Anaheim, CA

Anaheim's modern form begins with a 200-acre colony surveyed in 1857 for German farmers and vintners. The settlers combined "Ana," from the nearby Santa Ana River, with the German "heim," or home. Grapevines filled the first lots; after disease destroyed them in the 1880s, citrus groves took their place. Disneyland's 1955 opening accelerated a much larger transformation as hotels, homes, and businesses replaced farmland and the city annexed thousands of acres. The agricultural city remains visible in the Colony district. Founders' Park preserves an 1857 house, a later citrus-era home, and a small orange grove. Nearby, a 1919 citrus packing plant has become the two-story food hall at the center of the downtown Packing District. ARTIC, between Angel Stadium and Honda Center, is the main regional transportation hub.

ATTRTroutfarm27 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner and Metrolink's Orange County Line stop there alongside county buses and Anaheim Resort Transit, and bicycle access leads to the Santa Ana River Trail. Anaheim Canyon Station serves the separate Inland Empire-Orange County Line. Those stations are useful for particular corridors; Interstate 5, State Routes 57 and 91, and the arterial grid carry most trips among the resort, West Anaheim, Anaheim Canyon, and Anaheim Hills. Event traffic also converges on the Platinum Triangle, while resort buses circulate among hotels and visitor destinations. Along the river, Anaheim Coves provides a quieter counterpoint: a 14-acre park with a 1.5-mile accessible path, native landscaping, and wildlife observation areas between Ball Road and Lincoln Avenue.

ATTRArnold C / Attribution

The city stretches east and west along State Route 91, and its major districts differ sharply in work and built form. The Anaheim Resort concentrates Disneyland, the convention center, hotels, and visitor services. Around Angel Stadium and Honda Center, the Platinum Triangle places sports venues beside apartments, restaurants, offices, and older industrial businesses. More mixed-use redevelopment is permitted, but it will replace industrial sites over time rather than arrive all at once. Farther northeast, Anaheim Canyon remains a major industrial and technology center with roughly 60 percent of the city's industrial space and its own commuter-rail station. Anaheim Hills rises beyond that employment district at the city's eastern end. These centers are separated enough that "Anaheim" does not describe one compact urban center.

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The Packing District is one resident-oriented center; Little Arabia is another. Along Brookhurst Street in West Anaheim, immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa began opening businesses in the 1980s. Anaheim formally recognized the corridor as its first cultural district in 2022. By 2024, it held more than 70 restaurants, cafes, markets, salons, and other businesses shaped by communities from across the Arab world and neighboring regions. Brookhurst also passes schools, parks, neighborhoods, and places of worship, so the district supports grocery trips and routine errands as well as destination meals. Freeway signs installed in 2024 put this resident-built district on the same regional road map as Disney, the convention center, and the stadiums.