Lynwood, California, United States

🇺🇸 Lynwood is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Lynwood is located near South Gate and Compton in the central portion of the Los Angeles Basin. Incorporated in 1921, the city is named for Lynn Wood Sessions, wife of a local dairyman, Charles Sessions. The local railroad siding and later Pacific Electric Railway station were named after the dairy.

History Lynwood’s history began with a settlement colonized by Spanish aristocrats, or dons, and American pioneers who purchased, settled, and formed a small communal town in the area. It started with Don Antonio Maria Lugo. In 1810, Lugo was awarded 11 square leagues of land in California by the king of Spain for his military service during the establishment of the Francisco missions in the state. After Lugo received these tracts of land (29,514 acres), Lugo named the area Rancho San Antonio, possibly after birthplace at La Misión San Antonio de Padua, in Jolon, California. These tracts of land make up the bordering cities of Bell, Bell Gardens, Commerce, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Lynwood, Maywood, Montebello, South Gate, Vernon, and Walnut Park today.

Once majority white non-Hispanic, Lynwood elected its first Black councilmember in 1983 and in December 1985, elected its first Black mayor, Robert Henning. Into the 1990s, the political establishment remained in the control of the Black population which was gradually eroded by ascendent Latino population. After a succession of African American mayors (Evelyn Wells, Paul Richards), Lynwood saw it first Latino mayor, Armando Rea, in 1997.

On March 20, 2006, Lynwood's longest serving former mayor Paul H. Richards II was sentenced to 188 months in federal prison after being convicted in 2005 on numerous corruption charges that centered on his funneling of $6 million in city business — including exorbitant no-bid contracts — to a "consulting company" controlled by him and his family. Richards had served on the City Council from 1986 until he was recalled by voters in 2003; during that time he served seven terms as mayor.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.8 square miles (12 km²), all land.

Demographics At the 2010 census Lynwood had a population of 69,772. The population density was 14,415.7 inhabitants per square mile (5,565.9/km²). The racial makeup of Lynwood was 27,444 (39.3%) White (2.2% Non-Hispanic White), 7,168 (10.3%) African American, 464 (0.7%) Native American, 457 (0.7%) Asian, 206 (0.3%) Pacific Islander, 31,652 (45.4%) from other races, and 2,381 (3.4%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 60,452 persons (86.6%).

The census reported that 67,120 people (96.2% of the population) lived in households, 449 (0.6%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 2,203 (3.2%) were institutionalized.

There were 14,680 households, 9,790 (66.7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 8,303 (56.6%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 3,266 (22.2%) had a female householder with no husband present, 1,569 (10.7%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 1,281 (8.7%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 105 (0.7%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 1,064 households (7.2%) were one person and 328 (2.2%) had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 4.57. There were 13,138 families (89.5% of households); the average family size was 4.62.

The age distribution was 22,977 people (32.9%) under the age of 18, 8,705 people (12.5%) aged 18 to 24, 21,245 people (30.4%) aged 25 to 44, 13,075 people (18.7%) aged 45 to 64, and 3,770 people (5.4%) who were 65 or older. The median age was 27.8 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.1 males.

There were 15,277 housing units at an average density of 3,156.4 per square mile, of the occupied units 6,829 (46.5%) were owner-occupied and 7,851 (53.5%) were rented. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.9%; the rental vacancy rate was 3.7%. 34,023 people (48.8% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 33,097 people (47.4%) lived in rental housing units.

Government and infrastructure The Long Beach Freeway (I-710) and Century Freeway (I-105) run through the city. The C Line of the Los Angeles Metro also runs through the city, in the median of I-105, and serves the city at Long Beach Boulevard station.

Fire protection in Lynwood is provided by the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The LACFD operates Station #147 at 3161 East Imperial Highway and Station #148 at 4262 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, both in Lynwood, as a part of Battalion 13 The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) operates the Century Station in Lynwood. The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates the South Health Center in Watts, Los Angeles, serving Lynwood.

The United States Postal Service operates the Lynwood Post Office at 11200 Long Beach Boulevard and the East Lynwood Post Office at 11634 Atlantic Avenue.

The City of Lynwood operates three parks: Lynwood City Park, Lynwood Skate Park, and Yvonne Burke-John D. Ham Park.

Education Most of Lynwood is served by the Lynwood Unified School District. High schools include Lynwood High School, Marco Antonio Firebaugh High School, and Vista High School.

Public libraries County of Los Angeles Public Library operates the Lynwood Library at 11320 Bullis Road.