Beverly Hills, California

Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States.In American popular culture, Beverly Hills has been known as an affluent location within Greater Los Angeles, which corresponds to higher property values and taxes in the area.Beverly Hills was first incorporated as a city in September 1914 by a group of investors who had failed to find oil but found water instead and eventually decided to develop it into a town.Gaspar de Portolá arrived in the area that would later become Beverly Hills on August 3, 1769, traveling along native trails which followed the present-day route of Wilshire Boulevard.[9] By the 1880s, the ranch had been subdivided into parcels of 75 acres (0.30 km2) and was being rapidly bought up by Anglos from Los Angeles and the East coast.[14] In 1906, therefore, they reorganized as the Rodeo Land and Water Company, renamed the property "Beverly Hills", subdivided it, and began selling lots.[18] Restrictive covenants prohibited non-whites from owning or renting property, unless they were employed as servants by white residents.The visitors drawn by the hotel were inclined to purchase land in Beverly Hills, and by 1914 the population had grown enough to qualify for incorporation as an independent city.[20] In 1919, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford bought land on Summit Drive and built a mansion, finished in 1921[21] and nicknamed "Pickfair" by the press.[22] The glamour associated with Fairbanks and Pickford as well as other movie stars who built mansions in the city contributed to its growing appeal.[25] The Beverly Hills Utility Commission, opposed to annexation as well, managed to force the city into a special election and the plan was defeated 337 to 507.[17]: 9 In the early 1940s, black actors and businessmen had begun to move into Beverly Hills, despite the covenants allowing only whites to live in the city.In his decision, federal judge Thurmond Clarke said that it was time that "members of the Negro race are accorded, without reservations or evasions, the full rights guaranteed to them under the 14th amendment.[30][31][32][33][34][35][36] The neighborhood has been home to Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Curtis, Ray Charles, and President Richard Nixon, as well as, in later years, Jennifer Aniston, David Spade, Vera Wang and John Rich.[39][40][41] In the late 1990s, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) proposed to build an extension of the Metro D Line along Wilshire Boulevard and into Downtown Beverly Hills, but the city opposed it.In 2001, LACMTA proposed a bus rapid transit route down Santa Monica Boulevard, but this was opposed by the city and never built.[44] The city of Beverly Hills widely opposed Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure which repealed legal recognition of same-sex marriages.As a result, it was asked by the state to reduce consumption by 36%, prompting many residents to replace their lawns with native plants.It was primarily developed in the 1950s and early 1960s by Paul Trousdale, who petitioned the city to incorporate the land into Beverly Hills soon after purchasing it from the Doheny family.[54] In a triangle surrounded by Santa Monica Boulevard, Wilshire Boulevard and Crescent Drive is Downtown Beverly Hills, also known as the Golden Triangle, a retail and dining hub attracting locals, and in some sections attracting visitors from across the region and around the world.[56] Houses south of Wilshire Boulevard have more urban square and rectangular lots, in general smaller than those to the north.[67] Beverly Hills has a warm Mediterranean climate and receives an average 15 inches (380 mm) of rain per year.Since August 22, 2011, the headquarters of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer have been located in Beverly Hills after a significant film history established close by on the main original studio lots in Culver City.[3] On the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Beverly Hills is in the Third District, represented by Lindsey Horvath.[95] In the upper house of the California State Legislature, Beverly Hills is in the 24th Senate District, represented by Democrat Ben Allen.[123] In April 2016,[124] the Beverly Hills City Council passed a resolution[125] to create autonomous vehicles for public transportation within the next decade.The BHUSD has a public-access television station called KBEV, which is run by the students of Beverly Hills High School.[128] Beverly Hills frequently appears in popular culture as a place of conspicuous wealth or luxury, although the actual demographics of the city are more complex.