Bellflower, California
Bellflower is a city in
Los Angeles County,
California,
United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 72,878.
The city derives its name from a mispronunciation of
belle fleur, a variety of
apple tree. Originally settled by dairy farmers of
Dutch,
Japanese, and
Portuguese descent, Bellflower and neighboring
Paramount served as the milk production centers for Southern California until soaring post-
World War II property values motivated most of the farmers to move several miles east to the Dairy Valley/Dairyland area (now the cities of
Cerritos and
La Palma). Seemingly overnight, the city's pastures and farms were replaced by sprawling subdivisions of inexpensive, largely prefabricated single-story houses. In the 1950s and 1960s, Bellflower Boulevard, the city's main thoroughfare, was a thriving commercial strip. However, suburban growth in
Orange County and the
San Gabriel and
San Fernando valleys made Bellflower's relatively humble housing tracts decidedly unattractive, and by the 1990s much of its original white populationhad left. The departed Anglos were replaced by just about every ethnicity imaginable, to the extent that the "A-B-C" region, formed by Bellflower and neighboring
Artesia and Cerritos, is considered one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse in the United States. Bellflower Boulevard has recovered much of its previous business traffic, and is now lined with shops advertising in two dozen languages.
*
Jeff Kent,
baseball player
*
Art Olivier, former mayor of Bellflower and
Libertarian Party candidate for
Vice President in the
2000 presidential election.
*
Ray Comfort,
Christian author and
evangelist and founder of
Living Waters Publications and co-founder of
The Way of the Master.
*
Trevor Hoffman,
baseball player
*
Chris Carter,
screenwriter and
producer (
The X-Files)
*
Jerry Quarry,
boxer*
Mike Quarry, boxer
*
Cindy Sheehan, anti-war activist
*
Malcolm David Kelley,
actor (
Lost)
*
Robby Gordon,
NASCAR driver
*
Carlos Hernandez,
boxerBellflower is located at (33.888165, -118.127604).
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.9
km² (6.2
mi²). 15.7 km² (6.1 mi²) of it is land and 0.2 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (1.14%) is water.
As of the
census of 2000, there were 72,878 people, 23,367 households, and 17,128 families residing in the city. The
population density was 4,635.6/km² (11,999.5/mi²). There were 24,247 housing units at an average density of 1,542.3/km² (3,992.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 46.09%
White, 13.09%
Black or
African American, 0.92%
Native American, 9.69%
Asian, 0.70%
Pacific Islander, 24.38% from
other races, and 5.13% from two or more races. 43.23% of the population were
Hispanic or
Latino of any race.
There were 23,367 households out of which 43.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.0% were
married couples living together, 19.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.7% were non-families. 21.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.09 and the average family size was 3.59.
In the city the population was spread out with 31.9% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 32.0% from 25 to 44, 17.4% from 45 to 64, and 8.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 95.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.6 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $39,362, and the median income for a family was $42,822. Males had a median income of $32,658 versus $28,012 for females. The
per capita income for the city was $15,982. About 12.8% of families and 15.8% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 20.7% of those under age 18 and 10.0% of those age 65 or over.
*
Bellflower official website
