The City of Downey is situated 13 miles (21 km) southeast of Downtown Los Angeles, in Southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is regarded as a constituent of the Gateway Cities. The city is where the Apollo space program got its start. The oldest McDonald’s restaurant still in operation is located there. 114,355 people called the city home as of the 2020 census.
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Geography
The area of the city overall, according to the United States Census Bureau, is 12.6 square miles (33 km2). Its total area is 12.4 square miles (32 km2), of which 0.2 square miles (0.52 km2) are on land. Pico Rivera is to the northeast, Santa Fe Springs and Norwalk to the east, Bellflower and Paramount to the south, and South Gate and Bell Gardens to the west and northwest.
Economy
In 2017, the City of Downey was designated as Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation’s “Most Business-Friendly City” for communities with a population more than 68,000.
Top employers in the city include Kaiser Permanente, Stonewood Center, Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, PIH Health Hospital – Downey, Office of Education, County of Los Angeles, Downey Unified School District, Coca-Cola Refreshments, Internal Service Department, County of Los Angeles, City of Downey, and Lakewood Health Center, according to the city’s 2021 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.
Culture
About Downey was written by author Tom Wolfe. “The Hair Boys” was an article he wrote on Harvey’s Drive-In and the clothes the hair boys wore. He asserted that one of the major unrecognized fashion hubs in the globe was Harvey’s. His drawing of one of the hair guys can be found in his 1968 book “In Our Time,” which also contains the essay.
It was widely reported in the early 1960s that the Downey City Library had prohibited the Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs because Tarzan and Jane were not married when Boy was born. Articles from the Los Angeles Times from the 1970s provide proof of the rumor’s persistence (for example, “Downey Sends L.A. Back to the Bush League,” Jack Smith, May 8, 1970). However, the Tarzan rumor was much exaggerated. There was a rumor that one of Downey’s elementary schools had banned Edgar Rice Burroughs and Zane Grey books from its library because “1—There was no indication that Tarzan and his mate, Jane, were ever married before they took up housekeeping in the treetops” and “2—Grey was known to put such expletives as ‘damn!’ and ‘hell’ in the mouths of his western cowhands.” There were no Tarzan novels involved.
Transportation
Four interstates provide easy access to the city: Interstate 105, which has a Metro rail line, runs through the southern part of the city; Interstate 5, which runs through the northern portion; Interstate 605, which runs along the eastern side; and Interstate 710, which runs just west of the city.
The Lakewood Boulevard station of the Green Line serves as the city’s bus terminal for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) (Los Angeles Metro). Additionally, the city has a local bus service known as DowneyLINK.