Los Angeles' status as a major global player is quite manifest nowadays with the steadily ongoing population growth; rapidly growing rail transit system; burgeoning arts scene; mega-developments like LA Live, Grand Avenue project, Hollywood & Vine, NBC Universal West Coast Headquarters project, etc.; green initiatives; more urban-oriented zoning laws; and waves of foreign investment. It has "matured" into a bona fide urban center, no longer known as just simply "Hollywood".

Yet Los Angeles has become increasingly global over the past several decades, arguably at its highest point today. It was not an overnight success story like Dubai. In your opinion, at what juncture did Los Angeles secure its future of promise? Was it in the 1910's when the Los Angeles Aqueduct was completed, which subsequently led to heavy growth and annexation? Did it occur in the 1920's when the motion pictures and aviation industries flocked to Los Angeles, the Pacific Electric Railway was the world's largest, the Port of Los Angeles became the West Coast's busiest shipping port, and a fourth of the world's oil-petroleum stock was being produced there? Who can forget the 1930's when Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympic Games for the first time and surpassed the one million population mark? Or the World War II era when the aerospace industry created thousands of jobs, thus providing economic growth to the region? What about the post-war era when Los Angeles built its labyrinth of a freeway system, became one of the birthplaces of the internet, and established several cultural institutions (LACMA, Norton Simon, MOCA, Getty Villa, etc.)? Maybe it was in the 1980's when Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympic Games for the second time, which went down in history as the most profitable? Could it be as recent as the late 1990's and early 2000's when Los Angeles' cultural scene really took off with the opening of the Getty Center and Walt Disney Concert Hall?

The venerable (sarcasm) GaWC study suggests that Los Angeles had already reached alpha world city status when it conducted its survey in 1999. But that is open to debate, which is why I created this thread.

What are your thoughts?

I'm going to go with the 1920's. Hollywood has benefited LA in so many ways.

I agree. We opened 'wide' wayyyy before we should have with the help of Hollywood back then, although our coming out party may have been the 1984 Olympics. Could have been the worldwide syndiction of simple television shows back in the late 60's, 70's 80's. Things like "I love Lucy" on through to 'Batwatch'. Music, but basically movies. Mostly this is a cultural effect. Cheap, 'pop' culture as the Los Anjealous would say. Around the world, day in and day out, it's still us telling the stories around the international campfire- but it's so much more than that today :)

One could argue for the late thirties and forties when Los Angeles became the intellectual capital of Central and Eastern Europe due to the large number of refugees from the Nazis who found their way here. Thomas Mann, Berthold Brecht, Igor Stravinsky, Aldous Huxley, Arnold Schoenberg, George Gershwin, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc. etc. all lived here drawn by Hollywood, and the weather. The city became the center of the aerospace industry, the port became a major transit point between North America and the Pacific War and the movie industry reached a peak.

When we started to receive 300 illegal immigrants each day.

I'll go with Post War WWII era, so somewhere in the 1950-1970's.

Probably post wwII did we get global city status.

However, there has been a significant increase in the city's status.

In late 90s early 90s LA was thought of being a little bit out of it with SF and NY being considered as the edgier cities, but then something happened that propelled LA to being perhaps the foremost influential city in the world since the very late 1990s. We are still on that crest.

It seems strange to say but the riots, oj and the earthquake reintroduced LA to America and the world.

1980s. We had the second Olympics in the city, a huge construction boom in the city (at least the late 1980s). We started to build our Metro lines, and the Tom Bradley International Terminal opened at LAX.

I am talking about a very minor global status. In the 1980's, the Los Angeles CSA had a population of well over 10 million.

It all depends on what your definition of a global city is.

^ When did Los Angeles first appear on the map? At what point in time did it start having some sort of global significance? I am not talking about full-fledged global status.

So then Salt Lake City should be a global city under that definition because of some global significance (Olympics). But would you consider it a global city?

So then Salt Lake City should be a global city under that definition because of some global significance (Olympics). But would you consider it a global city?

If that is true, then Atlanta, Georgia would also be a global city

About being on a map, the difference between Salt Lake City being on a map and Los Angeles being on a map, is that even on a world-wide map with only 2 or 3 cities in USA identified, Los Angeles is marked, along with NYC and maybe our nation's capital... really, that is only because of populations, and DC being our capital. So... does population alone give a city global status?

So then Salt Lake City should be a global city under that definition because of some global significance (Olympics). But would you consider it a global city?

Having hosted the Olympic Games does not make a place globally significant.

The thing is, Hollywood was already the motion picture capital of the world in the 1920's. The movie studios brought foreigners from Europe who, in turn, brought money.

So... does population alone give a city global status?

No, it does not. Besides, it was an analogy. I didn't mean it literally. :lol:

And I would consider cities like Boston and Atlanta "global", but not "world-class" -- if that makes any sense.

it doesn't, and you lost me there. haha

isnt the world a globe... so how is world-class not global?

I think i just mis-interpreted this all, and since I can not provide an answer to this question anyways, I'll just back out and watch you all debate this.

Having hosted the Olympic Games does not make a place globally significant.


Having the ability to host an Olympic games is just one characteristic of a 'global' classification. First name basis, familiarity is also an indicator. Worldwide interaction is the leading foundation for definition.

The minute I stepped off the bus and got famous! lol:lol:

The minute I stepped off the bus and got famous! lol:lol:

I'm thinking the 1930's. By then the movie industry was fully migrated to L.A. and the great depression saw a wave of carpetbaggers come to the city, followed by the aerospace, manufacturing boom, oil drilling, 1932 Olympics etc.

I think.:tongue2:

1980s. We had the second Olympics in the city, a huge construction boom in the city (at least the late 1980s). We started to build our Metro lines, and the Tom Bradley International Terminal opened at LAX.

Also in the 1980s, it was the 1980 census that caused Los Angeles to overshadow Chicago as the 2nd largest city in the USA. So it had to be the 80s:

- 2nd largest city in America
- Olympic games
- Multi-championship sports teams (Lakers and Dodgers)
- Impact on global pop culture
- Emergence of Pacific Rim as a crucial economic region in the world; Los Angeles' ports became America's gateway to the Pacific Rim

Don't forget the 1984 Los Angeles Raiders!! :lol:

los angeles introduced the golden age of film to the world; 1930s depression sent the midwest packing for l.a.; military demand and jobs during ww2; we had the largest rail network with the longest length of track; our freeways reinvented the idea of city planning; the art came, and fast; we held a couple of the world's most memorable and successful olympics; the riots that shocked the world; our current growth into a dense megalopolis...

what i've noticed about this place is that los angeles is one of the most intimidating cities in the minds of many people around the world, and a lot of the world envies us at the same time.

we redefined our world class countless times and it all started early on when the world first heard of this americana beach-coast with pleasure piers, a mediteranean climate and neighborhoods where their favorite stars hung out.

^ :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

Los Angeles has lived a short but valuable life.

Here Here :):)

Absolutely! And that's why they hate us so. We haven't wasted our time.

Also, Los Angeles has never suffered from a prolonged period of urban blight. The next few decades look mighty good for LA. The population growth rates will slow down, but we will continue to build up our transit system and central core.

I think the 1950's.

In late 90s early 90s LA was thought of being a little bit out of it with SF and NY being considered as the edgier cities, but then something happened that propelled LA to being perhaps the foremost influential city in the world since the very late 1990s. We are still on that crest.



Uhhhh... I'm thinking that's just your perception because those are the only time periods you've actually lived through.

Check this out:

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/105235/The-World's-Best-Places-to-Live-2008

and...

Probably post wwII did we get global city status.

However, there has been a significant increase in the city's status.

In late 90s early 90s LA was thought of being a little bit out of it with SF and NY being considered as the edgier cities, but then something happened that propelled LA to being perhaps the foremost influential city in the world since the very late 1990s. We are still on that crest.

It seems strange to say but the riots, oj and the earthquake reintroduced LA to America and the world.

Riots, earthquakes, Rodney King, OJ, the invention of Gangtsa Rap along w/ the ascension of gritty characters like Tupac, Eazy-E, Dre and Snoop?????

You couldn't be more off! The 90's is precisely when LA recieved its gold plated diamond studded teeth but it was based in the late 80's Ice-T already intact but little known gangsta rap movement that exploded in the 90's! How could you have missed this important development in LA history? The 90's and late 80's was when all of those "LA Is Going To Hell" movies were made---Falling Down, 187, Boyz In Da Hood, Echo Park......and on and on, their are so many. Before then LA was thought of as sunshine and beaches and later clueless Valley Girls romping about in the mall. If anything by the late 90's the city seemed to be trying to smooth some of those edges out.

"Silverlake" where have you been all of your life?

and...

The first city in the USA is in the low 20s and is Honolulu. No one else think that is odd? Even if LA isn't a top pick given all we have to offer, what about NYC, Chicago, etc. I find this list to be very odd.

Okay. I think this list (..and they're all different..) is focusing on quality of life issues, along with the bells and whistles associated with modern life.

Check this out:

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/105235/The-World's-Best-Places-to-Live-2008

This has absolutely nothing to do with this thread.

This has absolutely nothing to do with this thread.

LA not being in the top 20 of a global city list. Oh, I see. Thanks for the input.

^ Erm, read the first post. You can read, can't you?

^ Erm, read the first post. You can read, can't you?

What are you now, the thought police? Had everyone followed YOUR logic, there would be no comments made.

Choose to way that you post and I will choose the way that I post, OK? Now run along and go bore someone else.

enough

When we started to receive 300 illegal immigrants each day.

So would that be in the 1830s-1840s when Los Angeles was invaded for the first time with illegal immigrants?