Huntington Park, California

Named for prominent industrialist Henry Huntington, Huntington Park was incorporated in 1906 as a streetcar suburb for workers in the rapidly expanding industries to the southeast of downtown Los Angeles. (To this day, about 30% of its residents work at factories in nearby Vernon and Commerce. [1]) The stretch of Pacific Boulevard in downtown Huntington Park was a major commercial district serving the city's largely working-class residents, as well as those of neighboring cities such as Bell, Cudahy, and South Gate. As with most of the other cities along the corridor stretching along the Los Angeles River to the south and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, Huntington Park was an almost exclusively white community during most of its history; Alameda Street and Slauson Avenue, which were fiercely defended segregation lines in the 1950s, separated it from black areas.

The changes that shaped Los Angeles from the late 1970s onward--the decline of American manufacturing that began in the 1970s; the rapid growth of newer suburbs in Orange County and the eastern San Gabriel and western San Fernando valleys; the collapse of the aerospace and defense industry at the end of the Cold War; and the implosion of the Southern California real estate boom in the early 1990s--resulted in the wholesale departure of virtually all of the white population of Huntington Park by the mid-1990s. The vacuum was filled almost entirely by two groups of Latinos: upwardly mobile families eager to leave the barrios of East Los Angeles, and recent Mexican immigrants. Today, Pacific Boulevard is once again a thriving commercial strip, serving once again as a major retail center for working-class residents of southeastern Los Angeles County--but unlike its previous heyday of the 1930s, the signs along the avenue's storefronts are all practicly in Spanish, which shows good signs of mixed races.

[edit] Street Gangs

Gangs or Varrios in Huntington Park are a major problem for the City wich are handel by the Huntington Park Police Departament, as of 2007 there were several violent gangs operating in city boundaries.

Cyclones13
Florencia13
The Bratz13
Huntington Park Locos13
Varrio Knewell Street
Aztlan13

[edit] Famous natives and residents

[edit] Geography

Huntington Park is located at 33°58′57″N, 118°13′3″W (33.982364, -118.217381)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.8 km² (3.0 mi²), all land.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 61,348 people, 14,860 households, and 12,660 families residing in the city. The population density was 7,817.4/km² (20,252.4/mi²). There were 15,335 housing units at an average density of 1,954.1/km² (5,062.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 41.42% White, 0.78% Black or African American, 1.01% Native American, 0.80% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 51.07% from other races, and 4.86% from two or more races. 95.58% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 14,860 households out of which 58.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.4% were married couples living together, 20.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 14.8% were non-families. 10.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.12 and the average family size was 4.34.

In the city the population was spread out with 35.8% under the age of 18, 13.0% from 18 to 24, 32.3% from 25 to 44, 13.8% from 45 to 64, and 5.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 26 years. For every 100 females there were 100.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $28,941, and the median income for a family was $29,844. Males had a median income of $21,039 versus $16,733 for females. The per capita income for the city was $9,340. About 23.3% of families and 25.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 31.5% of those under age 18 and 18.7% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Emergency services

Fire protection in Huntington Park is provided by the Los Angeles County Fire Department with ambulance transport by Care Ambulance Service. The Huntington Park Police Department provides law enforcement.

[edit] Education

Huntington Park is zoned to schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Public elementary schools that serve the city include:

Hope Street Elementary School (Huntington Park) (Opened 2005 [2])
Huntington Park New Elementary School 7 (Opened 2006 [3])
Middleton Elementary School (Huntington Park) and Middleton New Primary Center (K)
Miles Elementary School (Huntington Park)
Pacific Boulevard School (Huntington Park, Opened 2005 [4])
San Antonio Elementary School (Huntington Park)
Walnut Park Elementary School (Huntington Park)
Huntington Park New Elementary #3 (Huntington Park, opening soon)

Public middle schools include:

Gage Middle School (Huntington Park)
Nimitz Middle School (Huntington Park)

Huntington Park High School (Huntington Park) serves the city. San Antonio Continuation School is also in Huntington Park. Some parts of Huntington Park are zoned to both Huntington Park and Bell High School.

South Region High School 7 will open in Huntington Park in 2011 [5].

In addition Pacific Boulevard Special Education Center (ungraded) is in the city.

Private schools include: