The Past, Present, and Future of Los Angeles - Research Paper Example

Even though oil was discovered well before the beginning of twentieth century, significant oil production started in Los Angeles only in the beginning of the twentieth century. In the 1920’s Los Angeles was able to produce one quarter of the world's total oil supply. Wilmington oil field in Los Angeles is still one of the largest oil fields in the world. With the exception of Wilmington oil field, all of the large oil fields in the Los Angeles area were discovered between 1920 and 1930. These include Huntington Beach in 1920, Long Beach and Santa Fe Springs in 1921, and Dominguez in 1923.

Another important discovery during the decade was Kettleman Hills oil field in Kings County in 1928. The development of these fields caused a flood of oil to reach the market, reducing the price (Oil And Gas Production: History in California, p.6). The oil revenue helped Los Angeles to develop rapidly which is evident from the fact that it hosted 1932 summer Olympics. The stadiums built for this Olympics had around 100000 seating capacity, which are still used for conducting various sports events.

Because of the rapid developments in Los Angeles in 1920’s and 30’s, people from all over the world started to migrate to California in general and Los Angeles in particular. “By 1920 southern California’s population had surpassed that of northern California, and in the next several years Los Angeles experienced “the largest internal migration in the history of the American people”(Los Angeles). The development of industry in general and automobile industry in particular took place during this period in Los Angeles.

Even though migration caused huge diversity in Los Angeles population in 20’s and 30’s, whites were the dominant community still. Racism and discrimination were visible in Los Angeles’s social life during this period. The Great Depression caused huge problems in Los Angeles in 1930’s. Unemployment rate was grown significantly during this period. However, Los Angeles was able to conduct the 1932 Olympics successfully amidst huge economic problems. Being the second largest city in America, present face of Los Angeles is entirely different from that in 1920’s and 30’s.

In 1920’s, population size in Los Angeles was around 600000 whereas at present it is around 4000000. Even though automobile industry was one of the prominent employment sectors until recent times, 2007 global recession caused problems in this sector and many of the prominent automobile manufacturers forced to close down their units. Even though unemployment rate was dropping until 2007, it again started to increase from 2007 onwards because of recession. It should be noted that unemployment rate in Los Angeles was in between 6 to 7% at the beginning of 2000 whereas at present it is around 11 to 12%.

“Once the whitest city in America, Los Angeles is now the most multicultural city in the history of the world”(Los Angeles Now). The ethnic face of Los Angeles has changed a lot in the past. As mentioned earlier, Los Angeles was a White dominated city in the past whereas at present it is a Latino dominated or Black dominated city. “According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 46 percent of the city’s population identifies as white, 46 percent as Latino, 11 percent as African American and 10 percent as Asian.

(Total percentages add up to more than 100 because many people identify as being multiracial)” (Los Angeles: A century of Change). The above statistics clearly