California Tenant-Landlord Law
Federated state of the southwestern USA, 411,049 km², 36,457,549 residents (2006 estimate), 89 residents/km², capital: Sacramento. Borders: Oregon (N), Nevada (E), Arizona (SE), Mexico (Baja California Norte) (S); Pacific ocean (W). “For the physical-political map see vol. V, page 213” “For the geographical map see the lemma of the 4th volume.”
Morphology, climate, hydrography
California is the third largest state after Alaska and Texas and the first by population. Morphologically is constituted by two mountain ranges, the Coast Range (Coast Range) and the Sierra Nevada, arranged parallel to the coast and separated from Great Valley. The Coastal Range (Mount Thompson, 2744 m) follows the coast from NW to SE and is interrupted by a long transversal fault (a cause of considerable seismicity) at the San Francisco bay, where the Sacramento and San Joaquin. Inland, on the border with Nevada, the Sierra Nevada rises, more rugged and imposing, reaching 4418 m in Mount Whitney; the two chains meet N in the volcanic group of Mount Shasta (4317 m) and Lassen peak (3187 m). AS a vast, arid and desert plateau (deserts of Mojave and Colorado), descends towards the Colorado River (which forms the border with Arizona), interrupted by the depressions of the Death Valley (Death Valley, –86 m), the lowest and warmest area of the North American subcontinent, and of Lake Salton (–70 m); some hills, irregularly arranged (mount San Gorgonio, 3501 m; mount San Jacinto, 3301 m; mount San Antonio, 3075 m) rise close to the narrow southern coastal plain. The coast, which extends for more than 1350 km, is uniform and important, except for the central section, where the bays of San Francisco and Monterey open. The southern coastal stretch is faced by the archipelago of the Santa Barbara islands, wonderful for their landscapes and active fishing bases. California’s climate is predominantly Mediterranean, but morphological differences significantly affect rainfall. Precipitation is abundant on the western slopes of the mountain ranges and increases towards the north; the S, precluded to marine influences from coastal reliefs, is hot and dry (in the Death Valley 56 ºC were recorded in the shade). The hydrographic network hinges on the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers to the north and Colorado to the S; other rivers of some importance are the Klamath, the Trinity, the Eel and the Russian.
Demography
The population is concentrated in the large metropolitan areas of Sacramento, San Francisco-Oakland, Los Angeles-Long Beach, San Bernardino-Riverside, Oxnard-Ventura-Thousand Oaks, Fresno, San José, San Diego and Anaheim-Santa Ana. California’s demographic evolution has very particular aspects, starting with the formidable growth rate: from 1,485,000 inhabitants. in 1900 the population rose to 6,875,000 residents in 1940, equal to 5.2% of the entire USA; this incidence had doubled in 1980 (10.5%, with 23,668,000 inhabitants) and the increase continued also following an annual rate of 2%, absolutely exceptional for the federal context. After the now historical migration flows, in the second post-war period California had become a destination for the professional and white-collar classes coming from the Eastern States, as a consequence of the at least partial shift to W of the US economic center of gravity. But in the most recent period immigration has returned to mainly external origins, Mexican and Asian (Korea, Japan, Philippines, Viet Nam), with the addition of significant student flows from all over the USA; for the first time, moreover, population growth was equally intense both in the northern section (San Francisco, Sacramento) and in the south, while in the past it had always been concentrated in the latter (Los Angeles). Within the state, then, the mobility of the population does not reflect production locations as much as the distribution of social services, despite the undoubted influence of peculiar phenomena such as the high-tech industrialization of Silicon Valley (San José, Santa Clara), starting from the seventies of the twentieth century.
Economy
Favored by the climate and a large irrigation system, California is one of the richest agricultural regions in the world and the largest agricultural producer in the United States, especially for fruit and vegetables (citrus fruits, apples, pears, peaches, plums, grapes and tomatoes), sugar beets, cotton, rice and barley. Breeding is widely practiced (poultry, cattle and pig), which feeds a thriving processing industry; fishing is active (salmon, tuna, crustaceans). Forestry is of great importance (the famous sequoias grow theregiants) for the production of timber (in third place after Oregon and Washington State), paper, pulp and furniture. Mineral resources, more than gold, include oil and natural gas today; important are also the deposits of mercury, tungsten, lead, chromite, zinc, copper and iron. The industrialization of California was recent but very rapid, facilitated by a dense road and rail network and an air service that makes use of 280 public airports and approx. 750 private individuals; the most advanced are the food, paper and film sectors (in Hollywood), petrochemical, chemical, metallurgical, mechanical (aircraft, machinery, electrical machines), in addition to the electronic one, for which California covers a position of absolute worldwide importance. War orders are also vital for the state economy; most of the US armament is produced in California. Finally, the numerous national parks (Lassen, Yosemite, Sequoia, Pinnacles, etc.), the seaside and winter sports resorts and the ruins of the Spanish missions (18th century) make California one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States. In California there are three of the world’s largest astronomical observatories, those of Mount Palomar, of Mount Hamilton and of Mount Wilson.
History
California was partially explored by the Spanish in the century. XVI but the first European settlements date back to the century. XVIII, after the discovery of the bay of San Francisco and the foundation of the first Franciscan mission. Spanish colony, it then passed to Mexico, which however was unable to exercise its sovereignty more than formally, so much so that it tried in vain to sell it to Great Britain. When the first American settlers arrived, a few thousand Spaniards concentrated along the coast lived in the country, public services were lacking, the roads and communications with Mexico City were difficult and dangerous. In 1845 the USA began negotiations for the purchase of California and New Mexico, but the negotiations failed and only at the end of the war with Mexico did the USA, with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (February 2, 1848), they obtained, after having occupied it, California upon payment of 15 million dollars. With the discovery (1849) of gold deposits in the Sacramento valley, the region changed rapidly; following the famous gold rush that occurred in those years, the population increased dramatically (San Francisco alone went from 6000 to 85,000 inhabitants), with consequent growth of cities and economic activities. California was given a Constitution in 1849 and was admitted to the Union in 1850, to which it remained loyal during the Secession War., as a free (non-slave) state. However, it was the scene of serious racial tensions later, between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The cause of the crisis was the strong Asian immigration (especially Chinese and Japanese). In 1879 a state law excluded the Chinese from civil rights. Subsequently, the Japanese were hit, against which discriminatory laws were enacted such as the blocking of immigration and the ban on buying land (1906-07), which contributed to the deterioration of Japanese-American relations. The situation was normalized only in 1924. After 1960 in California, which became the most populous state of the Union, conservative and reactionary political positions developed and in contrast, and, on the contrary, extremist movements of youth protest.
Art: California Indians
The California Indians did not produce particular works of art: the northern populations were influenced by the Northwest Indians and some tribes were particularly skilled in the plot and plumary art, while the southern populations suffered from the influence of culture farming of neighboring Pueblos and Northern Mexicans. The settlement in the Californian region of the Franciscan missionaries led to the emergence of that kind of architecture called mission style, which differs from other colonial styles in that it is linked to the Spanish Renaissance and Baroque principles. After California moved to the United States, a Californian style was born in which the Spanish elements are joined by neoclassical components derived from New England. Characteristics of this style had wide diffusion starting from 1900 by various architects.
Sacramento (city)
City (404,168 residents in 1998; 1,656,000 residents the metropolitan area in 1997), and capital of the State of California (USA), located 120 km NE of San Francisco, on the lower course of the homonymous river, at the confluence in it of the American River. Important communications hub at the intersection of numerous traffic routes, including the “Central Pacific” railway line, it is also an active port center thanks to the presence of a canal that connects the city with Rio Vista, at the mouth of the Sacramento. The economy of Sacramento is based not only on rail and river traffic, but also on the trade of agricultural, forestry and livestock products of northern California and on industry, active in the food sectors (sugar factories, mills, dairies, pileries, canneries), engineering (railway material), graphics and wood. Lastly, Sacramento is a remarkable cultural center, home to Sacramento State College (1947), various libraries and museums. Airport.
San Francisco (California)
City (837,442 residents, in 2013; 4,516,276 residents, the metropolitan area in 2013) of the western United States (California).
State Overview
The largest financial and commercial center of the US Pacific coast, it is located on the hilly San Mateo Peninsula, washed by San Francisco Bay to the E, the Golden Gate to the N and the Pacific Ocean to the W. The metropolitan area occupies a large part of the region which overlooks San Francisco Bay and includes some large centers, including Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro, San Mateo and Palo Alto connected by three large bridges, the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the San Mateo Bridge. The historic center of the city, crossed by typical trams and dotted with skyscrapers and buildings with the most varied architectural styles (Maimonides Health Center, by E. Mendelsohn, 1946-50; Transamerica Pyramid, by William L. Pereira, 1969-72; Millennium Tower, by Gary Edward Handel, 2005-2009), occupies the NE end of the peninsula and faces the oldest section of the port, behind which the Barbary Coast and Chinatown neighborhoods extend, in turn dominated by Nob Hill. It is home to the University of San Francisco (1855), the University of California (1868), a library (San Francisco Public Library) in which over one million volumes are kept, and numerous colleges and research institutions. Stanford University (1891) is located in Palo Alto.
Urban
San Francisco looks like a large modern metropolis, full of scenic spots and picturesque aspects. Very little remains of the oldest settlement and of the nineteenth-century city after the disastrous earthquake of 1906 (church of S. Francesco, 1792-1810; Ferry Building, 1890-1900, with a tower inspired by the Giralda of Seville). In the period before the Second World War, the increased importance of the port and industrial and demographic development (San Francisco had 635,000 inhabitants already in 1940) determined the city ‘s enormous growth, up to the urbanization of the whole peninsula and the creation of a metropolitan area with more than 5 million inhabitants. Urban development made it necessary to open large connecting arteries, such as bridges that cross the bay (San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, 1936; Golden Gate Bridge, 1937), while the problem of communication between the various suburbs that arose on the hills has recently been solved by creating underwater tunnels, underground and elevated arteries. The port area became an object, starting from the sixties of the century. XX, of a functional and urban restructuring program: the ancient fishing port (Fisherman’s Wharf) has become a commercial and tourist area, also through the conversion of the first industrial buildings into accommodation complexes. Particular attention was then paid to the organization of passenger terminals and their connection with the new urban transport network (BARTD, Bay Area Rapid Transit District). While maintaining large spaces available for the transport of goods (gradually specialized in the movement of containers), the demolition of some docks was planned, with the destination of the areas thus obtained for public services and residences for the middle classes. In fact, it should be stressed that San Francisco is one of the most dynamic cities in the United States, not yet reached by the deglomerative phenomena that characterize the metropolises of the eastern part. Note the plans for the Mission Bay and Ferry Building areas drawn up by IM Pei (in collaboration) in the early 1980s. XX. It is a multipurpose recovery used as a residence, tertiary and green.
History
Located in a highly coveted strategic position, San Francisco was the site of a Spanish garrison and mission (1776 and 1777). In 1806 the Russians made an attempt, rejected, to establish a settlement there. The war broke out between Mexico, which had taken over Spain, and the USA, in 1846 they occupied the locality, which from the following year was renamed with the current name, which was to replace the original name of Yerba Buena. The discovery of gold produced (starting from 1849) a turbulent development of what had hitherto been a small village. San Francisco was devastated by five fires between 1849 and 1851 and in 1906 was destroyed by a tremendous earthquake. The seismic risk, albeit with minor manifestations, reoccurred between the late eighties and the early nineties of the century. XX.
Museums
Important cultural center, San Francisco houses important museums, including the MH De Young Memorial Museum (with European works of the eighteenth century), the Museum of Modern Art (dedicated to contemporary art), the Asian Art Museum and the Fire Arts Museum, academies and art galleries.
Show
The theatrical activity in San Francisco began around 1850 and immediately manifested itself with a proliferation of initiatives: numerous theaters arose (one of which, the Jenny Line, which was an integral part of a hotel-gambling den-saloon, was twice rebuilt in a year after many fires) and national and foreign vedettes, opera, ballets and shows of all kinds were hosted. There was also an independent activity and personalities such as Belasco, Maude Adams and James O’Neill had the opportunity to start their career here. Then, with the sec. XX, San Francisco became, like almost all American cities, a mere “square” for the exploitation of Broadway hits, while the musical life was more intense with the foundation of a stable orchestra of great prestige and, in 1922, of an opera theater which regularly hosted the most illustrious names of world opera. Only after the middle of the century the city regained importance in the panorama of the American scene, thanks to the Actor’s Workshop, a stable company founded in 1956 by J. Blau and J. Irving and remained active for a decade, and especially at San Francisco Mime Troupe, created by R. Davies in 1962 and considered one of the most relevant formations of the American stage avant-garde.
Economy
The most important industries are active in the petrochemical, shipbuilding and canning sectors; the food, publishing, metalworking, electrical engineering, chemical, textile, paper, rubber, wood, brick and clothing sectors are also of considerable development. The city has a port, which is among the most active in the country and the first in terms of traffic volume with Asia and Oceania: served by over 100 km of internal railways, it is the port of call for about fifty shipping lines. for abroad and many others for the interior and the centers of the bay. It is also served by the San Francisco International Airport.
Below you will see top cities in California.
Los Angeles (United States)
City (3,849,378 residents, 2006; 12,876,000 residents, 2007, the urban agglomeration) of the western United States (California).
Located on the coast of the Pacific ocean, in a short plain closed to the north and east by the mountains, which shelter it from the northern and blowing winds from within the country. It occupies an area of 1204 km², so much so that it is considered the largest city in the USA, although it is not the most populous: it extends over 80 km from N to S (San Fernando Valley-Los Angeles Harbor) and for 50 km from the San Gabriel Mountains (E) to the sea and includes numerous inhabited areas (Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Hollywood, Inglewood, Long Beach, Pasadena, etc.), separated by vast undeveloped spaces and connected to each other by numerous communication routes and very fast services. It had a rapid economic and urban development with the arrival of the railways, the Southern Pacific (1876) and the Santa Fe Railroad (1885) and even more with the discovery (1892) and the exploitation, in the surrounding area, of oil fields and with the construction of the artificial port (1899) on the bay of San Pedro. Los Angeles is also an important cultural center, home to numerous institutions and high schools, including the University of Southern California (1880), Loyola Marymount University (1911), the University of California (1868), Pepperdine University (1937), the California Institute of Technology (1891), Occidental College (1887), Pomona College (1887) and Whittier College (1887).
Urban
The disordered building expansion, which took place without rational planning, and the distribution of the population in a series of urban agglomerations separated by vast undeveloped spaces, spread over a vast surface and connected only by large highways, make practically equivalent every part of the area of Los Angeles, causing the lack of a real center, which is replaced by the co-presence of shopping centers in pedestrianized areas (Olvera Street; Farmers’ Market; Riverside Mall, 1966; Burbank Mall, 1968). The failure to create a planning body for the whole city and the ineffectiveness of existing ones represent the complementary aspect of the self-planning of the individual communities. On the one hand, in fact, the high and middle income communities move away from the degraded central areas to move to separate centers (Rolling Hills, Westlake, Leisure World etc.); on the other, the progressive ghettoization of the central areas (the African American ghetto of Watts, the barriosChicani from East Los Angeles and Pico Union, the depressed area of Venice etc.) has led to the request by these minorities of complete political, administrative and planning autonomy in their territory. In recent decades, industrialization and the increase in tertiary activities have attracted manpower in particular, triggering a consistent population growth. However, there are numerous problems related to this expansion of the city and first of all that of water supply, which was done by building large artificial lakes in the Sierra Nevada (also 400 km away from Los Angeles) and powerful barriers on the Colorado River, which they supply the city with water and energy.
History
Founded by Spanish Franciscans in 1781 under the name of Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles, from 1845 to 1857 it was the capital of California. During the war between the United States and Mexico it was occupied by the North Americans (1856) and, after the war (1848), it passed to the USA together with its region. It became an important railway junction in the second half of the century. XIX, it grew rapidly after the discovery of important oil fields and the development of the agricultural and film industries.
Museums
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, founded in 1911, is housed in an extraordinary collection of buildings – the main entrance overlooking Wilshire Boulevard – which have been built over the years to house the various collections (the art pavilion Japanese has been open since 1988). The museum includes archaeological collections (Egyptian and classical antiquities) and important sections dedicated to oriental art (Islamic, Far Eastern, Indian etc.). Particularly noteworthy are the collections of applied art (glasses, enamels, tapestries, furniture, fabrics, costumes), among which the Gilbert collection of minute mosaics of various Italian manufactures should be mentioned. Very rich are the sections of European sculpture from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, of European painting from the sec. XV to the century, Reni, Van Dyck, G. de La Tour, Chardin, Degas), of American painting of the sec. XVIII and sec. XIX (Copley, West, Homer, Cassatt, Sargent). The museum also houses a photographic section and one of prints and drawings. Finally, the art collection of the sec. XX (Picasso, Braque, Kandinskij and contemporary American painters). Furthermore, the fundamental collections collected in the MoCA – Museum of Contemporary Art (inaugurated in 1986), the Hammer museum, inaugurated in 1990, and the Paul Getty Museum in Malibu (near Santa Monica), opened to the public for the first time in 1953.
Economy
The main economic resources of Los Angeles are, in addition to the film industry (Hollywood) and the extraction and refining of oil, the metalworking industries (motor vehicles, aircraft), food, textiles, chemicals, electrotechnics, electronics, shipbuilding, graphic-editorial, pharmaceutical, rubber, glass and furniture industries. Tertiary activities and, in particular, administrative and financial functions, as well as trade, favored by the port and Los Angeles International Airport, are also of great importance. Also important is tourism favored by the mild climate and the beauty of the landscape.
Curiosity
The Hollywood Boulevard combines the symbols and the most famous places of cinema: the Mann’s Chinese Theater before and the Kodak Theater then (since 2002) host every year, in late February, the ceremony of the Oscars (Academy Awards); in the courtyard of the Chinese Theater are the footprints of the great movie stars impressed on the concrete. On the same street is also the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the walk on which paved pink stars stand out where the names of the most famous characters of the show are set. In the Beverly Hills neighborhood instead live famous actors and producers of cinema and television. On the outskirts of Los Angeles stands Disneyland, created by Walt Disney in 1955.
Silicon Valley
Flat strip of land, 50 km long, south of San Francisco (California), between Palo Alto and San José (Santa Clara county), where it was built, starting from the thirties of the century. XX, the first “technopolis” in the world, still used as a model for this advanced location typology. The first settlements were those of the Varian Associated (1937) and Hewlett-Packard (1938), which directed the specialization of the area towards calculating machines and related component parts. A fundamental success factor was the close integration between scientific research (Stanford University of Palo Alto) and industry, supported by public funding and by the availability of both qualitatively trained and quantitatively abundant labor. The proliferation of businesses, with an increasing commitment to risk capital, microprocessors, computers, video games, digital clocks, etc.), for 25% to other advanced industrial branches (chemical-pharmaceutical, biotechnological and aeronautical) and for the remainder to the tertiary sector, basic and innovative. Among the most well-known social reasons we still remember Apple, Intel, Motorola, National Semiconductor, Advanced Micro Devices, Cetus and Genentech. The availability of local administrations, which have favored the preparation of equipped areas and infrastructures, has also helped to root these activities in the socio-cultural structure of the population, beneficiaries of the highest per capita income in the whole world. The diversification of production and services has finally allowed Silicon Valley to face the crisis of the early nineties by suffering less repercussions than other monospecialized areas in the electronics industry. The relaunch of the electronics and IT industry, following the so-called New Economy and thanks the commercial possibilities of the Internet and the World Wide Web, had paradoxical effects on Silicon Valley. In fact, it highlighted a shortage of specialized personnel, caused both by the increase in demand and by the decreased frequency of American students in scientific faculties. This deficiency has been made up for by promoting the temporary immigration of tens of thousands of engineers and computer scientists, in particular from Asian countries.
Calif. – Ask the Lawyer
Service provided by the S.F. Renter network enables users to view archived questions with accompanying replies and to post personal queries.
Website: http://www.sfrenter.com/news/ask01.html
Calif. – California Rental Housing Information
Californians can link to associations devoted to landlord-tenant issues and can glean text of pertinent statutes, texts and services.
Website: http://cses.com/RENTAL/CA/california.htm
Calif. – California Tenants Rights, TenantNet
Guide for California residents includes legislative bulletins and texts, links to organizations and informational articles.
Website: http://www.tenant.net/Other_Areas/Calif/
Calif. – Consumer Publications, Landlord/Tenant
State Department of Consumer Affairs enables users to procure brochures about rental legal issues. Some items available in Spanish.
Website: http://www.dca.ca.gov/r_r/lanldtoc.htm
Calif. – Fair Housing Council of San Diego
Survey the articles in this index to glean specifics about tenant rights, governing legislation and fair practices. Features a Q&A and a forum.
Website: http://sandiego.fairhousing.com/resources.htm
Calif. – Fair Housing in Los Angeles
Fair Housing Congress of S. California maintains this network to guide users in developments and legal issues affecting tenants. Lists laws.
Website: http://www.fairhousing.com/fhcsc/
Calif. – Greedysflandlord.com
Interactive arena enables San Francisco, California residents to vent about landlord problems and to warn others about possible hazards.
Website: http://www.greedysflandlord.com/
Calif. – Housing Rights, Inc.
Berkeley, Calif. group hones in on guidelines delineating symptoms of housing discrimination, and adds general and contact info for the public.
Website: http://www.housingrights.org/public.html
Calif. – Inland Fair Housing and Mediation Board
Agency offers a primer to California and national fair housing laws, covering historical info. Learn about complaint processes and its services.
Website: http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/inmedbd/
Calif. – Lea. of Calif. Homeowners, Fair Housing Guide
Scrutinize this guide for an introduction to housing discrimination, and then extract contact information to multiple organizations offering aid.
Website: http://www.homeowners.org/fhrq.html
Calif. – League of Calif. Homeowners, Consumer Updates
Homeowners and tenants can receive bulletins and alerts from this state organization. Peruse articles, and link to related tips and resources.
Website: http://www.homeowners.org/consumup.htm
Calif. – Project Sentinel
Non-profit serves Northern Calif. renters by performing its advocacy and watchdog purposes. Review a FAQ, and access its article archive.
Website: http://www.housing.org/
Calif. – Renters, Los Angeles Housing Department
Southern California office supplies an information page delineating the rights of state tenants. Discusses unsafe housing conditions.
Website: http://www.ci.la.ca.us/LAHD/renters.htm
Calif. – Resources for Renters
Sift through the organizations and resources listed in this directory, to obtain assistance, links, guides or contact information.
Website: http://directory.tenantsunion.org/california.html
Calif. – San Francisco Rent Board
Learn about tenant rights in the Bay Area. Offers a handbook and records of local ordinances.
Website: http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/rentbd/
Calif. – Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights
Southern California organization maintains this information center to disseminate news, exhibit stances and supply resources for area tenants.
Website: http://www.smrr.org/
Calif. – Tenant Reference Kit, Rent Stabilization Board
Berkeley’s rental office provides this resource containing articles, guides, FAQs and laws pertinent to landlords and tenants in California.
Website: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent/geninfo/tenkit/tenkit.html
Calif. – Tenants Legal Center of San Diego
Offers information and assistance for tenants in the San Diego area. Find an overview of tenant law and details about the legal info phone line.
Website: http://www.tenantslegalcenter.com/
Calif. – Your Rights, San Francisco Tenants Union
Regional consumer protection group maintains a clearinghouse of articles on such topics as evictions, repairs, harassment and security deposits.
Website: http://www.sftu.org/rights.html
Los Angeles Magazine – Boot Camp: Evictions in So Cal
Two-page 2000 article examines why so many Southern California families are losing their rent-stabilized homes each year.
Website: http://www.findarticles.com/cf_lamg/m1346/9_45/65091726/p1/a…
