Everything about Beverly Hills totally explained
Beverly Hills is a city in the western part of
Los Angeles County,
California,
United States. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of
West Hollywood are together entirely surrounded by the city of
Los Angeles. The population was 34,980 as of the 2006 census.
Beverly Hills is bordered on the north by
Bel-Air and the
Santa Monica Mountains, on the east by West Hollywood, the
Carthay neighborhood of Los Angeles, and the
Fairfax District of Los Angeles, and on the south by the
Beverlywood.
History
18th Century
Gaspar de Portolà's land expedition arrived in the area on
August 3 1769. The group consisted of Portolà (the first
governor of the province of California), some
Franciscan priests and a cavalcade of leather-jacket soldiers and horses. On
September 27 1821,
New Spain became
Mexico and the province of California quietly changed flags.
That same decade, retired Spanish soldier Vicente Ferrer Valdez and his wife, Maria Rita Villa de Valdez, settled on the
Rancho El Rodeo de las Aguas. Rita didn't care for the name, however, and chose to call it
San Antonio. The Valdez
adobe home was built near what is the present day intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Alpine Drive. Valdez died in
1828, leaving Rita and eleven children.
19th century
California was admitted as a U.S. state on
September 9 1850.
A brief
oil boom raised interest in the area in 1865 when the Pioneer Oil Company bought the rights to drill wells.
20th century
In 1906, the community of Beverly Hills was developed. The community was designed to allow the buyers to build a custom house on the land they purchased in the new development. The Rodeo Land and Water Company(Burton Green)decided to name it Beverly Hills after
Beverly Farms, Massachusetts.
In 1919,
Douglas Fairbanks and
Mary Pickford bought land on Summit Drive and built
Pickfair.
Will Rogers, a wisecracking political humorist, wrote of the land boom in 1923, "Lots are sold so quickly and often out here that they put through escrow made out to the 12th owner... They couldn't possibly make out a separate deed for each purchaser; besides, he wouldn't have time to read it in the 10 minutes' time he owned the land."
The movie colony was well entrenched by 1928 when
Harold Lloyd,
John Barrymore,
Robert Montgomery and
Miriam Hopkins built residences there.
The population in 1920 was 672; in 1924, it was 5,000; by 1930, it was 17,429.
The issuance of building permits in 1918 totaled $35,200; in 1919, $304,900; in 1921, $787,729; 1922, $1,838,994.
In early 1920, the
Beverly Hills Speedway, a wood oval track with turns banked 35 degrees was opened. Joe Boyer ran his race car during the exhibition run . The races drew huge crowds and
radio broadcasts were on a par with today's
Indianapolis 500. There were also
aviation shows, another national craze. The speedway was closed in 1924 and the site was later subdivided for housing and businesses.
In 1923, annexation to the city of Los Angeles was proposed, but faced opposition. Residents Mary Pickford, Will Rogers and others mobilized local voters against the plan. Those for annexation argued that Los Angeles would provide an adequate supply of better quality water for growth. Workers left bottles of sulfur-smelling water on the doorsteps of every home in Beverly Hills with a label that read: "Warning. Drink sparingly of this water as it has laxative qualities." Despite the campaign tactics, annexation was defeated 507 to 337. The following year, the city voted $400,000 in bonds to purchase the water system from the Beverly Hills Utilities Company and drill additional wells.
This fight for an independent city was arguably the first union of show business and politics in the United States. When Will Rogers became involved in the local city government the community received international advertising. In 1925, Rogers was given the title "Honorary Mayor of Beverly Hills," becoming the first and (to date) only person so honored as such. The same year, the citizens of the city voted a $100,000 bond issue to purchase with Los Angeles, Santa Monica and
Venice for the building of
UCLA. There were of paved streets in the city limits by 1927. In 1928, the
Beverly-Wilshire Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard between El Camino and Rodeo Drives, part of the old Beverly Hills Speedway, was completed. That same year,
Greystone Mansion was completed by Edward L. Doheny, Jr., the only son and heir of wealthy oil man
Edward L. Doheny. And in 1930, horses were banned in the City of Beverly Hills.
In the early
1930s, Santa Monica Park was renamed
Beverly Gardens and was extended to span the entire two mile length of Santa Monica Boulevard through the city. At its Santa Monica and Wilshire corner, the
Electric Fountain, a constant symphony of form and color at night, was installed, with a small sculpture at the top of a Tongva kneeling in prayer, homage to the heritage of Beverly Hills as a wellspring of fertility and abundance.
In 1932 the new
Italian Renaissance style City Hall was opened.
By 1933, the effects of the
Depression were being felt in Beverly Hills. The city and school board cut salaries to save funds. In February, some 161 parcels of land were advertised for sale for delinquent lighting assessments. The Chamber of Commerce established an employment bureau and the mayor requested a branch welfare office from the County of Los Angeles. By 1937, the city had weathered the storm of the Depression and was riding the crest of a wave of retail sales that reached more than $20,000,000 and bank deposits topped the $25,000,000 figure. Property values of that year showed a 30% increase over the previous year.
Image:Benedict canyon.jpg|Benedict Canyon circa 1910
Image:Pickfair-1920.jpg|Aerial view of Pickfair, 1920
Image:BHspeedway-1912.jpg|The Beverly Hills Speedway, 1912
Image:City hall model.jpg| plans for City Hall
By the 1950s, small vacant lots remained and developers cropped whole mountains to ease the housing shortage. The stables and trails of the unusually large Doheny family estate, Greystone Mansion was bought by Paul Trousdale. The Trousdale Estates area was eventually annexed and an expensive housing development began to take shape in the hills above the city.
Beverly Hills marketed itself as one of the most glamorous places in the world to shop. The Golden Triangle, with
Rodeo Drive at its center, was marketed as the apex of chic shopping and fashion.
The Via Rodeo, the first new street in Beverly Hills in seventy-six years, was completed in 1990. The Spanish
cobblestone street leads to 2 Rodeo Drive, a "mini-mall" with upscale shops and restaurants. In 1992, the Beverly Hills Civic Center was opened. Designed by architect
Charles Moore, it links the new public library, fire and police departments with the historic City Hall.
The
Beverly Hills Unified School District, included four K-8 schools and
Beverly Hills High School.
The city's image has been enhanced by being featured in
television shows and movies set in Beverly Hills, including the
The Jack Benny Program (
1950 to
1954),
The Beverly Hillbillies (
1962 to
1971), the
Beverly Hills Cop movies, and
Beverly Hills 90210 (
1990 to
2000). There's a worldwide hit animation series
Totally Spies based in Beverly Hills, as three teen girls attend fictional Beverly High School are part-time undercover spies.
Rodeo Drive, Beverly and Canon Drives all recently underwent construction to widen the sidewalks and beautify the streets. New construction has also just been completed that added more parking for visitors to the famed shopping area.
Image:Via Rodeo Dr.JPG|Via Rodeo Drive
Image:Rodeodrive1a.jpg|Rodeo Drive
Image:Rodeo Drive at Night.jpg|Rodeo Drive at night
Image:Spanish Steps Rodeo Drive Beverly Hills.jpg|"Spanish Steps" at Rodeo Drive
90210
90210 is a
ZIP code in Beverly Hills, made famous by the television series
Beverly Hills, 90210 and because of the celebrity residents that reside in the area. Beverly Hills also has two additional ZIP codes based on the general area. These ZIP codes are 90211 and 90212. In 1983, the local weekly magazine "
Beverly Hills 213" debuted as the city's first color ultra-luxury magazine.
Geography
Beverly Hills is surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, albeit the small Northeast corner shares the boundary along Doheny Boulevard with
West Hollywood, another city known for the
Sunset strip that includes Beverly Hills on the famous Sunset Boulevard.
Main thoroughfares include
Wilshire Boulevard,
Santa Monica Boulevard, and
Sunset Boulevard. Shopping streets include Beverly Drive and
Rodeo Drive. Coldwater Canyon Drive is the main road through Beverly Hills into the
San Fernando Valley.
In spite of the city's name, most residents live in the "flats" of Beverly Hills, a relatively flat land that includes all of Beverly Hills south of Sunset Blvd. The homes in the hills north of Sunset Boulevard have a much higher value than average homes in the rest of Beverly Hills, and the most expensive homes in Beverly Hills are all in the hills. Wilshire Boulevard divides the "flats" into two areas, locally know as "North or South of the tracks," referring to the train tracks that were once used by the old Redline stockcar that traversed Beverly Hills along Wilshire Blvd. Homes south of Wilshire have more urban square and retangular lots, generally smaller than those to the north. There are also more apartment buildings south of Wilshire Blvd than anywhere else in Beverly Hills, and the average home value south of Wilshire is the lowest in Beverly Hills.
Except for the
Beverly Hills Hotel and the
Beverly Hilton Hotel, all businesses and government offices in Beverly Hills are located south of Santa Monica Blvd. Nearby the Beverly Hills city limits is the famous Los Angeles
Country Club, with its two golf courses, where
golfers tee up beside celebrities.
Demographics
As of the
census of 2005, there were 34,980 people. The racial makeup of the city was 82.06%
White, 1.77%
Black or
African American, 0.13%
Native American, 7.05%
Asian, 1.50% from
other races, and 4.63% of the population were
Hispanic or
Latino of any race.
In the city the population was spread out with 20.0% under the age of 18, 6.3% from 18 to 24, 29.3% from 25 to 44, 26.8% from 45 to 64, and 17.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age for the city was 41 years old.
There were 15,035 households out of which 24.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.8% were
married couples living together, 8.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.0% were non-families. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 3.02.
The median income for a household in the city was $70,945, which is typical for an upper-middle class suburb and close to the median household income of
San Jose, California. Yet, the median price for an owner-occupied house exceeds $1,000,000. This is because of an unusually large proportion of renters in the city. There are so many renters in Beverly Hills that homeowners are not the majority. Renter-occupied housing units comprise 56.6 percent of the city's housing stock and the median household income for renter-occupied housing units in the city is $48,179, which is just slightly above average for the entire United States.
The median household income for an owner-occupied housing unit is $125,707.
The median income for a family is $102,611. Males had a median income of $72,004 versus $46,217 for females. The
per capita income for the city was $65,507. 9.1% of the population were below the
poverty line, most of those were 65 an older Senior citizens.
Despite its reputation, 90210 isn't the wealthiest ZIP Code in the United States or even California (the wealthiest ZIP Code in California is 94027, generally located in
Atherton, California; the wealthiest ZIP Code in the United States is 33139, which is located in
Miami Beach, Florida). In fact, Beverly Hills has the
lowest median household income of any city with both a population over 10,000 and a median housing price over $1,000,000. Other places in the area that are generally considered to be very wealthy, such as
Newport Beach and
Laguna Beach, display the same characteristics.
Government and politics
See also: Mayor of Beverly Hills
Of the 21,426 registered voters in
Beverly Hills; approximately 50.3% are
Democrats and 25.9% are
Republicans. The remaining 23.8% are Independents or are registered with one of the many smaller political parties, like the
Green Party or the
Libertarian Party.
The heavy Democratic advantage makes Beverly Hills one of the more liberal cities in Southern California. In 2004,
John Kerry won 62% of the vote compared to 37% for
George W. Bush. In the 2006 state governor election,
Arnold Schwarzenegger got nearly 45% of the vote but won a second term by a state-wide majority, while Democratic opponent
Phil Angelides had just over 54%.
Beverly Hills is a general law city governed by a five-member
City Council including the
mayor and vice mayor. City Council hires a
city manager to carry out policies and serve as executive officer. Every odd-numbered year either two or three members are elected by the people to serve a four-year term. Each March the City Council meets and chooses one of its members as mayor and one as vice-mayor.
Barry Brucker is mayor and Frank Fenton is vice mayor. Roderick J. Wood is city manager. The other three city council members are
Linda J. Briskman,
Jimmy Delshad and Nancy Krasne. In city council meetings, a few celebrities showed up to speak on local political issues.
The
Beverly Hills Police Department has its stake to claim in serving the city in law enforcement, included run-ins with celebrities in its history. The police department was featured on the 1986 comedy movie
Down and Out in Beverly Hills and another comedy,
Beverly Hills Cop.
State and Federal
In the
state legislature Beverly Hills is located in the 23rd
Senate District, represented by Democrat
Sheila Kuehl, and in the 42nd
Assembly District, represented by Democrat
Mike Feuer. Federally, Beverly Hills is located in
California's 30th congressional district, which has a
Cook PVI of D +20 and is represented by Democrat
Henry Waxman.
Education
Public schools
Beverly Hills is served by
Beverly Hills Unified School District; the district's sole high school is
Beverly Hills High School.
Los Angeles neighborhoods near Beverly Hills are served by
Los Angeles Unified School District.
Private schools
Beverly Hills also has several private schools.
Good Shepherd School
, a PreK-8 school in Beverly Hills, is a part of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Other Beverly Hills private schools include
Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy,
Emanuel Academy of Beverly Hills, and Page Private School.
Marymount High School in nearby
Westwood, across from the
University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), is in close proximity to Beverly Hills.
Media
Beverly Hills is served by the following newspapers: the
Beverly Hills Courier,
Beverly Hills Weekly, and
Beverly Hills 213 Magazine. The
Beverly Hills Post used to be one of the main newspapers, but it went out of business. Due to its location, it's also served by all Los Angeles TV, radio, and newspaper media.
Beverly Hills also has its own
Television channel,
KBEV. Run by the students of
Beverly Hills High School, it airs on channel 6 (on cable) to the residents of Beverly Hills.
Landmarks
Derivative nicknames
The name
Beverly Hills has often been employed as a nickname for a fashionable, affluent area. For example,
Ladera Heights, an
unincorporated area in southwestern Los Angeles County, has been dubbed the "Black Beverly Hills". Similarly, the city of
Scottsdale has been given the nickname "Beverly Hills of
Arizona" for its upscale shops, stately homes, and high household income.
Famous residents past and present
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Britney Spears
Audrey Hepburn
Sylvester Stallone
Paul McCartney
Baron Rothschild
Tom Cruise
Madonna
Monica Lewinsky
Vidal Sassoon
Gore Vidal
Thomas Bangalter (of Daft Punk fame)
Barry Bonds
Ozzy Osbourne
Jeff Rosenstock and Ben Folds
Michael Gray
George Lucas (Starwars Maker)
Christina Aguilera
David Beckham and Victoria Beckham
Jerry Seinfeld
Jay Leno
Ellen Degeneres
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz
Paris HiltonFurther Information
Get more info on 'Beverly Hills'.
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