Urban Demographic Analysis

Since its beginnings as a dusty cow town of 11,000 people, Los Angeles has come a long way. The City of Angels; to some, Los Angeles is the epitome of the American dream. Most would consider it the west coast equivalent to New York's Ellis Island, with opportunity beaming at every corner. The city of movie stars and Hollywood's walk of fame. It has been looked at as the city of dreams for decades.

The population of Los Angeles began to grow rapidly with the baby boom following World War II. Los Angeles was the place to achieve the American dream due to the Federal Housing Administration creating developments in southern California for recent veterans and insuring new loans.

Many motion pictures produced in and around the 1950s, which played throughout the country, portrayed the region very favorably with images of endless beaches and palm trees everywhere. Through research, however, I have come to understand that there were many factors which contributed to the large population growth spurt for the City of Los Angeles. The primary attribute to the growth in population was the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, a reform of the country's immigration policy. It officially ended bias in favor of Northern European immigrants and opened doors to massive immigration from Latin America and Asia, due to southern California's proximity with Mexico and the Pacific. In addition, the act abolished the country-specific quotas that had been set in place due to the Immigration Act of 1924. Starting in 1965, immigrants were to be admitted by their skills and professions rather than by their nationality.

Los Angeles became the nation's leading port of entry for immigrants. Other ripples effected the population, such as Japan's occupation of Korea from 1905-1945, which resulted in a community of Korean political exiles settle in Los Angeles. This eventually led to Los Angeles becoming the largest