Cerritos (; Spanish for "Little hills") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, and is one of several cities that constitute the Gateway Cities of southeast Los Angeles County. It was incorporated on April 24, 1956. As of 2020, the population was 49,578. It is part of the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim, California Metropolitan Statistical Area designated by the Office of Management and Budget.
History
Early history
Cerritos was originally inhabited by Native Americans belonging to the Tongva (or "People of the Earth"). The Tongva were called the "Gabrieleños" by the Spanish settlers after the nearby Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. The Tongva were the largest group of indigenous peoples in Southern California as well as the most developed in the region. The Tongva lived off the land, deriving food from the animals or plants that could be gathered, snared or hunted, and grinding acorns as a staple. No Tongva village sites were found within the city, but it was a common passing point between the natives.
Beginning in the late 15th century, Spanish explorers arrived in the New World and worked their way to the California coast in 1542. The colonization process included "civilizing" the native populations in California by establishing various missions. Soon afterward, a town called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (today known as Los Angeles) would be founded and prosper with the aid of subjects from New Spain and Native American labor. One soldier, Manuel Nieto, was granted a large plot of land by the Spanish King Charles III in 1784, which he named Rancho Los Nietos. It covered of eastern Los Angeles County and western Orange County. Juan José Nieto was left in charge of his father's property following his death in 1804.
Due to the nationalization of church property by the Mexican government, Governor José Figueroa signed a document on May 17, 1834, that confirmed the land to the Nieto heirs, but divided into five ranchos. Juan José Nieto retained the largest plot, called Rancho Los Coyotes. Nieto called the area of Rancho Los Coyotes "cerritos" or "little hills". He sold the ranch to Juan Bautista Leandry in 1840, renaming it "La Buena Esperanza", although it was still widely known as Rancho Los Coyotes. Leandry died in 1842 and his widow, Francisca Uribe, married Francisco de Campo; they lived in the ranch house for the next twenty years. Andrés Pico had also become a half-owner of the ranch by 1855.
In the 1850s, the de Campos and Pico ran into financial trouble and ended up transferring ownership of the rancho to Abel Stearns. Stearns, after being threatened with losing all of his property due to delinquent taxes, sold most of his property to the Robinson Trust in 1868. In 1869, Daniel Gridley bought of the former Rancho Los Coyotes from the Trust and began to develop his own farm. A three-day auction in February 1875 encouraged farmers to buy land in the area. When Pacific Electric extended its line to Santa Ana in 1906, businessmen encouraged the company to build its line straight through the area, furthering business.
Incorporation In 1955, members of the Artesia Chamber of Commerce began to move towards incorporation of the city. They planned to have Artesia encompass the area south of Alondra Boulevard to the confluence of the San Gabriel River and Coyote Creek and become a more residential area, pushing the dairymen out. They dairymen planned create a vote to incorporate an agricultural community separate from Artesia, which they called Dairy Valley. The city's name symbolized the more than 400 dairies and 100,000 cows found within its limits. The cows outnumbered the 3,439 residents by a factor of 29 to 1. The incorporation election was held in 1956, and the city was voted to be incorporated, with 54.9% of respondents choosing that option, with a difference of only 60 votes. The city of Dairy Valley was incorporated on April 24, 1956. Jack R. Bettencourt was elected to be Dairy Valley's first mayor that evening.
In November 1958, Dairy Valley voted to change from a general law city to a charter city, gaining more local power and control over zoning. Mayor Jim Albers was threatened with recall in 1960 following a controversy over declining the location of a hospital, which he feared would have a negative effect on neighboring dairies. The city hall was dedicated on June 11, 1960. As land values and property taxes in California rose in the early 1960s, agriculture became increasingly unprofitable, and development pressures increased. Most dairymen were retiring or moving to Chino or the Central Valley. Freeways constructed in the area displaced farmers but made the city more attractive to commuting homeowners.
In a special election held on July 16, 1963, residents voted to permit large-scale residential development. In 1965, it was voted that the Artesia, Bloomfield, and Carmenita school districts were to combine to become the ABC Unified School District. As a reflection of its newly planned suburban orientation, the city's name was formally changed to Cerritos on January 10, 1967, naming it after the nearby Rancho Los Cerritos and to associate with Cerritos College in neighboring Norwalk. Other names in contention were "Los Coyotes" and "Freeway City". The city planned to appeal to middle-class homeowners, with an abundance of commercial and recreation centers.
Between 1970 and 1972, Cerritos was the fastest-growing city in California. Its population grew from 4,373 in 1968 to 40,750 in 1973. Artesia citizens rejected a vote to consolidate with Cerritos in 1971. In June 1972, the city dedicated its own library facility, the Cerritos Library, separate from the LA County Library system. The Los Cerritos Center also fully opened that year. A new city hall with increased capacity adjacent to the library was dedicated in 1978; it was the nation's first solar-heated city hall complex. In the 1970s, the city was known for its restrictive signage ordinances, including a well-known incident in which toy company Toys "R" Us was not allowed to reverse the "R" on their store sign. Ground was broken on the Cerritos Auto Square in 1979.
On August 31, 1986, Aeroméxico Flight 498, on approach to Los Angeles International Airport from Mexico City, was struck by a small Piper aircraft. A total of 82 people died, including 15 people on the ground. The city's transportation shuttle system, Cerritos on Wheels (COW), went into service in August 1993. In 1994, the Cerritos Towne Center was completed, with the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts within first opening its doors in January a year earlier. To celebrate the coming of the millennium in 2000, the city conducted a $40 million renovation of its library, which was completed in 2002. In 2006, the city celebrated its golden anniversary with the unveiling of a sculpture garden in the civic center.
Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of ; of it is land and of it (1.48%) is water.
Cerritos lies along the Los Angeles County and Orange County border. The cities bordering Cerritos on the Los Angeles County side include Artesia in the center, Bellflower, Lakewood, Norwalk, Santa Fe Springs and La Mirada. Buena Park and La Palma border the city on the Orange County side. Other cities in the region include Cypress in Orange County, and Hawaiian Gardens and Long Beach in Los Angeles County.
The former postal ZIP code of Cerritos was 90701 and was shared with the city of Artesia; however, it was later changed to the exclusive 90703 to accommodate the increasing number of new addresses in the city during the mid-1990s.
Climate
Cerritos, as well as most of coastal Southern California, generally has a Mediterranean climate. Summers are warm to hot, and winters are mild, rarely falling below freezing. Precipitation occurs predominantly during the winter months.
Cerritos also has a unique "semi-marine" climate pattern within Los Angeles County. The fog that typically covers the beach cities rarely reaches Cerritos, but the breeze that comes along the San Gabriel River from the Pacific Ocean has a significant cooling effect. As a result, Cerritos is rarely affected by the smog, Santa Ana winds and smothering heat of the Los Angeles Basin.
Demographics
Racial and ethnic composition
+Cerritos city, California – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 1980Pop 1990Pop 2000Pop 2010% 1980% 1990% 2000% 2010White alone (NH)29,32819,03511,0408,1416,34055.31%36.37%21.44%16.60%12.79%Black or African American alone (NH)4,1503,8493,3863,2833,1557.83%7.35%6.58%6.69%6.36%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)2551517551610.48%0.29%0.15%0.10%0.12%Asian alone (NH)11,54223,44129,98930,16330,81021.77%44.79%58.24%61.51%62.14%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)891191910.17%0.24%0.39%Other race alone (NH)19098101832400.36%0.19%0.20%0.17%0.48%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)xx1,4591,3181,689xx2.83%2.69%3.41%Hispanic or Latino (any race)7,5556,6665,3495,8837,09214.25%12.74%10.39%12.00%14.30%Total53,02053,24051,48849,04149,578100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census As of the 2020 census, Cerritos had a population of 49,578. The population density was . The age distribution was 17.8% under the age of 18, 8.1% aged 18 to 24, 22.0% aged 25 to 44, 27.3% aged 45 to 64, and 24.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46.4 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.9 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 89.8 males age 18 and over.
The racial makeup of Cerritos was 15.0% White, 6.6% African American, 0.4% Native American, 62.6% Asian, 0.4% Pacific Islander, 5.7% from other races, and 9.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 14.3% of the population.
100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas. The census reported that 99.4% of the population lived in households, 0.2% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0.4% were institutionalized.
There were 16,019 households, of which 32.6% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 64.5% were married-couple households, 2.6% were cohabiting couple households, 10.8% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 22.2% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 13.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.08. There were 13,317 families (83.1% of all households).
There were 16,374 housing units at an average density of , of which 2.2% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.3% and the rental vacancy rate was 3.8%. Of occupied units, 76.4% were owner-occupied and 23.6% were occupied by renters.
2023 ACS estimates In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that the median household income was $133,953, and the per capita income was $54,839. About 5.0% of families and 5.9% of the population were below the poverty line.
2000 ancestry and birthplace According to Mapping L.A., Korean (17.1%) and Chinese (11.2%) were the most common ancestries in 2000. Korea (26.5%) and the Philippines (16.7%) were the most common foreign places of birth.
Economy The two major sources of revenue for Cerritos are a retail sales tax and interest income from its general fund.