Downey

Downey is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, 13 mi southeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is considered part of the Gateway Cities. The city is the birthplace of the Apollo space program. It is also the home of the oldest still operational McDonald's restaurant in the world.

The famous author, Tom Wolfe, wrote about Downey. His article, "The Hair Boys," was about Harvey's Drive-in and the fashions that the hair boys wore. He claimed that Harvey's was one of the great unacknowledged centers of fashion in the world. The essay is in his 1968 book, "The Pump House Gang." He did a drawing of one of the hair boys that appears in a different book, "In Our Time." Tom Wolfe was one of the founders of a highly influential movement in journalism called the "New Journalism." He is probably most famous for having written "The Right Stuff" which was made into a movie. He also wrote "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," "Radical Chic," and "The Bonfire of the Vanities."

The Downey City Library serves the city. The first library in Downey was established in 1901 by a women's social club that was founded in 1898. The County of Los Angeles Public Library opened a branch in Downey in September 1915. The county branch moved several times; its final location was in the County Civic Center. In 1958 the Downey City Council voted to establish its own library and withdraw from the county system. The city library services were originally provided out of the back of a bookstore. The city library opened in the former cafeteria of the former Downey Elementary School, then being used as the city hall and police station, on July 1, 1958. A permanent library building was built on December 7, 1959. It had almost 16,000 square feet and it was built for $186,200, costing $11.97 per square foot. It was dedicated on December 17 and opened on December 18. In February 1984 an addition of almost 12,000 square feet was completed and dedicated.

source: wikipedia.org

• Drinking
• Dining
• Shopping
• Animal Care
• Exercising
• Recreation
• Fixing
• Local Services
• Health