Monterey Park is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2005 estimate, the city had a total population of 63,928. The city's motto is "Pride in the past, Faith in the future".
History
Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the land was populated by the Tongva (Gabrielino) Native Americans. The Tongva lived in dome like structures with thatched exteriors. Both sexes wore long hair styles and tattooed their bodies. During warm weather the men wore little clothes but the women would wear minimal skirts made of animal hides. During the cold weather they would wear animal skin capes.
By the early 19th century the area was part of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel mission system and later, the Rancho San Antonio. The area first received a separate identity when Alessandro Repetto purchased 5,000 acres (20 km²) of the rancho and built his home, not far from where the Edison substation is now located on Garfield Avenue.
By this time Old World diseases had killed off many of the Tongva, and by 1870 the area had few left.
It was at this time, Richard Garvey, a mail rider for the U.S. Army whose route took him through Monterey Pass, a trail that is now Garvey Avenue, settled down in the King's Hills. Garvey began developing the land by bringing in spring water from near the Hondo River and by constructing a 54-foot (16 m) high dam to form Garvey Lake located where Garvey Ranch Park is now. To pay for his development and past debts, Garvey began selling portions of his property. In 1906, the first subdivision in the area, Ramona Acres, was developed north of Garvey and east of Garfield Avenues.
In 1916, the new residents of the area initiated action to become a city when the cities of Pasadena, South Pasadena, and Alhambra proposed to put a large sewage treatment facility in the area. The community voted itself into city hood on May 29 , 1916 , by a vote of 455 to 33. The City's new Board of Directors immediately outlawed sewage plants within city boundaries and named the new city Monterey Park. The name was taken from an old government map showing the oak-covered hills of the area as Monterey Hills. In 1920, a large area on the south edge of the city broke away and the separate city of Montebello was established.
By 1920, the white and Spanish-surname settlers were joined by Asian residents who began farming potatoes and flowers and developing nurseries in the Monterey Highlands area. They improved the Monterey Pass Trail with a road to aid in shipping their produce to Los Angeles. The nameless pass, which had been a popular location for western movies, was called Coyote Pass by Pioneer Masami Abe.
In 1926, near the corner of Atlantic and Garvey Boulevards, Laura Scudder invented the first sealed bag of potato chips. In an effort to maintain quality and freshness, Laura's team would iron sheets of wax paper together to form a bag. They would fill these bags with potato chips; iron the top closed, and then deliver them to various retailers.
Real estate became a thriving industry during the late 1920s with investors attracted to the many subdivisions under development and increasing commercial opportunities. One such development was the Midwick View Estates by Peter N. Snyder, a proposed garden community that was designed to rival Bel Air and Beverly Hills. Known as the "Father of the East Side", Mr. Snyder was a key player in the vast undertaking in the 1920s of developing the East Side as part of the industrial base of Los Angeles. His efforts to build Atlantic Boulevard, his work with the East Side organization to bring industry to the East Side, and his residential and commercial development projects along Atlantic Boulevard (Gardens Square, Golden Gate Square, and the Midwick View Estates) were a major influence to the surrounding communities. The focal point of the Midwick View Estates was Jardin del Encanto, otherwise known as "El Encanto," a Spanish style building that was to serve as the administration building and community center for Midwick View Estates, and an amphitheater to be nestled into the hillside above Kingsford Street. Although the amphitheater was never built, the observation terrace from which viewers could look down to Jardin del Encanto and the fountain with cascading water going down the hillside in stepped pools to De La Fuente remains and is now known as Heritage Falls Park or "the Cascades." The Great Depression brought an abrupt end to the real estate boom, as well as the Midwick proposal. From the late 1920s through the mid-1940s, the City had little development for nearly two decades.
The end of World War II resulted in a revived growth trend with explosive population gains during the late 1940s and 1950s. Until this time, the population was concentrated in the northern and southern portions of the city, with the Garvey and Monterey Hills forming a natural barrier. With the renewed growth, many new subdivisions were developed, utilizing even the previously undeveloped central area to allow for maximum growth potential. A series of annexations of surrounding land also occurred.
Recent history
In the 1980s, Monterey Park was billed as "Little Taipei." Many businesses from Chinatown, Los Angeles began to open up stores in Monterey Park. In the 1970s and 1980s, many affluent waisheng ren Taiwanese immigrants moved abroad from Taiwan and began settling into Monterey Park. Mandarin Chinese was dominant in the city during that time period. By the late 1980s, immigrants from Mainland China and Vietnam began moving into Monterey Park. By the 1990 census, Monterey Park became the first city with an Asian descent majority population in the continental United States.
From the late 1980s, with a combined influx of Vietnamese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong immigrant students at the time, Mark Keppel High School (constructed during the New Deal era and located in Alhambra, but also serving most of Monterey Park and portions of Rosemead) felt the impact of this new immigration as the student population increased dramatically. This led to overcrowding. Today, many students are largely second- or third-generation Asian Americans.
In the late 1980s, the city of Monterey Park passed an ordinance requiring signs to be posted in English, as well as a moratorium on new building in an attempt to regulate the massive growth the city experienced as a result of the influx of Asian immigrants. This controversial move caused many Asian residents and businesses to shift focus, establishing themselves in the neighboring city of Alhambra. These actions were subsequently rescinded once the potential loss of business revenue was recognized.
Since early 1990s, the Taiwanese have no longer been dominant in the city, and Cantonese is now widely spoken and heard in most Chinese businesses of Monterey Park. The construction boom of shopping centers has declined. High property values and overcrowding in Monterey Park have contributed to a secondary movement. Furthermore, most established, wealthy Taiwanese immigrants have since relocated out of Monterey Park and northward to wealthier cities of San Marino, Arcadia, Temple City, South Pasadena; and eastward to Rowland Heights (called the "new Little Taipei" by a local Chinese-language newspaper), Diamond Bar, Hacienda Heights, and Walnut with many Chinese-speaking businesses started in those suburbs to accommodate this particular movement. This path exactly follows the White Flight of the late 1970s. There are still countless Chinese-oriented businesses in Monterey Park. Development of new buildings in Monterey Park has come to a standstill, and several overgrown weedy lots still remain undeveloped. Upcoming commercial developments include the Atlantic Times Square, a 225,000 square feet (20,900 m 2 ) of commercial/retail space including a 14-screen theater within a mixed use project at the southeast corner of Atlantic Boulevard and Hellman Avenue, and the Garvey Villas at the southwest corner of Atlantic Boulevard and Garvey Avenue.
Today
Monterey Park is 42.32% Chinese, making it the community in the United States with the largest population of Chinese descent. The Chinese-American population in Monterey Park and San Gabriel Valley is fairly diverse, in terms of linguistics, socio-economics and region of origin. Monterey Park originally attracted immigrants from Taiwan, as well as Mainland Chinese and the overseas Chinese from Vietnam, Indonesia, and Myanmar.
Monterey Park has not been called Chinatown as such; instead, the Chinese-dominant business district, around Garfield Avenue and Garvey Avenue, is now called Downtown Monterey Park. In the mid-1980s, Lincoln Plaza Hotel was built to service tourists from Taiwan and Hong Kong, with original plans to have it also serve as a venue as a Chinese convention center.
Monterey Park has several choices of Hong Kong fusion cafes (in fact, the first Hong Kong-style cafe opened in San Gabriel Valley actually started in Monterey Park, but it has since closed due to intense competition) and Cantonese seafood restaurants, as well as some choices of restaurants offering Mainland Chinese noodles and dumplings. Interestingly, as the activity of Taiwanese immigrant activity shifted to San Gabriel, Arcadia and Rowland Heights in the 1980s and 1990s, very few trendy Taiwanese restaurants have opened in Monterey Park.
While the multi-generational American-born Latino population was generally declining in Monterey Park, there has been some new incoming of Mexican immigrants.
Monterey Park is home to the Garvey Ranch Observatory, located in Ga
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