap housing stretch into the valleys and down the coast towards Orange county. The population creeps up on 2 million by the end of 1950.  

In 1980 spurred on by further migration and immigration Los Angeles surpasses Chicago as the second largest city in the nation.   The city becomes so large that it is the first to have two area codes (818) (213) and in the 1990s (310) is added.  Late in 1990 the tallest building on the west coast opens in downtown Los Angeles called the U.S. Bank Tower. 

 In 2006 the cities population hovers just under 4 million and the county itself is the most populated in the country with 10,245,572. 

Sources: LA Almanac

Los Angeles City Historical Society

Socal History.org

Chapter 1 Resource Dependence "Water"

WATER


Los Angeles is totally dependent on the outside resource of water. In 1913, the Los Angeles Aqueduct opened to the delight of the almost 500,000 people living in the city. The one problem here was it still was not enough, William Mulholland the chief architect of the Aqueduct predicted the population would not reach 500,000 people until the mid 1920s, it took Los Angeles less than three years to reach that total and within ten years Mulholland and others would be looking for water again.  

Mulholland turned east to the Colorado River as a new source of water.  He began a four-year series of surveys in 1923 to find an alignment that would bring the water of the Colorado River to Los Angeles. Upon the completion of the Colorado River Aqueduct in 1941, MWD began to wholesale Colorado River water to its member agencies. Today those agencies include 14 cities, 12 municipal water districts, and a county water authority.  More than 130 municipalities and many unincorporated areas are served by this project of the DWP’s and Mulholland’s vision.


The California Aqueduct runs 444 miles and draws water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Delta in the North portion of the San Joaquin Valley. From there, water begins its journey through the largest aqueduct system in the world and its end destination point is Los Angeles.
Without these three aqueducts the city of Los Angeles would fail to exist and its residence are totally dependent on this out-side resource. 

Sources: DWP http://wsoweb.ladwp.com/Aqueduct/historyoflaa/