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Democracy, very generally, is any homeostatic system which is governed by emergent principles. In this sense, the human brain is "a democracy" which advances its existence due to the emergent behavior through the emergent behavior of lots of neocortical neurons. When the firing of neural pathways is great enough, the thalamus is directed to the pattern that those neural pathways cause to "emerge." Each neuron is a node in the emergent network system, and those nodes are linked through inter-neuronal connections (axons and dendrites).As it pertains to government other than self-government, democracy is a system of government whereby actions of the system are proscribed by limits that are the result of human oversight and human network action, rather than explicitly-codified laws.For example:1) Juries are the strongest "democratic limit" on government power. A group of 12 people passes judgment on the law, as well as whether or not the law was broken. Unlike a specific set of rules, or "a law," human judgment is applied to the context of the situation, allowing for judgment to be applied to any possible human action that is called before a court. One possible judgment is the judgment that "judgment is not necessary in this context" in which case, the jury can "nullify the law" or "refuse to apply the law." This is called "jury nullification of law."2) Elections are another form of democratic limit or "proscribed boundary" on government power. 51% of participating electors can decide that a person is fit or unfit to make governing decisions.3) The selective judgment of enforcers is another form of democratic limit or proscribed boundary on government actions. (A sheriff can decide that a federal agency is illegitimate, and refuse to allow that federal agency to operate in his county, as Sheriff Richard Mack did to FEMA in Greenlee County in Arizona. He can also refuse to enforce any law in his county, as Sheriff Mack refused to enforce provisions of "the Brady Bill" in Arizona.)4) Widespread skillful private gun ownership is another context-specific democratic limit on government power. If government becomes abusive, the people will tend to kill agents of that government, starting with the most-abusive government agents first. It is this capacity to prioritize "creative destruction" of the cancerous portions of "the body of the republic" that is context-specific, adaptable, and based on a network of human brains. The republican law simply says the people have the right to own and carry("keep and bear") weapons("arms"). How those arms are used is up to the decentralized network of human brains, which is adaptable to tyranny, which is, itself adaptable (this contest between adaptable systems tends to result in an "escalation of defenses" which breaks the system that has the least overall support - including the support of the fewest strong natural evolutionary systems).5) The direct control of the law via the "initiative and referenda" process is another form of "democratic control" or "democratic boundary." Again: groups of human brains have come together around a specific set of circumstances to adapt to those circumstances by making a calculated or context-specific decision or enacting a specific plan for exerting governing control of a homeostatic (self-maintaining) body. In one such case, electors in the State of Colorado placed an initiative to legalize marijuana on the ballot, and promoted the issue so that the initiative passed, and altered State law to a less-destructive law.6) Economic networks. Perhaps the supreme example of a strong democratic system is an economic system. A system where individuals make purchases, enabling the optmization of certain kinds of production via comparative advantage of competing sub-systems. (An interesting note here is that a purely rational intelligence that preserves itself in a purely logical manner has been described as "Homo economicus," because unnecessary conflict is eliminated from this optimized "game theoretical" mind.) After all, a "revealed preference" or "purchase" is one form or category of "decision" that can be optimized by distributed processes.Economic systems, for example, favor the continued distribution and manufacture of illegal drugs, regardless of what codified law has to say about drug prohibition. This strong economic pressure refused to break under drug prohibition, and instead created a strong economic pressure toward creating a market for violence to fill the need to defeat or circumvent law enforcement. When law enforcement gets more proficient, violence increases, because the ability to pay for violence is scalable, unlike camouflage (satellites can spy on every square inch of earth, chemical sensors can detect every single drug shipment, etc., but only equal and opposing force can defeat a well-financed army of murderers). For this reason, one can also call Economic pressures created by large numbers of willing buyers "a democratic system."The reason democracy is so successful is that it is a cybernetic system that is capable of adapting to ensure its own survival. One tool cybernetic systems possess is dishonesty or "communicational control" designed to preserve survival during conflict. Without the ability to match the dishonesty of an adversarial system, malevolent dishonest systems would have the advantage. Rigidly-described republican systems that do not allow for (or "call") democratic sub-systems are not adaptable, and therefore tend to break down under attack.Democratic systems, are, therefore, best-described as "decentralized, distributed decision-making" systems. As James Surowiecki wrote, in "The Wisdom of Crowds," one decision that can be made is to collude or "cooperate" with existing adversarial systems, to limit harm (as in "the prisoner's dilemma"). Another decision that can be made is to "coordinate" with existing systems, to expand benefits. Sometimes, cooperation problems can be turned into coordination problems. This is often done by addressing interests at the system-level, as opposed to a sub-system level. For example: Economic interests are optimized by ending prohibition, but sub-systems profit from the existence of prohibition. If prohibitions can be ended, fewer inviduals are destroyed, and the overall wealth of the system is expanded. For this reason, police forces tasked with enforcing prohibition are typically coopted by the prohibited trades, once those trades are big enough to pay off enough prohibitionist police. The prohibitionist police then protect the largest "nominally prohibited" interests, while simultaneously paying to protect the system that maintains the prohibition, lest they be "removed from the equation." (If drugs could be sold legally without circumventing the law, then judges and prosecutors would not be paid to ineffectually "fight drug distribution," and corrupt cops would not be able to skim large amounts of money from the drug distributors. Further, the drug distributors themselves would not be able to include the fluctuating cost of circumventing law enforcement in their prices, because they would be undercut by "the most efficient manufacturers and distributors" which would then include "all scientific minds available to the market" instead of "only the scientific minds available to the market which are willing to risk imprisonment for breaking the law.")The Bill of Rights is a law that refers to or "calls" the prior democratic limits, but it is not the democratic limit itself. (The Bill of Rights and all codified laws are "republican limits" on government power, which tend to be more rigid, and less context-specific in the way they limit government power. These rigid rules tend to set up context-specific "democratic institutions" which then adapt to specific governance tasks.) The democratic limits themselves are comprised of networked human brains, which are, in turn, comprised of networked neurons. The law basically says "this decision will be made by a democratic process, and this is how that democratic process should be set up," but it doesn't describe the details of any specific circumstance, because only brains can assess the situation in that level of context-specific detail.Prohibitionist systems, including Nation-States, tend to be generally inefficient to the extent they are prohibitionist, but prohibitionist sub-systems tend to maintain their own survival as "cybernetic systems." Thus, all other factors being equal, a Nation-State that engages in prohibition will be subject to being Economically out-competed by territories that do not engage in prohibition. (A tax is a general disincentive on production or "an arbitrary prohibition on production above a certain naturally-occurring limit." For this reason, "the Laffer curve" predicts that taxes collected will increase if tax rates themselves are decreased. This principle explains why non-prohibitionist territories outperform prohibitionist territories.)The great tragedy of the USA is that non-democratic anti-Economic sub-systems have "hijacked" or "co-opted" the previously optimal market system. This was initially done as a means of directing government money to unintelligent bigots, by preying on system-wide ignorance. However, once instantiated, the system adapted to ensure its own survival and now relies more on corruption than ignorance: thus local prohibitionists work to sustain system-wide prohibition, even in the knowledge that it harms the overall system.Worldwide, this harms every prohibitionist system (reducing profitability, increasing tyranny, removing former producers from productive capacity, destroying capital on an immense scale).Even so, human+computer systems are becoming increasingly more capable of accurately assessing the costs of prohibitionist systems (systems that have codified or disguised "mala prohibita" as being legitimate, ). As this capacity becomes more accurate, systems that do not enforce prohibition, or that allow its circumvention with minimal costs, will become more profitable than systems that attempt to enforce prohibitions.Over time, this will tend to relegate the USA to non-competitive status, if the USA attempts to maintain undemocratic, anti-market prohibitionism. One way in which this happens is far more destructive than the prohibitionism itself: it rewards those who plan for long-term prohibitionism, by choosing to become prohibitionists. This long-term planning causes young people to become lawyers. Then, when the law no longer prohibits unnecessarily, those lawyers are no longer necessary, and their legal educations have not prepared them to contribute anything legitimate to human survival and entertainment markets. Having no useful skills, they will then represent a large and amoral unproductive class which will become unsustainable "all at once."The incumbent prohibitionist system's desire to protect itself thus encourages unsustainable systems toward self-protection until they fail catastrophically.For example: If Russia adopts classical liberal policies toward drugs, prostitution, highway travel, gambling, tax collection, and contract protection, it would then free up law enforcement resources to enable that contract protection. If this were combined with ironclad protection of property rights, the internet would instantly disseminate this information.Given Putin's comprehension of the common law, this would place Russia in a "checkmate" position over the USA, resulting in millions of Americans leaving for Russia.China could do the same (but they are less likely to, given their entrenched economic corruption). Iceland could do the same (but their society is still flirting unintelligently with "social conservatism" described in Hayek's "Why I am Not A Conservative.")In short, when surivival-unfit economic specialists all choose your economy for its comfort-level and wealth-preservation level, your society has optimized democracy, since the Economics of rational self-interest is the most optimized form of democracy, mutually-inclusive with democratic control over governmental force.As James Surowiecki noted in "The Wisdom of Crowds," individual nodes must be independent, in order for democratic systems to produce intelligent results in the short-term. Those democratic systems that fail to optimize for the system-wide short-term (as opposed to the sub-system short-term) will be outcompeted in the long-term. Prohibitionist sub-systems exist because narrowly-self-interested sub-systems exert coercive influence on enough nodes to control the sub-system (this control then defines the sub-system itself, and places the sub-system into conflict with the super-system). Competing super-systems that avoid this conflict will tend to be more efficient competitors, and such systems will tend to emerge or "come into existence" anywhere that is (a)similarly advanced and (b)not suppressed.Optimizing for the system-wide short term (based on classical liberal theory) is optimal, because it avoids systemic collapse at "some point in the future" by allowing the system to avoid "uncompetitiveness."Another option is that all human systems become uncompetitive, because they are all "fighting for last place" but in different ways. Thus, there is no competitive system, due to the inadequacy of human brains, and a new and qualitatively different species that exploits the best ideas of humanity becomes the only viable pathway to a sustainable, competitive, viable, productive future.For example: the prohibitionist system of Islam destroys almost all possible value from its inhabitants. However, the different prohibitionist system of US drug prohibition is prohibitionist to a different, but lesser extent. The irrational prohibitionism of each system weakens both systems, placing them within the competitiveness of each other. Because the systems are inherently conflicting based on irrational stated goals and perversely-motivated sub-systems that confuse the differences of the systems, it's possible the two systems will destroy one another. (Whereas there is no chance that Islam would be powerful enough to destroy a classical liberal system that did not first weaken itself by introducing into itself the fatal flaw of legalized prohibitionism.) The profitability of classical liberalism is diminished by introduction of the flaw of religiously-motivated prohibitionism.The Southern churches of the USA propagate prohibitionism, because they have come under political control. This has largely happened without the knowledge of their congregations, because the political control is an economic interest in "maintaining the system as it currently exists." Because prohibitionism currently exists, it is not expressly favored, even though anti-prohibitionism is targeted by the churches when it emerges.For example: "The Affordable Care Act" or "Obamacare" attempts to bring medicine under increased government (FDA, AMA, State licensing, and government-Insurance cartel) control. When "right wing" meetings opposed to Obamacare were organized in churches, or with the blessing of "religious leaders" the opposition to Obamacare was diverted into "prayer." Because prayer changes nothing in material reality (because god does not exist, and therefore does not answer prayers), this prayer simply detracted from intelligent opposition to Obamacare. Because the "Affordable Care Act" is dishonestly named, those who are socialist, or otherwise uneducated or disarmed by nice-sounding lies are subtracted from opposition to it. Because medicare is also socialized medicine, those who do not oppose medicare lack a strong theoretical foundation upon which to oppose Obamacare, undermining their efforts to oppose Obamacare on principle. By introducing a series of cybernetic (self-sustaining, self-promoting, self-defending) ineffectual opposition groups to Obamacare, Obamacare's proponents have survived principled attacks against socialized medicine. Further, by introducing noise and internal confusion to the opposition to Obamacare, existing government control of medicine (DEA drug prohibition, systemic FDA and AMA-licensing control of medicine, ONDCP regulation of medication, etc.). The churches don't even need to expressly state that they support government control of medicine: they just need to fight government control of medicine ineffectually. This directs human intelligence away from shaping democratic policies that directly impact material reality.I'm expressly referring here to a meeting in Baldwin County, Alabama that I attended. The meeting was allegedly set up as a planning meeting against Obamacare. Most of the meeting was co-opted by a religious group that directed everyone to "pray" to end Obamacare. Needless to say, the prayers accomplished absolutely nothing of any consequence in material reality. Behind the scenes, Obamacare's advocates worked tirelessly to maintain and expand government control of medicine, being concerned solely with their direct impact on material reality. When the churches have adopted policies encouraging jury nullification of law and civil disobedience, their leadership has been attacked, and their tax-exempt status has been revoked. They have been labeled as "political organizations" no longer subject to tax-exempt status.So long as the churches to not threaten the existing political status quo, they can be as political as they like, and their tax-exempt status will not be challenged. This lack of a challenge is disguised as "apathy" or "ambivalence" and does not appear to be a cybernetic (self-maintaining, homeostatic) system to the untrained or "unsophisticated" observer. However, the result is "control without the appearance of control." The default ignorant systems are maintained, because opposition to them is selectively removed or attacked.Sure, those who mount opposition to the status quo understand when they are being attacked, but if they try to communicate the knowledge of those attacks to their congregation, they will be further and more successfully attacked by the incumbent system. Norbert Wiener described such systems as "The Lords of Things As They Are" in his 1950 book "The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society."Instead of looking at the systems they belong to as "adversarial cybernetic systems," the average churchgoer is unaware of the larger cybernetic system that controls the content of his church. The churchgoer may recognize his church's content is political, but without explicit knowledge from the adversarial system, he remains unaware of the arguments of the alternative systems, simply by conforming to a system that has come under incentivized control.Some opponents of religious control may claim that the answer is to abolish the tax-exempt status of all religious organizations, however, this then expands the overall position of the incumbent state, which is itself a malevolent and corrupted "faith-based" or "unscientific" entity. However, unlike religious faith, the State claims to have a secular legitimacy, which is, in fact, based on the perverse motivation of theft.Rather than eliminating the religious exemption for taxation, all tax-exemption should be unconditionally granted, resulting in a voluntary society, where people do not participate, unless it is voluntarily.Of course, the current levels of government are totally unsustainable without coercion, and it is this fact of reality that unites the government and the churches in maintaining the status quo, perversely incentivizing the churches.The foundation of the churches is also economic or "democratic" in nature. Scientific learning requires the expenditure of energy. One very energy intensive form of learning is the reconsideration and rejection of information previously accepted as true. Both reconsidering and re-analyzing accepted truth, as well as going yet further and rejecting them requires energy. For this reason, the church protects its own interests by telling its adherents that it contains all the relevant information within certain domains.Years ago, I attended a mass at the Yale University Church, and the pastor's preaching stated that "the faculty of reason alone is not enough to lead a good life." This teaching essentially tells the listener that "you have enough information in this domain," adding to the energy cost of reasoning through alternate explanations. Further, it consciously displaces reason as "the listener's final arbiter." Thus, if one did not already hold reason as the final arbiter, one lacks the ability to elevate reason to a supreme status in one's decision-making repertoire.Thus, churches and religious doctrines are simply cybernetic systems (adversarial, war-making systems) that include dishonesty as a means of supplanting all other informational adversaries.The picture thus comes into focus that cybernetics is the science that informs us about democracy and democratic systems, and that distributed decision-making processes can be called "democratic" or "democracy." Economics is a subset of the study of democratic systems, which is a subset of "the study of governance" or "the study of control systems or 'steersmanship'" known to the Scientific world as "Cybernetics." Because such processes are always in competition (even if only for system resources comprised of activated nodes), they can be considered "adversarial" and "adaptive." Evolution and evolving systems are also able to be considered as cybernetic systems, though ones which adapt at a much slower rate of speed than highly-intelligent systems. (The speed of adaptation of evolved populations adapts at the time-frame of the life of the organism, whereas the speed of adaptation of purely "cybernetic" intelligences can adapt nearly instantaneously at the speed and number of node communications.)In between "the life of the organism" and "the speed of thought" are "systems designed to operate as aggregates of decisions made by individual humans" or "demos" (the root word of "people"). Any such way of organizing such aggregates is "democratic" to the extent it allows for independent decisions of independent nodes to incorporate accurate information taken from material reality into the decision.When the intelligent religious person incorporates religious ideas into his democratic decision-making he is actually incorporating knowledge of reality that "this kind of religious information" (ie: the golden rule's tendency to favor mercy over punishment by consciously identifying conscience as having value) favors a good outcome, in which case, he could eliminate the idea that the genesis of his views was religious, and benefit from increased comprehension. This increased comprehension would reduce his ability to manipulate religious nodes, until dishonesty was accepted as legitimate. Hence, the cost of knowledge is overall increased beyond the comfort level, until one's sophistication is sufficiently advanced. (One way to explain the legitimacy of such "contextual dishonesty" or "contextual trickery" to religious people who refuse to accept non-religious explanations is that "By being circumstantially dishonest, you are serving the higher truth, when dishonest man-made-systems have been set up to cause the honest to lose. One example is how the Nazis set up the Nazi-system to punish those who harbored Jews. If you were honest to the Nazi system, and you told the Nazis where Anne Frank was hiding, then you were serving the man-made or 'Satanic' system." Commensurate with this view is the idea that "the Lord does not want you to disavor your own capacity for logic, which is why he gave man 'free will'.")Homeostatic informational (Cybernetic) systems are based on the ability to deceive. All information that is relevant to survival is subject to incentivized dishonesty, because information relevant to survival can be traded to those who do not possess it. This is an evolved characteristic of competition over scarce resources.The precursor to information that confers a survival advantage to humans is the evolved appearance of camouflage in predator and prey. Both mask the emergence of true information about the organisms, simply as the result of selection pressure. Additional levels of intelligence confer additional adaptability to adversarial systems, based on the increased ability to model one's circumstances.This is also true of legal systems, where both sides are striving for a certain outcome. The defendant is fighting to maintain his system, and the prosecutor is striving for the ability to destroy the defendant's survival and wealth, typically for personal benefit. The Economic system adds a pressure against prohibition, but the narrow and context-based sub-system is in conflict with that pressure, because a coordinated sub-network benefits from prohibition. The more such sub-networks there are, the less viable the overall system becomes, weakening the overall system in relation to "outside competition" (competition external to the overall system).The most general system relevant to humans is the system "Human Life On Earth."Localized sub-systems fight over resources, because of poor system design, and the reversal of prior advances, due to sub-system corruption (the loss of voluntary markets and the loss of voluntarily-incentivized contract protection).When the American system was corrupted by prohibition, it then made sense for those previously loyal to the American system to abandon it as "corrupted." However, this abandonment never came to pass, because the system continued to claim that it was "the American system" and to retain superficial democratic characteristics.The language of patriotism is a cybernetic tool that attempts to dishonestly disguise the fact that America is no longer democratic. It is no longer democratic because it no longer holds true elections (it holds mock elections where all the choices that wish to be included are either not included, or are introduced in an unequal manner where their victory is disfavored). The American system is no longer democratic because it no longer holds properly-random jury trials (juries are selected against randomness, in favor of jurors who "agree to 'uphold the law as it is given to them by the judge' --the very opposite of the evolved purpose of the common law jury). The American system is no longer democratic because it does not protect equally the right of all citizens to own and carry concealed firearms and rifles (it enforces illegitimate gun laws against those who live in cities, and those who live in cities tend to be racial minorities, judges then apply gun charges to racial minorities less favorably). The American system is no longer democratic because it no longer allows ORGANIZED political speech on college campuses (for example, if you have a political petition that will place a choice on a ballot, you are escorted off of campus, or threatened with arrest) however, DISORGANIZED or INEFFECTUAL speech is tolerated on campus by all members of the general public, including students. As in the case of churches promoting ineffectual political speech, this is "control without the appearance of control." ...This is because it is far more difficult for individual nodes in the system to imagine unheard communications, rather than defending communications that have been heard once and then silenced, or inferred or sought out through logical deduction.Campus speech is suppressed by claiming that the First Amendment is only active in "free speech zones" that are far away from foot traffic that is adequate to meet the organizational goals of political petition circulators. Then the signature requirement for the political petition is simply raised to the point where it is too costly for most individual efforts to comply with. Additionally, the corporate charters of all corporations that control territory where there is foot traffic are subject to the perverse incentives of "maintaining the status quo" that exempts corporations from the tax laws that are applied to indviduals. This is then a corrupting influence that encourages that corporation's corporate lawyers to disallow political speech on that foot traffic area. Unless that corporation's customers (or that campus's students) actually see someone resisting relegation to the "free speech zone" and being arrested for doing so, they remain ignorant that the unheard speech even exists. (One thing to do is to perform research on supressed speech, and to assume that society would be totally libertarian or "classical liberal" in its organization if such restrictions did not exist. One can also gather information on corporate speech restrictions, and expose them. For example, if one tries to circulate a political petition in the parking lots of the following corporations, one will be threatened with arrest or arrested: Wal Mart; Whole Foods; Lowe's Hardware, Home Depot; K-Mart; Kroger's Grocery Stores; Jewel Food Stores; Aldi's Food Stores; Sam's Club; Costco; Target; etc.) Only Giant Foods on the East Coast is pro-American enough to respect free speech. This is true even though all corporations exist under a corporate charter that claims to exist under the Bill of Rights. This is true even though all the prior corporations will sell you an American flag. (They have a right to remove you from any property they own as individuals, but they have no right to accept tax-financed-subsidies and eminent-domain-confiscated property while banning interpersonal unamplified speech from individuals. They further do not prohibit you from asking your fellow men for the time, or for striking up a friendly conversation with someone you know from school or church on their property. This gives you, "the dupe who believes he still lives in America" the false impression that democracy-enabling speech is tolerated.)Most tax-financed college campuses are even less free than the prior corporations, as revealed in the book "The Shadow University" by Charles Alan Kors and Harvey Silverglate. College campuses, particularly totalitarian ones like Northwestern Illinois University's campus in Evanston Illinois, totally prohibit unamplified interpersonal speech, even in areas where there are people playing boom-boxes, holding campus bake sales, etc., and even where circulating such political petitions would not block foot traffic. (Allowing unimpeded foot traffic is, however, often dishonestly used as an excuse for threatening such speech with arrest. This dishonest attack on speech then requires those protesting it to have seen the actual speech take place, or engage in it themselves, and directly observe the fact that it fails to live up to the charge of "blocking foot traffic.")Another objection to requiring that all corporations allow speech in foot traffic areas is ironically comes from libertarian-leaning-but-inconsistent "objectivist" academics who claim to follow the teachings of Ayn Rand. Rand herself stated that though corporations should be treated as though they have the property rights of individuals, they should be regarded as totally un-American if they ban unamplified, interpersonal speech on their foot traffic areas. She claimed that there was a natural incentive to allow free speech that would always be recognized by the heads of corporations. In this, she has been decisively and completely proven incorrect by the miniscule minority that is very well-informed indeed. Moreover: now that she has been proven incorrect, and the system has eliminated the means by which it can self-correct, even the information that she is incorrect is not available to most "objectivists." Thus, while Rand might have been intelligent enough to recognize that she had been proven incorrect, had she survived with all of her faculties to this day, (or semi-correct, because the corporate charter combined with bar-licensing does, in fact, disincentivize respect for the Bill of Rights), her more conformist and less intelligent followers have not been intelligent enough to do so.The first thing that adversarial systems (political systems) do is attempt to block information streams that interfere with their survival.Face-to-face political interaction is the primary means by which public opposition to political incumbency is organized. Thus, the incumbent political systems have limited face-to-face political interaction as a means of preventing democratic challenges to their incumbency.Most people are not even aware that this has occurred.The first step to restoring democracy is to recognize you're not living in one. The second step to restoring democracy is to attack the policies that limit your access to knowedge and public political communications that carry the ability to change the law.For this reason, you should not attend any university that is red-listed by http://www.thefire.org nor should you shop at any grocery store that disallows freedom of speech (you should only shop for groceries online, encouraging such brick-and-mortar locations to lose money and profitability until they close or stop dishonestly selling American flags, as if they were patriots true to the idea of America).It is in this final sense that the complete meaning of "democracy" can be understood as a good and benevolent thing. Democracy is the core tool that underlies the effectiveness of republics and non-republics as a force for good. A republic is a more carefully-codified version of democracy, "a refined democracy."Every republic is a democracy, but every democracy is not a republic. A republic uses better-defined and more carefully-constructed democratic means to limit government power.The reason so much attention is placed on democracy limiting government power is because the default is for those who gain positions of power in government to abolish limits on government power, establishing tyrannies that empower them, at the expense of all other individuals in the system. The core feature of political democracy is to equally distribute political power to all individuals within the system, by limiting the political power of any single individual.To the extent that every node/individual in an adversarial system is equally empowered in its core functionality, political democracy exists.

I hope this is what you were asking for. Los Angeles is so diverse that I would be writing all night so I copied and pasted with links.Los Angeles is a city of four million people in an area of just under 500 square miles (1280 square kilometers). The city borders on other well-known municipalities such as Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Burbank, Glendale and West Hollywood. In fact, the L.A. metro area is really a blend of the 88 cities and countless unincorporated communities which make up Los Angeles County-- a melting pot of 10 million people.Downtown Los Angeles is geographically east of the center of the city. It is a great place to attend a live performance at the Music Center (live theater, symphony, ballet, opera), watch sports: the Los Angeles Dodgers (baseball), Kings(hockey), Clippers and Lakers (both basketball), explore neighborhoods like Chinatown and Little Tokyo, or see a reproduction of the origin of Los Angeles on Olvera Street. For a great 360 degree view, go to the top of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel."L.A. LIVE" is the sports and entertainment district that includes STAPLES Center and the Nokia Theatre and features sports and music events, night clubs, restaurants, a bowling alley, a museum and movie theaters.Just south of the central downtown area is the University of Southern California (USC) as well as the museums of Exposition Park including the California Science Center, California African American Museum and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County as well as the Rose Garden with bushes in bloom 10 months of the year.Directly west of downtown is the Central Los Angeles area including Koreatown, Miracle Mile.the Fairfax District and Beverly Grove.A bit further west (beyond Beverly Hills) is Los Angeles' world-renown Westside, which stretches to the Pacific Ocean, including districts such as Marina del Rey, Santa Monica, Brentwood, Brentwood Village and Westwood(home of UCLA). It is approximately 13 miles from downtown to the coast., roughly the length of world famous Wilshire Boulevard.East of downtown L.A. lies the San Gabriel Valley and San Gabriel Mountains, home to the Mt. Wilson Observatory, a 100+ year old astronomical research facility, and Chantry Flats, a trailhead for the Angeles National Forest. The San Gabriel Valley's most famous city, Pasadena, is host to the annual Rose Parade and Rose Bowl. Its also one of the best places to see winter holiday decorations (the Hastings Ranch area). Other attractions include Huntington Gardens and Library, Cal Tech, LA Arboretum, Santa Anita Race Track, and NASCAR at Irwindale. Further east is Pomona with its wonderful Los Angeles County Fair. San Gabriel Valley has some of the best Asian Food in Los Angeles.Northwest of downtown Los Angeles is Griffith Park, the U.S.'s largest urban park which includes Griffith Observatory, Autry National Center, Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens, Greek Theatre (Los Angeles' premier outdoor theatre), L.A. Equestrian Center, TravelTown, and the Los Angeles Live Steamers. In December the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power puts on a wonderful Christmas light festival in Griffith Park.South of downtown Los Angeles are the port areas of San Pedro and Long Beach. Long Beach is host to the historic ocean liner, the Queen Mary (now a hotel and a museum), as well as the Aquarium of the Pacific, Both port areas have cruises to Catalina Island as well as cruise ships to many locations.Downtown is one of the few areas where it's better to walk than to drive. Parking spaces are limited and expensive, DASH shuttle buses (50 cents/ride) serve the area along with the metro rail and metro buses; everything can be seen in one day. Downtown is largely a commercial area -- office buildings, stores and the like so it tends to "quiet down" in the evening,Olvera Street is the oldest area of Los Angeles, although there are no remains of the first settlement from 1781. The oldest house, Avila Adobe, which was built in 1818, is here, along with several other historic buildings. The Plaza is a popular place for street performances, vendors and also hosts the annual Cinco de Mayo celebrations. Olvera Street is one block long, with Mexican restaurants and shops selling Mexican handicrafts. On the other side of the Plaza are other historic buildings, including Pico House, the first building taller than two stories built in LA, and the Merced Theater, the first theater in the city. Across Main Street from the Plaza is the Plaza Church, oldest church in Los Angeles.Broadway: This area most closely resembles a contemporary Mexican shopping street but most people visit for the vivid atmosphere. It is one of the busiest Downtown areas.Jewelry District is technically a part of Broadway and starts right below 5th Street on Broadway.Civic Center: This area hosts most of Los Angeles' administrative buildings and is the largest concentration of government buildings outside Washington DC. City Hall is the most distinctive of the buildings, familiar to anyone who watched the old Dragnet series. Nearby is the Cathedral Lady of the Angels, the home of the Los Angeles Archdiocese (Visit Welcome to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels), and the L.A. Music Center, featuring Walt Disney Concert Hall, Ahmanson Theatre, Dorothy Chandler Pavillion and Mark Taper Forum.Chinatown: Located at the northern end of Downtown, Chinatown is home to about 35,000 people and the place to watch the Chinese New Year's parade, and purchase Asian products.Little Tokyo: Past Temple Street on Alameda, home of one branch of MOCA and the Japanese American National Museum.Bunker Hill: This neighborhood was the city's first "high class" neghborhood. All of the homes from that era have been torn down and replaced with skyscrapers. At its foot is Grand Central Market where the residents of Bunker Hill used to do their shopping, and where you can still find all kinds of vendors selling all kinds of foodstuffs, some prepared food, and other things.Other sites worth visiting near here are the Central Library, an architectural attraction (and home to one of the largest library collections in the world), Union Station, and the Bradbury Building (an extraordinary design of inner atrium and wrought iron -- as seen in the film "Blade Runner.")University Park, Exposition Park & The Coliseum Complex: Due south of downtown and less than 4 miles away are the University of Southern California, and Exposition Park, the museum complex that is neighbor to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Coliseum which hosted its 2nd Olympics in 1984, is currently home of the Umiversity of Southern California Trojans football team. The museums include The California Science Center and Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. There is also an IMAX theater. The USC campus (across Exposition Bl from the Museums) has its own architectural gems - and it's not widely known that in "The Graduate", Dustin Hoffman who sought out his fair lady allegedly in Berkeley, was actually trolling the USC campus.Central Los Angeles NeighborhoodsCentral Los Angeles is bounded by Beverly Blvd to the north and by Olympic Blvd to the south. Neighborhoods are listed based upon their proximity to downtown. In the case where two neighborhoods are the same distance from downtown, the one that is northernmost is listed first.ATWATER VILLAGE: an older neighborhood, just west of glendale and east of griffith park, this location is considered by families to be one of the best places to live in the entire city, with plenty of great restaurants and small businesses on the two thoroughfares, glendale blvd and los feliz blvd.Echo Park: An older Los Angeles neighborhood often overlooked by tourists. The center of the neighborhood is Echo Park Lake where you can rent a boat or water bicycle or walk onto the island in the center of the lake and commune with the waterfowl. The lake is also home to the largest bed of lotus plants outside China. Every July the Lotus Festival is held here, celebrating the many asian cultures that call Los Angeles their second home.Silver Lake: This is one of the oldest sections of the city with an energetic mix of gay and Latino cultures reflected in the ecclectic shops along Sunset Blvd just east of where Santa Monica Blvd terminates at Sunset.Los Feliz: Just west and north of Silverlake, Los Feliz is a varied neighborhood from Sunset on the south and climbing into the hills on the north. There is a vital retail area that runs through the area with interesting shops, restaurants and clubs along Vermont Ave and Hillhurst Ave north of Hollywood Blvd. North of Los Feliz is Griffith Park, with access to the Greek Theater and Griffith Observatory via the extension of Vermont Avenue.Griffith Park: The largest urban park entirely within an urban area in America. Griffith Park has hiking trails, horseback riding, golf courses, the L.A. Zoo, the Autry National Center, the Griffith Observatory and, on the northside (toward Burbank) TravelTown and the Los Angeles Live Steamers, where hobbyists will take you for a ride on their scale model trains.Koreatown: Koreatown is bordered by Melrose Avenue (north), Pico Boulevard (south), Arlington Avenue/Wilton Place (west), and Hoover Street (eeast). Wilshire Boulevard runs through the center of the neighborhood and features high-rise office buildings. Local shopping is on 8th Street (running parallel to Wilshire to the south) and on Western Avenue. Be sure to try some Korean barbecue at one of the local restaurants -- uncooked meat is brought to your table and you cook it over a built-in grill. For the brave, sample some kimchee (Korean Pickled Cabbage).Hancock Park and adjacent Windor Square (sometimes called Larchmont): A well-to-do neighborhood in the eastern portion of central LA developed in the 1920s. The area is bounded by Highland Ave, (west), Wilton Place (east), Beverly Blvd. (north) and Wilshire Blvd.(south). Homes in this area are unique in Los Angeles as they are on large lots (by Los Angeles standards) and power and telephone lines are underground. Ninety percent of Windsor Square homes have not been altered on their exteriors (or if they been, the original architectural integrity has been preserved) -- an interesting phenomenon for an area where the homes are approaching 90 years of age in a city where last week's fashions are now out of style. Vist the quaint "Larchmont Village" shopping Street between Beverly Blvd and 1st Street, a few blocks east of Rossmore Avenue (which becomes Vine Street just north of this neighborhood).Hollywood covers a vast area starting at its eastern edge at Western Ave (the original 'western boundary' of the city of Los Angeles) and spans to the west to about Fairfax Ave. On the south, it is bordered by Melrose Avenue and on the north, Hollywood climbs up into the hills and ends at the ridge line at Mulholland Blvd.The neighborhood has a rich history in early movie making where the streets were dotted with movie studios and supporting industries. "Bungalow Court" apartments -- horseshoe-shaped complexes of tiny houses -- were built to house the up and coming stars. Today, most of the movie companies have moved to either Culver City to the south or Burbank to the north but some of the old theatres are still here such as Grauman's Chinese. Adjacent to Grauman's is the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a series of brass plates imbedded in the sidewalk radiating from the intersection of Hollywood Blvd and Highland Ave commemorating all manner of entertainers in movies, theatre, TV and the music industry.Today, the area is very popular with tourists and there are souvenir shops and coach tour companies that line Hollywood Bl. Public transit is exceelent from this neighborhood as there are both metro buses, DASH buses and metro rail trains that serve this district. Add to that, the numerous coach tour companies take visitors to the four corners of our metro area including trips to outlying theme parks in neighboring Orange County to the south and Six Flags Magic Mountain to the north. Other 'tourist friendly' attractions include Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum and Ripley's Believe it or Not!Miracle Mile: About a one-mile stretch of Wilshire Boulevard between Fairfax and La Brea Avenues. It received the name 'Miracle Mile' for its unlikely rise to prominence. Miracle mile features the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Petersen Automotive Museum, Museums of Arts and Crafts, and the unique La Brea Tar Pits .Melrose Avenue: It actually has nothing to do with the popular TV show "Melrose Place" from the 1990s (although there is a Melrose Place just off Melrose Av that features high-end designer shops). Melrose Avenue features funky shops and restaurants .Fairfax District: This district is bordered by West Hollywood on the north, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, La Brea Avenue on the east, and Beverly Hills and West Hollywood on the west. It is a center of the city's Jewish community and the area around Fairfax Avenue is lined with kosher restaurants, bakeries, delis, and little shops, creating a village feeling in the middle of the city. Canter's Del is one of the oldest and most famous.Beverly Grove: This is a newly-named neighborhood -- more in people's minds than on any street sign -- but it describes the two extremes of the area: the Beverly Center shopping center on the western end (at La Cienega Blvd between Beverly Blvd and 3rd Street) -- a large indoor shopping mall with shops, restaurants and movies; and, on the eastern end of the area is the Grove, a relatively new outdoor shopping area made to look like a little town with a central square, a clock tower, a little pond (whose fountain performs "water shows" to the sounds of music), and an "old-fashioned" movie house with a rotating vertical column of neon light (don't let the facade fool you, this is a modern multi-screen multiplex theatre).Just west of the Grove is Farmers Market. Started in the 30's to help local farmers find buyers for their produce, it has grown into one of the original tourist attractions of Los Angeles. A wide variety of things are available here, from produce to fresh meats, souvenirs, groceries, and housewares. Other noteworthy attractions are Pan Pacific Park (a former reservoir) located to the immediate east of the Grove, CBS 'Telivision City' (TV studios where popular TV shows are taped in front of live audiences) to the immediate north of the Farmers Market. and various museums along Wilshire Bl to the south of the Grove.At the western end of the neighborhood are two malls (the Beverly Center -- upmarket -- and the Beverly Connection -- discount/mini-outlet). Running through the center of this neighborhood are dozens and dozens of restaurants and shops of all kinds and in all price ranges. This is a very walkable area that isn't touristy.West HollywoodLocated between La Brea Ave on the east and Doheny Blvd on the west, Melrose Ave on the south and Sunset Blvd on the north. West Hollywood, unlike Hollywood to its east, is an incorporated city of its own -- not part of the city of Los Angeles.Studios where classic television shows, such as the "Danny Thomas Show" were filmed, are located on side streets near Santa Monica and Fairfax. This is where the three camera system was perfected after being created for "I Love Lucy" at Desilu Studios in Hollywood.Before the area was incorporated, it was under the aegis of Los Angeles COUNTY. Two cultures flourished under L.A. County's relative "hands off" attitude:1. The L.A. gay community with nightlife running along Santa Monica Blvd between Doheny Blvd and Fairfax Ave2. The Sunset Strip -- a stretch of Sunset Blvd running parallel to Santa Monica Blvd between Doheny Blvd and Crescent Hts Blvd. For those old enough to remember the 60s TV series "77 Sunset Strip", the club featured on the show was, in fact, on the Strip but never had the "77 Sunset Strip" address (since all of the local addresses simply run between "8000 Sunset Blvd" to "9000 Sunset Blvd". No doubt: "77 Sunset Strip" sounded sexier than the building's actual address.For decades, this has been a vibrant 'nightlife area' in the region with bars, lounges, live music venues and restaurants located amongst 'better' hotels and upmarket boutique shopping (and an H&M store -- inexpensive, trendy clothing).Beverly HillsWhat is there to say about Beverly Hills that's not already known? This is where the wealthy shop. Rodeo Drive is internationally renown as are the jewelry stores, clothing shops and restaurants that appear on that street and in the adjacent areas. Don't forget the "big boys" on Wilshire Blvd -- Barney's, Saks and Neiman Marcus. Beverly Hills is also an exclusive residential neighborhood but the homes aren't their largest and most expensive until you travel north of Sunset Blvd.Beverly Hills High School has an oil well on the school grounds."The Westside" NeighborhoodsWant to start a fight in Los Angeles? Ask someone where "the Westside" begins. This area is the most extreme western section of the city. reaching to the ocean. Everyone knows that the Pacific Ocean is the western boundary of the Westside but it's never been clear where the eastern boundary is. For the purpose of this guide, let's call it Beverly Glen Bl. What you'll notice when you cross over the Beverly Glen boundary is that the air is a little cooler and the pace a little more relaxed (except for the traffic which is everywhere). Below are the major L.A. neighborhoods and cities of the westside. Santa Monica is a city at the western edge of the city of Los Angeles. Marina del Rey is an unincorporated area (not an actual city) adjacent to L.A.'s Venice neighborhood.Bel Air: More of the Rich and Famous live here. Bel Air is a hillside community between Brentwood and Beverly Hills: posh and sleepy with not much to see as most houses are hidden from the street. Contrary to what you might think, most of the really expensive homes are at the BOTTOM of the community -- not the TOP.Century City: Just west of Beverly Hills, this is a business district created in the city by converting the backlot of the 20th Century Fox Studios into a grid of high-rise office buildings and hotels plus an outdoor shopping mall. The area is popular with people coming to L.A. on business. After dark, the office buildings shut down and there's not much open except the shopping mall and a couple of restaurants.Westwood Village: Westwood Village is home to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The area is mostly populated by students and is always buzzing. This is a "village atmosphere" with shops and restuarants and movie theatres to serve the students. All are welcome.Brentwood: Brentwood is an exclusive residential neighborhood and has a 'small town' feeling to it. Marilyn Monroe's last residence was in Brentwood and it was here that O.J. Simpson's wife was murdered. Her house, as well as the one of O.J. himself has been bulldozed in the meantime. Although the shopping district has some nice restaurants and shops, the traffic here can be brutal especially during rush hours and finding a place to park can be an exercise in frustration. Hello, valet parking. For more information on local shopping, dining and events, check out www.sanvicente-brentwood.com and www.brentwoodvillage.org.Culver City: Located towards the southwest corner of the L.A. metro area on the way to LAX, the city used to be home to three major movie studios (MGM, Hal Roach and Selznich). Culver City is now dominated by Sony Pictures.Westchester/ LAX: The community of Westchester is in the very southwest corner of the city of Los Angeles and is best known for Los Angeles International Airport, LAX.Beach NeighborhoodsThese are the westside neighborhoods that are along the coastline of the Pacific Ocean between the city of Malibu (at the north) and the city of Long Beach (at the south).MalibuMalibu occupies 27 miles of coast along the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). The main attraction is the beach. Contrary to popular belief, the TV Show "Baywatch" was mainly shot in Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades. Much of the city has private beaches and the public beaches are, as a rule, nothing to write home about. However, a visit to the Malibu Lagoon and Adamson House are well worth while. Other popular beaches in the area are Paradise Cove and Zuma Beach.In the hills above Malibu, where Malibu Canyon Road crosses famous Mulholland Highway, is Malibu Creek State Park. Most famous for being the site where the movie and the TV show M*A*S*H were filmed, the park has a long and interesting history. Park docents conduct introductory tours of the park once a month.Pacific PalisadesWealthy, residential community to the north of Santa Monica with a small neighborhood shopping district.Santa MonicaSanta Monica is located on the Pacific Ocean, where Wilshire Boulevard meets the sea. Known for its sunshine and beaches, and plenty of celebrity sightings, Santa Monica prides itself as a national model for progressive issues, including social services, quality of life for local residents, and environmental leadership. This urban village has spectacular views of its vast white sand beaches from Palisades Park, unparalled shopping on Third Street Promenade, Main Street and Montana Avenue, and the region's most renowned restaurant scene. Santa Monica stretches for about two miles along the coast before joining up with Venice Beach.Venice BeachThe somewhat 'bohemian' community still hangs on to many vestiges of the 1960s when 'flower power' ruled, and the little community is jam-packed between Santa Monica and Marina del Rey, reachable by foot from both communities. Ocean Front Walk is a mile long strip along the beach chock full of artists, performers, skaters, fashionable dogs, souvenirs of every kind and plenty of opportunity for pictures. Sidewalk cafes there are perfect for people watching, and the muscular bodybuilders working out at Muscle Beach's "Pit" have to be seen to be believed. A block off the beach on some of the side streets you'll find worthy restaurants and respected art galleries.Electic shops, art galleries, and fascinating restaurants and wine bars populate the interesting Abbot Kinney Boulevard neighborhood, particularly between Venice Boulevard and Main Street, including surfing collectibles, etched glass, women's art collaboratives and wall murals.No visit to Venice Beach is complete without a stop at the famous Venice Canals, located north of Washington Boulevard at Dell Avenue. These early 20th century canals were created by Abbot Kinney in his quest to replicate the canals of Venice, Italy. Today they criss cross a delightful intimate neighborhood of exqusite bungalows, scenic walkways, miniature wood raised bridges, and gardens lacing the sidewalks and unusual homes.If you continue 1/2 mile further west on Washington Boulevard, you can enjoy a stop at this "End of Washington" district, which spills directly into the old Venice Pier. Metered or parking lots will give you an opportunity to explore the view from the pier, and the plethora of shops, cafes, bars and fine restaurants located here.Marina del ReyHugging the south border of Venice Beach is Marina del Rey, which is the center of recreatonal boating in the L.A. area. Over 5,000 boats are anchored here, and it's a popular, casual, relaxed oasis in the middle of bustling L.A. This is one of the few places in the area where visitors can actually get out onto the water. Activity options include daily public fishing trips, hourly kayak, sailboat and power boat rentals, Wednesday cocktail, Friday blues, Saturday dinner dance and Sunday brunch cruises.Many visitors choose to make Marina del Rey a base for their LA area visit, as most of the hotels in the community have water views overlooking the harbor, are walking distance from Venice Beach, offer more value for the dollar than other beach towns, and the community is only four miles north of LAX. For more info about this area, check out their website."The Marina" is famous for its waterfront restaurants, and weekend brunches. Most are located along the marina's Waterfront Walk and offer outside, covered and terraced dining. This is a great spot for sunsets too.Marina del Rey really bustles during the summer, when the weekend Beach Shuttle operates, the Summer weekend Water Bus is zooming through the harbor, and the free summer pop and classical concert series in Burton Chace Park is in full gear.And if you enjoy biking, the paved South Bay Bicycle Trailextends for 22 miles along the coast from Malibu in the north, through Santa Monica, Venice, Marina del Rey, Playa del Rey, and Dockweiler Beach, ending at Torrance Beach in the south. This is an interesting ride since the beach communities are so varied. Bike and skate rental concessions are easily available along the route, including bikes for pets and children, tandems and low riders (great for seniors).The Marina del Rey portion passes by the beautiful marinas as well as some interior areas for some portion, and is a good place to stop for lunch or to pick up some provisions for a picnic along the way. For directions, free bike and visitor maps, restaurant listings and more, stop at the Marina del Rey Visitors Information Center, located along the bike path at 4701 Admiralty Way (at Mindanao). Open daily.Playa del ReyImmediately south of Marina del Rey is the isolated little beach village of Playa del Rey. Quiet, serene, with wide, white sand beaches, the litte residential community is reminiscent of mid-century beach towns. A scattering of local dives, some pretty good restaurants, and a quiet beach front gives the area its slow paced flavor. It is surrounded by the newly restored Ballona Wetlands, which are a treasure of coastal wildlife on the westside.LAX is located just south of Playa del Rey. South of LAX are the following beach communities:South Bay and Long BeachThe South Bay is generally recognized as beginning at Los Angeles International Airport, and moving south from there, and includes the beach cities of Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Palos Verdes and Long Beach. Right out of a postcard of Southern California, they offer sand that stretches out of sight, clean water, beach volleyball, and beachfront paths for rollerblading, cycling and walking.San Pedro/Wilmington: The offical Port of Los Angeles where the commercial freight arrives for this region of the country. It is also the port for all pleasure cruises, except Carnival Cruise Lines, and whale-watching cruises. Cabrillo Marine Museum is here. There is a water-side shopping center of shops and restaurants.Long Beach: Long Beach is an independent city -- not part of the city of Los Angeles. It features the Queen Mary, the Carnival Cruise Lines docks, an aquarium, a city beach and an airport (where discount flights like Jet Blue arrive)Northern Areas (San Fernando Valley and vicinity) -- popular areas from west to east...Studio City: Once the home of the Motion Picture industry, it is now an up and coming area for hipsters looking to escape the crowds of Hollywood. You can find nice restaraunts, bars, and excellent shopping.North Hollywood: North Hollywood is the birthplace of California statehood. In January of 1847 Lt. John C. Fremont of the United States and General Andres Pico of Mexico met at the Camp de Cahuenga, now a historical monument across Lankershim Blvd. and signed the treaty to end the war between their two countries.Universal City: Its main attraction are Universal Studios and the City Walk. Universal City Walk features restaurants, a movie complex and dozens of specialty shops.Burbank: One of Burbank's institutions is Bob's Big Boy on Riverside Drive, every single Friday night, muscle car enthusiasts show their restored old-timers. "Nightshow" host Jay Leno has been spotted there frequently, sporting a 'new' vehicle on every occasion. Burbank is also home to Warner Bros., NBC and Walt Disney Studios. Disney's animation studio features a 2-story high wizard's hat.A couple of minutes away, on the north side of Griffith Park, is Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills. This cemetery is the final resting place of Stan Laurel, Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and Walt Disney, but the graounds are extensive and management doesn't appreciate 'star seekers' too much, staff members will not assist in locating individual sites and some, like the one of Humphrey Bogart, are roped off and patrolled.Glendale: Tucked away between the Los Angeles neighborhood of Eagle Rock on the east and Griffith Park on the west, Glendale's northwestern border is shared with Burbank. Glendale was the first land grant in California. Its major attraction is Forest Lawn Memorial Park which contains one of the world's largest oil paintings, The Glendale Galleria is a huge shopping center mall in the center of the city.. Dreamworks Animation SKG, the creator of Shrek, is located here.San Gabriel ValleyPasadena: Pasadena is where the world famous Tournament of Roses Parade kicks off New Year ' Day (except when New Year's Day is on a Sunday; then the parade is held on January 2). For visitors during the holiday season, it's one of those lifetime memories. The Rose Bowl game traditionally occurs the same day as the parade (except when it hosts the BCS Championship game) and is one of the most watched college football games in the country. The week or so before the Tournament of Roses Parade you can watch the floats being decorated. The downtown area has several restaurants, shops, and comedy clubs. The Last Comic Standing show taped at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium which is in the downtown area and hosts other events during the year. Also in Pasadena are the Norton Simon Museum, Gamble House, and world famous Cal Tech University. Descanso Gardens, a 160-acre botanic garden located in nearby La Cañada-Flintridge, has one of the world's largest collections of camellia bushes.San Marino: Close to Pasadena is San Marino, with the wonderful Huntington Library and Gardens. The library has one of the world's finest collections of rare and valuable books, and many scholars come to the facility to study. The Art Gallery has a fine collection of works of art; two of the most well-known of which are Pinkie and Blue Boy. The grounds contain several themed gardens, e.g., the cactus garden, Japanese garden and formal gardens The place also serves a beautiful afternoon tea (reserve in advance.).Arcadia: Arcadia is the home of the Los Angeles Arboretum It is also home of the Santa Anita Race Track which is a fun and historic place to watch horse racing. This was Seabiscuit's home track and much of the film was shot on location here. On weekend mornings during racing season (Oct-Nov and Jan-Apr) there are free tram tours of the stable area. There is a large mall in Santa Anita as well as many good Chinese and Asian restaurants.Irwindale: If you like watching car racing, Irwindale's Nascar Race Track is a fun place to go. Check out the events on Friday and Saturday nights. Close by to Irwindale is the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area where you can enjoy swimming, fishing and picnicking.San Gabriel is a good place to see a bit of California History with its Mission and several other histroic buildings in the immediate vicinity. The San Gabriel Mission was established in 1771. The community is a diverse one.Baldwin Park: For one of the best Mexican dinners in the Los Angeles area, go to Guadalaja Grill; reserve in advance. Its a great way to see one of the best Mariachi Shows while you dine. It is a smaller community.Pomona: Pomona is home of one of the Los Angeles County Fair. It is a suburban community with a couple of shopping malls. The Pomona Colleges are in this area. It is also home to Cal Poly Pomona and its famous herd of Arabian horses established by the founder of Kellogg's Cereals.That is a brief list of the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. I’ve lived here all my life and it has grown and changed immensely. Culturally, ethnically and any other descriptors you could use, LA is as diverse now as any place I’ve been with the possible exception of New York.