Southern California

From Freepedia

See also: Bajalta California

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Southern California, sometimes abbreviated SoCal, is an informal name for the megalopolis and nearby desert that is the southern one-quater of the state of California. However in recent years, even cities outside of the State of California such as Phoenix, AZ, Las Vegas, NV and to some degree, even Tijuana in Mexico have begun to be included in the SoCal mega-metro. It is home to upwards of 30 million people (over 10 percent of the population of the United States.There are no clear, exact boundaries for this area; instead, residents rely on physical features to establish the boundary. On the west is the Pacific Ocean; to the south is the international border between the United States and Mexico; and to the east is the Mojave Desert & state border between California and Arizona; and to the north are the Tehachapi Mountain range located about 70 miles north of Los Angeles which separates the region from test of the state.

Contents

Significance

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Within it's boundaries are two world cities (Los Angeles, the "capitol" of SoCal, and San Diego to the south), and three of the world's one hundred largest metropolitan areas, as well as LAX, the nation's 3rd busiest airport and Van Nuys Airport, the world's busiest general aviation airport, the Port of Los Angeles, the nation's busiest commercial port, and the infamous Los Angeles Freeway System, also the world's busiest. Six of the seven lines of the commuter rail system, Metrolink, run out of Downtown Los Angeles, connecting Los Angeles County, Ventura County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County, Orange County, and San Diego County, with the other line connecting San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties directly: the nation's first suburb-to-suburn commuter rail line.

Southern California is also home to some of the world's most prestigious universites and research facilities, such as UCLA, USC, Loyola Marymount, Claremont Consortium of Colleges, Pepperdine University, Cal Tech, five University of California campuses (San Diego, Irvine, Riverside, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara), and eleven California State University campuses. The Tech Coast is a moniker that has gained popular use as a descriptor for the region's diversified technology and industrial base as well as its multitude of research universities and other public and private R&D institutions.

Southern California is the entertainment (motion picture, television and recorded music) capitol of the world, and is home to Hollywood which is the motion picture industry epicenter. Headquartered in Southern California are The Walt Disney Company (which also owns ABC), Sony Pictures (parent company of Paramount Pictures), Twentieth Century Fox,Warner Brothers, Dreamworks and Pixar, as well as Univision, Activision and THQ. Southern California is also the sports and fitness capitol of the world, and is home to Fox Sports Net. SoCal's sports franchises are some of the most storied and succesful, from high school to professional. Teams that call SoCal home are the: Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA and San Diego Chargers. It is also home to one of the winningest college football programs, the USC Trojans and the winningest college basketball program (in terms of national championships, the UCLA Bruins.

Northern boundary

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The northern boundary is subject to a broader interpretation than the West, East and South. The most commonly used 'physical' boundary between Southern California and the rest of the state is the Tehachapi Mountain range located about 70 miles north of Los Angeles . A less inclusive boundary is the San Gabriel Mountain range located 10 to 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, but this boundary is generally not accepted due to the fact that the land north of the San Gabriel Mountain Range, but south of the Tehachipi Mountian Range is still inside Los Angeles County. Depending on which of the two mountain ranges is used for the northern boundary of the region, different communities/cities and counties are included in, or excluded from, the area called "Southern California".

  • Using the San Gabriel Mountain range as the boundary, politically the following six counties (in descending order of population) are included: Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura County and Imperial.
  • Using the Tehachapi Mountain range as the key to a northern boundary, the southern parts of Santa Barbara and Kern Counties should be included. The city of Santa Barbara is widely held to be in Southern California, due to the mild climate and the westerward alignment of the coastline, but Bakersfield and most of Kern County in generally & self-regarded as a part of Central California.

Urban landscape

Southern California is a heavily developed urban environment. It is the second largest urbanized region in the United States, second only to the Washington, D.C./New York/Boston megalopolis (BosWash). Much of SoCal is famous for its large, spread-out, suburban communities. The dominant areas are Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange County; each of which is the center of their respective metropolitan areas, which comprise numerous other cities and communities. Review the metropolitan pages for more information regarding these cities, the economy, demographics, etc.

Regions

Major cities

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Principal cities (over 100,000 inhabitants)

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Counties

South of the San Gabriel mountains
North of the San Gabriel mountains

Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura are also counties in the Central Coast.

Geographical regions

Southern California is also divided into the Coastal Region (Orange County, Los Angeles County, San Diego County, Santa Barbara County, and Ventura County) and the larger, more sparsly populated, desert Inland Empire (San Bernardino County, Riverside County, and Imperial County). The division between the Coastal Regions and the Inland Empire winds along the backs of the coastal mountain ranges such as the Santa Ana Mountains. A related geographical term is cismontane Southern California, which refers to the portion of California on the coastal side of the Transverse and Peninsular mountain ranges. The term "Southern California" often refers to this region specifically, as opposed to largely desert areas comprising the rest of the southern portion of the state, which are referred to as transmontane Southern California.

Geographic features

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Transportation

Southern California freeway system

Interstate Highways

U.S. Highway system

California State Routes

Note: highway segments with names listed in italics are surface streets and not freeways.

Metrolink commuter lines

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Communication

Telephone area codes

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External links


Image:California state flag.png State of California
Capital Sacramento
Regions Antelope Valley | Big Sur | Central Valley | Central Coast | Channel Islands | Coachella Valley | Conejo Valley | Death Valley | Eastern California | Emerald Triangle | Gold Country | Greater Los Angeles | Imperial Valley | Inland Empire | Mojave | Northern California | Owens Valley | Palm Springs Area | Pomona Valley | Sacramento Valley | The Peninsula | Redwood Empire | San Fernando Valley | San Francisco Bay Area | San Gabriel Valley | Santa Clara Valley | Santa Clarita Valley | San Joaquin Valley | Shasta Cascade | Sierra Nevada | Silicon Valley | Southern California | Wine Country
Counties Alameda | Alpine | Amador | Butte | Calaveras | Colusa | Contra Costa | Del Norte | El Dorado | Fresno | Glenn | Humboldt | Imperial | Inyo | Kern | Kings | Lake | Lassen | Los Angeles | Madera | Marin | Mariposa | Mendocino | Merced | Modoc | Mono | Monterey | Napa | Nevada | Orange | Placer | Plumas | Riverside | Sacramento | San Benito | San Bernardino | San Diego | San Francisco | San Joaquin | San Luis Obispo | San Mateo | Santa Barbara | Santa Clara | Santa Cruz | Shasta | Sierra | Siskiyou | Solano | Sonoma | Stanislaus | Sutter | Tehama | Trinity | Tulare | Tuolumne | Ventura | Yolo | Yuba
Large cities

Bakersfield | Fresno | Los Angeles-Long Beach | Sacramento | San Diego | San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland | Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine

Other significant communities Berkeley | Burbank | Carmichael | Chula Vista | Citrus Heights | Concord | Elk Grove | Folsom | Fremont | Glendale | Huntington Beach | Lincoln | Modesto | Newport Beach | Ontario | Palmdale | Palo Alto | Pasadena | Rancho Cordova | Roseville | Santa Barbara | Santa Clara | Santa Clarita | Santa Cruz | Simi Valley | Stockton | Sunnyvale | Temecula | Thousand Oaks | Torrance | Ventura | Walnut Creek


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