Beverly Hills

format_list_bulleted Contenido keyboard_arrow_down

ImprimirCitar

The Beverly Hills Hotel (shown here in 1989) was the first substantial construction project to become Beverly Hills.

Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States, which lies at the foot of the Santa Monica Mountains. It is almost completely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, to the east by the city of West Hollywood" and the Fairfax District, bordered to the south by the Beverlywood neighborhood and to the west by Westwood Village and Century City, which are financial districts of the City of Los Angeles and not incorporated cities. At the United States Census Bureau, the city had a population of 32,701 and a population density of 2,212.00 persons per km².

Beverly Hills is famous for its grand mansions and for being home to the rich and famous as well as great movie and music icons.

History

Early Years

Gaspar de Portolá arrived in the area that would later become Beverly Hills on August 3, 1769, traveling along native trails that followed the current route of Wilshire Boulevard.

The area was settled by María Rita Quinteros de Valdez and her husband in 1828. They named their 4,500 acres (18 km²) of property the Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas.

In 1854, he sold the ranch to Benjamin Davis Wilson (1811–1878) and Henry Hancock (1822–1883). By the 1880s, the ranch had been subdivided into 75-acre (0.30 km²) parcels and had been quickly purchased by Anglo-Saxons from Los Angeles and the East Coast.

Henry Hammel and Andrew H. Denker acquired most of it and used it to grow lima beans. At this point, the area was known as the Hammel and Denker Ranch. By 1888, Denker and Hammel planned to build a city called Morocco on their property.

20th century

In 1900, Burton E. Green, Charles A. Canfield, Max Whittier, Frank H. Buck, Henry E. Huntington, William G. Kerckhoff, William F. Herrin, W.S. Porter, and Frank H. Balch, formed the Amalgamated Oil Company, bought the Hammel and Denker ranch, and began looking for oil. However, they did not find enough to exploit commercially by the standards of the time. In 1906, therefore, they reorganized as the Rodeo Land and Water Company, changed their name to the property "Beverly Hills," subdivided it, and began selling lots. The development was named "Beverly Hills" after Beverly Farms in Beverly, and due to the hills in the area. The first house in the subdivision was built in 1907, although sales remained slow.

Beverly Hills was one of many all-white planned communities that began in the Los Angeles area around this time. The restrictive covenants prohibited non-whites from owning or renting property unless they were employed by white residents. It was also prohibited to sell or rent property to Jews in Beverly Hills.

Burton Green broke ground on The Beverly Hills Hotel in 1911. The hotel was completed in 1912. Visitors attracted to the hotel were inclined to purchase land in Beverly Hills, and by 1914 the subdivision had a population high enough to to incorporate it as an independent city. That same year, Rodeo Land and Water Company decided to separate its water business from its real estate business. The Beverly Hills Public Utilities Commission was separated from the land company and incorporated in September 1914, purchasing all utility-related assets of the Rodeo Land and Water Company.

In 1919, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford bought land on Summit Drive and built a mansion, completed in 1921 and nicknamed "Pickfair" by the press. The glamor associated with Fairbanks and Pickford, as well as other movie stars who built mansions in the city, contributed to its growing appeal.

By the early 1920s, the population of Beverly Hills had grown large enough to make water supply a political issue. In 1923 the usual solution was proposed, annexation to the city of Los Angeles. There was considerable opposition to annexation among famous residents such as Pickford, Fairbanks, Will Rogers, and Rudolph Valentino. The Beverly Hills Public Utilities Commission, which also opposed annexation, managed to force the city into a special election, and the plan was defeated 337 to 507.

In 1925, Beverly Hills approved a bond issue to purchase 385 acres (1.6 km²) for a new campus for UCLA. The cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Venice also issued bonds to help pay for the new campus. In 1928, the Beverly Wilshire Apartment Hotel (now the Beverly Wilshire Hotel) opened on Wilshire Boulevard between El Camino and Rodeo drives, part of the old Beverly Hills Speedway. That same year, oilman Edward L. Doheny completed construction of the Greystone Mansion, a 55-room mansion intended as a wedding gift to his son Edward L. Doheny, Jr. The house is now owned by the city of Beverly Hills.

In the early 1930s, Santa Monica Park was renamed Beverly Gardens and extended to encompass the entire two-mile stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard through the city. The Electric Fountain marks the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Wilshire Blvd. with a small sculpture on top of a Tongva kneeling in prayer. In April 1931, the new Italian Renaissance-style Beverly Hills City Hall opened.

By the early 1940s, black actors and businessmen had begun moving to Beverly Hills, despite covenants that allowed only whites to live in the city. A neighborhood improvement association tried to enforce the pact in court. The defendants included such luminaries as Hattie McDaniel, Louise Beavers and Ethel Waters. Among the white residents who supported the lawsuit against the blacks was the silent film star Harold Lloyd. The NAACP participated in the defense, which was successful. In his decision, Federal Judge Thurmond Clarke said it was time that "members of the black race be granted, without reservation or evasion, the full rights guaranteed to them by the 14th Amendment";. The United States Supreme Court declared restrictive covenants inescapable in 1948 in Shelley v. Kraemer. A group of Jewish residents of Beverly Hills filed an amicus brief in this case.

In 1956, Paul Trousdale (1915–1990) purchased the Doheny Ranch land and developed it in the Trousdale Estates, which convinced the city of Beverly Hills to annex it. The neighborhood has been home to Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Curtis, Ray Charles, President Richard Nixon, and most recently Jennifer Aniston, David Spade, Vera Wang, and John Rich.

In the late 1990s, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) proposed building an extension of the Metro Red Line along Wilshire Boulevard and into downtown Beverly Hills, but the city objected.

21st century

In 2001, LACMTA then proposed a bus rapid transit route along Santa Monica Boulevard, but this city too opposed it and it was never built. This stretch of road is currently served by less efficient Metro Rapid buses using pre-existing roadways. By 2010, traffic in Beverly Hills and the surrounding areas had grown so bad that the city's usual opposition had largely turned to supporting the subway within the city limits. As part of the Westside Subway Extension project, Los Angeles Metro Rail Line D will be extended through Beverly Hills, adding two subway stations at Wilshire/La Ciénaga and Wilshire/Rodeo by 2020.

In the midst of the 2015 drought, Beverly Hills was found to be one of the largest consumers of water in all of California. As a result, the state asked them to reduce their consumption by 36%, prompting many residents to replace their gardens with native plants. Meanwhile, the city government replaced the grass in front of City Hall with Mexican sage.

In September 2015, the City of Beverly Hills signed an agreement with the State of Israel to work together on water use, as well as "cybersecurity, public health, emergency services, disaster preparedness, public safety, counterterrorism, and arts and culture".

In July 2016, the City of Beverly Hills received the Livability Award from the United States Conference of Mayors for its Ambassador Program, which addresses the city's homeless population.

The Beverly Hills Community Dog Park was dedicated on September 6, 2016.

In November 2016, the Beverly Hills City Council passed a resolution condemning UNESCO's decision to deny the Jewish history of the Temple Mount and Western Wall in Jerusalem, Palestine.

Geography

Beverly Hills is located at the coordinates 33°16′47″N 117°11′37″W / 33.27972, -117.19361. According to the Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 14.7 km² (5.7 mi²), of which 14.7 km² (5.7 mi²) is land and 0 km² (0 mi²) (0.0%) is water.

Climate

The climate is Mediterranean with warm summers and cool winters. Autumns and springs are mild. Precipitation is low, with only 400 mm of rain per year on average.

Beverly Hills average weather parameters
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Average temperature (°C)	23	22.8	25.7	27.6	30	33.9	36.1	36	34.3	31.4	28.2	25	29.5
Temp. medium (°C)	12.1	12.2	15	17.5	19.6	22.5	24	23.8	21	18.1	16.1	13.1	17.9
Total precipitation (mm)	89	86	44	36	16	1	5	9	22	39	50	81	478
^{[chuckles]required]}

Demographics

2010

As of the 2010 census, Beverly Hills had a population of 34,109. The population density was 5,973.1 people per square mile (2,306.2/km²). The racial makeup of Beverly Hills was 28,112 (82.4%) White (78.6% non-Hispanic White), 746 (2.2%) African American, 48 (0.1%) Native American, 3,032 (8.9%) %) from Asian, 12 (0.0%) Pacific Islander, 485 (1.4%) from other races, and 1,674 (4.9%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1,941 people (5.7%).

The largest religious community are Persian Jews, who make up 26% of Beverly Hills' population. The Iranian Jewish community in Beverly Hills, numbering more than 8,000, is the largest in the United States.

The Census reported that 33,988 people (99.6% of the population) lived in households and 121 (0.4%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters.

There were 14,869 households, out of which 3,759 (25.3%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 6,613 (44.5%) were of different sex living together, 1,354 (9.1%) there was a female householder with no current husband, 494 (3.3%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 460 (3.1%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 131 (0.9%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 5,400 households (36.3%) are made up of individuals and 1,834 (12.3%) have an elderly person who is 65 years of age or older. The median household size was 2.29 members. There were 8,461 families (56.9% of all houses); the mean family size was 3.05.

The population was spread out with 6,623 people (19.4%) under the age of 18, 2,526 people (7.4%) between the ages of 18 and 24, 8,540 people (25.0%) between the ages of 25 and 44 years, 9,904 people (29.0%) aged 45 to 64 and 6,516 people (19.1%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43.6 years. For every 100 women there are 84.3 men. For every 100 women over the age of 18, there were 80.3 men.

There were 16,394 housing units at an average density of 2,870.9 inhabitants per square mile (1,108.5/km²), of which 6,561 (44.1%) were owner-occupied, and 8,308 (55.9%) were occupied by tenants. Owner vacancy rate was 2.2%; the rental vacancy rate was 8.0%. 17,740 people (52.0% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 16,248 people (47.6%) lived in rental housing.

According to the 2010 United States Census, Beverly Hills had a median household income of $85,918, with 7.8% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

2000

As of the 2000 census, there were 33,784 people, 15,035 households, and 8,269 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,954.0 people per square mile (2,300.5/km²). There were 15,856 housing units at an average density of 2,794.4/mi (1,079.7/km²). The racial makeup was 85.06% White, 1.77% African American, 0.13% Native American, 7.05% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.50% from other races, and 4.46% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race was 4.63% of the population.

There were 15,035 households out of which 24.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.8% were married couples living together, 8.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.0% were non-families. 38.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.3% have an elderly person 65 years of age or older. The mean household size was 2.24 and the mean family size was 3.02.

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 older than 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 women there are 83.5 men. For every 100 women over the age of 18, there were 79.4 men.

The median income for a household in the city was $70,945, and the median income for a family was $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. About 7.9% of families and 9.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.5% of those under the age of 18 and 7.9% who were 65 or older.