Just thought of something recently... what cities do you think that Los Angeles needs to establish a sister city relationship with? I was looking at Kingofthehill's Little Ethiopia ethnic hood thread and with L.A. being the only city to have a neighborhood named after an African country, I had wondered why we don't have a sister city relationship with Ethiopia yet? As we know, Los Angeles welcomed many Ethiopians escaping political turmoil from their homeland. So why not establish a sister city relationship with them (preferably the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa?)

So that's one city that we need to make a connection with.

1) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The second city I'd like to bring up is Bangkok, Thailand. Our city has also welcomed people from the various nations across the Pacific Ocean - Thailand being one of those nations. Our Thai Town is the centralized heart of Thai-Americans in Los Angeles, so once again: why no sister city relationship? Bangkok needs to be the other city we should establish a relationship with. Not only that, Bangkok's older, official name is Krung Thep Maha Nakhon - which means "City of Angels", making this another fellow "Angel City" across the Pacific.

2) Bangkok, Thailand

Besides those 2, what other cities internationally do you feel we should establish a sister city relationship with? And why no sister city relationship with Australia and Samoa? Also, I'd like to talk about the reasons why we have relationships with the sister cities we're dealing with now.

call me stupid but what exactly is a sister city? ive wanted to know for a while........is it cities we have similarities with?

call me stupid but what exactly is a sister city? ive wanted to know for a while........is it cities we have similarities with?
I'm confused too, but I always thought the same as you.

After reading what VZN said, I kinda get the feeling that i'ts a city that you have good connections with and trade with, but that can't be possible since it must be through the government.:nuts:

I never really understood the term 'sister city' either. According to Wikipedia it is "a concept whereby towns or cities in geographically and politically distinct areas are paired, with the goal of fostering human contact and cultural links."

I too have a hard time understanding a "sister city" relationship.

From this picture L.A. is actually quite a slut:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1088/1362910905_3818c945d3_b.jpg
piratelove562

:lol:

Looks like this explains it (from wikipedia):

"The concept can be likened to a scaled up version of a "pen pal" scheme, in which the "pals" are whole towns or cities. In practice, the twinning arrangements often lead to student exchange programs, as well as economic and cultural collaborations."

Just thought of something recently... what cities do you think that Los Angeles needs to establish a sister city relationship with? I was looking at Kingofthehill's Little Ethiopia ethnic hood thread and with L.A. being the only city to have a neighborhood named after an African country, I had wondered why we don't have a sister city relationship with Ethiopia yet? As we know, Los Angeles welcomed many Ethiopians escaping political turmoil from their homeland. So why not establish a sister city relationship with them (preferably the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa?)

So that's one city that we need to make a connection with.

1) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The second city I'd like to bring up is Bangkok, Thailand. Our city has also welcomed people from the various nations across the Pacific Ocean - Thailand being one of those nations. Our Thai Town is the centralized heart of Thai-Americans in Los Angeles, so once again: why no sister city relationship? Bangkok needs to be the other city we should establish a relationship with. Not only that, Bangkok's older, official name is Krung Thep Maha Nakhon - which means "City of Angels", making this another fellow "Angel City" across the Pacific.

2) Bangkok, Thailand

Besides those 2, what other cities internationally do you feel we should establish a sister city relationship with? And why no sister city relationship with Australia and Samoa? Also, I'd like to talk about the reasons why we have relationships with the sister cities we're dealing with now.

Bangkok's sister city is Washington DC

Below are LA's sister cities. Pretty big family.

Athens, Greece
Auckland, New Zealand
Beirut, Lebanon
Berlin, Germany
Bordeaux, France
Busan, South Korea
Eilat, Israel

Giza, Egypt
Guangzhou, China
Ischia, Italy
Jakarta, Indonesia
Kaunas, Lithuania
Lusaka, Zambia
Makati, Phillippines

Mexico City, Mexico
Mumbai, India
Nagoya, Japan
St Petersburg, Russia
Salvador, Brazil
San Salvador, El Salvador
Split, Croatia
Taipei, Taiwan
Tehran, Iran
Vancouver, Canada
Yerevan, Armenia

And of course the smaller cities in the county have a lot of sister cities as well. Not sure but Santa Monica is sister to Mazatlan and a few others, Beverly Hills to Cannes and Acapulco, and Glendale to HIroshima. we had a friend who's dad worked for the city of Redondo Beach which was sistered to Ensenada and they went back and forth between the towns frequently for special events.

The idea seems to pair cities which have some traits in common. If you want to know more you can go to this site:

http://www.sister-cities.org/

Running through the site it looks like LA is trying to add Hanoi to the list. How times have changed

Must they even list San Salvador and Mexico City? Just say our sister cities include every single village, town, and city in all of Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras.

SLUT!! :)

You guys are pretty much correct in a definition of a sister city - basically it's a connection that you have with a city in another country. For L.A., some of these are obvious (Mexico City, Tehran) while others I don't quite get (Mumbai, Lusaka)... but that's the general definition of it. The entire purpose of a sister city is to establish a sort of a cultural understanding between the 2 cities for a variety of reasons (student swapping, festivals, etc.)

It's also possible for a city to have more than one sister city in another country - for example, Shanghai has a sister city relationship with San Francisco, Chicago, AND Winston-Salem. So in that respect, I feel that we should establish a connection with the 2 aforementioned cities.

And if our city is a slut, then dammit we need to be the biggest slut on the planet. We don't need to stop until we've hit every country on Earth!

Must they even list San Salvador and Mexico City? Just say our sister cities include every single village, town, and city in all of Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras.

Speaking of which... a lot of our smaller cities in the county (Compton, Lynwood, etc.) have sister cities in Mexico and Central America. Lynwood has 3 sister cities from Mexico alone. :lol:

And if our city is a slut, then dammit we need to be the biggest slut on the planet. We don't need to stop until we've hit every country on Earth!



Speaking of which... a lot of our smaller cities in the county (Compton, Lynwood, etc.) have sister cities in Mexico and Central America. Lynwood has 3 sister cities from Mexico alone. :lol:

Check out the site I gave you above if you haven't been there already. Chicago and Oakland appear to be bigger sluts than LA, so we have some catching up to do. But as a group, I like our list of cities.

There's also the term "twin city" ... I don't really know what's that either.

Must they even list San Salvador and Mexico City? Just say our sister cities include every single village, town, and city in all of Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras.

Wow. You're a piece of work. Did you even notice that Tehran, Iran is in there? Didn't know what you even tried to say with your comment.

Wow. You're a piece of work. Did you even notice that Tehran, Iran is in there? Didn't know what you even tried to say with your comment.

I think the Tehran relationship is not very active at the moment but there are about half a million people of Iranian descent in the Southern California area. So I don't think it is too inappropriate.

I think the Tehran relationship is not very active at the moment but there are about half a million people of Iranian descent in the Southern California area. So I don't think it is too inappropriate.

You're right, and it isn't based on the national level, so politics "shouldn't" interfere.
The whole thing is set up mostly to cooperate culturally, and Los Angeles being a world Mega City has much affinity with the rest of the world,……and why not more with the people whom we share our continent with.

http://origin.mercurynews.com/valley/ci_7255799

San Jose agrees that Los Angeles is a slut. San Jose thinks that cities should have less but higher quality relationship with each partner.

From that article...

"Not that the goals of Sister Cities are not laudable," Reed said, but "economic relationships should be what we focus on, rather than some city we never heard of that wants to be our Sister City and we think it would be nice to exchange delegations."

I agree... however I'm pretty happy with the list of sister cities that we have right now (and I certainly would'nt be against adding more in the future).

I never knew that this even happened:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1128076_twinning_link_with_la

Twinning link with LA

Don Frame
July 27, 2009

MANCHESTER is to establish a formal `friendship agreement' with Los Angeles - after being chosen by the American city ahead of London and Birmingham.

The link came about after an approach from the 'City of Angels', which was looking for a suitable UK partner to develop links in business, art, culture, science and education.

The M.E.N. understands the agreement could lead to the setting up of direct flights between Manchester and Los Angeles - a long-term objective of the city council.

Los Angeles, America's second biggest city, is home to movie capital Hollywood, `Silicon Valley' - and David Beckham's LA Galaxy football team.

Manchester has United and City, as well as one of Britain's top-rated universities and a thriving media sector. Neighbouring Salford will soon be home to five departments of the BBC as part of the corporation's `big move north'.

Manchester council leader Sir Richard Leese and Tom Labonge, President of Sister Cities of Los Angeles, will sign a tasselled scroll to seal the twinning agreement at the town hall in Albert Square this evening.

The US party was expected to visit Sportcity and the new MediaCity site at Salford Quays before flying back to California tomorrow.

It is expected that representatives from Manchester will visit Los Angeles over coming months.

A council spokesman said: "We will look to visit alongside with a focus on trade and investment links, and with a view to having a presence in LA to promote Manchester, but the key opportunities are still to be discussed."

Council leader Sir Richard Leese said: "I am delighted to welcome our counterparts from Los Angeles council to Manchester in what will be the start of a mutually beneficial partnership.

"The synergies and strengths of both cities, particularly in terms of our sport, creative and media sectors present huge opportunities for promoting cultural and economic exchanges between LA and Manchester."

Manchester already enjoys numerous international links with nations overseas.

It has friendship agreements with the Chinese city of Wuhan, St Petersburg in Russia, Chemnitz in Germany and Faisalabad in Pakistan.

The city has also formed links with Cordoba in Spain, Rehovot in Israel and Bilwi in Nicaragua.

LOL @ Silicon Valley being in L.A. But this is good. That's 26 cities now right?

^ I wish we had chosen London instead, but there are undeniable similarities between Los Angeles and Manchester.

Like British Pubs :) Oh, wait- those are in Santa Monica!

^ Ha! Tell that to klam! ;)

^ I wish we had chosen London instead, but there are undeniable similarities between Los Angeles and Manchester.

Apparently L.A. already has a friendship city relationship with London, and also with another city called Lodz.

http://sistercitiesofla.com/page1/page1.html

http://sistercitiesofla.com/page1/page60/page60.html

http://sistercitiesofla.com/page1/page57/page57.html

XnK-ttATHOM

I can't speak Thai, but is L.A. going to start a sister or friendship city program with L.A.?