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Los Angeles—often known simply as L.A. or informally as the City of Angels—is the largest city in the state of California and the second-largest in the United States. As of the 2004 U.S. Census estimate, the city had a population of 3.85 million. The city is the core cultural and economic center of the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana metropolitan area with a population of 12.9 million.

Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4 1850—five months before California achieved statehood—and is the county seat of Los Angeles County. The city has a global presence as a center of culture, science, and higher education. Los Angeles is arguably the world's leading producer of popular entertainment—such as motion pictures, television, and recorded music—lending the city an extraordinary measure of international fame.

Los Angeles is also one of the most cosmopolitan places in the world—it is home to people from virtually every nation on Earth. The city has hosted two Olympic Games—in 1932 and 1984—and is home to world-renowned scientific and cultural institutions. People have long been attracted to the world-class city for its balmy weather, unique and vibrant lifestyle, laid-back energy, Pacific Rim Gateway status, and the hope of realizing the "American Dream."

Santa Monica is a coastal city in western Los Angeles County, California, USA. It borders Santa Monica Bay (part of the Pacific Ocean) on the west, Pacific Palisades and Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles and Mar Vista on the east, and Venice on the south. As of the late 2004 census, the city had a population of 96,500, although, an early 2006 estimate has the city at 103,255 people. Santa Monica is named for Saint Monica of Hippo because it was first visited by Spaniards on her feast day. In the skateboard and surfing communities Santa Monica's Ocean Park neighborhood and adjacent parts of Venice are sometimes called Dogtown.

Because of its agreeable weather, Santa Monica had become a famed resort town by the early 20th century. The city has experienced a boom since the late 1980s through the revitalization of its downtown core, significant job growth, and increased tourism.

Santa Monica is known for its progressive politics, including policies that address the needs of renters, consumers, and the homeless. Residents of the city are among the largest contributors in the nation to Democratic Party candidates. The city was well known for its strict rent control ordinance, which had been enacted in 1978 and was partially overridden by state law in 1999. Santa Monica is sometimes called the "Homeless Capital of the West" due to the presence of the third largest homeless population in Los Angeles County (after Downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood), a large number of whom are teenaged runaways; satirist Harry Shearer calls it "The home of the homeless."

Miguel Pulido

Orange County

  - Total

27 mi²

Santa Ana is the largest city and the county seat of Orange County, California. It lies approximately 10 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, on the largely seasonal Santa Ana River. The Santa Ana Freeway (Interstate 5) runs through the city, and the Costa Mesa Freeway (55 Freeway) and Garden Grove Freeway (22 Freeway) travel along its edges. It is today best-known for its enormous Mexican American population, now comprising over 75% of what was once a virtually all-white city. It has the highest percentage of Latinos, even more than El Paso, among the 50 largest cities in America. The Current OMB metropolitan designation for Santa Ana and the Orange County Area is “Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA.”

Founded in 1869 by Kentuckian William H. Spurgeon on land purchased from the Yorba family, Santa Ana was incorporated as a city in 1886 with a population of 2000 and in 1889 became the seat of the newly formed Orange County.

One of Santa Ana's most notable businesses is the Rickenbacker musical instrument company, whose electric guitars and bass guitars earned fame in the hands of rock and roll legends such as: John Lennon, George Harrison and Paul McCartney of The Beatles; Roger McGuinn of The Byrds; Pete Townshend of The Who; Tom Petty; Geddy Lee of Rush; Chris Squire of Yes; and Peter Buck of R.E.M. Santa Ana is also the home of the First American Corporation and Ingram Micro.

Santa Ana is also the location of the original Glenn L. Martin aviation company, which later merged with the Lockheed Corporation to form the largest aircraft and weapons manufacturing corporation on the planet, Lockheed Martin.

Simi Valley is an incorporated city located in the extreme southeast corner of Ventura County, California, bordering the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles in the Greater Los Angeles Area. As of the 2004 census, the city had a total population of 119,987.

The city is located 40 miles northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, 380 miles south of San Francisco, 160 miles north of San Diego, and 350 miles south of Sacramento. Commutes to Los Angeles are easy via the 118 Freeway and the Southern California Metrolink Commuter Train, which makes several daily trips from Simi Valley. Total area: 39.2 square km.

Known today as the home of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, it also regularly ranks first or second "safest city in America" in annual surveys (among all cities with populations above 100,000, alternating with Thousand Oaks, which is only a few miles away) and gained notoriety as the location of the infamous 1992 trial of Los Angeles Police Officers accused of beating Rodney King that sparked riots in Los Angeles on April 29, 1992.

Simi Valley is home to the curious California Historical Landmark Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village.

Simi Valley is also home to Strathearn Historical Park, where much of Simi Valley's rich history is displayed. Actors from the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center host a Simi Valley Ghost Tour there most years, with the actors playing characters from Simi's past.

Filmed in Simi Valley, the 1982 motion picture Poltergeist also addresses the issue of ghosts, with an oblique treatise on the rampant development and buried history of suburban Southern California. Simi's picturesque suburban neighborhoods were also used for the 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The old MANN 6 Movie Theater formally located within the Sycamore Shopping Center was used for the movie theater scene in the 1984 film "Bachelor Party" staring Tom Hanks. Being located so near Hollywood, Simi Valley and the surrounding hills have been host to such television series as Little House on the Prairie and M*A*S*H.

The hills surrounding Simi Valley, because of their remote locations, have also been chosen as locations for religious and communal cults such as Pisgah Grande (1914-1920), the Blackburn Cult (1925-1929) and the WKFL Fountain of the World (1949-1958) led by Krishna Venta. Charles Manson and his 'family' lived at the Spahn Movie Ranch on the east side of the Santa Susana pass road near Chatsworth, an adjacent city.

Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It lies at the eastern end of the San Fernando Valley, is bisected by the Verdugo Mountains, and is an important suburb in the Greater Los Angeles Area. The city is bordered to the southwest by the Atwater Village district of Los Angeles; to the west by Burbank; to the northwest by the Tujunga district of Los Angeles; to the northeast by the city of La Cañada Flintridge and the unincorporated La Crescenta area; and to the east by Pasadena. The Golden State, Ventura, Glendale, and Foothill freeways run through the city.

As of the 2000 census, the city population was 194,973. Since then, there have been estimates of 201,326 by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2004 and 207,007 by the California State government in 2005, making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the seventeenth largest city in the state of California.

Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, located in Glendale, contains the remains of many celebrities and local residents. It is famous as the pioneer of a new style of cemetery.

The U.S. headquarters of the Swiss foods multinational Nestlé are located here. Glendale is also home to the "southern campus" of DreamWorks SKG, the diversified entertainment company founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen.

Anaheim is a city in Orange County, California, located 28 miles southeast of Los Angeles. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 328,014, making it the tenth-largest city in California and 55th-largest in the United States. Anaheim is the second largest city in Orange County and is known for its theme parks, sports teams, and convention center.

Founded by fifty German families in 1857 and incorporated on February 10, 1870, Anaheim developed into an industrial center, producing electronics, aircraft parts, and canned fruit. It is the site of the Disneyland Resort, a world-famous grouping of theme parks and hotels which opened in 1955, Angel Stadium, the Arrowhead Pond, and Anaheim Convention Center, the largest convention center on the American West Coast. Its name is a blend of "Ana", after the nearby Santa Ana River, and "heim", a common Upper German place name compound originally meaning "home". Previously, the settlement was known as Campo Alemán (Spanish for German Camp).

Oxnard is the largest city in Ventura County, California in terms of population. It is located in the heart of the fertile Oxnard Plain, and is one of the world's most important agricultural centers, with its distinction as the strawberry and lima bean capital. Founded in 1903, it is home to more than 200,000 citizens.

The city is home to two large U.S. Navy bases (Port Hueneme and Point Mugu). The Port of Hueneme is the busiest commercial port between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Oxnard is also a major transit hub in Southern California, with Amtrak, Union Pacific, Metrolink, Greyhound, Intercalifornias and many others stopping in Oxnard. Oxnard also has a regional airport called Oxnard Airport (OXR), but its only destination is Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). There are ongoing discussions regarding future plans to build a major airport in the region.

The city boasts of its weather, its beaches, its economy (home to several major companies), its ambience, its sense of community and the numerous opportunities it offers.

Latitude
Longitude

34°10'49" N
118°19'42" W

 - Total (2004 est.)
 - Density

105,400
5,800/mi²

The city of Burbank is in the eastern corner of the San Fernando Valley, part of the Greater Los Angeles Area, in Los Angeles County, California just north of the city of Los Angeles, USA.

Billed as the "Media Capital of the World", many media and entertainment companies are headquartered or have significant production facilities in Burbank, including NBC, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros.

The town has come a long way from the days when it was ironically referred to as "Beautiful Downtown Burbank" on Laugh-In and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Commonly believed to be named for famous horticulturalist Luther Burbank, the city of Burbank is actually named for New Hampshire born dentist and entrepreneur David Burbank.

Thousand Oaks is a city in Ventura County, California, in the United States. It was named after the many oak trees that grace the area, and the city seal is adorned by the symbol of an oak. The city is part of a regional area called the Conejo Valley, which includes Thousand Oaks proper, Newbury Park, and part of Westlake Village, approximately 19 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. In fact, the Los Angeles County/Ventura County line crosses right through the middle of Westlake Village; thus, Westlake Village is technically part of the city of Thousand Oaks in Ventura County, whereas Westlake Village in Los Angeles County is its own city, separate and distinct from Thousand Oaks. The city is served by both the Ventura Freeway and California State Route 23. California Lutheran University is located in Thousand Oaks.

San Diego (pop. 1,305,736 as of 2005 ) is a coastal Southern California city located in the southwestern corner of the continental United States. It is the second largest city in California and the seventh largest in the United States . It lies just north of the Mexican border (shares border with Tijuana, Mexico), and is a home for United States Navy and Marine Corps bases, many miles of beaches, and a mild marine climate. The annual mean temperature is 64.4 degrees Fahrenheit (18°C). San Diego's economy centers on tourism, trade, agriculture, ship-building, the military, biotechnology, computer science and electronics.

The University of California, San Diego and nearby research institutes on Torrey Mesa provide a base for technological innovation and there are numerous high-tech and biotech companies in the area, such as Qualcomm, Neurocrine, and Illumina. Major tourists attactions include the cities beaches and bays, Balboa Park with its many museums, the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, San Diego Wild Animal Park (in Escondido, north of the city) and Old Town, the site of of the original Spanish settlement.

Downtown San Diego is located on San Diego Bay. Coronado Island and Point Loma separate the bay from the ocean. Ocean Beach is on the west side of Point Loma. Mission Beach and Pacific Beach lie between the ocean and Mission Bay, a man-made aquatic park. La Jolla, an affluent community, lies north of Pacific Beach. Mount Soledad in La Jolla offers views from northern San Diego County to Mexico.

Mountains rise to the east of the city, and beyond the mountains are desert areas. Cleveland National Forest is a half-hour drive from downtown San Diego. Numerous farms are found in the valleys northeast of the city. The city of San Diego itself has deep canyons separating its mesas, creating small pockets of natural parkland scattered throughout the city.

Military bases in or near San Diego include U.S. Navy ports, Marine Corps bases, and Coast Guard stations. San Diego is the home port of the largest naval fleet in the world, including two Navy supercarriers (the USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Reagan) five amphibious assault ships, several Los Angeles-class submarines, and many smaller ships.

One of the Marine Corps' two Recruit Depots is located here. San Diego is also known as the "birthplace of naval aviation," although Pensacola, Florida makes a rival claim.

Four Navy vessels have been named USS San Diego in honor of the city.

Malibu is a city located in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 12,575.

The City of Malibu is a 27-mile strip of Pacific coastline; a beachfront community famous for its warm, sandy beaches, and for being the home of countless movie stars and others associated with the Southern California motion picture and recording industries. Most Malibu residents live within a few hundred yards of Pacific Coast Highway (California State Route 1) which traverses the city; the city is also bounded (more or less) by Topanga and Pacific Palisades to the east, the Santa Monica Mountains to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the south, and Ventura County to the north and west. Its other beaches include Malibu State Beach and Topanga State Beach; its parks include Malibu Creek State Park and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

A popular bumper sticker reads, "Malibu: A Way of Life." Other slogans: "Where the mountains meet the sea", "27 miles of scenic beauty", "Malibu - life is too short to live it elsewhere".

90265 is an actual ZIP code in Malibu. Although, most of 90265 actually lies outside incorporated area of the city, the U.S. Postal Service considers all addresses in that ZIP code to be Malibu addresses. Real estate agents designate these adjoining areas "Malibu Post Office".