In a day, a weekend, or a week you can meander from world-famous attractions to a wealth of museums and galleries, from hip hop to pop to high culture, or view what’s in vogue in the performing arts in an array of cinemas, clubs, and theaters. Whether it is the sunny skies you seek or the starry nights, the hot shopping or museum hopping, or just sinking your feet into the cool sand on a warm beach, this singular, serendipitous city has it all. Los Angeles’s greatest asset has always been the rush of newcomers eager to start a new life and reinvent themselves.

That means Easterners and Midwesterners and immigrants from every continent all come together here to create a powerful dynamic, encouraging creativity at its highest level and producing the richest possible cultural life for Angelenos and visitors alike. LA has more artists than any place ever in the history of the world, from world-renowned painters to Disney imagineers to those who spend their days designing cars of the future. Los Angeles is also home to more artists-in-residence than anywhere else. Fourteen local universities offer advanced degrees in the arts, driving the enormous imagination product and creating the next generation of cars, clothes, movies, and furnishings.

From award show parties, celebrity appearances and exclusive promotions to events highlighting this city’s diversity and love for living, West Hollywood is the destination for those seeking the finest and most exciting diversions in life. Its 19th-century roots as Rancho La Brea sprouted Moses Sherman’s Los Angeles Pacific Railway terminal (the original Red Line) and the un-incorporated township of Sherman. By the early ’20s, it was far too hot a spot to be “Sherman.” The little rebel cast aside its given name and began to call itself “West Hollywood.” By the time of its incorporation (1984), it had become the entertainment, music, film, art, design, and cuisine capital of the new West. West Hollywood is beautiful. You look to the north and see the gorgeous Hollywood Hills, where it appears that one house is built right on top of another. Driving down Sunset Boulevard or Melrose Avenue in the winter months you see snow-capped mountains. With the nightlife, restaurants, art, fashion, and gay and lesbian diversions, there’s never a dull moment in the 1.9-square-mile “Creative City.”

Reprinted, with permission of the publisher, from 50 FABULOUS GAY-FRIENDLY PLACES TO LIVE (www.FabCities.com) © 2005 Gregory A. Kompes. Published by Career Press, Franklin Lakes, NJ. 800-227-3371. All rights reserved.