South Gate is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, with . It is located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. South Gate is part of the Gateway Cities region of southeastern Los Angeles County.
The city was incorporated on January 20, 1923, and it became known as the "Azalea City" when it adopted the flower as its symbol in 1965. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 92,726, making it the 19th largest in the county.
History
Native Americans
South Gate is in the traditional cultural territory of the Gabrielino. Gabrielino villages or archaeological sites are rumored to have existed at the South Gate Park and at the old City Hall site at the intersection of Post Street and Victoria Avenue. The village of Tajauta was located on the border of South Gate, Lynwood, and Watts.
Land grants
Among the early Spanish settlers was one of California's first families, the Lugos. The Lugo land grant encompassed a great part of what is now the City of South Gate.
While Francisco Lugo was stationed at Mission San Antonio de Padua near Salinas, California, his first California son, Antonio Maria Lugo was born in 1775. That son became Don Antonio Maria Lugo, Spanish aristocrat and soldier, who settled on of land that encompasses what is now the City of South Gate. In 1810, the King of Spain formally granted the land to Lugo as a reward for his and his father's military service.
Early Industrial Development
Before the end of the 1870s, much of the original land grant had been replaced by tracts of . By 1880, cattle raising had been replaced by agriculture as the most important local industry. During the years between 1910 and 1940, most of the agricultural land was replaced by homes and factories.
By 1940, South Gate had evolved into a major industrial hub, with over 35 factories producing chemicals, machinery, furniture, roofing materials, and more. This industrial boom continued into the mid-20th century, and by 1976, over 400 industries were operating in the city.
The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company opened a plant in December 1927 on what was then a bean field at Alameda and Firestone. The facility began operations in mid-1928 and expanded multiple times in subsequent decades, providing significant employment and shaping local land use patterns.
The plant later closed and the property was sold for redevelopment in the mid-1980s.
Recent and Future Development
A notable environmental and developmental event occurred when the Cooper Drum Company, which operated from 1976 to 1992, was designated a Superfund site by the EPA in 2001 due to hazardous chemical contamination in soil and groundwater near residential areas.
In the late 2010s, the city shifted focus to mixed-use development. The Azalea Regional Shopping Center, a 376,000 sq. ft retail and community hub built on a formerly vacant 32-acre site, opened at the corner of Firestone Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue.
In 2019, the Tweedy Boulevard Specific Plan was adopted under the City’s General Plan 2035 to revitalize Tweedy Mile as the city’s historic main street. The plan introduced urban mixed-use zoning categories as well as Industrial Flex and Neighborhood Medium zones to encourage pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use development along the corridor.
Tweedy family
R.D. Tweedy was born in 1812 in Illinois and came to California by ox-drawn cart in 1852. The family was large, and several generations have lived in this city. The family members bought some of the land on which much of South Gate was built. The downtown business district is known as the Tweedy Mile. The city was incorporated five years later, in 1923, using the shortened form of the name.
South Gate has a semi-arid Mediterranean climate with mild winters and hot, dry summers. The average annual precipitation is per year with most occurring between November and April. Temperatures range from a low of to a high of . The average daily temperatures range from to .