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Political Science *

Below are links to databases and scholarly web sites that support the study of political science and its related sub-disciplines.

Government Agency Resources

Listed below are selected local government resources for the city and county of Los Angeles.

CITY RESOURCES

  • City Council -- the governing body of the City, except as otherwise provided in the Charter, and enacts ordinances subject to the approval or veto of the Mayor. The Council orders elections, levies taxes, authorizes public improvements, approves contracts, and adopts traffic regulations; adopts or modifies the budget proposed by the Mayor and provides the necessary funds, equipment, and supplies for the budgetary departments; and it confirms or rejects appointments proposed by the Mayor and prescribes duties of boards and officers not defined by Charter.
  • Department of City Planning -- the department is charged with the responsibility of preparing, maintaining, and implementing a General Plan for the development of the City of Los Angeles that consists of the Framework Element, which provides overall guidance for the future of the City and other citywide elements including state mandated elements such as the transportation, housing, open space, and land use.
  • City Department and Bureaus -- directory of agencies headed by General Managers or by an advisory or controlling Board or Commission appointed by the mayor. Good place to search for city and county agencies.
  • Ethics Commission -- acts through its voter mandate to shape, administer, and enforce laws regarding governmental ethics, conflicts of interests, and campaign financing, and provides information on who is lobbying and making contributions to city politicians.
  • Neighborhood Councils -- city-certified local groups made up of people who live, work, own property or have some other connection to a neighborhood. Neighborhood Council Board Members are elected or selected to their positions by the neighborhoods themselves and vary in size from seven to over thirty individuals. The Councils receive public funds of $37,000 each year to support creating events and programs that respond to the unique needs of their community or advocating on behalf of the issues they care about such as crime, roads and streets, the creation of safe spaces for children, gangs, and economic development.
  • Port of Los Angeles -- official site for the nation’s number one container port and leader in container volume and cargo value. Site provides up-to-date data, press release announcements, and Harbor Commission meeting schedules. There is a separate site for information about the Port of Long Beach.

COUNTY AND REGIONAL RESOURCES

  • Los Angeles Conservancy -- a nonprofit membership organization that works through education and advocacy to recognize, preserve, and revitalize the historic architectural and cultural resources of Los Angeles County.
  • Los Angeles County -- official website for the County government.
  • Los Angeles County Departments -- directory of the departmental agencies of the County.
  • Los Angeles County Economic Development Commission -- founded in 1981 as a nonprofit, public-benefit organization to harness the power of private sector in collaboration with all stakeholders in the LA County, including education, business, and government, to guide economic development and create more widely shared prosperity in collaboration.
  • Los Angeles County Election Information -- combined site of the city's Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk that contains voter information, election information and procedures, birth, death, marriage and real estate records, and marriage license information for the County.
  • Los Angeles County Land Use and Zoning -- provides information about land use throughout the region; includes links to area/community plans for areas such as the Antelope Valley and East Los Angeles.
  • Los Angeles Unified School District -- official site for schools in the district that include the city of Los Angeles as well as all or parts of 31 smaller municipalities and several unincorporated sections of Southern California.
  • Related Agencies -- list of agencies that perform services for residents in the County that are not under the jurisdiction of the Board of Supervisors.
  • South Coast Air Quality Management District -- website to the air pollution control agency for all of Orange County and the urban portions of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Site includes administrative rules and regulations and descriptions of programs for the business community, local communities, and local government.

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.

Local Data and Statistics

Listed below are selected resources where you can find statistics and data about Los Angeles and the Southern California region.

  • ControlPanel LA -- provides information about the City of Los Angeles' expenditures, audits and reports, revenues, payroll, purchasing, special funds, and other administrative data. Includes helpful tutorials on how to use and manipulate the data.
  • Crime and Arrest Statistical Summary -- provides access to the annual crime and arrest data published by the entire Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department , the patrol stations, the contract cities, and unincorporated areas served. Reports are available from 1996 to the present. Other data is also available from the site.
  • dataLA -- the Los Angeles City open statistical data portal that contains hundreds of datasets in the areas of city budget, city services, environment, the economy, events and culture, parks and libraries, and transportation.
  • GeoHub -- this is Los Angeles’s new public platform for exploring, visualizing, and downloading location-based open source data. The site allows you to analyze and combine open data layers using maps, as well as develop new web and mobile applications.
  • LAPD Crime Mapping -- this site provides up-to-date crime statistics for neighborhoods throughout the City of Los Angeles. Data is available on the following Part I crimes: aggravated assault, auto theft, burglary, burglary/theft from auto, personal/other theft, rape, and robbery. A future update of the site will allow divisional boundaries of the 21 geographical divisions as an additional layer to view crime in a selected area.
  • Los Angeles Almanac -- a site with advertisements that provides links to city and county resources on a wide variety of topics, such as, buildings and structures, crime and justice, economy and business, education, elections and politics, employment and income, immigration and migration, parks and public lands, population, religion, social welfare sports and recreation, transportation, and more.
  • Los Angeles County Open Data Portal -- the place to search for GIS data created, maintained, licensed, and stored by the County of Los Angeles. The County makes a variety of datasets available for use and/or to download.
  • Los Angeles County Department of Public Health [copy and paste this link: http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/] -- this site includes statistics, data, and health reports produced by the department as well as the Data Query System that offers public health information and statistics on demand, the LA Health Survey of data on the health of Angelenos conducted by the Health Assessment Unit, and the interactive, online mapping application, Health Viewer.

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.