Los Angeles

 

LA and its metropolitan area has grown to become an ethnically diverse, semi tropical megalopolis, laying claim as the principal centre of the western US and is one of the world's and America's second largest urban area with a population of 18 million people. Los Angeles, the city of the "thousand suburbs", has no grown centre like for example European cities. Indeed it has a multi-storey building development within the CBD (Central Business District), but the suburban ring extends as far as 50 miles (80 km) from the district along the west coast. 

Group puzzle
In this group puzzle you are going to learn more about the many faces of LA and will create your own mental map of the city.
1. The core group (I): Your class will be divided in core groups. Each member of your group is going to an expert group, to become an expert of one of the districts.

2. The expert group: You work on one specific district. Use the links that are given for your district and find out: Who lives there (ethnicity & income), what is special about your district, and what history the district has.

3. The core group (II): Every group member is now an expert for one district. Each member has to give the others a short summary of the facts they found out for their district. Afterwards the whole group has to create a presentation on all six districts.

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Hollywood

Links:
http://www.abouthollywood.com/
http://www.hollywoodchamber.net/
http://cityplanning.lacity.org/
http://www.crala.org/internet-site/Projects/Hollywood/index.cfm

Encino (San Fernando Valley)

Links:
http://www.valleyofthestars.org
http://digital-library.csun.edu/SFV/index.html
http://www.visitvalleyofthestars.org/
http://www.encinochamber.org/index2.cfm
http://lalife.com/Encino

Torrance (South Bay)

Links:
http://www.ci.torrance.ca.us/
http://www.city-data.com/city/Torrance-California.html
http://www.torrancehistoricalsociety.org/
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en
http://www.southbaycities.org/

Jefferson Park (South LA)

Links:
http://www.ambungalow.com/AmBungalow/jeffpark.htm
http://www.laalmanac.com/LA/la00c27.htm
http://lalife.com/Jefferson_Park
http://projects.latimes.com/mapping-la/neighborhoods/neighborhood/jefferson-park/
http://www.laconservancy.org/initiatives/jeffpark.PDF

Venice

Links:
http://www.westland.net/venicehistory/
http://www.venicepaper.net/
http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/printedition/la-re-guide23jan23,0,5890577.story?coll=la-class-realestate
http://www.venicebeach.com/
http://bsa-la.org/

Watts (South LA)

Links:
http://www.usc.edu/libraries/archives/la/watts.html
http://lalife.com/Watts
http://www.yourstreet.com/news/los-angeles-ca-watts#/news/los-angeles-ca-watts
http://www.lawattstimes.com/
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Watts_Towers.html