Garden Grove, CA: From Small Rural Crossroads to a City of Growth and Agriculture - Essay Sample

Introduction

Garden Grove City location is Orange County, California, in the United States of America. It is 34 miles from the city of Los Angeles. Alonzo cook was the founder of the city. It was a small rural crossroad for a long time until when the railroad arrived in 1905. The rail was essential because it helped the town to grow agricultural wise. They grew crops like oranges, chilli, peppers, walnuts, and strawberries. After world war two, the city grew fast and was later labelled as a city in 1956, having 44000 residents ("U.S. Census Bureau Quick Facts: Garden Grove city, California," 2020). A lot of Vietnamese and Korean moved to the town in the 1970s. It is 17.8 square miles in size (Ggcity.org. 2020). Garden Grove city is known for its leisure, cultural, and historical activities. Some of the things found in the town include The "Union Passage" statue, The Garden Grove Playhouse, The Crystal Cathedral, The Arab-American, Korean, Strawberry Festivals, the "We the People" statue. It has the biggest mosque in the west of the Mississippi and houses the majority of the Islamic Society of Orange County. Also, in this county, we find most of the cultural and sports demonstrations in the greater Los Angeles area. The strawberry festival is the largest in the city. It usually attracts over 250000 people .it originated from the towns agricultural background the city is generally painted in fire hydrants in strawberry design as a sign of the historical context in the city ("Garden Grove, California - City Information, Fast Facts, Schools, Colleges, and More," 2020).

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A Young and Racially Diverse City

Garden Grove city has Asians as the majority of its occupants. Vietnamese Americans are the most significant percentage of this Asian group. The racial composition of the Garden Grove is Black or African American 0.99%.Asian- 40.48%, Native American: 0.48%,Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander 0.22%, White- 40.03%,Two or more races 2.10% Other race: 15.70%. 37.0 % of the population is Hispanic, while 63.0 % is non-Hispanic. 32.70% of Garden Grove residents are English speakers, while 67.30% do not speak English. The other language spoken by the largest group is Pacific Island languages and Asian, which is spoken by 36.18% of the population. The majority of the population is between 35 to 40 years ("garden grove city," 2020). The total median age is 38.3 years. Females account for 50 % of the people, while males account for 50% of the community. The old-age dependency level is 20.7%, while the child age dependence level is 33.5 % ("garden grove city," 2020).

Education

The population that has attended school up to 9th grade is 14.29%, 11.45% has gone from 9th to 12th grade, high school graduates cover 24.64%. College graduates 21.64%associate degrees 6.92%. Bachelor's degree accounts for 15.77% and graduates degree 5.28%. The highest grade and high school graduation is within islander people and worse in Asians and Hispanics ("garden grove city," 2020). The less educated people show a higher percentage of poverty as compared to the more educated residents ("garden grove city," 2020).

Housing and Poverty

There is a 53.3%homeownership, which is below the 63.9 % national average. It means that almost 50% of the population lives in rented houses that can be too expensive in a city ("Garden Grove, CA Population & Demographics," 2020). Garden Grove city recorded a median property value of $476300 in 2017. The benefits are 2.97 times higher than the $229,700 average in the USA. Between 2016 and 2017, the median property value increased from $445,700 to $476,300, representing a 6.87% escalation. The commute time of the resident of the Garden Grove city is 27 minutes ("Garden Grove, CA | Data USA," 2020). The married, own 59.5% of the houses, while the non-family people own 48.8% of the homes. The race that leads to poverty with 36.44% below the poverty in Garden Grove city is Native. Multiples are not affected by poverty at that rate. The ones below the poverty level are 9.44%.

Residents working full time within the last 12 months showed a poverty rate of 3.55%Part-time workers showed 16.01%and for those that stayed at home without any work, the poverty rate was 24.87% ("Garden Grove, CA | Data USA," 2020).

Services and Business in Garden Grove

Garden Grove city offers jobs to 83800 people. The most pronounce industries being health care and social aid Retail Trade, followed by Manufacturing. The most profitable sectors are the Management of Companies & Enterprises, Utilities, & Public Administration ("Garden Grove, CA | Data USA," 2020. As mentioned earlier, Garden Grove city is known for its leisure, cultural, and historical activities. Some of the things found in the town include The "Union Passage" statue, The Garden Grove Playhouse, The Crystal Cathedral, The Arab-American, Korean, Strawberry Festivals, the "We the People" statue. It has the biggest mosque in west of the Mississippi and houses the majority of Islamic Society of Orange County. Also in this county we find most of the cultural and sports demonstrations in the greater Los Angeles area. The strawberry festival is the largest in the city. It usually attracts over 250000 people. It originated from the town's agricultural background. The city is generally painted in fire hydrants in strawberry design as a sign of the historical context of the town ("Garden Grove, California - City Information, Fast Facts, Schools, Colleges, and More," 2020).

Need For Affordable Housing in Garden Grove

There is a 53.3 % homeownership, which is below the 63.9 % national average. The poverty level in Garden Grove city is 15.10%.mostly, poverty in cities is usually caused by expensive housing. In as much as we have some services for low-income housing, the property is still costly. Property value in Garden Grove is 2.07 % higher than the national property value. Usually, in cities, houses are expensive, making it difficult for families to support themselves hence poverty. Again the residents typically have to wait for a long time before they can be approved to stay in the affordable houses. It is because the demand is more than what the city can provide. The families spend a lot of money on paying rent. At the same time, they would have used the cash in doing other thing things such as education and other investments. Urban families may have access to well-paying jobs. Still, then they will handle all the money on rent and commuting.

The unemployed residents move to places where there is cheaper housing or informal settlements. Because they cannot get by, they result in things such as theft and drug trafficking. Parents might keep their children at home to save up on money for housing and food. In the end, the children are not educated and end up being miserable as their parents. Poverty continues to spread. We need to come up with a strategy to provide more affordable homes to the part of the population that is not able to afford these expensive houses. This way, we help in the reduction of poverty, and every resident can live comfortably without much strain.

Recommendation

The government should build more affordable houses for 15.10%.poverty level. The households should also target people that earn below median household income. We have seen that the median age is 38.4. These are people who are making families, and they need houses because they cannot stay in their parent's places. When the homes are too expensive, it will be hard for them to balance between providing or their families and getting affordable housing. Some may turn to robbery and drug trafficking while some will look for informal settlements.

They might start too much and end up joining the poverty group. Again, these affordable housing will be suitable for university students who go to schools. That includes the California career institute, Stan bridge University, American career college, and south coast college since they do not have a source of income. Most retirees move to Garden Grove. These are people that have stopped working. Hence, they will need affordable housing to be able to afford and support them. There is a lot of theft and burglary in the city (Jackson & Fedinard, 2019). It is due to the poverty and unemployment rate. The amount of salary some people get is not rebound to sustain their lifestyle. They end up telling to make ends meet. If these people were able to live in houses, they do not have to pay too much for then it would reduce the number of theft cases. The people would save money and use it to support their lifestyle other than pay rent using all the money they earn. There is an increasing number of homeless people in the city ("Growing homeless population in Garden Grove's Little Seoul has led to increased frustration among Korean business owners - Orange County Register," 2020). Again accessible homes will reduce the number of street families. Living in the streets is not healthy one might contract a lot of diseases. Also, the weather is not co...