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Cerritos is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. Cerritos in Spanish means "Little Hills." Cerritos is part of the 39th Congressional District. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 51,488.
Originally, the City of Cerritos was incorporated on April 24, 1956 as the City of Dairy Valley. What is now a suburban city used to be farm and dairy country; its old name of "Dairy Valley" reflected the huge number of more than 400 farms and 10,000 cows. Two years later, the City voted to become a chartered California city.
As land values and property taxes in California rose in the early 1960s, it became uneconomical to raise cattle and other farm animals in the area. In a special election held on July 16, 1963, a vote was held to permit the building of homes and to allow for normal residential development. The name change to Cerritos was made official on January 10, 1967.
Cerritos is a prime example of the "fiscalization" of California politics after the tax revolt of the 1970s and the passage of Proposition 13. With property tax off-limits thanks to Prop. 13, and most citizens already feeling that their income taxes and payroll taxes were too high, the only way for California cities to raise long-term tax revenue was to create as many commercial zones as possible. Cerritos' execution of this strategy from the late 1970s to the present has paid off handsomely.
In 1978, Cerritos dedicated the nation's first solar-heated City Hall complex. In the early 1980s, the City developed the Cerritos Auto Square (one of the largest auto malls in Los Angeles County), which generates more than $5.9 million in sales tax revenue for the City annually. In 1993, the world-class Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts first opened its doors. In 1997, the City opened the state-of-the-art Cerritos Sheriff's Station/Community Safety Center to provide public safety services to residents 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. In 2001, Cerritos opened a brand-new public library that cost more than $20 million.
In recent years, Cerritos has attracted a large population of upper-middle-class Korean American and Chinese American immigrants.
The City of Cerritos offers many city services. From the Senior Center, to the Cerritos Library, to the Cerritos Olympic Swim Center, there are many services that one can enjoy in Cerritos. Visitors can take full advantage of any of the Cerritos' services, just merely at a higher cost.
In fact, the City of Cerritos has it's own shuttle service called Cerritos On Wheels (COW). The COW is a tribute to the city's origins as Dairy Valley, and in addition, the fare for the COW is extremely generous - $.25 a trip. The COW has two routes, providing visitors and citizens access to all of Cerritos' popular destinations. Additionally, the COW also connects to Long Beach Transit, Orange County Transportation Authority, Norwalk Transit or MTA Buses at various stops. The COW vans run on propane fuel, providing an enviromentally sound way to move citizens and visitors.
Many denizens of Southern California remember the advertising jingle of "Take the 605 to South Street, Cerritos Auto Square!" Some may remember the character "Ernest" played by late actor Jim Varney in Cerritos Auto Square commercials. In 1988, the City of Cerritos took it upon itself to beautify the Auto Square, making improvements to the landscape and road, and adding rocky waterfalls.
Despite the name, the is not located in Los Cerritos, CA. Quite often, the City of Cerritos and the City of Los Cerritos tend to be confused with each other. But the Los Cerritos Mall is definitely located in Cerritos. The Cerritos Mall is an integral part of the city's revenue plans, enabling the city to beautify its streets and maintain the city's public services and parks.
The Cerritos Towne Center is home to several businesses, including an Edwards Theater, a Wal-mart, a Starbucks, a Best Buy and some fast food restaurants. Additionally, there is a Trader's Joe, an Italian restaurant, a TGI Friday's and a Mimi's Cafe. The Cerritos Towne Center is used as a local hangout for many high school students. The TGI Friday's is one of the local hangouts for college and older crowd due to the fact that it's the only bar in town.
The Cerritos Library looks like a theme park for books. At the time of its opening, it was supposedly the first building in North America to be coated in titanium like the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. It features an elaborate interior design with reading rooms decorated in a variety of old-fashioned and ultramodern styles. Of course, there are computers everywhere.
Cerritos is home to many parks. In fact, many of the Cerritos neighborhoods are centered or are next to a small or large park.
The local school district of Cerritos is the . In 1965 Artesia, Bloomfield, and Carmenita School Districts unified and became known as the ABC Unified School District. Artesia, Bloomfield, and Carmentia are street names in the local area. It is commonly mistaken that the ABC School District stands for Artesia, Bellflower, and Cerritos.
is the local magnet school around the area. It is consistly one of the top 10 schools in the nation. Cerritos is proud to have Whitney High School in its own city.
Originally, used part of its rival school, Gahr High School, while it was being still constructed. Cerritos High School is located next to the Cerritos Civic Center, where the City of Cerritos' City Hall, Public Library and Sheriff's Station resides. Cerritos High School prides itself for its Model United Nations program and among other things.
Cerritos is located at 33°52'6" North, 118°4'3" West (33.868314, -118.067547)1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 23.0 km² (8.9 mi²). 22.3 km² (8.6 mi²) of it is land and 0.7 km² (0.3 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 3.04% water.
Cerritos is shaped much like like a 'C' when seen on a map, with Artesia stuck in the middle. Its neighbors include Norwalk, Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, La Palma, and Bellflower.
Cerritos is surrounded by three major California freeways: Highway 91, the 605 Freeway, and Interstate 5. The major streets in Cerritos are Bloomfield Avenue, Shoemaker Avenue, Artesia Boulevard and South Street. Bloomfield Avenue runs past the Cerritos Towne Center and the Cerritos Civic Center.
The zip code for Cerritos used to be 90701 and was shared with the City of Artesia; however, it was later changed to 90703 in order to minimize confusion between the two cities. Some people still mistake 90703 for the City of Artesia and vice versa for 90701.
As of the census of 2000, there are 51,488 people, 15,390 households, and 13,650 families residing in the city. The population density is 2,306.2/km² (5,974.0/mi²). There are 15,607 housing units at an average density of 699.1/km² (1,810.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 26.90% White, 6.67% African American, 0.28% Native American, 58.44% Asian, 0.19% Pacific Islander, 3.75% from other races, and 3.78% from two or more races. 10.39% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 15,390 households out of which 40.9% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 73.9% are married couples living together, 10.9% have a female householder with no husband present, and 11.3% are non-families. 8.9% of all households are made up of individuals and 3.1% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 3.34 and the average family size is 3.54.
In the city the population is spread out with 24.5% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 31.3% from 45 to 64, and 9.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 39 years. For every 100 females there are 94.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 91.3 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $73,030, and the median income for a family is $76,944. Males have a median income of $50,103 versus $37,421 for females. The per capita income for the city is $25,249. 5.0% of the population and 4.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 5.4% are under the age of 18 and 5.3% are 65 or older.
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