Los Angeles and San Francisco
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This study will compare and contrast the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, including consideration of their regional histories, demographic make-up, civic culture, and economies. The study will also consider in what ways each city reflects the myth and reality of the "California Dream." The study will argue that the histories and development of the two cities has been in large part dependent on very real differences in their material realities. Certainly an important aspect of the different ways the two cities developed is the natural environment of each region. Los Angeles is a desert naturally, with a need for imported water. In addition, Los Angeles is spread out geographically, allowing the kind of sprawling development which marks the city. San Francisco, on the other hand, is geographically penned into a much smaller area, resulting in the concentrated development we see in that city shaped by the bay-dominated environment. Unlike Los Angeles heat and sun, San Francisco's climate is marked by cool weather and fog, as is expected by a city five hundred miles further north and situated directly beside the ocean. The different ways these cities developed have much to do with these fundamental geographical and climatic differences. As we read in Carey McWilliams' Southern California: An Island on the Land, In one sense the growth of Southern California has been continuous but it is also true that its growth has been characterized by quantum leaps. . . . Modern da
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e location of Hollywood and Disneyland, well-known tourist draws, in San Francisco, say Rawls and Bean, tourism is in fact the number one industry, including such attractions as Chinatown, North Beach, Fisherman's Wharf (Rawls and Bean 489-490).
A major similarity of the two cities has to do with the coming and going of industries. Both cities have been dependent on industries which have since seen major decline. San Francisco was once reliant on its fishing industry, but tourism has replaced fishing in economic significance, with fishing practically disappearing along Fisherman's Wharf (Rawls and Bean 490).
Los Angeles, in the meantime, was once far more heavily dependent on the defense industry, especially during certain years, such as the Reagan era. The cut-backs in defense spending pursuant to the end of the Cold War and attendant economic restraints have spelled the end of such defense industry booms for the foreseeable future (Rawls and Bean 485).
The two cities exhibited different cultures as well throughout their development. In part, this was due to the impact of Hollywood and the film industry in Los Angeles, adding to the glitz and glamour of the southern city. However, San Francisco had its own unique cultural
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Approximate Word count = 2039
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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