Los Angeles-Bordeaux Sister City Association

The Sister Cities program was created to strengthen partnerships between U.S. and International cities in an effort to increase global cooperation, to promote cultural understanding, and to stimulate economic development. This provides opportunities for city officials and citizens to experience and explore other cultures through long-term community links.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower originally created this idea in 1956. His intentions were to involve individuals and organized groups at all levels of society in citizen diplomacy, with the hope that personal relationships, fostered through sister city, county and state affiliations, would lessen the chance of future world conflicts.

Los Angeles began its Sister City program in 1959 with Nagoya, Japan. The Los Angeles-Bordeaux Sister City Association (LABSCA) was born when, in 1964, a formal affiliation was established between the cities of Los Angeles, California and Bordeaux, the capital of southwest France.