Charlotte Center City (also known as Uptown) is the central area of Charlotte, North Carolina within the bounds of I-277. The area is split into four neighborhoods (Wards) by the intersection of Trade and Tryon Streets.

Several Fortune 500 companies have their headquarters here, including Bank of America, Duke Energy, and the East Coast operations of Wells Fargo. Athletic and event facilities located in Center City include Bank of America Stadium - home of the NFL's Carolina Panthers, Time Warner Cable Arena - home of the NBA's Charlotte Hornets, BB&T Ballpark - home of the International League's Charlotte Knights, and the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Museums, theaters, hotels, high-density residential developments, restaurants, and bars are heavily concentrated in the Center City, with over 214 restaurants and 50 nightspots.

Charlotte's Center City (including South End) employs more than 100,000 people, hosts more than 25 million visitors a year, and 20,000 people call the area home.

Uptown/Downtown

Charlotte Center City is often referred to as "Uptown" by locals, although the term "Downtown" can also be used since they do not reference different areas of the city.

The history of the dual names is contested, yet prior to the mid-late 1980s, the term "Downtown" was used by residents, media and city leaders for the Center City. During the 1980s, a massive campaign was launched to revamp the image of the downtown area and the term "Uptown" was introduced to the general public. On February 14, 1987, the Charlotte Observer began using the term "Uptown" as a way to promote a more positive upbeat image of the Center City area. School teachers were provided with "historical" documents justifying use of the term to teach to students. (Proclamation designating central shopping and business district as Uptown Charlotte by City of Charlotte Mayor John M. Belk on September 23, 1974)

Charlotte Center City 2020 Vision Plan

Major streets

Tryon Street

Tryon Street is a major north-south street of Charlotte, North Carolina. It traverses through the center of Uptown Charlotte and is the address for some of the city's tallest buildings like the Bank of America Corporate Center and Hearst Tower. U.S. Route 29 and North Carolina Highway 49 are signed along portions of Tryon Street (although they both deviate onto Graham Street through Uptown). The road is divided at its intersection with Trade Street into two segments: North Tryon Street and South Tryon Street. Likewise, Tryon Street divides Trade Street into East and West. The Trade and Tryon intersection is the highest point in Mecklenburg County and serves as the dividing point for the city's first four wards. The street was named after William Tryon, governor of the Province of North Carolina from 1765 to 1771.

Entering the Charlotte city limits from the north, US 29's street name changes from Concord Parkway to North Tryon Street. US 29 and Tryon Street continue southwest through the University City neighborhood, passing by the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater Charlotte, intersecting with Interstate 485 (North Carolina), and passing through the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

South Tryon Street terminates at the Charlotte city limits at the Steele Creek neighborhood, where it changes to York Road. NC 49 continues west to Lake Wylie, South Carolina, where it becomes Charlotte Highway.

The following towers have the Tryon Street address:

• Bank of America Corporate Center
• Duke Energy Center
• Hearst Tower (Charlotte)
• Fifth Third Center
• 400 South Tryon
• 525 North Tryon
• 200 South Tryon
• 112 Tryon Plaza
• South Tryon Square

Trade Street

Trade Street is the major east-west street that divides the northern and southern wards in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina. It is also notable for having major towers as Tryon Street. The following towers have a Trade Street address:

• 121 West Trade
• 129 West Trade

The Wards

Center City Charlotte is divided into four neighborhoods, or "Wards", by the intersection of Trade and Tryon Streets.

First Ward

First Ward lies directly to the east of the intersection of Trade and Tryon. It is that quadrant bounded by North Tryon on the northwest and East Trade on the southwest.

First Ward was recently one of the most dangerous areas in Charlotte, but because of recent revitalization under a HUD HOPE VI grant, it has become one of the more desirable. Many new developments are planned and under construction. The award winning Center City Building which houses the uptown campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte is in the first ward. The recently completed Center City Building is part of an urban village project being developed by Levine Properties. The current plans for the urban village include a 4-acre (16,000 m²) park, 450,000 sq ft (42,000 m²) of office space, 2,700 residential units, 250 hotel rooms, 250,000 sq ft (23,000 m²) of retail space, and 450,000 sq ft (42,000 m²) of civic space. Current attractions include: The Main Library, the Spirit Square portion of the North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, ImaginOn Children's Learning Center, Levine Museum of the New South, the Time Warner Cable Arena, and is the home of the Charlotte Hornets. On Tryon at Sixth Street, one of Charlotte's historic gems is being preserved and connected to a new condo project called Encore.

Second Ward

Second Ward lies directly to the south of the intersection of Trade and Tryon. It is the quadrant bounded by South Tryon on the northwest and East Trade on the northeast.

Second Ward is the location of Charlotte's "Government District" and is the site of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Second Ward used to be the location of the predominantly black neighborhood Brooklyn before an urban renewal project took place. Today, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Art+Culture stands in Second Ward. Here we also find EpiCentre, a mixed-use entertainment and retail complex, the Charlotte Convention Center, The Victorian Gothic style St. Peter's Catholic Church, and The Green, a downtown mini-park.

Donald Trump proposed a 72-story project called Trump Charlotte in the Second Ward which would have been the tallest building in Charlotte. The project was subsequently cancelled.

Third Ward

Third Ward lies directly to the west of the intersection of Trade and Tryon. It is the quadrant bounded by South Tryon on the southeast and West Trade on the northeast. Third Ward is the location of the Knight Theatre, the Mint Museum, and the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art.

Center City's Third Ward is a diverse, quaint, start of the 20th century streetcar neighborhood home to the Carolina Panthers' Bank of America Stadium and Gateway Village which is one of the state's largest mixed-use developments with 1,500,000 sq ft (140,000 m²) of office, shops, restaurants, and over 500 housing units. The most exciting new project is Wachovia's First Street Project, comprising cultural, office, residential, and open space. Johnson & Wales University is expanding its campus in the Center City while the Mecklenburg County's Parks and Recreation Department has unveiled plans for an urban park in the district. Multiple condominium high rise towers have begun or are ready to begin construction. Plans are also underway to construct a $200 million transportation hub along the Norfolk Southern Railway called the Gateway Station. The Gateway Station will house the Greyhound bus stop, the Amtrak station, the LYNX Purple Line and LYNX Silver Line, and a CATS bus hub.

BB&T Ballpark opened in 2014 as the home of the Charlotte Knights. Directly across the street is the new Romare Bearden Park, which opened in September 2013.

Fourth Ward

Fourth Ward lies directly to the north of the intersection of Trade and Tryon. It is that quadrant bounded by North Tryon on the southeast and West Trade on the southwest.

Fourth Ward is mostly residential and has many beautiful Victorian homes. It is an official historic district and is the location of Old Settlers' Cemetery as well as the three acre Fourth Ward Park.

Schools and Libraries

School System

Residents of Charlotte Center City attend the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Elementary schools include First Ward Elementary and Irwin Avenue Open Elementary School.

Private Schools

• Trinity Episcopal School

Colleges and Universities

• Johnson and Wales University
• University of North Carolina at Charlotte North Charlotte
• Johnson C. Smith University
• Central Piedmont Community College
• Queens University of Charlotte
• Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
• Reformed Theological Seminary
• Southern Evangelical Seminary
• Union PSCE (Presbyterian Seminary)

Libraries

Uptown Charlotte is served by two branches of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County now known as Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. The Main library is located on North Tryon Street.

The CheckIt Outlet Branch located on the Green off South Tryon Street is closed due to budget cut a few years ago. This 1,000 sq ft (93 m²). facility holds popular DVDs and bestsellers and serves as a drop-off and pick-up point for library materials for workers and residents on the South Tryon side of uptown.

ImaginOn: The Joe and Joan Martin Center is located on East Seventh Street. ImaginOn is a collaborative venture of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and the Children's Theater of Charlotte which strives to bring the art of narrative to life. The library provides services, books, CDs, DVDs and homework support for children and teens at this location. ImaginOn also contains the McColl Family Theatre and the Wachovia Playhouse, venues used by the Children's Theater for their performances.

Parks

In August 2013, the city opened Romare Bearden Park which is a 5.4 acre public park located at 300 S. Church Street.

Companies

List of companies based or with major corporate persistence:

Hotels

The following is an incomplete list:

Restaurants

The following is an incomplete list:

Sites of interest

Learn more »

Barcelona (/bÉ'rsəˈloÊŠnÉ™/, Catalan: [bəɾsəˈlonÉ™], Spanish: [barθeˈlona]) is the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain and Spain's second most populated city, with a population of 1.6 million within its administrative limits. Its urban area extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of around 4.7 million people, being the sixth-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris, London, Madrid, the Ruhr area, and Milan. It is the largest metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, and bounded to the west by the Serra de Collserola mountain range, the tallest peak of which is 512 metres (1,680 ft) high.

Founded as a Roman city, in the Middle Ages Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona. After merging with the Kingdom of Aragon, Barcelona continued to be an important city in the Crown of Aragon as an economical and administrative center of this Crown and the capital of the Principality of Catalonia. Besieged several times during its history, Barcelona has a rich cultural heritage and is today an important cultural center and a major tourist destination. Particularly renowned are the architectural works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner, which have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean is located in Barcelona. The city is known for hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics as well as world-class conferences and expositions and also many international sport tournaments.

Barcelona is one of the world's leading tourist, economic, trade fair and cultural centers, and its influence in commerce, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. It is a major cultural and economic center in southwestern Europe, 24th in the world (before Zürich, after Frankfurt) and a financial center. In 2008 it was the fourth most economically powerful city by GDP in the European Union and 35th in the world with GDP amounting to €177 billion. In 2012 Barcelona had a GDP of $170 billion; it is leading Spain in both employment rate and GDP per capita change. In 2009 the city was ranked Europe's third and one of the world's most successful as a city brand. In the same year the city was ranked Europe's fourth best city for business and fastest improving European city, with growth improved by 17% per year, but it has since been in a full recession with declines in both employment and GDP per capita, with some recent signs of the beginning of an economic recovery. Since 2011 Barcelona is a leading smart city in Europe. Barcelona is a transport hub with the Port of Barcelona being one of Europe's principal seaports and busiest European passenger port, an international airport, Barcelonaâ€"El Prat Airport, which handles above 35 million passengers per year, an extensive motorway network and a high-speed rail line with a link to France and the rest of Europe.

Names

The name Barcelona comes from the ancient Iberian Barkeno, attested in an ancient coin inscription found on the right side of the coin in Iberian script as , in Ancient Greek sources as Î'αρκινών, Barkiná¹"n; and in Latin as Barcino, Barcilonum and Barcenona.

Sources suggest that the city may have been named after the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca, who was supposed to have founded the city in the 3rd century BC.

During the Middle Ages, the city was variously known as Barchinona, Barçalona, Barchelonaa, and Barchenona.

Internationally, Barcelona's name is usually abbreviated as 'Barsa' or 'Barça'. Locally, this name refers only to FC Barcelona, the football club. Locals refer to the city instead as 'Barna'.

Another common abbreviation is 'BCN', which is also the IATA airport code of the Barcelona-El Prat Airport.

The city is also referred to as the Ciutat Comtal in Catalan, and Ciudad Condal in Spanish, owing to its past as the seat of the Count of Barcelona.

Learn Catalan - Basic Catalan Phrases for Tourists

History

The origin of the earliest settlement at the site of present-day Barcelona is unclear. Around the actual neighborhood of Raval have been found remains of an early settlement, including different tombs and a hut from 5.500 BC. The founding of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends. The first attributes the founding of the city to the mythological Hercules. The second legend attributes the foundation of the city directly to the historical Carthaginian Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal, who named the city Barcino after his family in the Third century BC.

In about 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum (Roman military camp) centerd on the "Mons Taber", a little hill near the contemporary city hall (Plaça de Sant Jaume). Under the Romans, it was a colony with the surname of Faventia, or, in full, Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino or Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. Pomponius Mela mentions it among the small towns of the district, probably as it was eclipsed by its neighbour Tarraco (modern Tarragona), but it may be gathered from later writers that it gradually grew in wealth and consequence, favoured as it was with a beautiful situation and an excellent harbour. It enjoyed immunity from imperial burdens. The city minted its own coins; some from the era of Galba survive.

Important Roman vestiges are displayed in Plaça del Rei underground, as a part of the Barcelona City History Museum MUHBA; the typically Roman grid plan is still visible today in the layout of the historical center, the Barri Gòtic (Gothic Quarter). Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have been incorporated into the cathedral. The cathedral, also known as the Basilica La Seu, is said to have been founded in 343. The city was conquered by the Visigoths in the early 5th century, becoming for a few years the capital of all Hispania. After being conquered by the Arabs in the early 8th century, it was conquered in 801 by Charlemagne's son Louis, who made Barcelona the seat of the Carolingian "Hispanic March" (Marca Hispanica), a buffer zone ruled by the Count of Barcelona.

The Counts of Barcelona became increasingly independent and expanded their territory to include all of Catalonia, although on 6 July 985, Barcelona was sacked by the army of Almanzor. The sack was so traumatic that most of Barcelona's population was either killed or enslaved. In 1137, Aragon and the County of Barcelona merged in dynastic union by the marriage of Ramon Berenguer IV and Petronilla of Aragon, their titles finally borne by only one person when their son Alfonso II of Aragon ascended to the throne in 1162. His territories were later to be known as the Crown of Aragon, which conquered many overseas possessions and ruled the western Mediterranean Sea with outlying territories in Naples and Sicily and as far as Athens in the 13th century. The forging of a dynastic link between the Crowns of Aragon and Castile marked the beginning of Barcelona's decline. The Bank of Barcelona, probably the oldest public bank in Europe, was established by the city magistrates in 1401. It originated from necessities of the state, as did the Bank of Venice (1402) and the Bank of Genoa (1407).

The marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in 1469 united the two royal lines. Madrid became the center of political power whilst the colonisation of the Americas reduced the financial importance (at least in relative terms) of Mediterranean trade. Barcelona was a center of Catalan separatism, including the Catalan Revolt (1640â€"52) against Philip IV of Spain. The great plague of 1650â€"1654 halved the city's population.

In the 18th century, a fortress was built at Montjuïc that overlooked the harbour. In 1794, this fortress was used by the French astronomer Pierre François André Méchain for observations relating to a survey stretching to Dunkirk that provided the official basis of the measurement of a metre. The definitive metre bar, manufactured from platinum, was presented to the French legislative assembly on 22 June 1799. Much of Barcelona was negatively affected by the Napoleonic wars, but the start of industrialization saw the fortunes of the province improve.

During the Spanish Civil War, the city, and Catalonia in general, were resolutely Republican. Many enterprises and public services were "collectivised" by the CNT and UGT unions. As the power of the Republican government and the Generalitat diminished, much of the city was under the effective control of anarchist groups. The anarchists lost control of the city to their own allies, the Communists and official government troops, after the street fighting of the Barcelona May Days. The fall of the city on 26 January 1939, caused a mass exodus of civilians who fled to the French border. The resistance of Barcelona to Franco's coup d'état was to have lasting effects after the defeat of the Republican government. The autonomous institutions of Catalonia were abolished, and the use of the Catalan language in public life was suppressed. Barcelona remained the second largest city in Spain, at the heart of a region which was relatively industrialised and prosperous, despite the devastation of the civil war. The result was a large-scale immigration from poorer regions of Spain (particularly Andalusia, Murcia and Galicia), which in turn led to rapid urbanisation. The city gained vitality in 1992 when it hosted the Olympic games.

Geography

Location

Barcelona is located on the northeast coast of the Iberian Peninsula, facing the Mediterranean Sea, on a plain approximately 5 km (3 mi) wide limited by the mountain range of Collserola, the Llobregat river to the southwest and the Besòs river to the north. This plain covers an area of 170 km² (66 sq mi), of which 101 km² (39.0 sq mi) are occupied by the city itself. It is 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of the Pyrenees and the Catalan border with France.

Tibidabo, 512 m (1,680 ft) high, offers striking views over the city and is topped by the 288.4 m (946.2 ft) Torre de Collserola, a telecommunications tower that is visible from most of the city. Barcelona is peppered with small hills, most of them urbanised, that gave their name to the neighbourhoods built upon them, such as Carmel (267 m), Putget (181 m) and Rovira (261 m). The escarpment of Montjuïc (173 m), situated to the southeast, overlooks the harbour and is topped by Montjuïc castle, a fortress built in the 17â€"18th centuries to control the city as a replacement for the Ciutadella. Today, the fortress is a museum and Montjuïc is home to several sporting and cultural venues, as well as Barcelona's biggest park and gardens.

The city borders on the municipalities of Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Sant Adrià de Besòs to the north; the Mediterranean Sea to the east; El Prat de Llobregat and L'Hospitalet de Llobregat to the south; and Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Sant Just Desvern, Esplugues de Llobregat, Sant Cugat del Vallès, and Montcada i Reixac to the west. The municipality includes two small sparsely-inhabited exclaves to the north-west.

Climate

Barcelona has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa), with mild, humid winters and warm, dry summers.

Its average annual temperature is 21 °C (70 °F) during the day and 14 °C (57 °F) at night. The average annual temperature of the sea is about 20 °C (68 °F). In the coldest month â€" January, the temperature typically ranges from 7 to 17 °C (45 to 63 °F) during the day, 4 to 10 °C (39 to 50 °F) at night and the average sea temperature is 13 °C (55 °F). In the warmest month â€" August, the typical temperature ranges from 26 to 32 °C (79 to 90 °F) during the day, about 23 °C (73 °F) at night and the average sea temperature is 26 °C (79 °F). Generally â€" the summer / "holiday" season lasts about six months, from May to October. Two months â€" April and November â€" are transitional; sometimes the temperature exceeds 20 °C (68 °F), with an average temperature of 18â€"19 °C (64â€"66 °F) during the day and 10â€"13 °C (50â€"55 °F) at night. December, January and February are the coldest months, with average temperatures around 15 °C (59 °F) during the day and 9 °C (48 °F) at night. Large fluctuations in temperature are rare, particularly in the summer months. Because of the proximity to the warm sea, frosts are very infrequent in the city of Barcelona. In fact, only 1 day in the last 30 years was recorded with a temperature under the freezing mark. Snow is infrequent, but it snows lightly once or twice in a decade.

Barcelona averages several rainy days per month (≥ 1 mm), and annual average relative humidity is 72%, ranging from 69% in July to 75% in October. Rainfall totals are highest in autumn and lowest in early summer. Sunshine duration is 2,524 hours per year, from 138 (average 4.5 hours of sunshine a day) in December to 310 (average 10 hours of sunshine a day) in July.

Main sights

The Barri Gòtic (Catalan for "Gothic Quarter") is the center of the old city of Barcelona. Many of the buildings date from medieval times, some from as far back as the Roman settlement of Barcelona. Catalan modernista architecture (related to the movement known as Art Nouveau in the rest of Europe), developed between 1885 and 1950 and left an important legacy in Barcelona. Several of these buildings are World Heritage Sites. Especially remarkable is the work of architect Antoni Gaudí, which can be seen throughout the city. His best-known work is the immense but still unfinished church of the Sagrada Família, which has been under construction since 1882, and is still financed by private donations. As of 2007, completion is planned for 2026.

Barcelona was also home to Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion. Designed in 1929 for the International Exposition for Germany, it is an iconic building that came to symbolize modern architecture as the embodiment of van der Rohe's aphorisms "less is more" and "God is in the details." The Barcelona pavilion was intended as a temporary structure, and was torn down in 1930 less than a year after it was constructed. A modern re-creation by Spanish architects now stands in Barcelona, however, constructed in 1986.

Barcelona won the 1999 RIBA Royal Gold Medal for its architecture, the first (and as of 2015, only) time that the winner has been a city, and not an individual architect.

World Heritage Sites

Barcelona is the home of many points of interest declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO:

Historic buildings and monuments

• Minor basilica of Sagrada Família, the international symbol of Barcelona
• Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, included in the UNESCO Heritage List in 1997.
• Works by Antoni Gaudí, including Park Güell, Palau Güell, Casa Milà (La Pedrera), Casa Vicens, Sagrada Família (Nativity façade and crypt), Casa Batlló, Crypt in Colonia Güell. The first three works were inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1984. The other four were added as extensions to the site in 2005.
• The Cathedral of the Holy Cross and St. Eulalia (Gothic)
• Gothic basilica of Santa Maria del Mar
• Gothic basilica of Santa Maria del Pi
• Romanesque church of Sant Pau del Camp
• Palau Reial Major, medieval residence of the sovereign Counts of Barcelona, later Kings of Aragon
• The Royal Shipyard (gothic)
• Monastery of Pedralbes (gothic)
• The Columbus Monument
• The Arc de Triomf, a triumphal arch built for entrance to 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition.
• Expiatory church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the summit of Tibidabo.

Museums

Barcelona has a great number of museums, which cover different areas and eras. The National Museum of Art of Catalonia possesses a well-known collection of Romanesque art while the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art focuses on post-1945 Catalan and Spanish art. The Fundació Joan Miró, Picasso Museum and Fundació Antoni Tàpies hold important collections of these world-renowned artists, as well as Can Framis Museum, focused on post 1960 Catalan Art owned by Fundació Vila Casas. Several museums cover the fields of history and archeology, like the Barcelona City History Museum (MUHBA), the Museum of the History of Catalonia, the Archeology Museum of Catalonia, the Barcelona Maritime Museum and the private-owned Egyptian Museum. The Erotic museum of Barcelona is among the most peculiar ones, while Cosmocaixa is a science museum that received the European Museum of the Year Award in 2006. The FC Barcelona Museum has been the most visited museum in the city of Barcelona with 1506022 of visitors in 2013.

Parks

Barcelona contains sixty-eight municipal parks, of which twelve are historic parks, five are thematic (botanical) parks, forty-five are urban parks and six are forest parks. They range from vest-pocket parks to large recreation areas. The urban parks alone cover 10% of the city (549.7 ha or 1,358.3 acres). The total park surface grows about 10 ha (25 acres) per year, with a proportion of 18.1 square metres (195 sq ft) of park area per inhabitant.

Of Barcelona's parks, Montjuïc is the largest, with 203 ha located on the mountain of the same name. It is followed by Parc de la Ciutadella (which occupies the site of the old military citadel and which houses the Parliament building, the Barcelona Zoo and several museums); 31 ha or 76.6 acres including the zoo), the Guinardó Park (19 ha or 47.0 acres), Park Güell (designed by Antoni Gaudí; 17.2 ha or 42.5 acres), Oreneta Castle Park (also 17.2 ha or 42.5 acres), Diagonal Mar Park (13.3 ha or 32.9 acres, inaugurated in 2002), Nou Barris Central Park (13.2 ha or 32.6 acres), Can Dragó Sports Park and Poblenou Park (both 11.9 ha or 29.4 acres), the Labyrinth Park (9.10 ha or 22.5 acres), named after the garden maze it contains. There are also several smaller parks, for example, the Parc de les Aigües (2 ha or 4.9 acres). A part of the Collserolla Park is also within the city limits. PortAventura, one of the largest amusement parks in Europe with 3,000,000 visitors per year, is located one hour's drive from Barcelona. Also, within the city lies Tibidabo Amusement Park, a smaller amusement park in Plaza del Tibidabo, with the Muntanya Russa amusement ride.

Beaches

Barcelona beach was listed as number one in a list of the top ten city beaches in the world according to National Geographic and Discovery Channel. Barcelona contains seven beaches, totalling 4.5 kilometres (3 miles) (2.8 mi) of coastline. Sant Sebastià, Barceloneta and Somorrostro beaches, both 1,100 m (3,610 ft) in length, are the largest, oldest and the most-frequented beaches in Barcelona.

The Olympic Harbour separates them from the other city beaches: Nova Icària, Bogatell, Mar Bella, Nova Mar Bella and Llevant. These beaches (ranging from 400 to 640 m (1,310 to 2,100 ft) were opened as a result of the city restructuring to host the 1992 Summer Olympics, when a great number of industrial buildings were demolished. At present, the beach sand is artificially replenished given that storms regularly remove large quantities of material. The 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures left the city a large concrete bathing zone on the eastmost part of the city's coastline.

Demographics

According to Barcelona's City Council, Barcelona's population as of 1 June 2006 was 1,673,075 people, on a land area of 101.4 km² (39 sq mi). It is the main component of an administrative area of Greater Barcelona, with a population of 3,218,071 in an area of 636 square kilometres (246 square miles) (density 5,060 hab/km²). The population of the urban area was 4,223,000. It is the central nucleus of the Barcelona metropolitan area, which relies on a population of 5,083,000.

The population density of Barcelona was 15,779 inhabitants per square kilometre (40,870/sq mi), with Eixample being the most populated district. 62% of the inhabitants were born in Catalonia, with a 23.5% coming from the rest of Spain. Of the 17.4% from other countries, a proportion which has more than quadrupled since 2001 when it was 3.9%, the majority come from (in order) Pakistan, Italy, China, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Morocco. The city has the largest Muslim community in Spain, 322.698 people in Barcelona are of Muslim faith. The city also has the largest Jewish community in Spain, with an estimated 3,500 Jews living in the city. There is a Japanese community clustered in Bonanova, Les Tres Torres, Pedralbes, and other northern neighborhoods, and a Japanese international school serves that community.

Spanish is the most spoken language in Barcelona (according to the linguistic census held by the Government of Catalonia in 2013) and it is understood almost universally. After Spanish, Catalan language is the second most spoken one in the city, and it is understood by 95% of the population, while 72.3% can speak it, 79% can read it, and 53% can write it, thanks to the language immersion educational system.

While most of the population state they are Roman Catholic (208 churches), a number of Muslims due to immigration (169 locations, mostly professed by Moroccans in Spain), there are also a number of other groups, including Evangelical (71 locations, mostly professed by Roma), Jehovah's Witnesses (21 Kingdom Halls) and Buddhists (13 locations), and Eastern Orthodox.

In 1900, Barcelona had a population of 533,000 people, which grew steadily but slowly until 1950, when it started absorbing a high number of people from other less-industrialized parts of Spain. Barcelona's population peaked in 1979 with 1,906,998 people, and fell throughout the 1980s and 1990s as more people sought a higher quality of life in outlying cities in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area. After bottoming out in 2000 with 1,496,266 people, the city's population began to rise again as younger people started to return, causing a great increase in housing prices.

Population density

Note: This text is entirely based on the municipal statistical database provided by the city council.

Barcelona is one of the most densely populated cities in Europe. For the year 2008 the city council calculated the population to 1,621,090 living in the 102.2 km² sized municipality, giving the city an average population density of 15,926 inhabitants per square kilometre.

In the case of Barcelona though, the land distribution is extremely uneven. Half of the municipality or 50.2 km², all of it located on the municipal edge is made up of the ten least densely populated neighbourhoods containing less than 10% of the city's population, the uninhabited Zona Franca industrial area and Montjuïc forest park. Leaving the remaining 90% or slightly below 1.5 million inhabitants living on the remaining 52 km2 at an average density close to 28,500 inhabitants per square kilometre.

Of the 73 neighbourhoods in the city, 45 had a population density above 20,000 inhabitants per square kilometre with a combined population of 1,313,424 inhabitants living on 38.6 km² at an average density of 33,987 inhabitants per square km. The 30 most densely populated neighbourhoods accounted for 57.5% of the city population occupying only 22,7% of the municipality, or in other words, 936,406 people living at an average density of 40,322 inhabitants per square kilometre. The city's highest density is found at and around the neighbourhood of la Sagrada Família where four of the city's most densely populated neighbourhoods are located side by side, all with a population density above 50,000 inhabitants per square kilometre.

Religion

In a 2011 survey conducted by InfoCatólica, 49.5% of Barcelona residents of all ages identified themselves as Catholic. This was the first time that more than half of respondents did not identify themselves as Catholic. The numbers reflect a broader trend in Spain whereby the numbers of self-identified Catholics have declined.

In 2014, 322,698 people in Barcelona identified themselves as Muslim.

Economy

General information

The Barcelona metropolitan area comprises over 66% of the people in one of the richest regions in Europe â€" Catalonia, with a GDP per capita amounting to €28,400 (16% more than the EU average). The Barcelona metropolitan area had a GDP amounting to $177 billion, equivalent to $34,821 in per capita terms (44% more than the EU average) making it the 4th most economically powerful city by GDP in the European Union and 35th in the world in 2009. Barcelona city had a very high GDP of €80,894 per head in 2004, according to Eurostat. Furthermore, Barcelona was Europe's fourth best business city and fastest improving European city, with growth improved by 17% per year as of 2009.

Barcelona is the 14th most "livable city" in the world according to lifestyle magazine Monocle. Similarly, according to Innovation Analysts 2thinknow, Barcelona occupies 13th place in the world on Innovation Citiesâ„¢ Global Index.

Barcelona has a long-standing mercantile tradition. Less well known is that the region was one of the earliest to begin industrialization in continental Europe, beginning with textile-related works from the mid-1780s but really gathering momentum in the mid-19th century, when it became a major center for the production of textiles and machinery. Since then, manufacturing has played a large role in its history.

Borsa de Barcelona (Barcelona Stock Exchange) is the main stock exchange in the northeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula.

Barcelona was recognised as the Southern European City of the Future for 2014/15, based on its economic potential, by FDi Magazine in their bi-annual rankings.

Trade fair and exhibitions

Drawing upon its tradition of creative art and craftsmanship, Barcelona is known for its award-winning industrial design. It also has several congress halls, notably Fira de Barcelona â€" the second largest trade fair and exhibition center in Europe, that host a quickly growing number of national and international events each year (at present above 50). The total exhibition floor space of Fira de Barcelona venues is 405,000 m² (41 ha), not counting Gran Via center on the Plaza de Europa. However, the Eurozone crisis and deep cuts in business travel affected the Council's positioning of the city as a convention center.

An important business center, the World Trade Center Barcelona, is located in Barcelona's Port Vell harbour.

The city is known for hosting well as world-class conferences and expositions, including the 1888 Exposición Universal de Barcelona, the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition (Expo 1929), the 2004 Universal Forum of Cultures and the 2004 World Urban Forum.

Tourism

Barcelona is the 10th-most-visited city in the world and the third most visited in Europe after London and Paris, with 8 million tourists every year since 2012. With its Rambles, Barcelona is ranked the most popular city to visit in Spain.

Barcelona as internationally renowned a tourist destination, with numerous recreational areas, one of the best beaches in the world, mild and warm climate, historical monuments, including eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites, many good-quality hotels, and developed tourist infrastructure.

Manufacturing sector

Industry generates 21% of the total gross domestic product (GDP) of the region, with the energy, chemical and metallurgy industries accounting for 47% of industrial production. The Barcelona metropolitan area had 67% of the total number of industrial establishments in Catalonia as of 1997.

Barcelona has long been an important European automobile manufacturing center. Formerly there were automobile factories of AFA, Abadal, Actividades Industriales, Alvarez, America, Artés de Arcos, Balandrás, Baradat-Esteve, Biscúter, J. Castro, Clúa, David, Delfín, Díaz y Grilló, Ebro trucks, Edis, Elizalde, Automóviles España, Eucort, Fenix, Fábrica Hispano, Auto Academia Garriga, Fábrica Española de Automóviles Hebe, Hispano-Suiza, Huracán Motors, Talleres Hereter, Junior SL, Kapi, La Cuadra, M.A., Automóviles Matas, Motores y Motos, Nacional Custals, National Pescara, Nacional RG, Nacional Rubi, Nacional Sitjes, Automóviles Nike, Orix, Otro Ford, Partia, Pegaso, PTV, Ricart, Ricart-España, Industrias Salvador, Siata Española, Stevenson, Romagosa y Compañía, Garaje Storm, Talleres Hereter, Trimak, Automóviles Victoria, Manufacturas Mecánicas Aleu.

Today, the headquarters and a large factory of SEAT (the largest Spanish automobile manufacturer) are in one of its suburbs. There is also a Nissan factory in the logistics and industrial area of the city. The factory of Derbi, a large manufacturer of motorcycles, scooters and mopeds, also lies near the city.

As in other modern cities, the manufacturing sector has long since been overtaken by the services sector, though it remains very important. The region's leading industries are textiles, chemical, pharmaceutical, motor, electronic, printing, logistics, publishing, telecommunications and information technology services.

Fashion

The traditional importance of textiles is reflected in Barcelona's drive to become a major fashion center. There have been many attempts to launch Barcelona as a fashion capital, notably Gaudi Home.

Beginning in the summer of 2000, the city hosted the prestigious Bread & Butter urban fashion fair until 2009, when its organisers announced that it would be returning to Berlin. This was a hard blow for the city as the fair brought €100 m to the city in just three days.

Since 2009, The Brandery, an urban fashion show, has been held in Barcelona twice a year. In 2012, Barcelona was named as the third most important fashion capital according to the Global Language Monitor’s annual ranking of the world's top fifty fashion capitals.

Government and administrative divisions

As the capital of the autonomous community of Catalonia, Barcelona is the seat of the Catalan government, known as the Generalitat de Catalunya; of particular note are the executive branch, the parliament, and the Supreme Court of Catalonia. The city is also the capital of the Province of Barcelona and the Barcelonès comarca (district).

Barcelona is governed by a city council formed by 41 city councillors, elected for a four-year term by universal suffrage. As one of the two biggest cities in Spain, Barcelona is subject to a special law articulated through the Carta Municipal (Municipal Law). A first version of this law was passed in 1960 and amended later, but the current version was approved in March 2006. According to this law, Barcelona's city council is organized in two levels: a political one, with elected city councillors, and one executive, which administrates the programs and executes the decisions taken on the political level. This law also gives the local government a special relationship with the central government and it also gives the mayor wider prerogatives by the means of municipal executive commissions. It expands the powers of the city council in areas like telecommunications, city traffic, road safety and public safety. It also gives a special economic regime to the city's treasury and it gives the council a veto in matters that will be decided by the central government, but that will need a favourable report from the council.

The Comissió de Govern (Government Commission) is the executive branch, formed by 24 councillors, led by the Mayor, with 5 lieutenant-mayors and 17 city councillors, each in charge of an area of government, and 5 non-elected councillors. The plenary, formed by the 41 city councillors, has advisory, planning, regulatory, and fiscal executive functions. The six Commissions del Consell Municipal (City council commissions) have executive and controlling functions in the field of their jurisdiction. They are composed by a number of councillors proportional to the number of councillors each political party has in the plenary. The city council has jurisdiction in the fields of city planning, transportation, municipal taxes, public highways security through the Guàrdia Urbana (the municipal police), city maintenance, gardens, parks and environment, facilities (like schools, nurseries, sports centers, libraries, and so on), culture, sports, youth and social welfare. Some of these competencies are not exclusive, but shared with the Generalitat de Catalunya or the central Spanish government. In some fields with shared responsibility (such as public health, education or social services), there is a shared Agency or Consortium between the city and the Generalitat to plan and manage services.

The executive branch is led by a Chief Municipal Executive Officer which answers to the Mayor. It is made up of departments which are legally part of the city council and by separate legal entities of two types: autonomous public departments and public enterprises.

The seat of the city council is on the Plaça de Sant Jaume, opposite the seat of Generalitat de Catalunya. Since the coming of the Spanish democracy, Barcelona had been governed by the PSC, first with an absolute majority and later in coalition with ERC and ICV. After the May 2007 election, the ERC did not renew the coalition agreement and the PSC governed in a minority coalition with ICV as the junior partner.

After 32 years, on 22 May 2011, CiU gained a plurality of seats at the municipal election, gaining 15 seats to the PSC's 11. The PP hold 8 seats, ICV 5 and ERC 2.

Districts

Since 1987, the city has been divided into 10 administrative districts (districtes in Catalan, distritos in Spanish):

• Ciutat Vella
• Eixample
• Sants-Montjuïc
• Les Corts
• Sarrià-Sant Gervasi
• Gràcia
• Horta-Guinardó
• Nou Barris
• Sant Andreu
• Sant Martí

The districts are based mostly on historical divisions, and several are former towns annexed by the city of Barcelona in the 18th and 19th centuries that still maintain their own distinct character. Each district has its own council led by a city councillor. The composition of each district council depends on the number of votes each political party had in that district, so a district can be led by a councillor from a different party than the executive council.

Education

Barcelona has a well-developed higher education system of public universities. Most prominent among these is the University of Barcelona (established in 1450), a world-renowned research and teaching institution with campuses around the city. Barcelona is also home to the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, and the newer Pompeu Fabra University, and, in the private sector the EADA Business School founded in 1957, became the first Barcelona institution to run manager training programmes for the business community. IESE Business School, as well as the largest private educational institution, the Ramon Llull University, which encompasses internationally prestigious schools and institutes such as the ESADE Business School. The Autonomous University of Barcelona, another public university, is located in Bellaterra, a town in the Metropolitan Area. Toulouse Business School and the Open University of Catalonia (a private Internet-centered open university) are also based in Barcelona.

The city has a network of public schools, from nurseries to high schools, under the responsibility of a consortium led by city council (though the curriculum is the responsibility of the Generalitat de Catalunya). There are also many private schools, some of them Roman Catholic. Most such schools receive a public subsidy on a per-student basis, are subject to inspection by the public authorities, and are required to follow the same curricular guidelines as public schools, though they charge tuition. Known as escoles concertades, they are distinct from schools whose funding is entirely private (escoles privades).

The language of instruction at public schools and escoles concertades is Catalan, as stipulated by the 2009 Catalan Education Act (in court for discrimination). Spanish may be used as a language of instruction by teachers of Spanish literature or language, and foreign languages by teachers of those languages. An experimental partial immersion programme adopted by some schools allows for the teaching of a foreign language (English, generally) across the curriculum, though this is limited to a maximum of 30% of the school day. No public school or escola concertada in Barcelona may offer 50% or full immersion programmes in a foreign language, nor does any public school or escola concertada offer International Baccalaureate programmes.

Culture

Barcelona's cultural roots go back 2000 years. Since the arrival of democracy, the Catalan language (very much repressed during the dictatorship of Franco) has been promoted, both by recovering works from the past and by stimulating the creation of new works. Barcelona is designated as a world-class city by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network.

Entertainment and performing arts

Barcelona has many venues for live music and theatre, including the world-renowned Gran Teatre del Liceu opera house, the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, the Teatre Lliure and the Palau de la Música Catalana concert hall. Barcelona also is home to the Barcelona and Catalonia National Symphonic Orchestra (Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, usually known as OBC), the largest symphonic orchestra in Catalonia. In 1999, the OBC inaugurated its new venue in the brand-new Auditorium (l'Auditori). It performs around 75 concerts per season and its current director is Eiji Oue. The major thoroughfare of Las Ramblas is home to mime artists and street performers. Yearly two major pop music festivals take place in the city, the Sónar Festival and the Primavera Sound Festival. The city also has a thriving alternative music scene, with groups such as The Pinker Tones receiving international attention.

Media

El Periódico de Catalunya, La Vanguardia and Ara are Barcelona's three major daily newspapers (the first two with Catalan and Spanish editions, Ara only in Catalan) while Sport and El Mundo Deportivo (both in Spanish) are the city's two major sports daily newspapers, published by the same companies. The city is also served by a number of smaller publications such as Ara and El Punt Avui (in Catalan), by nationwide newspapers with special Barcelona editions like El Pais (in Spanish, with an online version in Catalan) and El Mundo (in Spanish), and by several free newspapers like 20 minutos and Què (all bilingual).

Barcelona oldest and main online newspaper VilaWeb is the oldest one also in Europe (with Catalan and English editions)

Several major FM stations include Catalunya Ràdio, RAC 1, RAC 105 and Cadena SER. Barcelona also has a local TV stations, BTV, owned by city council. The headquarters of Televisió de Catalunya, Catalonia's public network, are located in Sant Joan Despí, in Barcelona's metropolitan area.

Sports

Barcelona has a long sporting tradition and hosted the highly successful 1992 Summer Olympics as well as several matches during the 1982 FIFA World Cup (at the two stadiums). It has also hosted, among others, about 30 sports events of international significance.

FC Barcelona is a sports club best known worldwide for its football team, one of the largest in the world and second richest football club in the world. It has 64 of national (likewise 41 runners-up) and 16 continental (likewise 10 runners-up) trophies, including five of the UEFA Champions League (likewise 3 runners-up) and two of the FIFA Club World Cup (likewise 1 runners-up). Also, it is the only men's club in the world to accomplish a sextuple. FC Barcelona also has teams in FC Barcelona Regal (basketball), FC Barcelona Handbol (the handball), FC Barcelona Hoquei (roller hockey), FC Barcelona Ice Hockey (ice hockey), FC Barcelona Futsal (futsal) and FC Barcelona Rugby (rugby union), all of them winners of the highest country or/and European competitions. The club's museum is the second most visited in Catalonia. Twice a season, FC Barcelona and cross-town rivals RCD Espanyol contest in the local derby in La Liga, while its basketball section has its own local derby in Liga ACB with nearby Joventut Badalona. Barcelona also has other clubs in lower categories, like CE Europa and UE Sant Andreu.

Barcelona has two UEFA elite stadiums: FC Barcelona's Camp Nou, the largest stadium in Europe with a capacity of 100,000 and the publicly owned Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, with a capacity of 55,000; used for the 1992 Olympics. Also, the city has several smaller stadiums such as Mini Estadi, with a capacity of 15,000 and Camp Municipal Narcís Sala, Nou Sardenya with a capacity of 7,000. In the suburbs of Barcelona there is a third UEFA elite stadium â€" Estadi Cornellà-El Prat, with a capacity of 40,000. Also, except Palau Sant Jordi (St. George's sporting arena), with a capacity of 12,000â€"24,000 (depending on use), city has two other larger sporting and concert arena: Palau Blaugrana, with a capacity of 7,500 and Palau dels Esports de Barcelona.

Barcelona was also the host city for the 2013 World Aquatics Championships, which were held at the Palau San Jordi.

Several road running competitions are organized year-round in Barcelona: the Barcelona Marathon every March with over 10,000 participants in 2010, the Cursa de Bombers in April, the Cursa de El Corte Inglés in May (with about 60,000 participants each year), the Cursa de la Mercè, the Cursa Jean Bouin, the Milla Sagrada Família and the San Silvestre. The Open Seat Godó, a 50-year-old ATP World Tour 500 Series tennis tournament, is held annually in the facilities of the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona (Barcelona Royal Tennis Club). Also, each Christmas, a swimming race across the port is organized. Near Barcelona, in Montmeló, the 107,000 capacity Circuit de Catalunya / Circuit de Barcelona racetrack hosts the Formula One World Championship, Formula One Spanish Grand Prix, Catalan motorcycle Grand Prix, Spanish GT Championship and GP2 Series. Skateboarding and bicycling are also very popular in Barcelona. In the city and the metropolitan area, there are tens of km of bicycle paths.

Transport

Airports

Barcelona is served by Barcelona-El Prat Airport, about 17 km (11 mi) from the center of Barcelona. It is the second-largest airport in Spain, and the largest on the Mediterranean coast, which handles above 37.5 million passengers per year, showing an annual upward trend. It is a main hub for Vueling Airlines and Ryanair, and also a focus for Iberia and Air Europa. The airport mainly serves domestic and European destinations, although some airlines offer destinations in Latin America, Asia and the United States. The airport is connected to the city by highway, commuter train (Barcelona Airport railway station) and scheduled bus service. A new terminal (T1) has been built, and entered service on 17 June 2009.

Some low-cost airlines, such as Transavia.com and Ryanair, also use Girona-Costa Brava Airport, about 90 km (56 mi) to the north, Reus Airport, 77 km (48 mi) to the south, or Lleida-Alguaire Airport, about 150 km (93 mi) to the west, of the city. Sabadell Airport is a smaller airport in the nearby town of Sabadell, devoted to pilot training, aerotaxi and private flights.

Seaport

The Port of Barcelona has a 2000-year-old history and a great contemporary commercial importance. It is Europe's ninth largest container port, with a trade volume of 1.72 million TEU's in 2013. The port is managed by the Port Authority of Barcelona. Its 10 km² (4 sq mi) are divided into three zones: Port Vell (the old port), the commercial port and the logistics port (Barcelona Free Port). The port is undergoing an enlargement that will double its size thanks to diverting the mouth of the Llobregat river 2 kilometres (1 mile) (1¼ mi) to the south.

The Barcelona harbour is the leading European cruiser port and a most important Mediterranean turnaround base. In 2013, 3,6 million of pleasure cruises passengers used services of the Port of Barcelona.

The Port Vell area also houses the Maremagnum (a commercial mall), a multiplex cinema, the IMAX Port Vell and one of Europe's largest aquariums â€" Aquarium Barcelona, containing 8,000 fish and 11 sharks contained in 22 basins filled with 4 million litres of sea water. The Maremagnum, being situated within the confines of the port, is the only commercial mall in the city that can open on Sundays and public holidays.

Railway

Barcelona is a major hub for RENFE, the Spanish state railway network. The city's main Inter-city rail station is Barcelona-Sants station, whilst Estació de França terminus serves a secondary role handling suburban, regional and medium distance services. Freight services operate to local industries and to the Port of Barcelona.

RENFE's AVE high-speed rail system, which is designed for speeds of 310 km/h (193 mph), was extended from Madrid to Barcelona in 2008 in the form of the Madridâ€"Barcelona high-speed rail line. A shared RENFE-SNCF high-speed rail connecting Barcelona and France (Paris, Marseilles and Toulouse, through Perpignanâ€"Barcelona high-speed rail line) was launched in 2013. Both these lines serve Barcelona Sants terminal station.

Besides RENFE's services, other rail services in the Barcelona area are operated by the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC), owned by the Catalonian government. The FGC operates largely commuter rail services, but also carries freight to the Port of Barcelona, as well as a number of rack railways and funiculars, and three of the lines of the Barcelona Metro (see local public transport below). Other suburban services are operated by Rodalies de Catalunya over RENFE tracks.

Roads and highways

Barcelona lies on three international routes, including European route E15 that follows the Mediterranean coast, European route E90 to Madrid and Lisbon, and European route E09 to Paris. It is also served by a comprehensive network of motorways and highways throughout the metropolitan area, including A-2, A-7/AP-7, C-16, C-17, C-31, C-32, C-33, C-60.

The city is circled by three half ring roads or bypasses, Ronda de Dalt (B-20) (on the mountain side), Ronda del Litoral (B-10) (along the coast) and Ronda del Mig (separated into two parts: Travessera de Dalt in the north and the Gran Via de Carles III), two partially covered fast highways with several exits that bypass the city.

The city's main arteries include Diagonal Avenue, which crosses it diagonally, Meridiana Avenue which leads to Glòries and connects with Diagonal Avenue and Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, which crosses the city from east to west, passing through its center. The famous boulevard of La Rambla, whilst no longer an important vehicular route, remains an important pedestrian route.

The Estació del Nord (Northern Station), a former railway station which was renovated for the 1992 Olympic Games, now serves as the terminus for long-distance and regional bus services.

Local public transport

Barcelona is served by a comprehensive local public transport network that includes a metro, a bus network, two separate modern tram networks, a separate historic tram line, and several funiculars and aerial cable cars. Most of these networks and lines form a coordinated fare system, administered by the Autoritat del Transport Metropolità (ATM), although they are operated by a number of different bodies.

The largely underground Barcelona Metro network comprises eleven lines, identified by an "L" followed by the line number as well as by individual colours. Eight of these lines are operated on dedicated track by the Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), whilst three lines are operated by the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) and share tracks with that company's commuter lines.

Another company, TRAMMET, operates the city's two modern tram networks, known as Trambaix and Trambesòs. The historic tram line, the Tramvia Blau, connects the metro (L7, operated by FGC) to the Funicular del Tibidabo (operated by TMB). The Funicular de Tibidabo climbs the Tibidabo hill, as does the Funicular de Vallvidrera (FGC). The Funicular de Montjuïc (TMB) climbs the Montjuïc hill. The city has two aerial cable cars: the Montjuïc Cable Car (to the Montjuïc castle) and the Port Vell Aerial Tramway that runs via Torre Jaume I and Torre Sant Sebastià over the port.

Buses in Barcelona are a major form of public transport, with extensive local, interurban and night bus networks. Most local services are operated by the TMB, although some other services are operated by a number of private companies, albeit still within the ATM fare structure. A separate private bus line, known as Aerobús, links the airport with the city center, with its own fare structure.

Barcelona has a metered taxi fleet governed by the Institut Metropolità del Taxi (Metropolitan Taxi Institute), composed of more than 10,000 cars. Most of the licences are in the hands of self-employed drivers. With their black and yellow livery, Barcelona's taxis are easily spotted, and can be caught from one of many taxi ranks, hailed on street, or called by telephone.

On 22 March 2007, Barcelona's City Council started the Bicing service, a bicycle service understood as a public transport. Once the user has their user card, they can take a bicycle from any of the more than 400 stations spread around the city and use it anywhere the urban area of the city, and then leave it at another station. The service has been a success, with 50,000 subscribed users in three months.

International relations

Twin towns and sister cities

Barcelona is twinned with the following cities:^{(in chronological order)}

Partnerships and cooperations

Other forms of cooperation and city friendship similar to the twin city programmes exist to many cities worldwide.

• Turin, Italy
• Shenzhen, China

Other sights

Learn more »

Travel Town Museum is a transport museum dedicated on December 14, 1952 and located within the northwest corner of Los Angeles, California's Griffith Park. The history of railroad transportation in the western United States from 1880 to the 1930s is the primary focus of the museum's collection, with an emphasis on railroading in Southern California and the Los Angeles area.

Railway collection

The railroad museum portion contains 43 full-scale railroad engines, cars and other rolling stock.

Locomotives

Their collection of 17 locomotives includes:

• AT&SF No. 664, an 1899 Baldwin 2-8-0 Consolidation steam locomotive.
• California Western No. 56, Ex McCloud River No. 33, a 1955 Baldwin RS-12 Diesel locomotive.
• Camino-Placerville & Lake Tahoe No. 2, a 1922 Lima three-truck 4 ft 8 ¹â„₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge Shay locomotive.
• Conrock No. 1, a 1925 American (Cooke Works) 0-6-0 switcher steam locomotive.
• Los Angeles Harbor Department No. 31, a 1921 Davenport 0-4-0T switcher steam locomotive.
• Los Angeles Harbor Department No. 32, a 1914 ALCO (Rogers Works) 0-4-0T switcher steam locomotive.
• Pacific Electric No. 1544 "Electra", a 1902 North Shore B-B electric locomotive.
• Pickering Lumber Company No. 2, a 1918 Heisler Locomotive Works three truck narrow gauge Heisler steam locomotive.
• Santa Maria Valley No. 1000, a 1920 American (Schenectady Works) 2-8-2 Mikado steam locomotive.
• Sharp & Fellows Railroad Contractors No. 7, a 1902 American (Dixon Works) 2-6-2 Prairie steam locomotive.
• Southern Pacific No. 20, an 1880 Baldwin 0-4-0 switcher steam locomotive, currently undergoing refurbishment to operation as Southern Pacific No. 219.
• Southern Pacific No. 1273, a 1921 SP (Sacramento Shops) built 0-6-0 switcher steam locomotive.
• Southern Pacific No. 3025, a 1904 American (Schenectady Works) 4-4-2 Atlantic steam locomotive.
• Stockton Terminal and Eastern No. 1, an 1864 Norris-Lancaster 4-4-0 American steam locomotive. (pictured)
• Travel Town No. 1 "The Charley Atkins", Ex US Navy No. 56-00323, a 1941 EMD Model 40 300hp Diesel locomotive.
• Union Pacific No. 4439, a 1918 UP built 0-6-0 switcher steam locomotive.
• Western Pacific No. 26, a 1909 American (Schenectady Works) 2-8-0 Consolidation steam locomotive.

The Travel Town Museum's full locomotive roster can be seen here [1].

Freight cars and cabooses

• AT&SF No. 999110, a 1926 American Car & Foundry caboose.
• 2 Los Angeles Harbor Dept. Side-Dump ballast cars.
• Oahu Railway & Land No. 1, a 1900 OR&L built caboose.
• Richfield Oil No. 670, a 1911 tank car.
• Southern Pacific No. 1, a circa 1890 wooden boxcar.(in Main Exhibit Hall)
• Southern Pacific No. 12, a circa 1890 Carter Brothers baggage and Mail car.(in Main Exhibit Hall)
• Southern Pacific No. 163, a circa 1890 stock car (possibly built by the Virginia & Truckee (Nevada Shops)).(in Main Exhibit Hall)
• Southern Pacific No. 4049, a 1961 Pacific Car & Foundry bay window caboose.
• Southern Pacific No. 30036, a circa 1930 wood sided boxcar.
• Union Pacific No. 2117, an 1881 wooden caboose.
• Western Pacific No. 754, a 1910 Haskell and Barker caboose.

Passenger cars

There are 9 examples of passenger train equipment:

• AT&SF No. 3355, a 1928 Pullman Company Snack Car
• Oahu Railway & Land No. 1, a circa 1900 OR&L built passenger coach
• Oahu Railway & Land No. 36, a 1900 OR&L built Passenger/Mail combination car
• Pennsylvania Railroad No. 4418, a circa 1925 Pennsylvania Railroad built Dining car
• Southern Pacific No. 2513, a 1919 Pullman Company chair car
• Union Pacific No. 3669, a 1921 Pullman Dining car, also known as Union Pacific No. 369.
• Union Pacific No. LA-701 "The Little Nugget", a 1937 Pullman Dormitory/Club Car.
• Union Pacific "Hunters Point", a 1940 Pullman sleeping Car.
• Union Pacific "Rose Bowl", a 1937 Pullman sleeping Car, also known as "Telegraph Hill".

The Travel Town Museum's full Passenger Car roster can be seen here [2].

Trolleys, cable cars, and motorcars

Four various other passenger equipment examples:

• AT&SF No. M-177, a 1929 motorized passenger Railcar, incorporating an EMD engine into a Pullman carbody.
• Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority No. 1543, a 1911 American Car & Foundry Interurban Trolley Coach, known as a PE Big Red Car "Blimp" and bears both its final green MTA and earlier red PE paint liveries, each on one end and one side.
• Los Angeles Railway, a circa 1880 Horse-drawn narrow gauge street-railway car.
• California Street Cable Railroad California Street Cable Railway Co. No. 21, a 1906 John Hammond & Co. reversible, double ended "California Street" type Cable Car - needing no turntable on each end of the line, with combination open and enclosed "California" style seating sections. Borrowed by Universal Pictures for filming as a Chicago electric trolley car circa 1960's, it was painted #28.

Maintenance-Of-Way equipment

• U.S. Navy No. CSCV1887, 1942 American Hoist and Derrick self-propelled Diesel wrecker crane, Serial No. 1887.
• U.S. Navy No. 61-02011, (unknown year)(unknown builder) Boom Car, utility flat car for support of the wrecker crane.
• Track inspection Speeder, motorized.
• Kalamazoo handcar, four-man pump-action powered.
• Velocipede, one-man pump-action powered track inspection "bicycle" with outrigger.

Motor vehicles

• Railway Express Agency, 1945 International Harvester Co. & York Body Corp. Model K-5 Express Delivery Truck.

A Los Angeles Tour and Attractions Travel Guide

Additional railway museum collections and examples

• Semaphore by Union Switch & Signal, Swissvale, Pennsylvania.
• Wig-Wag grade crossing signal (unknown builder, perhaps Pacific Electric signal shops) from Pacific Electric Railroad.
• Track Construction - Examples of three periods of 4 ft 8 ¹â„₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge track construction, and wheels on axle.
  • Log sleepers (ties) nailed to (unknown weight) rail. Earliest method.
  • Sleepers, uniform and square cut wood soaked in creosote preservative and surrounded by ballast, spiked to (unknown weight) 'T' rail which is joined with fishplates.
  • Concrete sleepers, spring clipped to (unknown weight) rail which is joined with welds.
• Track switches - Various examples of switch points methods, frogs and switch stands/signals.

Miniature train excursions

Tickets can be purchased to ride the Travel Town Railroad, a 16 in (406 mm) gauge miniature railway for two circles around the museum grounds. This railway originally ran a train known as the Melody Ranch Special, which was once owned by Gene Autry. Its namesake originates from the Gene Autry film Melody Ranch. The passenger coaches are now covered and the original steam engine (which was sabotaged beyond economical repair) has been replaced with Courage, a chain-driven internal combustion motor housed within a façade representing a steam locomotive. This railroad is one of three miniature railway train rides within Griffith Park. The others are the 18 ¹â„₂ in (470 mm) gauge Griffith Park & Southern Railroad and the 7 ¹â„₂ in (190.5 mm) gauge miniature railway at the Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum. The latter is independently operated.

Exhibit room

• Artifacts, documents, and ephemera are on display such as menus and chinaware, recollections and timetables, regarding the history of railroading in the United States.

Main exhibit hall

Houses additional transportation examples and exhibits.

• Cut-away boiler demonstration exhibit.
• Hand drawn fire-hose cart.
• Horse-drawn wagons
  • Piano Box buggy
  • Coal Box buggy
  • Milk delivery dray
  • milk delivery van
  • chariot from Ben-Hur.
  • Circus Wagon
  • Oil Delivery (tank) wagon
• Motor Vehicles & Automobiles.
  • Packard Sedan, 9th series, circa 1932
  • 1948 Nash Ambassador Sedan
  • 1918 Mack Dump Truck
  • Fire Engine
• "Holden's Corner" railway safety interactive Children's Discovery Center.
• The "Little General" locomotive demonstration engine.
• Viewing platform for the East Valley Lines model railroad club N scale layout.

East Valley Lines

Located behind a roll-up door in the main exhibit hall, the East Valley Lines Model Rail-Road N Gauge Club operates their extensive layout.

Travel Town appearances in media

Travel Town is near many television and movie studios, which has prompted those production companies to include scenes requiring railroad equipment to be shot at Travel Town since it opened.

A small sample of the thousands of Travel Town's screen appearances is represented below:

• Adam-12 Episode 101 "Eyewitness" 1972
• Columbo "Identity Crisis" 1975
• CHiPs Episode 109
• Knight Rider Episode 36 "Diamonds Aren't a Girl's Best Friend" 1983
• Quantum Leap (TV series) Episode 48 "A Hunting Will We Go" 1991
• Royal Crown Revue's "Watts Local" music video was shot in several locations.
• Six Feet Under Season 4 Episode 8 "Coming and Going"
• Ghost Whisperer Season 5, Episode 9 "Lost in the Shadows"
• "Kidsongs" "Play-along Songs", Down by the Station 1993 (Direct-to-Video only).

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This is a list of airports in Hawaii (a U.S. state), grouped by type and sorted by location. It contains all public-use and military airports in the state. Some private-use and former airports may be included where notable, such as airports that were previously public-use, those with commercial enplanements recorded by the FAA or airports assigned an IATA airport code.

Airports

This list contains the following information:

• City served â€" The city generally associated with the airport, as per the airport's master record with the Federal Aviation Administration. This is not always the actual location since some airports are located in smaller towns outside of the city they serve. It is not meant to be a complete list of cities served, which can be found in or added to each airport's Wikipedia article.

• FAA â€" The location identifier assigned by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). These are linked to each airport's page at the Hawaii Department of Transportation.

• IATA â€" The airport code assigned by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Those that do not match the FAA code are shown in bold.

• ICAO â€" The location indicator assigned by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

• Airport name â€" The official airport name. Those shown in bold indicate the airport has scheduled passenger service on commercial airlines.

• Role â€" One of four FAA airport categories, as per the 2011â€"2015 National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) report released October 2010 (which based its commercial service categories on passenger boarding data from 2008; some of these have been updated based on enplanements in 2010):
  • P-s: Commercial service â€" primary are publicly owned airports that receive scheduled passenger service and have more than 10,000 passenger boardings (enplanements) each year. Each primary airport is sub-classified by the FAA as one of the following four "hub" types (s):
    • L: Large hub that accounts for at least 1% of total U.S. passenger enplanements.
    • M: Medium hub that accounts for between 0.25% and 1% of total U.S. passenger enplanements.
    • S: Small hub that accounts for between 0.05% and 0.25% of total U.S. passenger enplanements.
    • N: Nonhub that accounts for less than 0.05% of total U.S. passenger enplanements, but more than 10,000 annual enplanements.
  • CS: Commercial service â€" nonprimary are publicly owned airports that receive scheduled passenger service and have at least 2,500 passenger boardings each year.
  • R: Reliever airports are designated by the FAA to relieve congestion at a large commercial service airport and to provide more general aviation access to the overall community.
  • GA: General aviation airports are the largest single group of airports in the U.S. airport system.

• Enpl. â€" The number of enplanements (commercial passenger boardings) that occurred at the airport in calendar year 2013, as per FAA records released June 2014.

Footnotes:

Drive for Visitors from Honolulu Airport to Waikiki with GPS

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Cancún (/kaːnˈkuːn/; Spanish pronunciation: [kaŋˈkun]) is a city in southeastern Mexico, located on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is an important renowned tourist destination in Mexico, as well as being the seat of the municipality of Benito Juárez. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, and is one of the easternmost points in Mexico. Cancún is located just north of Mexico's Caribbean coast resort band known as the Riviera Maya. In older English-language documents, the city’s name is sometimes spelled "Cancoon," an attempt to convey the sound of the name.

Place names and shield

Place names

There are two possible translations of Cancún, based on the Mayan pronunciation kaan kun. The first translation is "nest of snakes." The second version and less accepted is "place of the gold snake."

Shield

The shield of the municipality of Benito Juárez, who represents the city of Cancun, was designed by the Mexican American artist Joe Vera. It is divided into three parts: The color blue symbolizes the Caribbean Sea, the yellow the sand, and the red the sun with its rays.

MY DAY IN MEXICO | CANCUN VACATION | WEEKEND GETAWAY

History

As documented in the earliest colonial sources, the island of Cancún was originally known to its Maya inhabitants as Nizuc (Yucatec Maya [niÊ" suÊ"uk]) meaning either "promontory" or "point of grass". In the years after the Conquest, much of the Maya population died off or left as a result of disease, warfare, piracy, and famines, leaving only small settlements on Isla Mujeres and Cozumel Island.

The name Cancún, Cancum or Cankun first appears on 18th-century maps. The meaning of Cancún is unknown, and it is also unknown whether the name is of Maya origin. If it is of Maya origin, possible translations include "Place/Seat/Throne of the Snake" or "Enchanted Snake". Snake iconography was prevalent at the pre-Columbian site of Nizuc.

When development of the area as a resort was started on January 23, 1970, Isla Cancún had only three residents, caretakers of the coconut plantation of Don José de Jesús Lima Gutiérrez, who lived on Isla Mujeres. Some 117 people living in nearby Puerto Juarez, a fishing village and military base.

Due to the reluctance of investors to bet on an unknown area, the Mexican government had to finance the first nine hotels. The first hotel financed was the Hyatt Cancún Caribe, but the first hotel built was the Playa Blanca, which later became a Blue Bay hotel. It is now named Temptation Resort. At the time it was an elite destination, famous for its virgin white sand beaches.

The city began as a tourism project in 1974 as an Integrally Planned Center, a pioneer of FONATUR (Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo, National Fund for Tourism Development), formerly known as INFRATUR. Since then, it has undergone a comprehensive transformation from being a fisherman's island surrounded by virgin forest and undiscovered shores to being one of the two most well-known Mexican resorts, along with Acapulco. The World Tourism Organization (WTO), through its foundation UNWTO-Themis, awarded the Best of the Best award "for excellence and good governance" to the Trust for Tourism Promotion of Cancun on February 3, 2007. This award ensured Cancún the ongoing support of the Department of Education and Knowledge Management of the WTO.

Most 'Cancunenses' are from Yucatán and other Mexican states. A growing number are from the rest of the Americas and Europe. The municipal authorities have struggled to provide public services for the constant influx of people, as well as limiting squatters and irregular developments, which now occupy an estimated ten to fifteen percent of the mainland area on the fringes of the city.

In the 21st century, Cancún had largely avoided the bloodshed associated with the trade of illegal drugs. But it is known for its retail drug sales to tourists as well as for being a center of money laundering. The links with Cancún date from the 1990s and early 2000s, when the area was controlled by the Juárez and Gulf drug cartels. In recent years Los Zetas, a group that broke away from the Gulf Cartel, has taken control of many smuggling routes through the Yucatán, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in Cancún from November 29, 2010 to December 10, 2010.

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Project Chanology (also called Operation Chanology) was a protest movement against the practices of the Church of Scientology by members of Anonymous, a leaderless Internet-based group that defines itself as ubiquitous. The project was started in response to the Church of Scientology's attempts to remove material from a highly publicized interview with Scientologist Tom Cruise from the Internet in January 2008.

The project was publicly launched in the form of a video posted to YouTube, "Message to Scientology", on January 21, 2008. The video states that Anonymous views Scientology's actions as Internet censorship, and asserts the group's intent to "expel the church from the Internet". This was followed by distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS), and soon after, black faxes, prank calls, and other measures intended to disrupt the Church of Scientology's operations. In February 2008, the focus of the protest shifted to legal methods, including nonviolent protests and an attempt to get the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the Church of Scientology's tax exempt status in the United States.

Reactions from the Church of Scientology regarding the protesters' actions have varied. Initially, one spokesperson stated that members of the group "have got some wrong information" about Scientology. Another referred to the group as a group of "computer geeks". Later, the Church of Scientology started referring to Anonymous as "cyberterrorists" perpetrating "religious hate crimes" against the church.

Detractors of Scientology have also criticized the actions of Project Chanology, asserting that they merely provide the Church of Scientology with the opportunity to "play the religious persecution card". Other critics such as Mark Bunker and Tory Christman initially questioned the legality of Project Chanology's methods, but have since spoken out in support of the project as it shifted towards nonviolent protests and other legal methods.

Background

The Church of Scientology has a history of conflict with groups on the Internet. In 1995, attorneys for the Church of Scientology attempted to get the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology (a.r.s.) removed from Usenet. This attempt backfired and generated a significant amount of press for a.r.s. The conflict with a.r.s led the hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow to declare war on the Church of Scientology. The Church of Scientology mounted a 10-year legal campaign against Dutch writer Karin Spaink and several Internet service providers after Spaink and others posted documents alleged to be secret teachings of the organization. The Church of Scientology's efforts ended in a legal defeat in a Dutch court in 2005. This series of events is often referred to as "Scientology versus the Internet".

Tom Cruise video

On January 14, 2008, a video produced by the Church of Scientology featuring an interview with Tom Cruise was posted on YouTube. In the video, music from Cruise's Mission: Impossible films plays in the background, and Cruise makes various statements, including saying that Scientologists are the only people who can help after a car accident, and that Scientologists are the authority on getting addicts off drugs. According to The Times, Cruise can be seen in the video "extolling the virtues of Scientology". The Daily Telegraph (Australia) characterized Cruise as "manic-looking" during the interview, "gush[ing] about his love for Scientology".

The Church of Scientology asserted that the video material that had been leaked to YouTube and other websites was "pirated and edited" and taken from a three-hour video produced for members of Scientology. YouTube removed the Cruise video from their site under threat of litigation. The web site Gawker.com did not take down their copy of the Tom Cruise video, and other sites have posted the entire video. Lawyers for the Church of Scientology sent a letter to Gawker.com requesting the removal of the video, but Nick Denton of Gawker.com stated: "It's newsworthy and we will not be removing it."

Formation

Project Chanology was formulated by users of the English-speaking imageboards 711chan.org and 4chan, the associated partyvan.info wiki, and several Internet Relay Chat channels, all part of a group collectively known as Anonymous, on January 16, 2008 after the Church of Scientology issued a copyright violation claim against YouTube for hosting material from the Cruise video. The effort against Scientology has also been referred to by group members as "Operation Chanology". A webpage called "Project Chanology", part of a larger wiki, is maintained by Anonymous and chronicles planned, ongoing and completed actions by project participants. The website includes a list of suggested guerrilla tactics to use against the Church of Scientology. Members use other websites as well to coordinate action, including Encyclopedia Dramatica and the social networking site Facebook, where two groups associated with the movement had 3,500 members as of February 4, 2008. A member of Anonymous told the Los Angeles Times that, as of February 4, 2008, the group consisted of "a loose confederation of about 9,000 people" who post anonymously on the Internet. A security analyst told The Age that the number of people participating anonymously in Project Chanology could number in the thousands: "You can't pin it on a person or a group of people. You've thousands of people engaged to do anything they can against Scientology."

Members of Project Chanology say their main goal is "to enlighten the Church of Scientology (CoS) by any means necessary." Their website states: "This will be a game of mental warfare. It will require our talkers, not our hackers. It will require our dedicated Anon across the world to do their part." Project Chanology's stated goals include the complete removal of the Church of Scientology's presence from the Internet and to "save people from Scientology by reversing the brainwashing". Project Chanology participants plan to join the Church of Scientology posing as interested members in order to infiltrate the organization.

Andrea Seabrook of National Public Radio's All Things Considered reported Anonymous was previously known for "technologically sophisticated pranks" such as spamming chat rooms online and "ordering dozens of pizzas for people they don't like". Ryan Singel of Wired appeared on the program on January 27, 2008, and told Seabrook that members of Anonymous were motivated by "the tactics the Church of Scientology uses to control information about itself" rather than the "controversial nature of Scientology itself".

How to Get Free Internet on a Cruise Ship

Activities

Internet activities

Project Chanology began its campaign by organizing and delivering a series of denial-of-service attacks against Scientology websites and flooding Scientology centers with prank calls and black faxes. The group was successful in taking down local and global Scientology websites intermittently from January 18, 2008 until at least January 25, 2008. Anonymous had early success rendering major Scientology websites inaccessible and leaking documents allegedly stolen from Scientology computers. This resulted in a large amount of coverage on social bookmarking websites.

The denial-of-service attacks on Scientology.org flooded the site with 220 megabits of traffic, a mid-range attack. Speaking with SCMagazineUS.com, a security strategist for Top Layer Networks, Ken Pappas said that he thought that botnets were involved in the Anonymous operation: "There are circles out there where you could take ownership of the bot machines that are already owned and launch a simultaneous attack against [something] like the church from 50,000 PCs, all at the same time".

In response to the attacks, on January 21, 2008 the Scientology.org site was moved to Prolexic Technologies, a company specializing in safeguarding web sites from denial-of-service attacks. Attacks against the site increased, and CNET News reported that "a major assault" took place at 6 p.m. EST on January 24, 2008. Anonymous escalated the attack on Scientology on January 25, 2008 and on January 25, 2008, the Church of Scientology's official website remained inaccessible.

On January 21, 2008, Anonymous announced its goals and intentions via a video posted to YouTube entitled "Message to Scientology", and a press release declaring "War on Scientology", against both the Church of Scientology and the Religious Technology Center. In the press release, the group stated that the attacks against the Church of Scientology would continue in order to protect freedom of speech and to end what they characterized as the financial exploitation of church members.

The Tom Cruise video is referred to specifically at the start of the Anonymous YouTube video posting, and is characterized as a "propaganda video". The video utilizes a synthesized voice and shows floating cloud images using a time lapse method as the speaker addresses the leaders of Scientology directly: "We shall proceed to expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form..." The video goes on to state: "We recognize you as serious opponents, and do not expect our campaign to be completed in a short time frame. However, you will not prevail forever against the angry masses of the body politic. Your choice of methods, your hypocrisy, and the general artlessness of your organization have sounded its death knell. You have nowhere to hide because we are everywhere... We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us." By January 25, 2008, only four days after its release, the video had been viewed 800,000 times, and by February 8, 2008 had been viewed over 2 million times. Author Warren Ellis called the video "creepy in and of itself" and a "manifesto, declaration of war, sharp political film".

In a different video posted to YouTube, Anonymous addresses news organizations covering the conflict and criticizes media reporting of the incident. In the video, Anonymous criticizes the media specifically for not mentioning objections by the group to certain controversial aspects of the history of the Church of Scientology, and cited past incidents including the death of Lisa McPherson: "We find it interesting that you did not mention the other objections in your news reporting. The stifling and punishment of dissent within the totalitarian organization of Scientology. The numerous, alleged human rights violations. Such as the treatment and events that led to the deaths of victims of the cult such as Lisa McPherson." Lisa McPherson was a Scientologist who died in 1995 under controversial circumstances. Initially, the Church of Scientology was held responsible and faced felony charges in her death. The charges were later dropped and a civil suit brought by McPherson's family was settled in 2004. This second video was removed on January 25, 2008, YouTube citing a "terms of use violation". Organizers of the February 10, 2008, Project Chanology protests against the Church of Scientology told the St. Petersburg Times the event was timed to coincide with the birthday of Lisa McPherson.

In addition to DDoS attacks against Church of Scientology websites, Anonymous also organized a campaign on one of their websites to "begin bumping Digg", referring to an attempt to drive up Scientology-related links on the website Digg.com. On January 25, 2008, eight of the top ten stories on Digg.com were about either Scientology-related controversies or Anonymous and attempts to expose Scientology. Digg CEO Jay Adelson told PC World that Anonymous had not manipulated the site's algorithm system to prevent artificial poll results, stating: "They must have done a very good job of bringing in a diverse set of interests ... It just happened to hit a nerve that the Digg community was interested in." Adelson said two other instances which similarly have dominated the Digg main page in the past were the Virginia Tech Massacre in the aftermath of the incident and the "7/7" London bombings in 2005. Adelson commented on the popularity of Scientology theme within the Digg community: "In the history of Digg, there's no question that the topic of Scientology has been of great interest to the community ... I can't explain why."

On January 29, 2008, Jason Lee Miller of WebProNews reported that a Google bomb technique had been used to make the Scientology.org main website the first result in a Google search for "dangerous cult". Miller wrote that Anonymous was behind the Google bomb, and that they had also tried to bump Scientology up as the first result in Google searches for "brainwashing cult", and to make the Xenu.net website first result in searches for "scientology". Rob Garner of MediaPost Publications wrote: "The Church of Scientology continues to be the target of a group called Anonymous, which is using Google bombs and YouTube as its tools of choice."

In a February 4, 2008, article, Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw told the Los Angeles Times that Church of Scientology's websites "have been and are online." Danny McPherson, chief research officer at Arbor Networks, claimed 500 denial-of-service attacks had been observed on the Scientology site in the week prior to February 4, some of which were strong enough to bring the website down. Calling Anonymous a "motley crew of internet troublemakers", Wired blogger Ryan Singel said that, while attempting to bypass the Prolexic servers protecting the Church of Scientology website, users of a misconfigured DDoS tool inadvertently and briefly had targeted the Etty Hillesum Lyceum, a Dutch secondary school in Deventer. Another hacking group associated with the project, calling themselves the "g00ns", mistakenly targeted a 59-year-old man from Stockton, California. They posted his home telephone number, address and his wife's Social Security number online for other people to target. They believed that he was behind counter-attacks against Project Chanology-related websites by the Regime, a counter-hack group who crashed one of the Project Chanology planning websites. The group allegedly attempted to gain personal information on people involved in Project Chanology to turn that information over to the Church of Scientology. After discovering they had wrongly targeted the couple, one of the members of the g00ns group called and apologized.

Protests planned

A new video entitled "Call to Action" appeared on YouTube on January 28, 2008, calling for protests outside Church of Scientology centers on February 10, 2008. As with the previous videos, the two-minute video used a synthesized computer voice and featured stock footage of clouds and sky. The video was accompanied by a text transcript with British English spelling. The video denied that the group was composed of "super hackers", stating: "Contrary to the assumptions of the media, Anonymous is not 'a group of super hackers.' ... Anonymous is everyone and everywhere. We have no leaders, no single entity directing us." The video said that Project Chanology participants include "individuals from all walks of life ... united by an awareness that someone must do the right thing." Specific controversies involving the CoS were cited in the video as the explanation for actions by Anonymous.

In an email to CNET News, Anonymous stated that coordinated activities were planned for February 10, 2008, in many major cities around the world. Anonymous hoped to use "real world" protests to rally public opinion to their cause. According to the Associated Press, the protests were meant to draw attention to what the group refers to as a "vast money-making scheme under the guise of 'religion'". By January 30, 2008, 170 protests had been planned outside Church of Scientology centers worldwide. A video posted to YouTube called "Code of Conduct" outlined twenty-two rules to follow when protesting, and urged protestors to remain peaceful.

February 2008

February 2

On February 2, 2008, 150 people gathered outside a Church of Scientology center in Orlando, Florida to protest the organization's practices. Small protests were also held in Santa Barbara, California (during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival), and Manchester, England. Protesters in Orlando carried signs with messages "Knowledge is Free" and "Honk if you hate Scientology". According to WKMG-TV, the protesters called the Church of Scientology a "dangerous cult" and said the organization is responsible for crimes and deaths. The Orlando Sentinel reported that the protest was "part of a worldwide campaign by a group that calls itself Anonymous", and an unnamed organizer who spoke to the paper stated that the group was protesting "a gross violation of the right to see free church material", referring to the Tom Cruise video that was pulled from YouTube.

Protesters at the demonstration wore masks, and said they were attempting to inform the public about what they believed to be "restrictions of free speech and profiteering through pyramid schemes" by the Church of Scientology. They asserted they were not protesting the doctrine of Scientology, but rather alleged actions of individual Scientologists. One protester stated that he had created a Facebook group to organize the protest, explaining "It started online with a group called Anonymous ... They got upset with Scientology because the church hides important documents that are supposed to be released to the public."

February 10

On February 10, 2008, about 7,000 people protested in at least 100 cities worldwide. Within 24 hours of the first protest, a search for "Scientology" and "protest" on Google Blog Search returned more than 4,000 results and more than 2,000 pictures on the image-sharing site Flickr. Cities with turnouts of one hundred or more protesters included Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, Australia; Toronto, Canada; London; Dublin; Austin, Texas, Dallas, Texas, Boston, Massachusetts, Clearwater, Florida, and New York City, New York, United States.

150 people protested at the Church of Scientology building in Sydney, Australia, carrying signs and wearing costumes. Participants were masked to maintain their anonymity and avoid possible retaliation from the Church of Scientology. Protesters chanted "Church on the left, cult on the right" (in reference to the Church that was beside the Church of Scientology building), "Religion is free" and "We want Xenu". Scientology staff locked down the building and set up a camera to record the event. After the protest in Sydney, a surge in online Internet traffic due to individuals attempting to view pictures from the protest crashed hundreds of websites when a server was overloaded. The Sydney protest was one of the first worldwide, and after the first images of the protest went online a surge in traffic drove the hosting company's bandwidth usage up by 900 percent. The hosting company Digitalis temporarily prevented access to hundreds of its clients' sites, and customer support representative Denis Kukic said the surge was unexpected: "We had no advance notice that there was going to be a sudden surge of traffic or that there would be more than 100 times the average traffic that this customer's website normally consumes."

Masked protesters in Seattle, Washington, United States congregated in front of the Church of Scientology of Washington. Protesters were quoted as saying, "We believe in total freedom of belief. We have nothing against the people of Scientology, however the Church of Scientology has committed crimes. They're vehemently anti-opposition. Anyone who opposes them, must go down." A Santa Barbara, California protester emphasized that their opposition was against the organization, not the belief system, and that they supported the Scientology split-off group known as the Free Zone. Protesters turned out in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania despite unusually cold weather. The masked crowd consisted mainly of college students, including some who had travelled from as far as Penn State University.

Protesters in Boston, Los Angeles, California, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Edinburgh, London, and other cities worldwide, wore Guy Fawkes masks modeled after the 2005 film V for Vendetta. (Guy Fawkes was an English Catholic executed for a 1605 attempt to destroy the House of Lords. In V for Vendetta, a rebel against a near-future fascist regime uses the mask in his public appearances and distributes many of its copies to the population to enable mass protests. The Boston Globe characterized usage of the Guy Fawkes masks as "an allusion to the British insurgent and a film depicting an antigovernment movement". Aaron Tavena of College Times wrote that the Guy Fawkes masks provided a "dramatic effect" to the protests, and Nick Jamison of The Retriever Weekly wrote: "During the February 10 protests, Anonymous was informative, Anonymous was peaceful, and Anonymous was effective. After seeing all of the pictures from the 10th with everyone in disguise, many sporting Guy Fawkes masks, I wanted to be a part of that." Scott Stewart of University of Nebraska at Omaha's The Gateway wrote: "Many participants sported Guy Fawkes masks to draw attention both to their identity as Anonymous and the Church of Scientology's abuse of litigation and coercion to suppress anti-Scientology viewpoints."

The Internet meme Rickroll, where a link is given to a seemingly relevant website only to be directed to a music video of singer Rick Astley's pop single "Never Gonna Give You Up", has been used as a theme in the protests against Scientology. At February 10 protests in New York, Washington, D.C., London and Seattle, protesters played the song through boomboxes and shouted the phrase "Never gonna let you down!", in what The Guardian called "a live rick-rolling of the Church of Scientology". In response to a website created by Scientologists showing an anti-Anonymous video, Project Chanology participants created a website with a similar domain name with a video displaying the music video to "Never Gonna Give You Up". In a March 2008 interview, Astley said that he found the rickrolling of Scientology to be "hilarious"; he also said that he will not try to capitalize on the rickroll phenomenon with a new recording or remix of his own, but that he'd be happy to have other artists remix it.

Following the protests, there were reports that YouTube was freezing the view counts on videos criticizing Scientology, including clips from the protests themselves, potentially preventing them from being displayed on YouTube's front page. Similarly, the original "Message to Scientology" video had received nearly 2.5 million views and yet failed to be featured as a "most-watched". The net neutrality activist group movieLOL strongly criticized YouTube for a "display of the decay of internet freedom". YouTube's official response stated: "There was an issue with video view counts not increasing that has now been resolved. The correct number of views should be displayed in the next 24 hours. Thanks for your patience."

Jonathan Holmes, the presenter of the Australian watchdog program Media Watch, reported on two cases of media censorship of the protests. News.com.au pixelated a poster carried by a protester which was revealed, through a Today Tonight segment, to have displayed the word "CULT". The Advertiser erased Tom Cruise's name from a protest placard, rendering the placard's message meaningless, without informing its readers. The Advertiser's editor, Melvin Mansell, stated that the alteration had "slipped by" and that he was opposed to the publication of doctored photographs.

Marchâ€"December 2008

March 2008

According to NBC11, a woman from Anonymous contacted them and stated that protests were planned against Scientology each month through May 2008; and that a large protest was planned for two days after Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's birthday, March 15. Carlos Moncada of The Tampa Tribune reported that an "open letter to the press from Anonymous" was sent out via e-mail, and states that a protest is planned for March 15, 2008. The e-mail refers to the Ides of March: "We, too, wish to celebrate this event, albeit in our own special way ... Beware the Ides of March, Church of Scientology!" The March protests were titled "Operation Party Hard".

Protests began in Australia on March 15, 2008, and were followed by protests in major cities worldwide including Brussels, London, Seattle, Phoenix, Manchester, and Los Angeles. Approximately 7,000 to 8,000 people protested in about 100 cities worldwide. The protests took place in locations in Australia, Europe, Canada, and the United States.

Approximately 200 masked protesters gathered outside the Church of Scientology's headquarters in Adelaide, Australia. An anonymous spokesman told News.com.au that Scientology should lose its tax-exempt status. About 150 protesters came to the Yonge Street headquarters of Scientology in Toronto, Canada; sang "Happy Birthday" and chanted "we want cake". During the Los Angeles protests, a plane flew overhead trailing a large sign that read "Honk if you think Scientology is a cult." 150 protesters demonstrated in Clearwater, Florida, and a local organizer for Anonymous told The Tampa Tribune, "We feel that we have an obligation to educate the public about the things that have gone on and hopefully make the Church of Scientology understand that they have to change."

Two people were arrested by DeKalb County, Georgia police for using megaphones while stepping onto the surrounding street opposite of the church during a protest. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that five protesters were cited for "causing 'hazardous' or 'offensive' conditions", and that eight motorists were pulled over by police and ticketed for excessive use of horns, after they honked while driving past the protest. The American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International are investigating the reaction of the police at the Atlanta protest. In contrast, a Los Angeles Police Department officer at the Los Angeles protest was widely praised after a video was uploaded to YouTube showing him acknowledging the demonstrators' right to protest and encouraging them to stay on the sidewalk for their own safety.

April 2008

Anonymous held its third international protest against Scientology on April 12, 2008. Named "Operation Reconnect", the protest focused on increasing awareness of the Church of Scientology's disconnection policy. Protesters around the world gathered in over 50 cities, including Toronto, London, Sydney, and Berlin. A subsequent international protest was planned for May 10, 2008, according to The University Register it was titled "Operation Battletoad Earth", and an additional protest was planned for June 2008. According to John DeSio of The Village Voice, the May 10, 2008 protests were referred to as "Operation : Fair Game : Stop", and National Nine News has reported that the full title of the May 10 protests is "Battletoad Earth: Operation Fairgame Stop". The May 10 date was chosen as May 9 is the anniversary of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Over 400 people were present at the May 10, 2008 protests in cities in Australia. Wen Hsing, a member of Anonymous, commented to scopical.com.au about the Church of Scientology's denial of its "Fair Game" policy: "Even if the name 'fair game' is not in use, the Church of Scientology is an organisation that continues to practice a vicious policy of retribution against perceived enemies, and it teaches its members that extreme measures are morally justified if they aid the Church."

May 2008

On May 10, a teenager who went to the protests in front of the Queen Victoria Street Church of Scientology in London was issued a court summons after being asked to take down a sign that read "Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult". Posting anonymously on a forum, the teenager stated "Within five minutes of arriving ... I was told by a member of the police that I was not allowed to use 'that word'". He said that the police told him he had 15 minutes to take down the sign. The teenager did not, citing a 1984 high court ruling by Justice Latey which he described the Church of Scientology as a "cult" that was "corrupt, sinister and dangerous". The sign was then confiscated. Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, a human rights group, said that, "They will be banning words like 'war' and 'tax' from placards and demonstrations next. This is just barmy". On May 23, 2008, the legal action against the boy was dropped. A Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesman said: "In consultation with the City of London Police, we were asked whether the sign was abusive or insulting. Our advice is that it is not abusive or insulting and there is no offensiveness (as opposed to criticism), neither in the idea expressed nor in the mode of expression." Anonymous also held a protest in Budapest, Hungary, in the same time and location as a program of the local Scientology church.

Juneâ€"October 2008

A protest was held June 14, 2008 titled "Sea Arrrgh" (a satirical reference to the Church of Scientology's Sea Org). Protesters dressed up as pirates. According to Macquarie National News, members of Anonymous highlighted the controversial practices of the Sea Org, including what the protesters believe to be forced contracts where Scientologists work below a livable wage, that female Sea Org members who become pregnant are pressured to have abortions, and that children of families in the organization are made to perform difficult physical labor. An international protest held on July 12, 2008 titled: "Spy vs. Sci" highlighted the Church of Scientology's Office of Special Affairs. A press release by the group posed the question: "Why does something that describes itself as a religion need an intelligence agency that aggressively persecutes critics?" The group posted a video in early August 2008 calling for renewed activity in their protest efforts, and planned a subsequent international protest for August 16, 2008. About 35 protesters gathered twice in September 2008 during the first preview and premiere of Arthur Miller's play All My Sons. They encouraged Scientologist Katie Holmes, wife of Tom Cruise, to leave the Church. The most recent international organized protest was held October 18, 2008. Members of Anonymous dressed as zombies, and highlighted what they described as questionable deaths and suicides of Scientologists.

December 2008

The film Valkyrie, starring and produced by Tom Cruise, premiered in New York City on December 17. Entertainment reporter Roger Friedman noted that it was held "in the private screening room at the Time Warner Center. Not the Ziegfield [sic] or Loews Lincoln Square, where most premieres are held in public." The venue was chosen in part to minimize the exposure to Scientology protestors gathered at the Time Warner Center. For the same reason, Cruise arrived at the December 18 Los Angeles screening through an underground tunnel. There were also Scientology protests at the European premiere in Berlin, where one protester got his V for Vendetta mask autographed by Tom Cruise. Chanology participants shared the limelight with a person in a bunny suit protesting against the hero worship of Claus von Stauffenberg.

Januaryâ€"February 2009

On January 8, 2009, an 18-year-old male member of Anonymous ran into the New York Scientology building shirtless and covered with Vaseline, pubic hair, and toenail clippings. He then proceeded to toss books around and smear the mixture on objects in the building. The man, identified by police as Mahoud Samed Almahadin, was charged with burglary, criminal mischief, and aggravated harassment as hate crimes. Two weeks later, 21-year-old film student and Anonymous member Jacob Speregen was charged with aggravated harassment and criminal mischief as hate crimes after he filmed Almahadin carrying out his prank. According to his mother and the video, Speregen was filming the event from behind the barricade. Scientology critics Mark Bunker and Jason Beghe disagreed with the individual's actions.

Anonymous organized a 12th global protest against Scientology for January 10, 2009, to coincide with the Chanology movement's first anniversary. On February 10, 2009, Anonymous released a statement: "Scientology operatives still continue to paint Anonymous in a negative light as a means of distracting attention from Scientology operations and attempting to discredit those who bring truth to the issues at hand. It just isn’t working." The group claimed credit for leaks of internal Scientology documents that appeared on the website Wikileaks, and announced further global protests for subsequent weekends in February 2009. Members of Anonymous continued to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Chanology movement during February 2009, with protests held in locations including Hemet, California.

Marchâ€"May 2009

On March 3, 2009, the Riverside County, California Board of Supervisors voted to approve an ordinance which restricts residential picketing there to 30 ft (9.1 m) or further from an individual's residence. The ordinance was originally introduced by Supervisor Jeff Stone, board chairman, in November 2008, and went through multiple changes. Critics of the ordinance stated that Stone proposed the measure due to favor for Scientology, which has its Hemet, California compound located in Riverside County. "The whole ordinance is tainted. The reasons behind it are tainted," said county resident Lirra Bishop. Stone stated the measure was intended for all residents of the county, though he cited protests at Scientology's Gold Base facility which houses residences and Scientology's Golden Era Productions as an example of why the ordinance is needed. Protesters at Gold Base have included members of Anonymous, and Scientology officials claimed they were "threatened with violence". Protesters told the Board of Supervisors that due to the lack of sidewalk near Gold Base, the anti-picketing ordinance would severely hamper the ability to protest outside the Scientology compound.

After stating on October 17, 2008 that he would plead guilty to involvement in the January 2008 DDoS attacks against Church of Scientology websites, an 18-year-old self-described member of Anonymous entered a guilty plea related to hacking charges in May 2009. A release from the US Justice Department said that the individual, a resident of New Jersey, "participated in the attack because he considered himself a member of an underground group called 'Anonymous'". Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said that the Church of Scientology had cooperated in the investigation. The individual faces a sentencing scheduled for August 2009.

In May 2009, members of Anonymous told WSMV-TV that they were bullied by off-duty security guards while protesting at a Scientology event in April in Nashville, Tennessee. According to WSMV-TV, a protester stated he was assaulted by three Scientology security guards while on public property, 400 yd (370 m) away from the Scientology building. The Church of Scientology had previously informed the security guards that the protesters were "dangerous people". A protester was issued three citations by the Scientology security guards, but these were all dismissed by the district attorney. On May 8, 2009, WSMV-TV reported that "laws appear to have been broken" in the manner in which the Scientology security guards handled the protesters. The Scientology security guards were not clearly identified as off-duty police officers, and permits for the Scientology event attended by the Anonymous protesters were for the wrong day. "The armed people from the other county are not identified police officers. You're looking for a problem", said John M. L. Brown, a Fraternal Order of Police attorney.

November 2009

In November 2009, the New York Post interviewed former Scientologist Mandy Mullen, who had joined the Manhattan organization in 2008 after seeing information on 4chan about Chanology protests. Over the next year, she recalled cases of members being coerced into donating more and more money. When she told her "leader" that she had looked at websites run by anti-Scientology protesters (and disagreed with them), he reportedly replied "That's like saying I don't burn niggers, I just like to party with the KKK!" In Fall 2008 Mullen left the church, joining a group of Chanology protesters across the street. Church of Scientology Manhattan President John Carmichael issued a response the following week, stating "Mandy Mullen's story about Scientology... is all lies in the service of Anonymous, a hate group that targets our Church, or even anyone who just falls onto their radar." On November 13, 2009, Independent Australian Senator Nick Xenophon used parliamentary privilege to accuse the Church of Scientology of being a criminal organisation.

Campaign against Scientology's tax-exempt status

A woman who stated she was a member of Anonymous told KNTV that the group has shifted strategy to activities which fight Scientology but are not deemed illegal by the United States government, including an attempt to get the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the Church of Scientology's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. Another woman from Anonymous told Newsweek that the group plans to accomplish this through a lobbying campaign. United States tax authorities removed the Church of Scientology's tax-exemption status in 1967, stating that the organization's auditing techniques served as a for-profit operation for L. Ron Hubbard. In 1984, the United States Tax Court ruled that the Church of Scientology was guilty of "manufacturing and falsifying records to present to the IRS, burglarizing IRS offices and stealing government documents, and subverting government processes for unlawful purposes." The Church of Scientology's tax-exempt status in the United States was reinstated in 1993.

A member of Anonymous calling herself "Envie" told Today Tonight that the group has longer term plans against the Church of Scientology: "We are incredibly determined ... There are those of us who have been talking about plans for the next 12 to 18 months." A member of Anonymous calling herself "Sarah" spoke with Radar magazine about a letter-writing campaign: "We're sending letters to senators and congresspeople requesting that their tax-exempt status be looked at."

Church of Scientology response

In a January 25, 2008 statement made to News.com.au, a spokesman for the Church of Scientology said, "These types of people have got some wrong information about us." A Toronto, Canada spokesperson for the Church of Scientology said she didn't "give a damn" if the group Anonymous was responsible for disrupting access to the Scientology site. Church spokeswoman Yvette Shank told Sun Media that she thought the Anonymous members were a "pathetic" group of "computer geeks". On January 26, 2008, CNET News reported that Karin Pouw, public affairs director for the Church of Scientology, did not address their specific request for a comment about the denial-of-service attacks but instead only responded to the appearance of the Tom Cruise video on YouTube. Pouw stated that the video consisted of "pirated and edited" excerpts of Cruise from a 2004 Scientology event, and that after the video appeared, there was increased traffic to Scientology sites as shown by top lists compiled by search engines. Pouw went on to state "Those wishing to find out the Church of Scientology's views and to gain context of the video have the right to search official Church Web sites if they so desire."

On January 28, 2008, Radar Online reported that the Church of Scientology asked the U.S. Attorney General's office in Los Angeles, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Los Angeles Police Department to start a criminal investigation of possible criminal activity related to the DDoS attacks. An unnamed source told Radar that the Church of Scientology argued to law enforcement that the Internet attacks are a form of "illegal interference with business." Radar also reported that in statements to law enforcement the Church of Scientology emphasized its status as a religious organization in the United States in order to assert that the DDoS attacks can be classed as hate crimes. The day after the Church of Scientology complained to law enforcement about the DDoS attacks, one of the main Project Chanology sites was down, and a message on the site said that their site crashed due to attacks from Scientologists. In a statement issued to Wikinews, a Church of Scientology employee confirmed that actions of Anonymous had been reported to law enforcement: "Activities of Anonymous have been reported to the Authorities and actions are being taken. Their activities are illegal and we do not approve of them. At the same time, our main work is to improve the environment, make people more able and spiritually aware. ... yes, we are taking action."

The Church of Scientology issued a statement explaining the website move to Prolexic Technologies: "The attacks have defaced and rendered inoperable a number of CoS web sites. But as a very wealthy institution, the Church has fought back with technological answers. On January 21, the Church of Scientology moved its domain to Prolexic Technologies, a group that specializes in protecting Web sites from [denial of service] attacks by creating a safe tunnel by filtering all incoming mail and then allowing only clean messages through."

Lee Sheldon of the Church of Scientology of Orlando and Lee Holzinger of the Church of Scientology of Santa Barbara issued similar statements regarding the February 2, 2008 protests in Florida and California, respectively. Sheldon stated "we recognize the right to legal protest", and Holzinger said "People have the right to express themselves ... The Church of Scientology has always defended the right of freedom of expression." Both representatives also expressed concerns regarding the spread of "hate speech".

The Church of Scientology released a statement regarding the February 10, 2008 worldwide protests, which was published February 7, 2008 in the St. Petersburg Times. In the statement, the Church of Scientology called the organizers of the protests "cyberterrorists", and stated: "We take this seriously because of the nature of the threats this group has made publicly. We will take every step necessary to protect our parishioners and staff as well as members of the community, in coordination with the local authorities." The statement also referred to the actions of members of Project Chanology as "hate crimes" and "religious bigotry", and in a media release said that the group is guided by Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf; one of the organizers of the protest responded to the latter allegation by stating: "I don't know where they got that from, but I don't think that's true considering that I am a capitalist and a Jew". Pat Harney, spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology in Clearwater, Florida told the St. Petersburg Times: "We are dealing with a worldwide threat ... This is not a light matter." In preparation for the February 10, 2008 protests outside Scientology's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, the Church of Scientology spent $4,500 to hire ten off-duty police officers for security. Clearwater Police Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Daly-Watts stated that the off-duty police officers will make sure that protesters do not trespass on Scientology property or violate the law, but will report to police supervisors and not representatives of the Church of Scientology.

The Church of Scientology posted a YouTube video claiming that Anonymous are "terrorists" and alleging that Anonymous is perpetrating "hate crimes" against the church. The video does not provide any evidence supporting their claims, and the FBI has not named any suspects for several of the threats mentioned. Anonymous has denied involvement in the more severe accusations. The church also released a DVD containing the YouTube video. The DVD called Anonymous a "dangerous" group and accused them of making threats against Scientology. Men claiming to be from the law firm Latham and Watkins delivered the DVD to family members of at least one person who protested.

YouTube user "AnonymousFacts", which Radar Online described as an associate of Scientology, displayed the names and personal information of several supposed Anonymous members and accused the group of violent threats and terrorism. YouTube quickly took the video down and suspended the "AnonymousFacts" account.

The Church of Scientology sought an injunction and a restraining order to prevent Anonymous from protesting on March 15, 2008, citing threats allegedly made by Anonymous. Both the injunction and the restraining order were denied. On March 31, 2008, Radar Online reported that representatives of law firms delivered legal letters to suspected Anons, often at their homes. The Church filed complaints of trespassing and criminal harassment against Boston organizer Gregg Housh, who was charged with disturbing an assembly of worship, disturbing the peace, and harassment. The District Attorney's office dropped the harassment charge, and Judge Thomas Horgan issued a continuance without finding for the remaining charges.

In a May 8, 2008 appearance on CNN, Church of Scientology spokesman Thomas W. Davis said that Scientology was "dealing with ninety-six death threats, bomb threats, acts of violence, vandalism" from the group Anonymous. CNN's John Roberts responded, stating that the Federal Bureau of Investigation found nothing connecting Anonymous to the Church of Scientology's accusations of violence: "You are leveling these accusations at this group, the F.B.I., which is looking into it, says it has found nothing to connect this group Anonymous with what you're talking about, or death threats against members of the church, the F.B.I. at this point says - it has no reason to believe that charges would be leveled against this group."

Reaction

Andreas Heldal-Lund, founder of the Scientology-critical website and non-profit organization Operation Clambake, released a statement criticizing the digital assault against Scientology. Heldal-Lund commented, "People should be able to have easy access to both sides and make up their own opinions. Freedom of speech means we need to allow all to speak - including those we strongly disagree with. I am of the opinion that the Church of Scientology is a criminal organisation and a cult which is designed by its delusional founder to abuse people. I am still committed to fight for their right to speak their opinion." He also stated that "Attacking Scientology like that will just make them play the religious persecution card ... They will use it to defend their own counter actions when they try to shatter criticism and crush critics without mercy."

Mark Bunker, an Emmy Award-winning journalist and Scientology critic who runs the website XenuTV.com, posted a video to YouTube and asked Anonymous to tone down their campaign against the Church of Scientology. According to NPR's Morning Edition, Bunker has "become a revered voice to many members of Anonymous", and they refer to him as "Wise Beard Man". Bunker told Newsweek that he was pleased to see a large group of young individuals acting against Scientology, but stated he was also concerned for their safety: "I know the way Scientology works: they're going to get these people in trouble ... I'm very concerned about their safety, and I'm concerned about the Scientologists' safety, too." Bunker stated that he has received 6,000 emails from individuals who say they are part of Anonymous. Bunker attended the February 10, 2008 protest against Scientology in Los Angeles.

Tory Christman, a critic of Scientology and former Scientologist from 1969 to 2000, stated she disapproved of illegal tactics but felt encouraged by the new influx of critics of Scientology. Christman told Morning Edition: "It feels like we've been out in this desert, fighting this group one-on-one by ourselves, and all of a sudden this huge army came up with not only tons of people, thousands of people, but better tools..." Scientology critic Arnaldo Lerma told the St. Petersburg Times he was impressed by a video of a protest against Scientology which took place in Orlando, Florida: "I've never seen anything like that before. This is incredible. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it on a Web cam."

In a February 4, 2008 appearance on the G4 television program Attack of the Show!, Mark Ebner, journalist and author of the book Hollywood, Interrupted, and Nick Douglas of Gawker.com commented on Project Chanology. Ebner stated that "Hacking their site is not really the best way to go about taking them (the Church of Scientology) down. Most critics you talk to want the Scientology site to be up there so that people who are interested can see the stupidity they have on the web and at the same time they can go - they are a few keystrokes from getting a thousand other opinions." Nick Douglas explained that the group decided to shift their strategy away from the attacks to Scientology websites: "Anonymous even decided that they were going to stop that attack, that it was a bad idea. It's the usual thing they used to do when they really hadn't had a thought out plan, and here they're realizing they actually have to figure out some real plan against a real enemy."

University of Alberta professor Stephen A. Kent weighed in on the issue, and said "I think these disruptions probably are illegal. At the very least, they’re forms of harassment ... We now have three parties involved. Anonymous, Scientology and law enforcement." Kent stated that "The hacker community has been angry at Scientology for (their) attempts to block free speech on the Internet." Reaction to the denial of service attack on the Church of Scientology websites was mixed in message board forums for PC World. Some readers praised the actions of Anonymous, while others commented that the DDoS attacks bring more attention to Scientology. The Economist likened the DDoS attacks used by Project Chanology to "cyberwarfare techniques normally associated with extortionists, spies and terrorists", and referred to Anonymous as "internet activists".

Dan Schultz of PBS's MediaShift Idea Lab commented that the movement "...is a really fascinating case study of how current technologies and information dissemination via digital media can snowball into something that actually results in real world action". In a follow-up piece, Schultz discussed the tools used by digital media to achieve community impact, including lower barriers to entry and greater efficiencies through the use of information systems. Schultz wrote "For members of Anonymous I'm betting most of these things are already unspoken understandings", and pointed to their use of memes and cited the forums of the website enturbulation.org as an example of the group's ability to collaborate effectively to accomplish goals.

In a May 8, 2008 report on the recent actions of Anonymous against Scientology, CNN reporter Kareen Wynter commented: "Legal experts say the church may be facing its biggest challenge yet â€" trying to protect its image, in a loosely policed medium seen by millions of people. In a July 2008 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Alan Moore had this to say about the use of the Guy Fawkes motif, adopted from his comic V for Vendetta: "I was also quite heartened the other day when watching the news to see that there were demonstrations outside the Scientology headquarters over here, and that they suddenly flashed to a clip showing all these demonstrators wearing V for Vendetta [Guy Fawkes] masks. That pleased me. That gave me a warm little glow."

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