Beverly Hills is a city in the western part of
Los Angeles County, CaliforniaLos Angeles County is a county in California and is by far the most populous county in the United States. Figures from the U.S. Census Bureau give an estimated 2008 population of 9,862,049 residents, while the California State government's population bureau lists a January 1, 2009, estimate of...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of
West HollywoodWest Hollywood, a city in Los Angeles County, California, was incorporated on November 29, 1984. The latest residential population estimate was 34,675. The city is well-known for its nightlife, celebrity culture, and diverse atmosphere. The city has large gay, Jewish and eastern European populations...
are together entirely surrounded by the city of
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
. The area's "
Platinum Triangle"Platinum Triangle" of Los Angeles is an informal name for three adjacent neighborhoods that are generally regarded as the nicest in the immediate Los Angeles area...
" of wealthy neighborhoods is formed by Beverly Hills and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Bel Air and
Holmby HillsHolmby Hills is an affluent neighborhood in the district of Westwood in western Los Angeles. It is bordered by the city of Beverly Hills on the east, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, Westwood on the west, and Bel Air on the north. Sunset Boulevard is the area's principal thoroughfare which divides...
. The population was 34,980 as of the 2006 census. Beverly Hills is home to countless Hollywood celebrities and the wealthy.
Beverly Hills is bordered on the north by Bel-Air and the
Santa Monica MountainsThe Santa Monica Mountains are a low transverse range in southern California in the United States.-Geography:The range extends approximately 40 mi east-west from the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles to Point Mugu in Ventura County...
, on the east by West Hollywood, the Carthay neighborhood of Los Angeles, and the
Fairfax DistrictThe Fairfax District is an area of neighborhoods in the Mid-City West area of Los Angeles, California.- Geography :It is roughly bordered by West Hollywood on the north, Highland Avenue on the east, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills on the west and Wilshire Boulevard on the south...
of Los Angeles, and on the south by the
BeverlywoodBeverlywood is a district on the West Side of the city of Los Angeles, California.-Geography and transportation:Beverlywood is bordered by Century City on the northwest, Cheviot Hills on the west, Palms on the southwest, Culver City on the south, Crestview on the east; South Robertson on the north...
.
Beverly Hills contains some of the largest homes in Los Angeles County and the nation. These homes range from the extravagant and
luxuriousLuxury real estate is the real estate market niche targeted at the highest socio-economic group of consumers. -Definition:The characteristics that define Luxury real estate differ among countries...
in size, to the more elegant and modern homes, and then to the many small duplex rental units and detached homes with less than 2,000 sq ft (280 sq meters). The city's average household income is just over $87,000.
18th century
Gaspar de PortolàGaspar de Portolà i Rovira was a soldier, governor of Baja and Alta California , explorer and founder of San Diego and Monterey. He was born in Os de Balaguer, province of Lleida, in Catalonia, Spain, of Spanish nobility. Don Portolà served as a soldier in the Spanish army in Italy and Portugal...
's land expedition arrived in the area on August 3, 1769. The group consisted of Portolà (the first
governorA governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of the province of California), some
FranciscanThe term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders, also known as the Orders of Friars Minor, that follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St. Francis", or a member of one of these orders. As well as Roman Catholic there are also small Old Catholic and...
priests and a cavalcade of leather-jacket soldiers and horses. On September 27, 1821,
New SpainThe Viceroyalty of New Spain , was the political unit of Spanish territories in North and Central America, and Asia-Pacific. The territory included the present-day California, Southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America , the Caribbean, and the Philippines. It was ruled by a viceroy from...
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 Rodeo de las AguasRancho Rodeo de las Aguas was a land grant in present day Los Angeles County, California given in Maria Rita Valdez de Villa the wife of a Spanish colonial soldier, Vicente Fernando Villa...
. Rita did not care for the name, however, and chose to call it
San Antonio. The Valdez
adobeAdobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, and water, with some kind of fibrous or organic material , which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun. It is similar to cob and mudbrick. Adobe structures are extremely durable and account for some of the oldest extant...
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 ceded by Mexico to the United States in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo, marking the end of the Mexican-American War. It was admitted as a U.S. state on September 9, 1850.
In 1852 Maria Rita Valdez De Villa asked to purchase a league of land for $4,000. She called the land Rancho Rodeo de las Aguas. It was later purchased by Major
Henry HancockHenry Hancock was a Harvard trained lawyer and a land surveyor working in California in the 1850s. He was the owner of Rancho La Brea, which included the La Brea Tar Pits.-Early life:...
(of
Hancock ParkHancock Park is a park in Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, which is the location of the La Brea Tar Pits, the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries, and LACMA. Hancock Park is, however, not in the neighborhood called Hancock Park, which begins approximately 1 mile to the...
fame), a New Hampshire attorney. He had come to the state during the 1849 gold rush. He used the land as a farm until 1868 when Dr. Edward Preusss, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, bought the land.
A brief
oilPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds.The term "petroleum" was first used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in...
boom raised interest in the area in 1865 when the Pioneer Oil Company bought the rights to drill wells.
20th century
On October 22, 1906, the community of Beverly Hills was declared open by the Percy H. Clark Co., managers of the tract of land. It was described as a "beautiful suburban residence between this city [Los Angeles] and Santa Monica." 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 in
Beverly, MassachusettsBeverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 39,862 at the 2000 census. A resort, residential and manufacturing community on the North Shore, Beverly includes Beverly Farms and Prides Crossing.-History:...
. Prior to this, the land was known as the Hammel and Denker ranch, which was one of Southern California's most fertile lands growing lima beans. It was purchased by a syndicate of Henry E. Huntington, C. A. Canfield, W G. Karckhoff, W. S. Porter, Burton M. Green, M. W. Whittier. It lies in the old Morocco Junction of the Los Angeles Pacific road, where the Hollywood and Colgrove braches connect. The investment company marketed Beverly Hills as "between the city and the sea."
In September 1911, work began on the
Beverly Hills HotelThe Beverly Hills Hotel is a hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. It was opened on May 12, 1912 by Margaret J. Anderson and her son, Stanley S. Anderson, who had been managing the Hollywood Hotel. The original main building of the Beverly Hills Hotel was designed by Pasadena...
. The Los Angeles Times would call it a "monster hostelry" since it cost $300,000. At the time, lots were selling for around $2,000 each.
In 1919,
Douglas FairbanksDouglas Elton Thomas Ullman Fairbanks, Sr., was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer, best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro. An astute businessman, Fairbanks was a founding member of United Artists...
and
Mary PickfordMary Pickford was a Canadian motion picture actor, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Known as "America's Sweetheart," "Little Mary" and "The girl with the curls," she was one of the first Canadian...
bought land on Summit Drive and built
PickfairPickfair was a mansion designed by California architect Wallace Neff and named as an amalgamation of the names of its original residents, silent film actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford....
. In 1921, they announced that they would build the home which they had been "dreaming" about in Beverly Hills.
Will RogersWilliam Penn Adair "Will" Rogers was a Cherokee-American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer and actor. He was the father of U.S. Representative and WWII veteran Will Rogers, Jr....
, 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 LloydHarold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies....
,
John BarrymoreJohn Sidney Blyth Barrymore was an American actor, frequently called the greatest of his generation. He first gained fame as a stage actor, lauded for his portrayals of Hamlet and Richard III...
,
Robert MontgomeryRobert Montgomery was an Scottish/American actor and director.-Early life:Montgomery was born Henry Montgomery Jr. in Beacon, New York, then known as "Fishkill Landing", the son of Mary Weed and Henry Montgomery, Sr. His early childhood was one of privilege, since his father was president of the...
and
Miriam HopkinsEllen Miriam Hopkins was an American actress known for her versatility in a wide variety of roles.She was born in Savannah, Georgia and raised in Bainbridge, a town in the state's southwest near the Alabama border...
built residences there.
The population in 1920 was 674; 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 SpeedwayBeverly Hills Speedway was an American board track in Beverly Hills, California, USA. It was the home to speeding Model Ts and airplanes which cut through the airspace of Beverly Hills during the roaring 20s. Built in 1919 on what is currently Beverly Hills High School, the Regent Beverly Wilshire...
, 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
radioRadio programming is the content that is broadcast by radio stations.The original inventors of radio, such as Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi, expected it to be used for one-on-one communication tasks where telephones and telegraphs could not be used because of the problems involved in stringing...
broadcasts were on a par with today's
Indianapolis 500The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, often shortened to Indianapolis 500 or Indy 500 or sometimes known simply as The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually over the Memorial Day weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
. There were also
aviationAviation is the activity involving man-made air-borne flying devices , including the people, organizations, and regulatory bodies involved with them.- History :...
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
VeniceVenice is a district in western Los Angeles, California, United States. It is known for its canals, beaches and circus-like Ocean Front Walk, which features performers, fortune-tellers and vendors. Throughout the summer months, the boardwalk is actively entertaining, and this tradition continues...
for the building of
UCLAThe University of California, Los Angeles is a research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the United States. It was founded in 1919 and is the second-oldest general-purpose campus in the University of California system...
. 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 MansionGreystone Mansion, aka the Doheny Mansion, is a Tudor-style mansion in Beverly Hills, California, designed by Gordon Kaufmann and completed in 1928. The house was a gift from oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny to his son, Edward "Ned" Doheny, Jr., and his family...
was completed by Edward L. Doheny, Jr., the only son and heir of wealthy oil man
Edward L. DohenyEdward Laurence Doheny was an Irish American oil tycoon, who in 1892, along with partner Charles A. Canfield, drilled the first successful well in the Los Angeles City oil field, setting off the petroleum boom in southern California...
. And in 1930, horses were banned in the City of Beverly Hills.
In the early 1930s, Santa Monica Park was renamed
Beverly GardensBeverly Gardens Park is a park which stretches along Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. It was opened in 1911. The park serves to separate the residential from the commercial sections of the city. It features a two-mile jogging path, trees, gardens, sculpture and a pond...
and was extended to span the entire two mile (3 km) length of Santa Monica Boulevard through the city. At its Santa Monica and Wilshire corner, the
Electric FountainThe Electric Fountain is a water fountain located in Beverly Hills, California on the corner of Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards. The fountain is illuminated by a changing pattern of colored lights. The sculpture and tiles that make up the design of the fountain and its base pay homage to the...
, a constant symphony of form and color at night, was installed, with a small sculpture at the top of a
TongvaThe Tongva are a Native American people who inhabited the area in and around Los Angeles, California, before the arrival of Europeans. Tongva means "people of the earth" in the Tongva language, a language in the Uto-Aztecan family. The Tongva are also sometimes referred to as the Gabrieleño/Tongva...
kneeling in prayer, homage to the heritage of Beverly Hills as a wellspring of fertility and abundance.
In April 1931 the new
Italian RenaissanceThe Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
style City Hall was opened.
By 1933, the effects of the
DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
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.
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 DriveRodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, California is a shopping district famous for designer label and haute couture fashion...
at its center, was marketed as the apex of chic shopping and fashion.
Via Rodeo was completed in 1990. The Spanish
cobblestoneCobblestones are stones that were frequently used in the pavement of early streets. "Cobblestone" is derived from the very old English word "cob", which had a wide range of meanings, one of which was "rounded lump" with overtones of large size...
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 MooreCharles Willard Moore was an American architect, educator, writer, Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and winner of the AIA Gold Medal in 1991.-Biography:...
, it links the new public library, fire and police departments with the historic City Hall.
The
Beverly Hills Unified School DistrictThe Beverly Hills Unified School District, abbreviated BHUSD, is a school district based in Beverly Hills, California. It was formed in 1935.Beverly Hills USD serves the city of Beverly Hills. It consists of four K-8 schools, one high school and a special education school...
, included four K-8 schools and
Beverly Hills High SchoolBeverly Hills High School is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. Beverly is part of the Beverly Hills Unified School District and located on on the west side of Beverly Hills, at the...
.
The city's image has been enhanced by being featured in
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
shows and movies set in Beverly Hills, including the
The Jack Benny ProgramThe Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series which ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century comedy.-Radio:...
(1950 to 1954) (and on his radio program from 1932–1955),
The Beverly HillbilliesThe Beverly Hillbillies is an American television sitcom. It ranked among the top 12 most watched series on television for seven of its nine seasons, twice ranking as the #1 series of the year, with a number of episodes that remain among the most-watched television episodes of all time...
(1962 to 1971), the
Beverly Hills CopBeverly Hills Cop is a 1984 American action-comedy film directed by Martin Brest and starring Eddie Murphy, John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, and Ronny Cox. Murphy stars as Axel Foley, a street-smart Detroit cop, who heads to Beverly Hills, California to solve the death of his best friend...
movies,
Beverly Hills 90210 (1990 to 2000), and
9021090210 is a teen drama developed by Rob Thomas, Jeff Judah and Gabe Sachs, and the fourth series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise created by Darren Star. 90210 is the first series produced by CBS Productions under the company's re-launch, but now produced by CBS Television Studios...
(2008 - ). 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. The opening scene of The Andy Griffith Show showing Sheriff Taylor and Opie carrying fishing poles was shot at the Franklin Canyon Reservoir at the north end of town just west of Coldwater Canyon.
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.
90210
9021090210 may refer to* Beverly Hills, California, zip code 90210* Beverly Hills Post Office* Peltola, Oulu, Finland, postal code 90210* Beverly Hills, 90210, an American Teen drama television series that ran between 1990 and 2000...
is a
ZIP codeThe ZIP code is the system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service . The letters ZIP, a backronym for Zone Improvement Plan, are properly written in capital letters and were chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
in Beverly Hills, made famous by the television series
Beverly Hills, 90210Beverly Hills, 90210 is a prime time television drama series that aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...
,
Dr. 90210Dr. 90210 is a reality television series focusing on plastic surgery in the wealthy suburb of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, California. The series began its run in 2004. Dr...
,
9021090210 may refer to* Beverly Hills, California, zip code 90210* Beverly Hills Post Office* Peltola, Oulu, Finland, postal code 90210* Beverly Hills, 90210, an American Teen drama television series that ran between 1990 and 2000...
, and because of the celebrity residents that reside in the area. Beverly Hills also has three additional ZIP codes based on the general area. These ZIP codes are 90211, 90212 and 90213. 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 Drive with
West HollywoodWest Hollywood, a city in Los Angeles County, California, was incorporated on November 29, 1984. The latest residential population estimate was 34,675. The city is well-known for its nightlife, celebrity culture, and diverse atmosphere. The city has large gay, Jewish and eastern European populations...
, another city known for the
Sunset Strip that includes Beverly Hills on the famous Sunset Boulevard.
Main thoroughfares include
Wilshire BoulevardWilshire Boulevard is one of the principal east-west arterial roads in Los Angeles, California, United States. It was named for Henry Gaylord Wilshire , an Ohio native who made and lost fortunes in real estate, farming, and gold mining...
, Santa Monica Boulevard, and
Sunset BoulevardSunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
. Shopping streets include Beverly Drive and
Rodeo DriveRodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, California is a shopping district famous for designer label and haute couture fashion...
. Coldwater Canyon Drive is the main road through Beverly Hills into the
San Fernando ValleyThe San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in Southern California, United States. More than half of the city of Los Angeles' land area lies within 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. Santa Monica Boulevard divides the "flats" into two areas, locally known as "North or South of the tracks," referring to the train tracks that were once used by the old Pacific Electric streetcar line that traversed Beverly Hills along Santa Monica Blvd. Homes south of Wilshire have more urban square and rectangular 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 HotelThe Beverly Hills Hotel is a hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. It was opened on May 12, 1912 by Margaret J. Anderson and her son, Stanley S. Anderson, who had been managing the Hollywood Hotel. The original main building of the Beverly Hills Hotel was designed by Pasadena...
and the
Beverly Hilton HotelThe Beverly Hilton is a hotel located on an property at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards in Beverly Hills, California, USA...
, 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 ClubThe Los Angeles Country Club is a golf and country club in Los Angeles, California.- History :In the fall of 1897, a group of Los Angelenos organized a voluntary association to further the cause of one of Southern California's newest sports...
, with its two golf courses, where
golfGolf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players , using many types of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while employing the fewest number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area...
ers tee up beside celebrities.
Demographics
As of the 2000
censusA "census" is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population.In other words every 10 years...next one would be in 2010 The term is used mostly in connection with...
, there were 33,784 people. The racial makeup of the city was 85.1% White (Including White Hispanics and Middle Easterners), 1.80% Black or African American, 0.10% Native American, 7.10% Asian, 1.50% from other races, and 4.60% of the population were
HispanicHispanic American or Spanish American may refer to:*An inhabitant of one of the countries of Hispanic America .*A person of Hispanic ancestry who is citizen, resident or other in the United States of America ....
or Latino of any race.
Like the rest of Los Angeles County, Beverly Hills is home to a large
PersianThe Persian people are the majority ethnic group in Iran. However, there are sub-groups who speak the Persian language as their mother tongue throughout the Iranian plateau. The term Persian has also a supra-ethnic significance and has been historically referred to a part of Iranian peoples...
/
IranianIranian is of, from, or related to Iran.* Iranians, persons from Iran, or of Iranian descent. For more information about the Iranian people, see Demographics of Iran and Culture of Iran....
community. There has been a recent estimate that Iranians represent as much as 40% of the city's population and 50% of the students in public schools. This estimate is not immediately evident in Census Bureau data as the Census Bureau defines the "White" race category as "people having origins in any of the original peoples of .. the Middle East .."
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 couplesMarriage is a social union or legal contract between individuals that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged by a variety of ways, depending on the culture or demographic...
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.
According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $82,669, which is typical for an upper-middle class suburb and close to the median household income of
San Jose, CaliforniaSan Jose or San José is the third-largest city in California and the tenth-largest in the United States. The county seat of Santa Clara County, it is located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region commonly referred to as Silicon Valley...
. 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 income for a family is $110,040. Males had a median income of $72,004 versus $46,217 for females. The
per capita incomePer capita income means how much each individual receives, in monetary terms, of the yearly income generated in the country. This is what each citizen is to receive if the yearly national income is divided equally among everyone. Per capita income is usually reported in units of currency per year...
for the city was $65,507. 9.1% of the population were below the poverty line, most of those were 65 and older Senior citizens.
The median household income for an owner-occupied housing unit is $125,707.
Despite its reputation, 90210 is not the wealthiest ZIP Code in the United States or even California (the wealthiest ZIP Code in California is 94027, generally located in
Atherton, CaliforniaAtherton is an incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States. Its population was 7,194 at the 2000 census. It is one of the wealthiest cities in the United States.- History :...
; the wealthiest ZIP Code in the United States is 10022, which is located in New York City).
Local government
Of the 21,426 registered voters in Beverly Hills; approximately 50.3% are
DemocratsThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
and 25.9% are
RepublicansThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
. The remaining 23.8% are Independents or are registered with one of the many smaller political parties, like the
Green PartyThe Green Party of the United States is one of the political parties in the United States, and similar in mission to many of the worldwide Green Parties. The Greens, a voluntary association of state parties, have been active as a nationally recognized political party since 2001...
or the
Libertarian PartyThe Libertarian Party is a United States political party founded on December 11, 1971.In the 30 states where voters can register by party there are over 200,000 voters registered with the Libertarian Party, making it one of the largest of America's alternative political parties...
.
The heavy Democratic advantage makes Beverly Hills one of the more liberal cities in Southern California. In 2004,
John KerryJohn Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, and is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee....
won 62% of the vote compared to 37% for
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
. In the 2006 state governor election,
Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor, businessman, and politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of the state of California....
got nearly 45% of the vote but won a second term by a state-wide majority, while Democratic opponent
Phil AngelidesPhilip Nicholas "Phil" Angelides , is an American politician who was California State Treasurer and the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for Governor of California in the 2006 elections.-Personal:Phil Angelides was born to Helen and Jerry Angelides, the son of Greek immigrants in Sacramento,...
had just over 54%.
Beverly Hills is a general law city governed by a five-member
City CouncilA city council is the legislative body that governs a city, municipality or local government area.-Australia:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council may vary slightly...
including the
mayor"Mayor" is a modern title used in many countries for the highest ranking officer in a municipal government....
and vice mayor. City Council hires a
city managerA city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a council-manager form of city government. Called the chief administrative officer in some municipalities...
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.
Nancy Krasne is mayor and Jimmy Delshad is vice mayor. Roderick J. Wood is city manager. The other three city council members are Barry Brucker, Dr. William Brien and John Mirisch. In city council meetings, a few celebrities have shown up to speak on local political issues.
The
Beverly Hills Police DepartmentThe Beverly Hills Police Department is the police department of the City of Beverly Hills, California. The current police chief of the BHPD is David L...
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 HillsDown and Out in Beverly Hills is a 1986 American comedy film, based on the French play Boudu sauvé des eaux, which had previously been adapted on film in 1932 by Jean Renoir. Down and Out in Beverly Hills was directed by Paul Mazursky, and starred Nick Nolte, Bette Midler and Richard Dreyfuss...
(However, establishing - exterior - shots of the
Pasadena City HallPasadena City Hall, completed in 1927, is currently the tallest building in Pasadena, California, and a significant example of the City Beautiful movement of the 1920s.-History:...
building, was used to represent the Beverly Hills Police Station in all three
Beverly Hills CopBeverly Hills Cop is a 1984 American action-comedy film directed by Martin Brest and starring Eddie Murphy, John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, and Ronny Cox. Murphy stars as Axel Foley, a street-smart Detroit cop, who heads to Beverly Hills, California to solve the death of his best friend...
films). An interesting book about the BHPD in the old days is "Beverly Hills Is My Beat" by long-time Police Chief Clinton H. Anderson (1960).
See also: Mayor of Beverly Hills
County, state, and federal representation
In the
state legislatureThe California State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members, and the upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members...
Beverly Hills is located in the 23rd
SenateThe California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 State Senators. The state legislature meets in the state capital, Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate and may break a tied vote...
District, represented by Democrat
Fran PavleyFran Pavley is a Democratic politician who currently represents Senate District 23, including portions of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties in the California Legislature. She previously served as a California Assemblywoman and as the first mayor of the Southern California community of Agoura Hills....
, and in the 42nd
AssemblyThe California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature. There are 80 members in the Assembly, representing an approximately equal number of constituents, with each district having a population of at least 420,000...
District, represented by Democrat Mike Feuer. Federally, Beverly Hills is located in
California's 30th congressional districtCalifornia's 30th congressional district covers part of Los Angeles County, most notably Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Woodland Hills, and Malibu and is represented by Democrat Henry Waxman.-Voting:-List of Representatives :...
, which has a
Cook PVIThe Cook Partisan Voting Index , sometimes referred to as simply the Partisan Voting Index , is a measurement of how strongly an American congressional district or state leans toward one political party compared to the nation as a whole...
of D +20 and is represented by Democrat
Henry WaxmanHenry Arnold Waxman is an American politician. He has represented in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1975. Waxman, a Democrat, is considered to be one of the most influential liberal members of Congress. His district includes much of the western part of the city of Los Angeles, as well...
.
The
United States Postal ServiceThe United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution. Within the United States, it is commonly...
operates the Beverly Hills Post Office at 325 North Maple Drive, the Crescent Post Office at 323 North Crescent Drive, the Beverly Post Office at 312 South Beverly Drive,, and the Eastgate Post Office at 8383 Wilshire Boulevard. The Beverly Hills Post Office received listing in the
National Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
on January 11, 1985.
Economy
The Los Angeles-area offices of
AeroflotOJSC "AeroflotRussian Airlines" , commonly known as Aeroflot , is the largest airline in Russia, based on passengers carried per year. Aeroflot, headquartered in Moscow, is one of the oldest airlines in the world, tracing its history back to 1923...
and
El AlEl Al is the national airline of Israel. It operates regular international passenger and cargo flights between its hub at Ben Gurion International Airport and destinations in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and North America, as well as domestic connections to Eilat.Since its inaugural...
are in Beverly Hills.
At one point
Hilton Hotels CorporationHilton Worldwide , a subsidiary of the Blackstone Group, is a global hospitality company. As of January 2009 Hilton brands encompass 3,200 hotels with 545,000 rooms in 77 countries...
had its corporate headquarters in Beverly Hills. Originally
GeoCitiesYahoo! GeoCities is a web hosting service founded by David Bohnett and John Rezner in late 1994 as Beverly Hills Internet .In its original form, site users selected a "city" in which to place their web pages...
(at first Beverly Hills Internet) was headquartered at 9401 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.
Underneath the city is the large and still-productive
Beverly Hills Oil FieldThe Beverly Hills Oil Field is a large and currently active oil field underneath part of the city of Beverly Hills, California, USA, and portions of the adjacent City of Los Angeles...
, serviced by four urban drilling islands which drill diagonally into the earth underneath the city. The most notorious of these drilling islands occasioned a 2003 lawsuit representing former attendees of Beverly Hills High School, approximately 280 of which had suffered from cancers allegedly tied to the drilling operations.
Diplomatic missions
Beverly Hills has four consulates (
ArmeniaThis is a list of diplomatic missions of Armenia. Armenia is a landlocked country located in the Southern Caucasus. Over 5 million Armenians reside abroad, with large communities located in Russia, France, Iran, United States, Georgia, Syria, Lebanon, Argentina, and Ukraine...
,
BrazilThis is a list of diplomatic missions of Brazil, excluding honorary consulates. Brazil has a large global network of diplomatic missions, with representations in over 125 countries.-Europe:** Yerevan ** Vienna ** Baku...
,
ColombiaThis is a list of diplomatic missions of Colombia, excluding honorary consulates.-Europe:** Vienna ** Brussels ** Paris ** Berlin ** Frankfurt ** Vatican City ** Rome...
, and
EcuadorThis is a list of diplomatic missions of Ecuador, excluding honorary consulates.-Europe:** Vienna ** Brussels ** Paris ** Berlin ** Hamburg ** Vatican City ** Budapest...
.)
Public schools
Beverly Hills is served by
Beverly Hills Unified School DistrictThe Beverly Hills Unified School District, abbreviated BHUSD, is a school district based in Beverly Hills, California. It was formed in 1935.Beverly Hills USD serves the city of Beverly Hills. It consists of four K-8 schools, one high school and a special education school...
; the district's sole high school is
Beverly Hills High SchoolBeverly Hills High School is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. Beverly is part of the Beverly Hills Unified School District and located on on the west side of Beverly Hills, at the...
.
Los Angeles neighborhoods near Beverly Hills are served by
Los Angeles Unified School DistrictLos Angeles Unified School District is the largest public school system in California. It is the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. During the 2007-2008 school year, LAUSD served 694,288 students, and had 45,473...
.
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 AngelesThe Archdiocese of Los Angeles is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in the western region of the United States. The archdiocese comprises the City of Los Angeles as well as the California counties of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura...
.
Other Beverly Hills private schools include Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy, Emanuel Academy of Beverly Hills, and Page Private School.
Marymount High SchoolMarymount High School is a private, Catholic, all-girls, college-preparatory high school located in the Holmby Hills/Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles across from the University of California, Los Angeles campus at 10643 Sunset Boulevard....
in nearby
WestwoodWestwood Village is a district in western Los Angeles, California, United States. Westwood is best known as the home of the University of California, Los Angeles . The eastern portions of the district are often thought of as a distinctly different neighborhood, Holmby Hills...
, across from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), is in close proximity to Beverly Hills.
Climate
Beverly Hills has a warm and moderate
Mediterranean climateA hi Mediterranean climate resembles the climate of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, which includes most of the area with this climate type worldwide...
, with an average high of 85 degrees in August, and an average high of 64 degrees in January. Beverly Hills also receives on average 18 inches of rain. Summers are marked by warm to hot temperatures with very little wind, while winters are moderate to cool with occasional rain alternating with periods of Santa Ana winds. During Santa Ana events, gusts up to 40mph are common.
Media
Beverly Hills is served by the following newspapers:
Canyon NewsCanyon News is an English-language weekly newspaper published in Beverly Hills, California. It is distributed internationally and is published in conjunction with the San Francisco News...
,
Beverly Hills CourierThe Beverly Hills Courier is a weekly newspaper of major circulation in Beverly Hills, CA. Its current publisher, since April 2004, is Clifton S. Smith, Jr. who is also the publisher of the San Marino Tribune, as well as Design Magazine. The publication was founded by now publisher emeritus March...
,
Beverly Hills WeeklyBeverly Hills Weekly is the free weekly publication serving Beverly Hills, CA. It was founded on October 7, 1999. The publisher is Josh E. Gross.-External links:*...
,
Beverly Hills 213 Magazine, and the Beverly Hills Times. The
Beverly Hills PostBeverly Hills Post was the free weekly publication of Beverly Hills, CA. It was founded in 1928. The tabloid-sized newspaper stopped publication in mid-April 1994 because of a dispute between the owners, Margaret Harris, and her husband, Walter...
used to be one of the main newspapers, but it went out of business. The city is also served by all Los Angeles TV, radio, and newspaper media.
Beverly Hills also has its own
TelevisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
channel, KBEV. Run by the students of
Beverly Hills High SchoolBeverly Hills High School is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. Beverly is part of the Beverly Hills Unified School District and located on on the west side of Beverly Hills, at the...
, it airs on channel 6 (on cable) to the residents of Beverly Hills.
Landmarks
- Beverly Gardens Park
Beverly Gardens Park is a park which stretches along Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. It was opened in 1911. The park serves to separate the residential from the commercial sections of the city. It features a two-mile jogging path, trees, gardens, sculpture and a pond...
- Beverly Hills High School
Beverly Hills High School is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. Beverly is part of the Beverly Hills Unified School District and located on on the west side of Beverly Hills, at the...
- The Beverly Hills Hotel
- Beverly Wilshire Hotel
- Electric Fountain
The Electric Fountain is a water fountain located in Beverly Hills, California on the corner of Santa Monica and Wilshire Boulevards. The fountain is illuminated by a changing pattern of colored lights. The sculpture and tiles that make up the design of the fountain and its base pay homage to the...
- Greystone Mansion
Greystone Mansion, aka the Doheny Mansion, is a Tudor-style mansion in Beverly Hills, California, designed by Gordon Kaufmann and completed in 1928. The house was a gift from oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny to his son, Edward "Ned" Doheny, Jr., and his family...
- Greystone Park
- La Cienega Park
La Cienega Park is a public park in Beverly Hills, California.The park includes three baseball diamonds, two soccer fields, a jogging track, a playground, multiple tennis courts, and a community center...
- Pickfair
Pickfair was a mansion designed by California architect Wallace Neff and named as an amalgamation of the names of its original residents, silent film actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford....
- Beverly Hills Police Department
The Beverly Hills Police Department is the police department of the City of Beverly Hills, California. The current police chief of the BHPD is David L...
- Roxbury Park
- Will Rogers Memorial Park
- Beverly Hills City Hall
- Walden Drive
Walden Drive, is a large street in Beverly Hills, California, and is one of the most attractive and remarkable streets in the California. It is a very popular location for the film industry, for films such as Beverly Hills Cop II. This is right next door to the Spadena House, one of the many story...
- Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, California is a shopping district famous for designer label and haute couture fashion...
- Via Rodeo and Spanish Steps
- The Peninsula Hotel Beverly Hills
Derivative nicknames
The name
Beverly Hills has often been employed as a nickname for a fashionable, affluent area. For example,
Ladera HeightsLadera Heights is a census-designated place and unincorporated area in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. The population was 6,568 at the 2000 census...
, an
unincorporated areaIn law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality. To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city or town with its own government. Thus, an unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
in southwestern Los Angeles County, has been dubbed the "Black Beverly Hills". Similarly, the city of
ScottsdaleScottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. As of 2007 the population of the city was 240,410. Scottsdale is regarded as an upscale tourist and shopping destination and as a representation of western American style...
has been given the nickname "Beverly Hills of
ArizonaThe State of Arizona is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in size by the four Phoenix metropolitan area cities of Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, and Scottsdale.Arizona was the 48th and...
" for its upscale shops, stately homes, and high household income.
CalabasasCalabasas is an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California in the western United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 23,123. The city was formally incorporated in 1991....
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
located in the
San Fernando ValleyThe San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in Southern California, United States. More than half of the city of Los Angeles' land area lies within the San Fernando Valley...
is considered the Beverly Hills of the valley. Respectively,
BuckheadBuckhead is the uptown district within the city of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Comprising over 100,000 residents and approximately the northern one-fifth of the city, Buckhead is legally defined as that portion of the city of Atlanta northwest of Interstate 85 and northeast of Interstate 75.It...
, the uptown district of Atlanta, has been dubbed "The Beverly Hills of the South" due to the large number (as well as the highest concentration) of upscale shops, elaborate homes, and high average income..
Fiction
In Walt Disney's movie,
Beverly Hills ChihuahuaBeverly Hills Chihuahua is a comedy film by Walt Disney Pictures directed by Raja Gosnell and released October 3. The plot centers around a Chihuahua who gets dognapped in Mexico and has to escape from an evil Doberman, El Diablo, with help from a lonely German Shepherd, Delgado, and a hyperactive...
, The main character, Chloe, lives in Beverly Hills, 90210
See also
- Hollywood, California
- Los Angeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
- Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, California is a shopping district famous for designer label and haute couture fashion...
- Tehrangeles
Tehrangeles is a portmanteau deriving from the combination of Tehran, the capital of Iran, and Los Angeles. It is used when referring to the large number of former Iranian nationals and their descendants residing in the Los Angeles metropolitan area; it is the largest such population outside of...
- largest ethnic Iranian community outside of Iran
External links