History Usefulnotes / LosAngeles

** As for #1 in men's championships? That'd be the '''USC Trojans''', best known for their [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball football]] team, which has been strong for much of the 21st century, notably during a stretch in the mid-2000s that got vacated due to improper benefits given to a star player. They're also historically strong in baseball, women's basketball and swimming and diving.

Los Angeles has been described as the biggest ''small town'' in the country instead of its second-largest city due to its fairly unique urban geography. As with many cities in the American West, it experienced explosive growth after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. With the rise of car culture at the same time, Los Angeles raced outwards in all directions, blanketing the land with {{Suburbia}}. To cope with the sheer vastness of the place, the local lexicon splits the megalopolis into a patchwork of neighborhoods, former cities that voluntarily merged to access the city's water[[note]]Hollywood is the most well known, but other examples include Venice Beach, Century City, Westwood, Encino, Van Nuys, and Sherman Oaks[[/note]], and still-independent cities completely surrounded by L.A. on all sides[[note]][[Music/StraightOuttaCompton Compton]], Inglewood, Santa Monica, East Los Angeles, [[{{Gayborhood}} West Hollywood]], [[ItCameFromBeverlyHills Beverly Hills]], Culver City, Burbank, Pasadena, and El Segundo[[/note]].

* The Harbor Area, with the L.A. neighborhood of San Pedro rubbing up against the cities of Long Beach and Carson.
* El Segundo and the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), recognizable for its Space Age Theme Building.
* The South Bay, a stretch of coast between Long Beach and LAX/El Segundo. Consists of Redondo Beach, Torrance, and the Palos Verdes peninsula.

* No discussion of LA sports would be complete without mentioning the two major universities in the city, the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California, both of which are referred to almost ''exclusively'' by their initialisms of UCLA and USC. (Just be careful with the latter one in the DeepSouth, as it can also refer to the University of South Carolina.)
** The '''UCLA Bruins''' are best known for their men's basketball team, which is almost always strong but never quite as dominant as in the late '60s and early '70s, where they won championship after championship under legendary coach John Wooden and at one point had a winning streak that spanned three seasons; however, they're good at more than just basketball, ranking #2 in Division I history in both men's team championships across all sports and in women's team championships across all sports as well as #2 in men's and women's combined.
** As for #1 in men's championships? That'd be the '''USC Trojans''', best known for their [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball football]] team, which has been strong for much of the 21st century, notably during a stretch in the mid-2000s that got vacated due to improper benefits given to a star player.

Los Angeles was first built in 1781 by Felipe de Neve as an outpost for travelers, cattle ranchers and the Spanish military, but mainly as a city for the Tongva people. In fact, Downtown Los Angeles was the site of the Tongva capital, Yaanga, [[note]]''Yaa'' means "poison oak", ''nga'' means "place", a suffix also seen in familiar place names like Cahuenga, Cucamonga and Topanga[[/note]] for centuries. Although planned on a grid, the massive hills nearby forced the streets to radiate out medieval-style from a central marketplace. Despite a tiny population, the town was staggeringly diverse[[note]]This would turn out to be a CharacteristicTrope of the city[[/note]], and by the time of the UsefulNotes/MexicanAmericanWar, it housed as many Italians, Chinese and Americans as native Mexicans.

Los Angeles was first built in 1781 by Felipe de Neve as an outpost for travelers, cattle ranchers and the Spanish military, but mainly as a city for the Tongva people. In fact, Downtown Los Angeles had the site of the Tongva capital, Yangna [[note]]Tongva for "poison oak place"[[/note]], for centuries. Although planned on a grid, the massive hills nearby forced the streets to radiate out medieval-style from a central marketplace. Despite a tiny population, the town was staggeringly diverse[[note]]This would turn out to be a CharacteristicTrope of the city[[/note]], and by the time of the UsefulNotes/MexicanAmericanWar, it housed as many Italians, Chinese and Americans as native Mexicans.

* The '''LA Clippers''' are Los Angeles' ''other'' NBA franchise. Their home arena is also Crypto.com Arena, making it the only venue that hosts two NBA teams. Relocated from San Diego in 1984 (hence the naval nickname), the Clippers were famous for being one of the worst teams in basketball (they've never won a championship), largely because they were owned by cheapskate slumlord Donald Sterling until he was caught on tape spouting blatant racism and was forced to sell. Microsoft co-founder Steve Ballmer spent $2 ''billion'' dollars to buy the team (which, again, was a laughing stock, second-rate team). Now they're looking at building a new arena to call their own next to the new NFL stadium and have seriously stepped up at becoming a significant player in the league (though they'll likely never fully escape the shadow of the Lakers).

Los Angeles, the City of Angels, Tinseltown, La La Land, or simply L.A.-- or, its (probable)[[labelnote:*]]Historians have uncovered evidence of a bunch of different renderings of the long name used by the Spanish, with the ''Nuestra Señora'' portion especially seeming to be optional based on whoever was mentioning the place.[[/labelnote]] original name, [[OverlyLongName El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Rio de Porciúncula]] [[note]]"The City of our Lady, the Queen of the Angels, of the River of Porciúncula". ''Porciúncula'' is sometimes misreported as meaning "piglet", but it's actually the Spanish version of ''Porzioncola'', the name of the Italian chapel where the Franciscan order was founded. The river had been named by Franciscan friars[[/note]]. Regardless of what you call it, Los Angeles is one of the world's most famous cities and home to the heart of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates' film and television industry. It is the second largest city in the country behind only UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, though it gets bonus points for being the largest metropolitan area in the US contained entirely within a [[UsefulNotes/{{California}} single state]].[[note]]Greater New York is spread over '''four''' states ([[UsefulNotes/NewYorkState New York]], Connecticut, UsefulNotes/NewJersey, and UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}}).[[/note]] Los Angeles County is the most-populous county in the US, with almost twice as many people as #2, [[UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} Cook County, IL]].[[note]]Los Angeles County contains 87 other cities, 15 of which have over a hundred thousand people each - Los Angeles itself is less than half of the county's population. Even if all five NYC counties (the boroughs) combined into one--which, they technically already ''are''--LA County would be larger.[[/note]]