MacArthur Park
MacArthur Park is a park dating back to the late nineteenth century in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In the early 1940s, it was renamed after General Douglas MacArthur, designated City of Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument #100; the park is divided in two by Wilshire Boulevard. The southern portion consists of a lake, while the northern half includes an amphitheatre, soccer fields, children's playground, along with a recreation center operated by the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks; the bandshell was once home to many events, such as Jugaremos en Familia. MacArthur Park's bandshell has been renovated as the Levitt Pavilion and is once again the host of jazz, big band, salsa music, beat music, world music concerts. Since reopening, it hosts at least 50 free concerts each summer between September; the lake in MacArthur Park is fed by natural springs. In the past, a fountain with a reflecting pool on the northern end was fed by the springs; the Westlake/MacArthur Park Red Line station sits across the street.
The park named Westlake Park, was built in the 1880s, along with a similar Eastlake Park, whose lake is artificial, in Los Angeles. Westlake Park was renamed May 7, 1942. Both Westlake and Eastlake were built as drinking water reservoirs connected to the city's system, Zanja Madre; when the city abandoned the non-pressurized zanja system for a pressurized pipe system, these smaller, shallow reservoirs located at low points no longer provided much benefit and were converted into parks. The park was named for Henricus Wallace Westlake, a Canadian physician who had moved to Los Angeles around 1888, settled in the area and donated a portion of his property to the city for a park. In the mid-19th century the area was a swampland. In the early part of the 20th century, the Westlake neighborhood became known as the Champs-Élysées of Los Angeles. Wilshire Boulevard ended at the lake, but in 1934 a berm was built for it to cross and link up with the existing Orange Street into downtown Los Angeles. Orange Street was extended east of Figueroa Street to Grand Avenue.
This divided the lake into two halves. From the 1940s, the lake featured the rental of electric boats, with the names of comic book animal characters. According to a Los Angeles Times news story from 1956, two swans, named Rudie and Susie, hatched their five new cygnets on the island in MacArthur Park Lake, according to the park superintendent, these were the first swans born in the park in over a decade. For many years, Filipino World War II veterans protested in the park named after their former commander regarding promises made when they enlisted that the United States had reneged on. In 2009 as part of the stimulus package, Congress awarded lump-sum payments of $15,000 to Filipino veterans who are American citizens and $9,000 to those who are noncitizens. Despite the rather poetic homage paid to it in the 1968 song, MacArthur Park became known for violence after 1985 when prostitution, drug dealing, shoot-outs, the occasional rumored drowning became commonplace, with as many as 30 murders in 1990.
The Westlake area has become notable for the sale of false identification cards those allowing non-US citizens to work in the United States. When the lake was drained in 1973 and 1978, hundreds of handguns and other firearms were found to have been disposed of in the lake. Gang-on-gang violence still occurs in and around the park, as in the following cases: In 1995, a small, local gang in the Westlake and Downtown area, the Burlington Street Locos, got into an argument with a man, believed to be in a rival gang, called the Crazy Town Locos. A few days before, a member of the Crazy Town Locos had struck a man from Burlington Street Locos across the face. Seeking revenge, members of the Burlington Street Locos went looking for members of the rival gang and thought that a man who looked like the target was him. Mistakenly, they fired a couple of rounds into his chest, they threw it in the lake. In 2002, members of the 18th Street gang saw a member of a rival gang and beat the victim until he was in critical condition.
A day members of the victim's gang approached members of the 18th Street gang and started firing with semi-automatic pistols. This event led to the death of an injury to an innocent bystander. In 2008, a shooting occurred. Members of the 18th Street gang started firing toward a crowd filled with rival gang members; this led to the death of three people: a rival gang member and a mother and child. On May Day, May 1, 2007, a rally calling for US citizenship for undocumented immigrants took place in MacArthur Park; the incident has been dubbed the May Day Mêlée. That evening, police commanders declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and gave the order to disperse; the police violently cleared the park, using what some thought was excessive force against families and news reporters. Sanjukta Paul, an observer with the National Lawyer's Guild, was beaten by a Los Angeles Police officer, including a blow to the kidneys, as she attempted to impede the police's progress. Another police officer
7th Street/Metro Center station
7th Street/Metro Center 7th Street/Metro Center/Julian Dixon, is a metro station in the Los Angeles County Metro Rail system located in the Financial District of Downtown Los Angeles at the intersection of 7th Street and Flower Street. The station is served by the light rail Blue Line and Expo Line, heavy rail Red Line and Purple Line, by the bus rapid transit Silver Line; the Blue Line and Expo Line have their downtown terminus at this station. Many bus routes serve the station; this is one of only two stations in the entire system that has an underground side platform, the other being the Wilshire/Vermont station. The station was the first underground station in the Metro system, consists of three underground levels; the main concourse is on the first level down, the light rail side platforms are on the second level down, while the heavy rail island platform is on the third level down. A small first level mezzanine connects the light rail side platforms; the Metro Silver Line stops at the street level next to the station's entrances.
The station has direct access to The Bloc Shopping Mall with a pedestrian-friendly entrance from the mall directly to the subway station. Metro spent nearly $2 million worth of enhancements to 7th Street/Metro Center station as part of the Expo Line project, completed weeks before the Metro Expo Line began service to La Cienega/Jefferson Station; this enhancement included improved signage in the station. Blue Line hours are from 4:00 AM until 1:00 AM daily. Red and Purple Line hours are from 5:00 AM until 12:00 AM daily. Expo Line hours are from 4:00 AM until 2:00 AM daily. Silver Line operates 24 hours a day. Metro Bus lines 20, 51, 52, 60, 351, 442, 460, 487, 489, 720 and 760 stop near the station entrances at 7th and Hope streets, 7th and Flower streets and 7th and Figueroa Streets. Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus express Line 10, LADOT Dash shuttles Routes D, E, F stops at the 7th Street/Metro Center Station. Foothill Transit Commuter Express lines 493, 495, 497, 498, 499, 699 serve stops adjacent to the station on 7th and Figueroa Streets.
California Shuttle Bus provides service to San Francisco and San Jose from a bus stop at the corner of Figueroa and 7th streets. The under construction Regional Connector Transit Corridor will result in the Blue Line and Expo Line continuing north from this station terminus through Downtown Los Angeles to connect with the Little Tokyo/Arts District Station on the Gold Line, which will become an underground subway station and move across the street; the Expo Line will be defunct upon opening of the tunnel, with the Gold Line using its route from 7th Street to Santa Monica, proceeding through the tunnel to its normal route to Atlantic station, while the Blue Line will follow the Gold Line's old route from APU to Little Tokyo proceed through the tunnel to 7th Street and run along its normal route to Long Beach. Station connections overview OpenStreetMap relation for the station
Los Angeles
Los Angeles the City of Los Angeles and known by its initials L. A. is the most populous city in California, the second most populous city in the United States, after New York City, the third most populous city in North America. With an estimated population of four million, Los Angeles is the cultural and commercial center of Southern California; the city is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity and the entertainment industry, its sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles is the largest city on the West Coast of North America. Los Angeles is in a large basin bounded by the Pacific Ocean on one side and by mountains as high as 10,000 feet on the other; the city proper, which covers about 469 square miles, is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the country. Los Angeles is the principal city of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second largest in the United States after that of New York City, with a population of 13.1 million. It is part of the Los Angeles-Long Beach combined statistical area the nation's second most populous area with a 2015 estimated population of 18.7 million.
Los Angeles is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States, with a diverse economy in a broad range of professional and cultural fields. Los Angeles is famous as the home of Hollywood, a major center of the world entertainment industry. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index and 9th in the Global Economic Power Index; the Los Angeles metropolitan area has a gross metropolitan product of $1.044 trillion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. Los Angeles hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics and will host the event for a third time in 2028; the city hosted the Miss Universe pageant twice, in 1990 and 2006, was one of 9 American cities to host the 1994 FIFA men's soccer World Cup and one of 8 to host the 1999 FIFA women's soccer World Cup, hosting the final match for both tournaments. Home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California.
The city was founded on September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood; the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California assured the city's continued rapid growth; the Los Angeles coastal area was settled by the Chumash tribes. A Gabrieleño settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning "poison oak place". Maritime explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area of southern California for the Spanish Empire in 1542 while on an official military exploring expedition moving north along the Pacific coast from earlier colonizing bases of New Spain in Central and South America.
Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769. In 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. On September 4, 1781, a group of forty-four settlers known as "Los Pobladores" founded the pueblo they called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles,'The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels'; the present-day city has the largest Roman Catholic Archdiocese in the United States. Two-thirds of the Mexican or settlers were mestizo or mulatto, a mixture of African and European ancestry; the settlement remained a small ranch town for decades, but by 1820, the population had increased to about 650 residents. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the historic district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street, the oldest part of Los Angeles. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, the pueblo continued as a part of Mexico.
During Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta California's regional capital. Mexican rule ended during the Mexican–American War: Americans took control from the Californios after a series of battles, culminating with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. Railroads arrived with the completion of the transcontinental Southern Pacific line to Los Angeles in 1876 and the Santa Fe Railroad in 1885. Petroleum was discovered in the city and surrounding area in 1892, by 1923, the discoveries had helped California become the country's largest oil producer, accounting for about one-quarter of the world's petroleum output. By 1900, the population had grown to more than 102,000; the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, under the supervision of William Mulholland, assured the continued growth of the city. Due to clauses in the city's charter that prevented the City of Los Angeles from selling or providing water from the aqueduct to any area outside its borders, many adjacent city and communities became compelled to annex themselves into Los Angeles.
Los Angeles created the first municipal zoning ordinance in the United States. On September 14, 1908, the Los Angeles City Council promulgated residential and industrial land use zones; the new ordinance established three residential zones of a single type, where industrial uses were
Fairfax District, Los Angeles
The Fairfax District is a neighborhood in the Central Los Angeles region of the city of Los Angeles, California. The Fairfax District has been a center of the Jewish community in Los Angeles, it is known for the Farmer's Market, The Grove, CBS Television City broadcasting center, the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust in Pan Pacific Park, Fairfax Avenue restaurants and shops. Beverly-Fairfax is a 3.2-square-mile neighborhood bordered by Willoughby Avenue on the north, Wilshire Boulevard on the south, La Brea Avenue on the east, La Cienega Boulevard on the west. According to the Mapping L. A. project of the Los Angeles Times, the Fairfax District is flanked on the north and northeast by the city of West Hollywood, on the northeast by Hollywood, on the east by Hancock Park, on the south by Mid-Wilshire, on the west by Beverly Grove. Street boundaries are Willoughby Avenue or Romaine Street on the north, La Brea Avenue on the east, West Third Street on the south, Fairfax Avenue on the west; the Beverly-Fairfax neighborhood, as it has been called, includes both Fairfax and Beverly Grove.
In the first draft of Mapping L. A. "Beverly Grove" was not included as a distinct neighborhood. The 2000 U. S. census counted 12,490 residents in the 1.23-square-mile Fairfax District—an average of 10,122 people per square mile, about the same population density as all of Los Angeles. In 2008, the city estimated that the population had increased to 13,360; the median age for residents was a general average within Los Angeles. The percentage of residents aged 65 and older was among the county's highest. Fifty-four percent of Fairfax residents aged 25 and older had earned a four-year degree by 2000, a high figure for both the city and the county; the median yearly household income in 2008 dollars was $65,938, average in comparison to the rest of Los Angeles. The average household size of two people was low for the city of Los Angeles. Renters occupied 71.5% of the housing stock, house- or apartment owners 28.5%. The percentages of never-married men and never-married women were among the county's highest.
The neighborhood was "not diverse" ethnically, with a high percentage of white people. The breakdown was whites, 84.7%. Ukraine and Mexico were the most common places of birth for the 23.2% of the residents who were born abroad, a low ratio compared to the rest of Los Angeles. The Fairfax District has been a center of the Jewish community in Los Angeles, after the earlier Boyle Heights period, home to largest Jewish community west of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1935, there were four synagogues in the Fairfax District. After World War II, more Jews began to populate the area; as more families moved in, religious schools and a Jewish Community Center sprang up. In 1974, Bet Tzedek Legal Services - The House of Justice, a legal aid charity, opened its doors across from the Farmers Market; the Farmers Market at Fairfax Avenue and 3rd Street still retains a 1930s atmosphere, with open-air vegetable stalls and cafes, many Jewish residents of the area still frequent the market as part of their shopping or kibbitzing routine.
The Grove, a commercial retail and entertainment center, opened in 2002 next to the Farmer's Market. The intersection of Fairfax Avenue and Beverly Boulevard is recognized as Raoul Wallenberg Square, in honor of the Swedish diplomat who saved thousand of Hungarian Jews from deportation to Nazi death camps; the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust is located nearby, within Pan Pacific Park. CBS Television City was built in 1952 on the former site of Gilmore Stadium at Fairfax Avenue and Beverly Boulevard; the facility has been used to tape several shows both for CBS and other entities, the most notable being The Price is Right, which has shot in Studio 33 continuously since 1972. In the 90s the strip became much more popular. Today the street is covered with designer clothing stores and popular restaurants, like Animal, a restaurant, it is known for popular street art, street culture. FederalCalifornia's 33rd congressional districtStateCalifornia's 26th State Senate district California's 50th State Assembly districtCityLos Angeles City Council District 4 Los Angeles City Council District 5The Los Angeles Fire Department operates Fire Station 61, serving the Fairfax community.
The schools within Fairfax include: Fairfax High School, LAUSD, 7850 Melrose Avenue. The school was founded in 1924. Most of the original campus facilities were demolished in 1966 because the original Spanish Colonial Revival main building did not meet earthquake safety standards; the historic Dewitt Swann Auditorium and iconic Rotunda, were spared and are in daily use. Greenway Court, built in 1939 as a social hall by the students at Fairfax as a class project, was spared and was moved to Fairfax Avenue, where it was converted into a theater in 1999 by the Greenway Arts Alliance and renamed the Greenway Court Theater; the Otman Center, private secondary, 812 North Fairfax Avenue Yeshiva Ohr Eichonon Chabad, private secondary, 7215 Waring Avenue Westside Community Adult School, LAUSD, 7850 Melrose Avenue Whitman Continuation School, LAUSD, 7795 Rosewood Avenue Bais Yaakov School for Girls, private secondary, 7353 Beverly Boulevard Cheder of Los Angeles, private elementary, 801 North La Brea Avenue Melrose Avenue Elementary School, LAUSD, 731 North Detroit Street Canter's restaurant.
Los Angeles magazine named Canter's waffles the Best Waffle in Los Angeles. Esquire magazine called
Delicatessen
A delicatessen or deli is a retail establishment that sells a selection of fine, unusual or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessen originated in Germany during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the mid-19th century. European immigrants to the United States Ashkenazi Jews, popularized the delicatessen in American culture beginning in the late 19th century. Delicatessen is a German loanword which first appeared in English in the late 19th century and is the plural of Delikatesse; the German form was lent from the French délicatesse, which itself was lent from Italian delicatezza, from delicato, of which the root word is the Latin adjective delicatus, meaning "giving pleasure, pleasing". The first Americanized short version of this word, came into existence ca. 1954. The German food company Dallmayr is credited with being the first delicatessen created. In 1700, it became the first store to import bananas and plums to the German population from faraway places such as the Canary Islands and China.
Over 300 years it remains the largest business of its kind in Europe. The first delicatessens to appear in the United States were in New York City in the mid-1800s, with the first known use of this word occurring in 1885; these catered to the German immigrant population living there. As the German-Jewish population increased in New York City during the mid- to late 1800s, kosher delicatessens began to open. In the United States, by the late 20th to early 21st centuries, local economy stores, fast food outlets began using the word to describe sections of their stores; the decline of the deli as an independent retail establishment was most noted in New York City: from a high in the 1930s of about 1,500 Jewish delicatessens, only 15 still existed in 2015. In most of Australia, the term "delicatessen" retains its European meaning of high-quality, expensive foods and stores. Large supermarket chains have a deli department, independent delicatessens exist throughout the country. Both types of deli offer a variety of cured meats, pickled vegetables, dips and olives."Deli" denotes a small convenience store or milk bar in Western Australia, New South Wales and South Australia, some businesses use "deli" as part of their business name.
Traditional delicatessens exist in these states, with "continental delicatessen" sometimes used to indicate the European version. In Canada, both meanings of "delicatessen" are used. Customers of European origin use the term in a manner consistent with its original German meaning but, as in the United States, delis can be a combined grocery store and restaurant. In Europe "delicatessen" means expensive foods and stores. In German-speaking countries a common synonym is Feinkost, shops which sell it are called Feinkostläden. Department stores have a Delikatessenabteilung. European delicatessens include Fauchon in Paris, Dallmayr in Munich, Julius Meinl am Graben in Vienna and Fortnum & Mason in London, Peck in Milan and Jelmoli in Zurich. Although U. S.-style delicatessens are found in Europe, they appeal to the luxury market. In Russia and supermarket sections approximating US-style delis are called kulinariya and offer salads and main courses. Delicate meats and cheeses, cold-cut and sliced hot, are sold in a separate section.
The Eliseevsky food store in central Moscow, with its fin de siècle decor, is similar to a European delicatessen. From the Tsarist era, it was preserved by the Soviets as an outlet for difficult-to-obtain Russian delicacies. Delicatessens may provide foods from other countries and cultures, not available in local food stores. In Italy, the deli can be called gastronomia, negozio di specialità gastronomiche, bottega alimentare and more salumeria. In France it is nowadays known as a épicerie fine. In the United States, a delicatessen is a combined grocery store and restaurant. Delis offer a broader, fresher menu than fast-food chains employing fryers and preparing sandwiches to order, they may serve hot foods from a steam table, similar to a cafeteria. American delis prepare party trays. Although delicatessens vary in size, they are smaller than grocery stores. In addition to made-to-order sandwiches, many U. S. delicatessens offer made-to-order green salads. Common is a selection of prepared pasta, chicken, shrimp or other salads, displayed under the counter and sold by weight.
Precooked chicken, cheese or eggplant dishes are sold. Delis may be either take-out, a sit-down restaurant or both. Delicatessens offer a variety of beverages, such as pre-packaged soft drinks, coffee and milk. Potato chips and similar products and small items such as candy and mints are usually available. Menus vary according to regional ethnic diversity. Although urban delis rely on ethnic meats, supermarket delis rely on meats similar to their packaged meats. Delicatessens have a number of cultural traditions. In the United States, many are Jewish and Greek, both kosher and "kosher style"; the American equivalent of a European delicatessen may be known as a gourmet food store. North American delicatessen distribution is in older, pedestrian friendly cities. Merwin, Ted. Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli xviii, 245 pp. "Deli Paradise Travel Gu
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress and singer. Famous for playing comic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and was emblematic of the era's attitudes towards sexuality. Although she was a top-billed actress for only a decade, her films grossed $200 million by the time of her unexpected death in 1962. More than half a century she continues to be a major popular culture icon. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Monroe spent most of her childhood in foster homes and an orphanage and married at the age of 16. While working in a radioplane factory in 1944 as part of the war effort, she was introduced to a photographer from the First Motion Picture Unit and began a successful pin-up modeling career; the work led to short-lived film contracts with Columbia Pictures. After a series of minor film roles, she signed a new contract with Fox in 1951. Over the next two years, she became a popular actress and had roles in several comedies, including As Young as You Feel and Monkey Business, in the dramas Clash by Night and Don't Bother to Knock.
Monroe faced a scandal when it was revealed that she had posed for nude photos before she became a star, but the story did not tarnish her career and instead resulted in increased interest in her films. By 1953, Monroe was one of the most marketable Hollywood stars; the same year, her images were used as the centerfold and in the cover of the first issue of the men's magazine Playboy. Although she played a significant role in the creation and management of her public image throughout her career, she was disappointed when she was typecast and underpaid by the studio, she was suspended in early 1954 for refusing a film project but returned to star in one of the biggest box office successes of her career, The Seven Year Itch. When the studio was still reluctant to change Monroe's contract, she founded a film production company in late 1954, she began studying method acting at the Actors Studio. In late 1955, Fox awarded her a new contract, which gave a larger salary, her subsequent roles included a critically acclaimed performance in Bus Stop and the first independent production of MMP, The Prince and the Showgirl.
Monroe won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for her work in Some Like It Hot, a critical and commercial success. Her last completed film was the drama The Misfits. Monroe's troubled private life received much attention, she struggled with substance abuse and anxiety. Her second and third marriages, to retired baseball star Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller, were publicized and both ended in divorce. On August 5, 1962, she died at age 36 from an overdose of barbiturates at her home in Los Angeles. Although Monroe's death was ruled a probable suicide, several conspiracy theories have been proposed in the decades following her death. Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson at the Los Angeles County Hospital on June 1, 1926 as the third child of Gladys Pearl Baker. Gladys was the daughter of two poor Midwesterners. At the age of 15, she married a man nine years her senior, John Newton Baker, had two children by him and Berniece, she filed for divorce in 1921, Baker took the children with him to his native Kentucky.
Monroe was not told that she had a sister until she was 12, met her for the first time as an adult. Following the divorce, Gladys worked as a film negative cutter at Consolidated Film Industries. In 1924, she married her second husband, Martin Edward Mortensen, but they separated only some months and divorced in 1928; the identity of Monroe's father is unknown and she most used Baker as her surname. Although Gladys was mentally and financially unprepared for a child, Monroe's early childhood was stable and happy. Soon after the birth, Gladys was able to place her daughter with foster parents Albert and Ida Bolender in the rural town of Hawthorne, they raised their foster children according to the principles of evangelical Christianity. At first, Gladys lived with the Bolenders and commuted to work in Los Angeles, until longer work shifts forced her to move back to the city in early 1927, she began visiting her daughter on weekends taking her to the cinema and to sightsee in Los Angeles. Although the Bolenders wanted to adopt Monroe, by the summer of 1933 Gladys felt stable enough for Monroe to move in with her and bought a small house in Hollywood.
They shared it with actors George and Maude Atkinson and their daughter, Nellie. Some months in January 1934, Gladys had a mental breakdown and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. After several months in a rest home, she was committed to the Metropolitan State Hospital, she spent the rest of her life in and out of hospitals and was in contact with Monroe. Monroe became a ward of the state, her mother's friend, Grace McKee Goddard, took responsibility over her and her mother's affairs. In the following four years, she lived with several foster families and switched schools. For the first 16 months, she continued living with the Atkinsons. Always a shy girl, she now developed a stutter and became withdrawn. In the summer of 1935, she stayed with Grace and her husband Erwin "Doc" Goddard and two other famili
Crack epidemic
The crack epidemic in the United States was a surge of crack cocaine use in major cities across the United States between the early 1980s and the early 1990s. This resulted in a number of social consequences, such as increasing crime and violence in American inner city neighborhoods, as well as a resulting backlash in the form of tough on crime policies. In 1986, the U. S. Congress passed laws that created a 100 to 1 sentencing disparity for the possession or trafficking of crack when compared to penalties for trafficking of powder cocaine, criticized as discriminatory against minorities blacks, who were more to use crack than powder cocaine; the name "crack" first appeared in the New York Times on November 17, 1985. Within a year more than a thousand press stories had been released about the drug. In the early 1980s, the majority of cocaine being shipped to the United States was landing in Miami, originated in the Bahamas and Dominican Republic. Soon there was a huge glut of cocaine powder in these islands, which caused the price to drop by as much as 80 percent.
Faced with dropping prices for their illegal product, drug dealers made a decision to convert the powder to "crack", a solid smokeable form of cocaine, that could be sold in smaller quantities, to more people. It was cheap, simple to produce, ready to use, profitable for dealers to develop; as early as 1981, reports of crack were appearing in Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, in the Caribbean. Crack had higher purity than street powder. Around 1984, powder cocaine was available on the street at an average of 55 percent purity for $100 per gram, crack was sold at average purity levels of 80-plus percent for the same price. In some major cities, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Baltimore and Detroit, one dosage unit of crack could be obtained for as little as $2.50. According to the 1985–1986 National Narcotics Intelligence Consumers Committee Report, crack was available in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Philadelphia, New York City, San Diego, San Antonio, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Oakland, Kansas City, Newark, San Francisco, Albany and Dallas.
In 1985, cocaine-related hospital emergencies rose by 12 percent, from 23,500 to 26,300. In 1986, these incidents increased 110 percent, from 26,300 to 55,200. Between 1984 and 1987, cocaine incidents increased to 94,000. By 1987, crack was reported to be available in the District of Columbia and all but four states in the United States; some scholars have cited the crack "epidemic" as an example of a moral panic, noting that the explosion in use and trafficking of the drug occurred after the media coverage of the drug as an "epidemic". In a study done by Roland Fryer, Steven Levitt and Kevin Murphy, a crack index was calculated using information on cocaine-related arrests and drug raids, along with low birth rates and media coverage in the United States; the crack index aimed to create a proxy for the percentage of cocaine related incidents that involved crack. Crack was a unknown drug until 1985; this abrupt introductory date allows for the estimation and use of the index with the knowledge that values prior to 1985 are zero.
This index showed that the Northeast U. S. was most affected by the crack epidemic. The U. S. cities with the highest crack index were New York and Philadelphia. The same index used by Fryer and Murphy was implemented in a study that investigated the impacts of crack cocaine across the United States. In cities with populations over 350,000 the instances of crack cocaine were twice as high as those in cities with a population less than 350,000; these indicators show. States and regions with concentrated urban populations were affected at a much higher rate, while states with rural populations were least affected. Maryland, New York and New Mexico had the highest instances of crack cocaine, while Idaho and Vermont had the lowest instances of crack cocaine use. Between 1984 and 1989, the homicide rate for black males aged 14 to 17 more than doubled, the homicide rate for black males aged 18 to 24 increased nearly as much. During this period, the black community experienced a 20–100% increase in fetal death rates, low birth-weight babies, weapons arrests, the number of children in foster care.
The United States remains the largest overall consumer of narcotics in the world as of 2014. A 2018 study found that the crack epidemic had long-run consequences for crime, contributing to the doubling of the murder rate of young black males soon after the start of the epidemic, that the murder rate was still 70 percent higher 17 years after crack's arrival; the paper estimated that eight percent of the murders in 2000 are due to the long-run effects of the emergence of crack markets, that the elevated murder rates for young black males can explain a significant part of the gap in life expectancy between black and white males. The reasons for these increases in crime were because distribution for the drug to the end-user occurred in low-income inner city neighborhoods; this gave many inner-city residents the opportunity to move up the "economic ladder" in a drug market that allowed dealers to charge a low minimum price. Crack cocaine use and distribution became popular in cities that were in a state of social and economic chaos such as Los Angeles and Atlanta.
"As a result of the low-skill levels and minimal initial resource outlay required to sell crack, systemic violence flourished as a growing a
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