Beverly Hills, California

Beverly Hills is an affluent city of Los Angeles County, California, United States, surrounded by the City of Los Angeles. Beverly Hills is noted for its luxurious culture and its famous residents, which include executives, foreign and domestic dignitaries, artists, and TV or film celebrities, as well as a large apartment renter population and home to the famous upscale shopping district Rodeo Drive.
ourists arriving in Southern California often confuse Hollywood with Beverly Hills.
Many visitors come to Hollywood expecting to find a gleaming city filled with movie stars, posh restaurants, grand mansions and expensive shopping areas. They are, of course, very disappointed; the actual suburb of Hollywood is far from glamorous. The real "Hollywood" is a state of mind, not a place; it's not so much a city as it is shorthand for the general movie and entertainment industry.

With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census. Beverly Hills residents include CEOs, heirs and heiresses, foreign and domestic dignitaries, authors, artists, professionals, and TV or film celebrities as well as other entertainment personalities, executives, and media creatives. As of the 2010 census, the proportion of children under 5 years old out of the total population of Beverly Hills is about half the average for California as a whole, while the proportion of seniors over the age of 65 is almost twice the state average.

Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together entirely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles. To be specific, Beverly Hills is bordered on the northwest by the Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel-Air and the Santa Monica Mountains, on the east by West Hollywood, the Carthay neighborhood of Los Angeles, and the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, and on the south by the Beverlywood. The area's "Platinum Triangle" of affluent neighborhoods is formed by the city of Beverly Hills and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Bel Air and Holmby Hills.
Local government

Of the 21,426 registered voters in Beverly Hills, approximately 50.3% are Democrats and 25.9% are Republicans. The remaining 23.8% are Independents or are registered with one of the many smaller political parties, like the Green Party or the Libertarian Party. The heavy Democratic advantage makes Beverly Hills one of the more liberal cities in Southern California. In 2004, John Kerry won 62% of the vote compared to 37% for George W. Bush. In the 2006 state governor election, Arnold Schwarzenegger got nearly 45% of the vote but won a second term by a state-wide majority, while Democratic opponent Phil Angelides had just over 54%.

Beverly Hills is, above all, a small town for the wealthy. Less than six square miles in size, Beverly Hills is strictly a neighborhood of homes and shops. The city has churches, but it has no smokestacks; it has restaurants, but no industry; boutiques, but no billboards; parks, but no eyesores. There's not even a hospital or a cemetery in the city to remind the residents of their mortality. It has been said that, technically, no one is born or dies in Beverly Hills.

Beverly Hills is a place for the fortunate to live in comfort, and to shop and dine at their leisure. It just so happens that many of these fortunate few are celebrities. On the city's tree-lined streets, you'll see more stretch limos, shining Mercedes-Benzes, and sleek Ferraris per square mile than at any other place on earth. Even the fireplugs in Beverly Hills are painted a gleaming silver. The city's first mayor (back in 1926) was a celebrity: actor Will Rogers.