Compton (California)

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Compton
Nickname : The Hub City, CPT, The Hub
The Martin Luther King Memorial in front of Compton City Hall
The Martin Luther King Memorial in front of Compton City Hall
Seal of Compton
seal
Compton in Los Angeles County
Location of Compton in Los Angeles County (right) and California (left)
Basic data
Foundation : May 11, 1888
State : United States
State : California
County : Los Angeles County
Coordinates : 33 ° 54 ′  N , 118 ° 14 ′  W Coordinates: 33 ° 54 ′  N , 118 ° 14 ′  W
Time zone : Pacific ( UTC − 8 / −7 )
Residents : 96,455 (as of 2010)
Population density : 3,681.5 inhabitants per km 2
Area : 26.4 km 2  (approx. 10 mi 2 ) of
which 26.2 km 2  (approx. 10 mi 2 ) are land
Height : 21 m
Postcodes : 90220-90224
Area code : +1 310
FIPS : 06-15044
GNIS ID : 1652689
Website : www.comptoncity.org
Mayor : Aja Brown

Compton is a suburb of the Californian city ​​of Los Angeles . The city had 96,455 inhabitants at the 2010 census and is located around 20 km south of central Los Angeles on the Los Angeles River in Los Angeles County . Compton was named after Griffith D. Compton who led a group of settlers to the site in 1867.

The place has been known for the Bloods , Crips and now Sureños gang wars since the late 1980s, as well as a generally high crime rate. Compton was one of the origins of gangsta rap , the hip-hop album Straight Outta Compton and groups like Compton's Most Wanted and especially NWA made the city known nationwide. Compton is still one of the most dangerous cities in the United States, but the crime rate has been falling for years.

geography

The city of Compton is located roughly in the middle of the densely populated greater Los Angeles area between the San Gabriel Mountains and the Pacific coast . It lies at a height of around 15 meters and is directly connected to the neighboring towns of Carson , Lynwood and Paramount as well as the non-parish towns of Dominguez, East Compton and Willowbrook .

history

Main Street, Compton, 1914

The history of the city of Compton dates back to the later 18th century when the area on which most of the present city lies was discovered and conquered by the Spanish. In 1784 the Spanish kingdom transferred to Juan José Dominguez, a former soldier of the country, an area of ​​around 300 km² that occupied the southwestern part of what is now the greater Los Angeles area. In the east it was bounded by the Los Angeles River from about the height of today's Compton to the sea coast in the south (today Long Beach ), in the west the land known as Rancho San Pedro reached over the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Manhattan Beach as well Pacific coast.

After the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) the area fell to the United States. In 1866, Francis Temple and Fielding Gibson, two Americans, acquired an area of ​​around 19 km², on which the first permanent settlement began in July 1867 at what is now Wilmington Avenue . In the summer of the same year a group of settlers under the leadership of Griffith Dickenson Compton and William Morton reached the place on the Los Angeles River, which was then called Gibsonville , and founded the small community of Comptonville in the fall of 1868 .

The settlement was shortened to "Compton" in the summer of the following year, when the US Postal Service asked citizens to rename the post office in order to avoid confusion with a mining town that had already been established north of Sacramento when delivering letters . On May 11, 1888, the community-free settlement was finally opened up to the city of Compton.

The city of Compton has been exposed to enormous gang crime for decades, with bloody clashes between rival groups. In 1988, the hip-hop music group NWA drew attention to the lawlessness they believed to be prevalent in Compton in their music album Straight Outta Compton and thus brought the suburb of Los Angeles into the focus of the media.

population

Demographics

The average age of Compton's citizens is 25, and the proportion of people under the age of 18 was 38.5% in the 2000 census . The census authority also determined that for every 100 women over the age of 18 there are - statistically speaking - 91.2 men. More than half (56.8%) of the population are Hispanic , and 40.3 percent are Afro-Americans.

The average income of a household is 31,819 US dollars , the median income of a family is 33,021 US dollars. Men earn an average of $ 22,698, while women average $ 24,692. The per capita income is $ 10,389. 28% of the population and 25.5% of families live below the poverty line.

The composition of the population according to Race is as follows (2000):

  • 56.8% Latinos and Hispanics of all nationalities
  • 40% non-Hispanic blacks and African Americans
  • 1.0% non-Hispanic whites
  • 1.0% Indigenous Americans ( Indians )
  • 1.2% other and two or more nationalities

In 2010 the composition of the population was as follows:

  • 32.9% black and African American
  • 25.9% whiteness
  • 0.7% Pacific islanders
  • 0.7% Indigenous Americans
  • 0.3% Asians
  • 36.2% other nationalities
  • 3.4% two or more nationalities
  • 65.0% were Latinos and Hispanics of all represented nationalities

crime

Compton is one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. In 2006, the private research institute Morgan Quitno determined that Compton was the most dangerous city with a population between 75,000 and 99,999 inhabitants and on top of that the fourth most dangerous city, including all US cities. The murder rate in Compton is eight times the national average. The main reason for the high murder rate is gang crime and the high prevalence of firearms. Since the local police officers were repeatedly accused of involvement in the clashes of the gangs, the municipality of Compton dissolved the entire police department in 2000. Since then, police violence has been exercised by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The crime rate has an index of 660.6 points. In 2005 there were 65 murders, 40 rapes, 474 robberies, 1157 physical attacks on people, 638 break-ins, 971 thefts, 1006 car thefts and 91 arson attacks.

traffic

Metro Los Angeles Compton Station
Compton-Woodley Airport

Compton is served by five highways with Interstates 105 , 110 , 405 and 710 and California State Route 91 . With Compton / Woodley Airport , Compton has its own airport.

Compton is also connected to the Los Angeles Metro by the North-South Blue Line . The Compton station is located in the city center next to the Renaissance Shopping Center and the Artesia Station is located at the Acacia Avenue .

Culture and sights

The Heritage House near the Civic Center Plaza deals with the history of the city. The museum, located in a rustic building on the corner of Myrrh and Willowbrook , illustrates the strong differences between the simple life in the 19th century and the lifestyle of today that has been adapted to progress. Another cultural site is Tomorrow's Aeronautical Museum , an aviation museum looking to the future with youth programs and a training facility. On the other hand, the Major League Baseball Academy , which promotes young baseball players , focuses on sporting talent in Southern California .

At the beginning of December there is an annual Compton Christmas Parade in Compton ; the 2006 event was the 54th in the city's history. In addition, every year on April 7 of Eazy-E Day in honor of the late rapper Eazy-E instead.

Educational institutions

Compton High School

The city is in the Compton Unified School District . The school district is currently participating in the University of California (Irvine) FOCUS program , which aims to provide increased support for math and science. With the Centennial , Dominguez and Compton High School , Compton has three secondary schools, there are also two colleges and Yuin University in the city .

Town twinning

Compton has partnerships with the following cities:

sons and daughters of the town

Web links

Commons : Compton, California  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ US Census Bureau 2010 Census Interactive Population Map. (No longer available online.) In: census.gov. Formerly in the original ; accessed on April 24, 2017 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.census.gov  
  2. ↑ http://www.idcide.com/citydata/ca/compton.htm
  3. ↑ Statistical data of the census authority (English)
  4. ↑ City Crime Rankings by Population. Morgan Quitno Press, archived from the original on September 5, 2012 ; accessed on April 24, 2017 (English).
  5. ↑ http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jul/12/local/me-51589
  6. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/government-and-politics/20131022/some-irwindale-residents-call-on-city-to-disband-police-department