Anaheim is a city in Orange County, California, located 28 miles southeast of Los Angeles. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 328,014, making it the tenth-largest city in California. Anaheim is the second largest city in Orange County and is known for its theme parks, sports teams, and convention center. Founded by fifty German families in 1857 and incorporated on February 10, 1870, Anaheim developed into an industrial center, producing electronics, aircraft parts, and canned fruit. It is the site of the Disneyland Resort, a world-famous grouping of theme parks and hotels which opened in 1955, Angel Stadium, the Arrowhead Pond, and the largest convention center on the American West Coast. Its name is a blend of "Ana", after the nearby Santa Ana River, and "heim", a common Upper German place name compound originally meaning "home". Previously, the settlement was known as Campo Alemán.
Anaheim was founded in 1857 by grape farmers and wine makers from Franconia in Bavaria, but the grape industry was destroyed in the late 19th century by an insect pest.
In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan, at the height of its influence and popularity, decided to make Anaheim a model Klan city. In 1924, the Klan secretly managed to get four of its members elected to the five-member Board of Trustees. Nine of the ten members of the police force were also Klansmen. The four Klan trustees served for nearly a year, until they were publicly exposed, and voted out in a recall election in which 95% of the population participated. [citation needed]
The Disneyland theme park was constructed in Anaheim from July 16, 1954 to July 17, 1955 and has since become Anaheim's largest tourist attraction. The location was formerly 160 acres of orange and walnut trees, some of which remain inside Disneyland. In 2001, Disney's California Adventure Park was opened to the public, being the most expansive project in the theme park's history.
In the late 1900s, Anaheim grew rapidly in population. Today, Anaheim has a diverse racial and ethnic composition.
The economy of Anaheim is mainly comprised of entertainment, tourism, and the service sector. It is home to many national conferences that take place at the Anaheim Convention Center. Anaheim is also the location of the Disneyland Resort, with two theme parks (consisting of Disneyland and the new California Adventure Park), three hotels and a shopping, dining and entertainment complex. There are also many hotels and the hospitality sector is a huge employer in the city.
Banco Popular North America plans to move their California Regional headquarters to Anaheim at the beginning of 2006.
On January 3, 2005 Angels Baseball, LP, the ownership group for the Anaheim Angels, announced that it would change the name of the club to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Team spokesmen pointed out that from its inception, the Angels had been granted territorial rights by Major League Baseball to the counties of Los Angeles, Ventura, Riverside, and San Bernardino in addition to Orange County. New owner Arturo Moreno believed the new name would help him market the team to the entire Southern California region rather than just Orange County. The "of Anaheim" was included in the official name to comply with a provision of the team's lease at Angel Stadium which requires that "Anaheim be included" in the team's name.
Mayor Curt Pringle and other city officials countered that the name change violated the spirit of the lease clause, even if it were in technical compliance. They argued that a name change was a major bargaining chip in negotiations between the city and Disney Baseball Enterprises, Inc., then the ownership group for the Angels. They further argued that the city would never have agreed to the new lease without the name change, because the new lease required that the city partially fund the stadium's renovation but provided very little revenue for the city. Anaheim sued Angels Baseball, LP in Orange County Superior Court, and a jury trial was completed in early January 2006, resulting in a victory for the Los Angeles Angels franchise. |
