Lakewood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States.

It is bordered by Long Beach on the west, northwest and south, Bellflower on the north, Cerritos on the northeast, Cypress on the east, and Hawaiian Gardens on the southeast.

Major thoroughfares include Lakewood (SR 19), Bellflower, and Del Amo Boulevards and Carson and South Streets.

[7] Developers Louis Boyar, Mark Taper and Ben Weingart are credited with "altering forever the map of Southern California.

"[7] Begun in late 1949, the completion of the developers' plan in 1953 helped in the transformation of mass-produced housing from its early phases in the 1930s and 1940s to the reality of the postwar 1950s.

On the first day of sales, March 24, 1950, an estimated 30,000 people lined up to walk through a row of seven model houses.

By the end of April, more than 200,000 people had flocked to the Lakewood Park sales office and more than 1,000 families had purchased homes (30 per day on average).

[9] Lakewood's primary thoroughfares are mostly boulevards with landscaped medians, with frontage roads on either side in residential districts.

Lakewood in 1953 had three choices: be annexed to nearby Long Beach, remain unincorporated and continue to receive county services, or incorporate as a city under a novel plan that continued county services under contract.

Although it is an incorporated city, Lakewood still contracts for most municipal services, with most of these provided by Los Angeles County and, to a lesser extent, by other public agencies and private industry.

Many other Los Angeles suburbs, such as Cerritos, Bellflower, Walnut, and Diamond Bar, have adopted the so-called "Lakewood Plan."

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.5 square miles (25 km2).

The racial makeup of Lakewood was 44,820 (56.0%) White (40.9% Non-Hispanic White),[30] 6,973 (8.7%) African American, 564 (0.7%) Native American, 13,115 (16.4%) Asian (8.1% Filipino, 1.5% Korean, 1.4% Chinese, 1.4% Cambodian, 1.2% Vietnamese, 0.7% Japanese, 0.6% Indian, 0.4% Thai), 744 (0.9%) Pacific Islander, 9,249 (11.6%) from other races, and 4,583 (5.7%) from two or more races.

In addition, there were 24,101 (30.1%) Hispanic or Latino residents of any race; 24.1% of Lakewood's population was of Mexican ancestry.

During 2009–2013, Lakewood had a median household income of $77,786, with 8.1% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

[39] The organizing committee became the Lakewood Education Foundation, which raises funds to assist classroom teachers.

[45] The city of Lakewood operates a law enforcement helicopter patrol independent of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Aero Bureau called Sky Knight.

Founded in 1966, it was the first day-and-night helicopter patrol program in the nation (aerial units had previously been used for search and rescue).