El Segundo, California, United States

🇺🇸 El Segundo is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. El Segundo, from Spanish, means "The Second". Located on Santa Monica Bay, it is part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments.

History The El Segundo and Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva (or Gabrieleños) Native American tribes thousands of years ago. The area was once a part of Rancho Sausal Redondo ("Round Willow Patch Ranch"). Rancho Sausal Redondo extended from Playa Del Rey in the north to Redondo Beach in the south. Originally a Mexican land grant owned by Antonio Ygnacio Avila, the rancho was later purchased by a Scottish baronet named Sir Robert Burnett. After his return to Scotland, the property was purchased by then-manager of the rancho, Daniel Freeman. Daniel Freeman sold portions of the rancho to several persons. George H. Peck owned the 840 acres (340 ha) of land where the Chevron Refinery now sits. Peck also developed land in neighboring El Porto, where a street still bears his name. The city earned its name ("the second" in Spanish), as it was the site of the second Standard Oil refinery on the West Coast (the first was at Richmond in Northern California), when Standard Oil of California purchased the farm land in 1911.

The city was incorporated in 1917. The Standard Oil Company was renamed Chevron in 1984. The El Segundo refinery entered its second century of operation in 2011.

The Douglas Aircraft Company plant in El Segundo was one of the major aircraft manufacturing facilities in California during World War II. It was one of the major producers of SBD Dauntless dive bombers, which achieved fame in the Battle of Midway. The facility, now operated by Northrop Grumman, is still an aircraft plant.

Geography The northern and southern boundaries of the town are Los Angeles International Airport and Manhattan Beach, with the Pacific Ocean as the western boundary. Its eastern boundary is roughly marked by Aviation Blvd.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.5 square miles (14 km²), over 99% of which is land.

Guinness World Records has listed El Segundo as having the most roads with a hill or grade.

Demographics The 2010 United States Census reported that El Segundo had a population of 16,654. The population density was 3,047.9 inhabitants per square mile (1,176.8/km²). The racial makeup of El Segundo was 12,997 (78.0%) White (69.1% non-Hispanic White), 337 (2.0%) African American, 68 (0.4%) Native American, 1,458 (8.8%) Asian, 38 (0.2%) Pacific Islander, 799 (4.8%) from other races, and 957 (5.7%) from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 2,609 persons (15.7%).

The Census reported that 16,578 people (99.5% of the population) lived in households, 66 (0.4%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 10 (0.1%) were institutionalized.

Of the 7,085 households, 2,183 (30.8%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 3,050 (43.0%) were married couples living together, 729 (10.3%) had a female householder with no husband present, 326 (4.6%) had a male householder with no wife present; and 369 (5.2%) were unmarried opposite-sex partnerships. About 31.8% were made up of individuals, and 8.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34. The city had 4,105 families (57.9% of all households); the average family size was 3.02.

22.3% of the population was under the age of 18, 6.7% was 18 to 24, 31.1% was 25 to 44, 29.8% was 45 to 64, and 10.1%o was 65 or older. The median age was 39.2. For every 100 females, there were 99.4 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 98.8 males.

The 7,410 housing units had an average density of 1,356.1 per square mile (523.6/km²), of which 3,034 (42.8%) were owner-occupied and 4,051 (57.2%) occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.4%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.1%. About 49.1% of the population lived in owner-occupied housing units and 50.4% in rental housing units.

According to the 2010 United States Census, El Segundo had a median household income of $84,341, with 4.8% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

Economy The name was adopted in 1911 when Chevron built its second refinery, El Segundo, which is Spanish for "the Second". This refinery has received crude oil from the Amazon region of South America - more than 5,000 barrels per day. El Segundo is located next to the Hyperion sewage treatment plant and the El Segundo power plant. The El Segundo power plant is operated by the American energy company NRG. NRG was to create a new combined cycle power island, providing power for 240,000 households. The new power plant, slated to go online in 2013, was to use two generators: a Siemens gas turbine and an additional steam turbine. Prior to its dissolution, Unocal was headquartered in El Segundo.

In 1928 William Mines, an immigrant from Canada, leased land for a flying field. In 1930, Los Angeles Municipal Airport, later Los Angeles International Airport, opened north of El Segundo; its presence led to the concentration of aerospace and aviation-related firms in the El Segundo area. Many large aerospace companies have facilities in El Segundo, including Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Wyle Laboratories, the Aerospace Corporation, and Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings. The last two are headquartered there. It is also home to the Los Angeles Air Force Base and the Space and Missile Systems Center, which is responsible for space-related acquisition for the military.

The current Boeing factory, the Boeing Satellite Development Center, was originally built by Nash Motors in 1946 and opened in 1948. In 1955, Hughes Aircraft Company purchased the 500,000-square-foot (46,000 m²) building; it was converted to build missiles and also served as a test facility. At one time, MGM Grand Air had its headquarters in El Segundo.

Toy manufacturer Mattel, AT&T Entertainment Hub (formerly DirecTV) direct technology marketing company PCM, Inc., and A-Mark Precious Metals are headquartered there, as well as sporting goods retailer Big 5 Sporting Goods and Stamps.com. Database company Teradata has a research and development facility in El Segundo, as well. The North American headquarters of the Japanese video game company Square Enix are also in the city.

From 1982 until 1996, the headquarters of the Los Angeles Raiders of the National Football League was located in El Segundo. The Los Angeles Kings Hockey Club is also located in El Segundo. In 2024, the Los Angeles Chargers will move their headquarters to El Segundo from Costa Mesa. The Los Angeles Lakers office headquarters and practice facility, the UCLA Health Training Center are also located in El Segundo. Their NBA G-League affiliate the South Bay Lakers plays their games there.

Film production companies are located in El Segundo, including Rhythm and Hues Studios and Lightstorm Entertainment.

The Los Angeles Times moved its newsroom from downtown Los Angeles to a 4.5-acre (18,000 m²) campus in El Segundo in 2018.

Economy: Top employers According to the city's 2020–21 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city include: 1 Boeing ; 2 Raytheon Technologies ; 3 Northrop Grumman ; 4 The Aerospace Corporation ; 5 Mattel ; 6 Chevron ; 7 Internet Brands ; 8 Infineon Technologies ; 9 Karl Storz Endoscopy America Inc. ; 10 Big 5 Sporting Goods .

Subsidiaries of companies Nexon America, the North American branch of Korean online game publisher Nexon Co. Ltd. has its offices in El Segundo.

The North American branch of the Japanese video game publisher and developer Square Enix has its headquarters in El Segundo.

Due to its proximity to Los Angeles International Airport, El Segundo became the host of several offices of airlines. In 1979, the United Airlines Reservation Center, a two-story, $4.5 million, 55,000-square-foot (5,100 m²) facility in the International Center, was scheduled to begin construction. Austin Co., a firm in Irvine, was to build the facility, which was scheduled for opening in May of that year. Japan Airlines operates its United States headquarters, which was moved from New York City to El Segundo in around 2003. at Suite 620 of 300 Continental Boulevard; Cathay Pacific has an office in El Segundo. The airline moved its North America headquarters to Greater Los Angeles in 1990, and the headquarters were situated in El Segundo until 2005.

Air China operates its North American headquarters in the 13,000-square-foot (1,200 m²) 2131 East Maple Avenue building, south of LAX, in El Segundo. Its current North American headquarters opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony and other festivities on Friday March 26, 2010. The call centre reservations, marketing, and sales employees all moved into the building. The building includes a call centre with space for 50 employees; when the building opened, half of the spaces had been filled.

Air New Zealand operates its United States headquarters in El Segundo. Other airlines with offices in El Segundo include Turkish Airlines, Thai Airways, Air Tahiti Nui, Aeroméxico, China Airlines Emirates, EVA Air, and Singapore Airlines.

Infineon Technologies acquired El Segundo-based company International Rectifier in 2015.

Parks and recreation El Segundo has its own beach, as well as two public pools; both are outdoor pools, one of which is open only during the summer months. The El Segundo Parks and Recreation staff are the basis for the hit NBC program Parks and Recreation. El Segundo has two full-sized turf fields named Campus El Segundo Athletic Fields, which are open to the public.

Local government According to the city's most recent Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, its various funds had $99.0 million in revenues, $91.0 million in expenditures, $206.5 million in total assets, $33.6 million in total liabilities, and $50.4 million in cash and investments.

In the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, El Segundo is in the Second District, represented by Holly Mitchell.

State and federal representation In the California State Legislature, El Segundo is in the 24th Senate District, represented by Democrat Ben Allen, and in the 66th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Al Muratsuchi.

In the United States House of Representatives, El Segundo is in California's 36th congressional district, represented by Democrat Ted Lieu.

Education The El Segundo Unified School District serves the residential district of El Segundo, west of Pacific Coast Highway. It operates El Segundo High School.

Eastern El Segundo is part of the tax base for the Wiseburn Unified School District, and formerly for the Centinela Valley Union High School District (CVUHSD). There are no residential areas in the eastern part of the city. This portion of the city includes corporate operations providing significant tax revenue to the districts.

Vistamar School is a private school in El Segundo.

Originally all of the city was located in the Wiseburn School District, which opened in 1896. When the Inglewood Union High School District, now known as the CVUHSD, opened in 1905, its territory included the Wiseburn district. In 1912 the El Segundo School District opened, taking territory from the Wiseburn School District. The territory of the El Segundo district continued to be in the Inglewood Union District. On November 22, 1925, the El Segundo High School District was formed and El Segundo withdrew from the Inglewood Union district.

Media The Los Angeles Times has been headquartered in El Segundo since 2018. The local Charter Spectrum news and sports channels, Spectrum News 1, Spectrum SportsNet, and SportsNet LA are based out of El Segundo.

The El Segundo Herald is the community newspaper for El Segundo. It was established in 1911, six years before the city was incorporated. It had its centennial anniversary of service to the community in 2011.

A monthly arts and culture publication, The El Segundo Scene, began printing in May 2018. Created and run by two El Segundo residents, the magazine serves El Segundo and its neighbors in the South Bay.

Transport State Route 1 passes through the city as Pacific Coast Highway, while Interstate 105 begins its journey at Sepulveda Boulevard (the continuation of State Route 1 north of El Segundo city limits) just outside the northern city limits of El Segundo and heads east to Norwalk.

Amtrak's El Segundo Bus Stop (ESG) is located at the Los Angeles Metro Rail's Douglas station and is serviced by Amtrak Thruway. The stop is on Amtrak's 1c bus route that runs four times a day between Amtrak's Torrance Bus Stop (Alpine Village) and the Bakersfield Amtrak station where passengers transfer to and from trains on San Joaquins services; passengers can also connect with Pacific Surfliner at the Van Nuys Amtrak station.

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is located immediately to the north of El Segundo. In 2014, an air quality study found harmful ultrafine particles from the takeoffs and landings at LAX to be of a much greater magnitude than previously thought.