CHAPTER.18- HAWAII

One of the largest industries of the Hawaiian Islands is tourism. Los Angeles also has a large tourism industry. In fact, Tourism in Los Angeles's largest industry in terms of job creation. In 2007, 456,000 jobs were created in the tourism and hospitality industry. Over 25 million people visit L.A each year! LAX is the city's international airport and is the sixth busiest in the world. Most oversees visitors come from Australia as of 2010, however L.A is a popular destination for visitors from all over Asia and Europe. According to Frommer's guide to Los Angeles, some tourist attractions include: Paramount Studios, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, La Brea Tar Pits, Beverly Hills, Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the Santa Monica Pier, among others. 

CHAPTER.16- THE NORTH PACIFIC COAST

Seattle is known as the world's largest company town. This is because of the huge number of people who are employed by such companies as Boeing and Microsoft and the impact they have on the local economy. There are several large employers in Los Angeles as well. The largest employer in L.A is Kroger Co. who own local supermarkets such as Ralphs, and other markets around the country. Interestingly, Boeing is also a significant employer in Los Angeles, employing 14,400 people as of 2009. Entertainment companies are also huge employers in L.A., Walt Disney being the largest with 11,200 employees. Below is a list of the largest employers in Los Angeles County in 2009.



Largest Employers in Los Angeles County, 2009

Employer	Number of Employees
Kroger Co.	140,000
County of Los Angeles	109,500
Los Angeles Unified School District	104,900
City of Los Angeles	56,200
Federal Government*	48,100
Kaiser Permanente	34,100
State of California (non-education)	30,500
University of California, Los Angeles	28,400
Northrop Grumman Corp.	19,100
Boeing Co.	14,400
Long Beach Unified School District	13,100
Target Corp.	13,000
University of Southern California	13,000
Bank of America	12,200**
Walt Disney Co.	11,200**
Home Depot	10,000
Metropolitan Transit Authority (L.A. Co.)	9,700
Providence Health & Services	9,700
Vons	9,600
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center	9,300
Wells Fargo	9,100
ABM Industries Inc.	9,000
AT&T Inc.	8,900
California Institute of Technology	8,500
Fedex Corp.	8,500
Albertsons Southern California Region	7,400**
Catholic Healthcare West	7,200
Edison International	6,700**
Amgen Inc.	6,500
City of Long Beach	6,300
Washington Mutual Inc. (now Chase)	6,000**
Costco Wholesale	5,500
UPS	5,100

Source: http://www.laalmanac.com/employment/em21e.htm

CHAPTER.15- CALIFORNIA

Los Angeles is the most populated city in California, and the second most populated in the country. The city is one of two urban hubs in the state, along with San Francisco to the north. The landscape of the city was shaped by the family automobile (a characteristic that makes L.A different than the more densely populated cities of the East). This gave people greater flexibility when deciding where to live because they didn't necessarily have to be located by public transportation, but it has also contributed to the congestion of the city and the spread out landscape. The urban landscape of L.A is much more spread out than East Coast cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. Some interesting statistics regarding L.A's car culture include:

• Over half the central part of L.A. is either road or parking designated
• L.A has more cars per household than any other city in the United States
• According to Forbes, L.A has worse traffic congestion than any other city in America
• The L.A. auto show started in 1907, and is now one of the biggest in the world, and the biggest on the West Coast

CHAPTER.14- The Southwest Border Area

We learned from our textbook reading that the Los Angeles area is home to more American Indian residents than any other city in the country. However, Hispanic Americans far outnumber the number of American Indians. More than 3 million Spanish-heritage people reside in the Los Angeles area according to the text. L.A. is the largest Spanish culture north of Mexico City! Living in Los Angeles, it is obvious the huge impact Hispanic Americans have on the city's culture, economy and politics. Our Mayor is of Hispanic descent. locally and nationwide, immigration issues are one of the most controversial topics discussed today. There are over 2.3 million Hispanic owned business in the United States, many of them headquartered in Los Angeles. There is no denying the impact Hispanic Americans have had on the culture of Los Angeles. From restaurants and markets specializing in food from countries all over Latin America (and I'm not talking about Baja Fresh :/) to local artists who pay tribute to Hispanic history and culture, as well as the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach to the Hispanic majority community of East L.A., Hispanic Americans influence the culture and way of life in L.A. 

Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach: 

CHAPTER.13- THE EMPTY INTERIOR

The Empty Interior is home to numerous national parks, which are the best know use of the vast governmental land resource. The Bureau of Land Management holds the largest share and the U.S Forest Service is the second largest U.S. federal land holder. The U.S Forest Service is in charge of the Angeles National Forest in the Los Angeles area. This forest contains over 1000 square miles of open space to the residents and visitors of L.A. With a land area of 655,387 acres and 697 miles of trails, the forest offers natural scenery and numerous recreational activities. The forest is located north of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel mountains.

Photo Source: http://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsinternet/

CHAPTER.12- THE GREAT PLAINS AND PRAIRIES

The great plains is no stranger to extreme weather. From the 20 year drought cycle to tornadoes and hail, this region of the United States has experienced all that mother nature has to offer. Los Angeles experiences a very moderate Mediterranean subtropical climate, but as we all know, the weather can also be described as "extreme" occasionally. According to USA Today, there were 41 documented tornadoes in Los Angeles country between 1950 and 2004, more than any other city in the state of California. Although these tornadoes are generally very minor (f-0/f-1) compared to the ones in the great plains, there have been 5 tornadoes rated f-2 on the Fujita scale, which measures the strength of these storms. Hail is far more common is Los Angeles than tornadoes. These stones of ice water fall when the elements are right, and are fairly common during our winter storms. Of course, the hail we experience in L.A is rarely the golf ball size hail that falls on the great plains and can devastate crops and property.

CHAPTER.11- THE AGRICULTURAL CORE

This chapter discusses trends in the number and size of farms in the agricultural core. The number of farms has decreased in last century, but the average farm size has increased. The question is whether or not this trend is also the case in the Los Angeles area. Between 1900 and 2002 the number of farms decreased from 6,577 to 1,543. This decrease was not constant, as there was actually an increase in the number of farms through the 1940's, followed by a steady decrease until 1982 when there was a small increase in the number of farms. The number of farms then continued to decrease until recently when the number of farms in Los Angeles increased between 1997 and 2002 from 1,226 to 1,543. Average farm size has decreased since 1900 from an average size of 136 acres to 72 acres. Between 1964 and 1972 there was a sharp increase in farm size, reaching a peak average size of 223 acres. The overall decrease in the average farm size in the last century differs from the trends of the agricultural core. This is just another way Los Angeles differs from the rest of the country! 
Photo Source: http://ucanr.org/blogs/losangelesagriculture/index.cfm?tagnamehttp://ucanr.org/blogs/losangelesagriculture/index.cfm?tagname=farm