Cudahy, California

Cudahy is a city located in southeastern Los Angeles County, California. Cudahy is the second smallest city in Los Angeles County with one of the highest population densities of any incorporated city in the United States. It is part of the Gateway Cities region.

Cudahy is populated predominately by immigrants from Central America and South America^[3].

1 Geography
2 Demographics
3 History
4 Emergency services
5 Education
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Geography

Cudahy is located at 33°57′51″N, 118°10′57″W (33.964214, -118.182575)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.9 km² (1.1 mi²), all land.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 24,208 people, 5,419 households, and 4,806 families residing in the city. The population density was 8,345.3/km² (21,627.7/mi²). There were 5,542 housing units at an average density of 1,910.5/km² (4,951.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 43.14% White, 1.24% Black or African American, 1.28% Native American, 0.74% Asian, 0.17% Pacific Islander, 48.06% from other races, and 5.37% from two or more races. 94.14% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 5,419 households out of which 66.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.6% were married couples living together, 21.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 11.3% were non-families. 8.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 3.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.47 and the average family size was 4.58.

In the city the population was spread out with 39.9% under the age of 18, 12.4% from 18 to 24, 32.3% from 25 to 44, 11.7% from 45 to 64, and 3.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24 years. For every 100 females there were 97.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.4 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $29,040, and the median income for a family was $28,833. Males had a median income of $19,149 versus $16,042 for females. The per capita income for the city was $8,688. About 26.4% of families and 28.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 34.1% of those under age 18 and 18.1% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] History

Cudahy is named for its founder, meat-packing baron Michael Cudahy (who also lent his name to a suburb of Milwaukee), who purchased the original 2,800 acres (11 km²) in 1908 to resell as one acre (4,000 m²) lots. These "Cudahy lots" were notable for their dimensions--in most cases, 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 meters) in width and 600 to 800 feet in depth, a length equivalent to a city block or more in most American towns. Such parcels, often referred to as "railroad lots," were intended to allow the new town's residents to keep a large vegetable garden, a grove of fruit trees (usually citrus), and a chicken coop or horse stable. This arrangement, which proved popular in the booming towns along the lower reaches of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers, proved particularly attractive to the Southerners and Midwesterners who were leaving their struggling farms in droves in the 1910s and 1920s to start new lives in Southern California. Even in the 1950s, some Cudahy residents would ride into the city's downtown areas on horseback.

By the early 1960s, increasing property values, as well as changes in zoning permits and property tax assessment formulas, led many Cudahy residents to sell off their homes to real estate developers who radically developed the once lowly-populated town. Where the typical Cudahy lot originally contained only a small one- or two-story house, most parcels today contain at least two duplex or triplex apartment buildings, and often a two- or three-story apartment building that stretches the length of the property, containing dozens of units.

[edit] Emergency services

Fire protection in Cudahy is provided by the Los Angeles County Fire Department with ambulance transport by Care Ambulance Service. Police are provided by the neighboring city of Maywood.

[edit] Education

Cudahy is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Cudahy is served by several schools, including Teresa Hughes Elementary School, Park Avenue Elementary School, Elizabeth Learning Center (a neighborhood school for grades K-8 and a magnet high school for grades 9 through 12), Ochoa Learning Center (K-8), and Bell High School in Bell. A LA Weekly article in 2000 discussed continuing environmental problems at the Park Avenue Elementary School.^[4]

South Region Elementary School 3 will open in Cudahy in 2010 ^[5].

Library services are provided by the County of Los Angeles Public Library.