Amavel

I don't agree that Orange County cannot stand on its own considering the amount of development and thriving tourism industry. I don't agree that Orange County is still beneath the shadow and/or culture of Los Angeles. I do agree, however, that Orange County is considered an L.A suburb only in terms of statistical data, not because its the weak younger sibling.

Originally posted by: GQBouncer05 Umm...actually Anaheim is a Suburb to LA as well as the whole OC, hence the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the same was for the rams, Many OC resident commute to LA. There isn't enough offices in the OC to house its residents and therefore depends on LA making it a suburb of Los Angeles like the many other surrounding counties. The OC only got established becasue of LA for people who had a family and didn't want to live in the city. Without LA there wouldn't be an OC, and if something were to happen to LA it would effect the OC, I would say the only way the OC was to be known as its own entity is if the OC was strong enough to stand alone if something were to happen to LA's economy which i don't believe they could. Sorry...quote> Let's be honest here, OC (If you could, please refrain from the subconscious use of "the" before the initials.) has had quite a booming economy since recovering from its debt in the early to mid-90's. The unemployment rate is much lower than the national average, many private and public schools are thriving, crime is significantly lower than other parts of SoCal, the housing market is still moving steadily, and the tourism industry is as strong as ever. Orange County has truly developed into its own entity; I believe that if for some reason the job markets declined in LA or the IE, Orange County has the capability to expand and support its own residents (yes, I know many currently commute to LA). So don't be fooled into thinking that OC is solely dependent on LA-- there is countless entertainment, sport, tourism, and up-and-coming arts/culture accesible to most of the 3,000,000 residents. As of the 21st century, the only way in which OC is truly considered a "suburb" or "bedroom community" of LA is in terms of metropolitan statistical data. As LA proper is the largest and most influential entity within the Southland, inevitably all other entities (regardless of their size) are lumped under its shadow.

No, the populations of seperate counties are not included in the population count of Los Angeles County, let alone the city of Los Angeles. There are, in fact, 4 million residents within LA proper. And, yes, there are upwards of ten million residents in LA County. Believe it or not, in all of the Southland (LA, Ventura, SB, Riverside, Orange, SD, Imperial counties), there are over 20,700,000 residents... or about 2/3 of the state's population in probably less than half of the state's area.

Now that we all grasp the geographical (cultural, political, whatever) differences among the city of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles and the County of Orange, we must note that initially Orange, Riverside, and San Bernadino counties were considered principially as suburbs of Los Angeles (or San Diego)-- if not simply because LA was the principal economic and cultural center of the region. It is quite obvious now that such is not necessarily the case. Orange County has quite a thriving economy of its own and is slowly but surely developing more cultural attractions (Segerstrom Concert Hall, for example) of its own. Someone could even argue that because of the amount of jobs and attractions in OC that Riverside is now more of a bedroom community to OC than to LA. Anyways, L.A. is the most populous (and somewhat most central) city in the concentrated Southland, hence the title L.A. metro area. Plus, they don't call it "living behind the Orange Curtain" for nothing; life is completely different in OC.

I'm glad we're done with this LA vs ATL business.. because there really isn't a comparison. Anyways, I was just looking over the stats from the Census 2000, and the West had an overall 20% population increase (the South had a lower percentage but more total people).. In the next 10 years, I think we're going to see more western/southwestern cities in the Top 20 and more western metro areas climbing up the area rankings. And that means all the East coasters can start warming up to palm trees, good weather, and beautiful people because they're eventually going to be living here, hahahh.

I love the Los Angeles area (well, specifically Orange County... where I'm from). I'll give you one reason why the L.A. metro area surpasses every other "best city in the US": the weather forecast for the upcoming week and New Year's Day. New York: 50's Chicago: 40's Houston: 50's Philly: 50's Boston: 50's DC: 50's Seattle: 40's LA & OC: 70 degrees, partly cloudy. That sounds like some nice beach weather. So while most of the country shovels their driveway or worries about a stubborn heater in their unfortunate-suffocating-highrise, I'll be dressed in shorts and an SC jersey while sipping mixed drinks and making sand castles. Sounds like a plan, haha.