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On Jan. 1, 1900, the Los Angeles Daily Times (as it was then known) printed a three-part, 80-page magazine called the "Midwinter Number." This was Southern California boosterism at its best. In the first two pages, more than 60 "facts" about the region with the "sunniest of skies" were itemized to bolster the hopes of those living here and to lure Easterners west. Today, we dust off the report and compare two years cleaved by a century: 1899 and 1999. From agriculture to transportation, a lot has changed. But some might say the romantic notion of "this land of perfume, fruitage and perpetual summer" remains.
1899--"The section usually referred to as Southern California embraces the seven counties of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura and Santa Barbara."
1999--An eighth county--Imperial County--now joins the Southern California group. It was incorporated Aug. 15, 1907.
1899--"The total area of the seven counties is 44,901 square miles, which is 29% of the area of the state."
1999--Eight Southern California counties total 45,083.7 square miles, which is 28.4% of the area of the state.
1899--"Population of Los Angeles city in . . . 1900 (estimated): 120,000."
1999--Population of the city of L.A.: 3,629,094; for the county, 9,377,938.
1899--"The population of Los Angeles is cosmopolitan, including people from every state in the Union and from nearly every civilized country in the world. There are published in the city newspapers in the English, French, German, Basque and Chinese languages."
1999--Foreign-language publications based in the L.A. area include the Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese languages.
1899--"The school census taken in April last showed that there were in the city of Los Angeles 27,232 school children enrolled."
1999--L.A. Unified School District enrollment: approximately 700,000.
1899--"The death rate of Los Angeles city for the last 10 years averages about 14 per thousand of the population. This includes a large number of more or less hopeless invalids, who come here from the East, in advanced stages of disease."
1998--L.A. County deaths for the year: 8,966 (or about 1 per 1,000 of population).
1899--"The assessed valuation of property in Los Angeles city is $65,812,674."
1999--Assessed property value for city of L.A. is $227.45 billion.
1899--"The city post office...