Anaheim
Anaheim, suburb of Los Angeles, California; 336,300 residents (2010). Founded in 1857 on the Santa Ana River, where German immigrants settled and grew grapes and citrus fruits. Since 1955, the city has been known for Disneyland with millions of visitors each year. The city is also home to the famous Anaheim Stadium (from 1966) with baseball and American football.
Berkeley
Berkeley, a town on San Francisco Bay, California; 112,600 residents (2010). Central to Berkeley is the reputable University of California, which with its approximately 36,000 students characterize most of the city. In the 1960’s, the university campus, People’s Park, home to violent student demonstrations that were defeated by police and military.
Berkeley is bounded on the north by wooded mountains, from which there are beautiful views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate.
Fresno
Fresno, the largest city in the San Joaquin Valley, California; 494,700 residents (2010). It is an important agri-business center and known for the production of raisins. In itself, the city is without charm, but it still has significant tourism due to the proximity to the Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. The population doubled in 20 years from 1970, and the city is among the fastest growing in the United States.
Palm Springs
Palm Springs, town in the Coachella Valley of Southern California, USA, approximately 160 km east of Los Angeles; 44,550 residents (2010). Since the 1930’s, the city has developed into an exclusive vacation center for famous Americans and wealthy retirees. Despite its location in the middle of a desert area (Colorado Desert), there is a large concentration of swimming pools, tennis courts and golf facilities, which erode the groundwater reservoirs hard. Most of the urban area is owned by Cahuilla Indians, who due to rental income and tourism in the nearby Aqua Caliente Indian Reservation are among the most affluent Native American people in the United States. Attractions include the Desert Museum and the Aerial Tramway, which leads to the top of the snow-capped Mt. San Jacinto (3300 m).
Pasadena
Pasadena, a town in the San Gabriel Valley, California; 137,100 residents (2010). The city, which is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, was in the late 1800’s. a well-visited resort and center of surrounding citrus plantations. Today it is characterized by suburban settlement and is known to the California Institute of Technology (1891).
Long Beach
Long Beach, a port city in Southern California that is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area; 462,300 residents (2010). Port turnover in Long Beach and the neighboring port in San Pedro are dominated by trade with SEA Asia and are among the largest in the United States. Adjacent to the harbor are naval stations, shipyards and large industrial companies that shot up after oil discoveries in the 1920’s and massive military orders during World War II. The largest industries include petrochemicals, food, electronics and automobiles as well as aerospace, represented by the McDonnell Douglas aircraft factories.
Oakland
Oakland, a town on San Francisco Bay, California; 390,700 residents (2010), of which 28% are black. The city has a large container port and a versatile industry dating back to 1869, when Oakland became the terminus of the first transcontinental railroad. The city is associated in the United States with the author Jack London and is known as the hotbed of radical political movements; here was founded in 1966 Black Panther Party.
Sacramento
Sacramento, the capital of California, located on the Sacramento River 130 km NE of San Francisco; city population 466,500 residents (2010). The city, which connects the Pacific Ocean to the Pacific Ocean by shipping channel, is a traffic, administrative, and commercial center with a significant industry (especially the food industry). Among the colleges is a department of California State University (1947).
Sacramento was founded in 1839 as the colony of New Helvetia by the Swiss John Sutter (1803-80). Ten years later, it grew explosively during California’s famous gold rush and became the capital in 1854. The sights include a reconstruction of the old Sutter’s Fort in the city’s historic park.
San Diego
San Diego, a California port city 25 km north of the Mexican border town of Tijuana; 1.3 million residents (2010). The city, which has had a rapid growth since World War II, houses several large military installations incl. the main base of the US Pacific Fleet. In addition, the economy is based on shipping, trade and fisheries as well as a significant manufacturing sector with the food industry, shipyard industry and many high-tech companies, especially in the aerospace industry (headquarters of General Dynamics, Rohr Industries, etc.).
The San Diego Research Center has several universities at its disposal. Salk Institute of Biological Studies and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The city is known for its sandy beaches and densely packed marinas, which together with a sunny climate attract millions of tourists. Attractions include Sea World in Mission Bay and San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park. The city was founded by the Spaniards as a fortress and mission station in 1769.
San Jose
San Jose, California 80 km SE of San Francisco; 945,900 residents (2010), of which 32% Asians and 33% Hispanics. The city, located in the Silicon Valley industrial area, has multiplied its population since World War II in line with the influx of high-tech companies. In addition, San Jose is a trade and processing center for agricultural products (fruit and wine, etc.). The city was founded by the Spaniards in 1777 and was the capital of California from 1849-51.
Bakersfield
Bakersfield, a town in the San Joaquin Valley, California; 347,500 residents (2010). After a short period as a mining town (grdl. 1869, gold find 1885), the town has lived on income from the surrounding oil wells and agriculture (especially viticulture). Bakersfield is known around the world not least for the so-called Bakersfield sound, a rock ‘n’ roll-influenced form of country music that originated in the 1950’s.
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, exclusive residential town at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains in northwestern Los Angeles, California, USA. Beverly Hills was granted city status in 1914; 34,100 residents (2010).
After large parts of the American film industry moved to nearby Hollywood in the years around World War I, Beverly Hills has been the favorite residence of stars all over the world. The extravagant villas and luxury hotels, the legendary Beverly Hills Hotel from 1913, has become the subject of popular sightseeing, where well-heeled tourists also get the opportunity to shop in some of the world’s most expensive shops on Rodeo Drive. In terms of population, Beverly Hills has more police officers than any other city in the United States.
Compton
Compton, a city in California, USA; 96,500 residents (2010). The city, which forms part of South Central Los Angeles, was founded by Methodists in 1867; during and after World War II, it developed as a mixed industrial and residential area, which has repeatedly been home to violent racial unrest.
Since the 1980’s, Compton has been the center of black rap culture. The group NWA made the city famous for the so-called gangsta rap with the album Straight Outta Compton (1988).
Fontana
Fontana, a city in southwestern California, USA; 196,100 residents (2010). From its foundation in 1905, it grew up around the production of agricultural goods (citrus fruits, pigs, poultry), but is best known for the iron and steel complex built in 1942, which became an important supplier of munitions during World War II.
Fremont
Fremont, a town between Oakland and San Jose on the San Francisco Bay of California; 214,100 residents (2010). It was formed in 1956 by merging five smaller cities and has since grown rapidly with residential buildings and new industries, including numerous high-tech companies as well as the car factory Tesla (formerly NUMMI, which was owned by General Motors and Toyota).
Hollywood
Hollywood, Northwestern District of Los Angeles, California, USA; 210,800 residents (2000). Hollywood has gained mythological status as the international center of the film industry (see film industry).
Filmmakers from the East Coast began building studios in the area in 1911, lured by the sunshine and the varied landscapes. Hollywood had its heyday in the 1930’s and 1940’s, but as early as the 1920’s, movie stars began moving to the Beverly Hills neighborhood and then even further afield.
Today, Hollywood is a faded tourist attraction characterized by many office buildings, motoring, pollution, crime and nostalgia. Most major American film companies have had studios in Hollywood, but today only Paramount Pictures has one studio on site.
Two parallel main streets run from east to west through the district: Hollywood Boulevard with the premiere cinema Grauman’s Chinese Theater, where the entertainment industry’s celebrities since 1927 have put their brands in cement in the sidewalk, Kodak Theater, which houses the annual Oscar show, and the Walk of Fame stretch with star-shaped nameplates in the sidewalk as well as Sunset Boulevard, whose western part with many billboards and nightclubs is called the Sunset Strip. To the north is the outdoor stage Hollywood Bowl and there over the ridge Mount Lee, where HOLLYWOOD is written in 15 m high metal letters.
Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach, a city on the Pacific Ocean in the southeastern part of the Los Angeles area of California; 190,000 residents (2010). In addition to the aerospace industry, led by Boeing, the city has a significant oil industry that grew up after large offshore discoveries in 1919 and 1930. At Huntington Beach, in 1907, Hawaiians first introduced surfing in the United States.
Joshua Tree National Park
Joshua Tree National Park, 1936-94 Joshua Tree National Monument, arid and rocky natural area east of Palm Springs in Southern California, USA; 2258 km2. The area is known for a number of characterful desert plants, including creosote shrub and species of the yucca genus, to which the joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) belongs. The trivial name dates back to the 1850’s, when visiting Mormons saw the silhouette of the tree as a picture of the biblical Joshua.
Apart from a few stretches of road and a few campsites, the area is deserted and marked by loose rocks and blocks from frequent earthquakes. The highest point is Key’s View (1600 m), from where on a clear day you can glimpse Mexico in the distance.
Monterey
Monterey, a town on the California Pacific coast approximately 130 km south of San Francisco; 27,800 residents (2010). As described by John Steinbeck in Cannery Row (1945, then. A Mighty Guild, 1946), in the 1930’s and 1940’s it was home to a large fishing industry, based on catches of especially sardines and anchovies. Now it has developed into a major tourist destination and is known for its annual jazz festival. An open-air museum houses houses from the period 1775-1846, when Monterey was the capital of Spanish and Mexican Alta California.
Palo Alto
Palo Alto, town on San Francisco Bay in California, USA, approximately 50 km southeast of San Francisco; 64,403 residents (2010). The city is known for Stanford University and is the heart of Santa Clara County’s famous Silicon Valley.
Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California, California 150 km NW of Los Angeles; 88,400 residents (2010). The beautiful and picturesque city is known for its affluent neighborhoods and its Spanish-Mexican building style. Many of the houses were rebuilt after an earthquake in 1925. It is a popular tourist destination and home to a department of the University of California. The city was founded in 1786 on the royal road El Camino Real, which connected the Spanish mission stations north of San Diego. The monastery itself is still in use.
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley, popular name for industrial area in Santa Clara County south of San Francisco, California, USA.
Silicon Valley, which includes the cities of Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and San Jose, is the epitome of a high tech center with approximately 3000 of appearance almost identical electronics and computer companies, including heavyweights like Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Google and Intel, with about a quarter million employees. One of several research centers and universities is Stanford University, which with federal funds and in collaboration with private companies became a leader in silicon chip technology from the 1960’s.
Solvang
Solvang, a tourist town in California 50 km NW of Santa Barbara; 5245 residents (2010), founded in 1911 by Danish emigrants, whose descendants characterize the city. However, hardly many of the thousands of Danish tourists in particular who visit this “little piece of Denmark” every year will be able to identify with the city’s nostalgic style confusion.
Stockton
Stockton, city by the San Joaquin River in California; 291,700 residents. (2010). The city, which is connected to the Gulf of San Francisco via a shipping canal, is an important agricultural center with wine and food industry. In the center is the University of the Pacific (1924).
