Hollywood is the first thing that comes to mind when people think about Los Angeles. They imagine the tall, white HOLLYWOOD letters on the Santa Monica Mountains; the red carpet events that many celebrities appear to in extravagant apparel; and the big mansions in which they live.  But Hollywood is just one part of the Los Angeles County; there are many more locations is visit. The film industry only accounts for about 3.5 percent of the jobs in Los Angeles according to Hillel Aron’s, of LA Weekly, article “L.A.'s 10 Most Pervasive Stereotypes: True or False?”

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Dennis Romero of LA Weekly believes that it is not always a positive thing for Angelenos that the entertainment industry is often associated with Los Angeles. “95 percent of the private-sector jobs in the county have nothing to do with Hollywood… 88 percent of directors, 92 percent of writers and 90 percent of major-agency talent agents were white” (Romero). Slowly, actors and other artists are becoming more diverse but writers, CEO’s, and directors are primarily white males. 75% of Los Angeles belongs to a minority group, according to Romero. People outside of Los Angeles often picture blonde-headed, white people and not the many minorities that occupy the City of Angels. They “move here, grab the best work, buy property in the ‘hood and take the spoils while working Angelenos struggle just to pay rent and buy groceries” (Romero).

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Researchers in UCLA have pointed out that inhabitants of Los Angeles spend half of their salaries on rent, in a county that is “among the worst” (Romero) in living costs in the United States. Most of the people who move to Los Angeles to achieve their dreams do not come from Southern California (Romero). These are the people that are raising the cost of living for the ones that have already been living in Los Angeles for a while. It is unfair that the cost of living in the County of Los Angeles is being raised and taking up half the salaries of the people who like Los Angeles not just to become famous.

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Aron, Hillel. “L.A.'s 10 Most Pervasive Stereotypes: True or False?” L.A. Weekly, 2 Apr. 2016, www.laweekly.com/news/las-10-most-pervasive-stereotypes-true-or-false-5012184.

Romero, Dennis. “Why Los Angeles Hates Hollywood.” L.A. Weekly, 2 Apr. 2016, http://www.laweekly.com/news/why-los-angeles-hates-hollywood-6534646.