COMMUNITY PROFILE: HUNTINGTON BEACH : Government

City Council: Jack Kelly (mayor), John Erskine (mayor pro tem), Peter Green, Wes Bannister, Ruth Finley, Grace Winchell, Tom Mays

City Administrator: Paul Cook

Fire Chief: Raymond Picard

Chief of Police: Grover Payne

Statistics

Population: (1986 est.): 184,748

Area: 27 square miles

Incorporation: Feb. 17, 1909

Median household income: $34,824

Median home value: $120,368

Racial/ethnic mix: white, 91.6%; Latino, 9.6 %; black, 0.9 %; other, 7.5 %

(Total is more than 100% because racial/ethnic breakdowns overlap)

City Services

City Hall: 960-8899

2000 Main St.

Police (business): 960-8811

2000 Main St.

Fire (business): 536-5411

2000 Main St.

Post Office: 847-5665

6771 Warner Ave.

In Emergency, Dial: 911

Employment status

Employed persons: 90,320

Unemployed: 3,819

Not in labor force: 35,477

Per capita income: $9,781

Neighborhood mobility

Household moved in:

Most recent year: 6,180

Last five years: 17,100

6-9 years ago: 7,386

10-14 years ago: 6,053

15+ years ago: 4,283

Population

By sex and age In thousands

Median Age: 32.3 Years

Education

Adults over 25 Years of school completed:

0-11 years: 13.7%

12 years: 32.3%

13-15 years: 28.7%

16+ years: 25.2%

Median years completed: 13.4

Surf’s Up

Some of the best California surf breaks on Huntington Beach’s 8 1/2-mile shore--home to a renovated 1906 pier, the annual U.S. Surfboard Championships, and the publicized confrontations of beachgoers and police. But the suburban residential city with both luxury beachfront homes and affordable rental housing is outgrowing the image of an aging beach town or a bedroom community. Now the county’s third-largest city, Huntington Beach grew in population from 11,500 in 1965 to 178,500 in 1985 with the help of property tax and oil revenues. But an increase in new businesses and the city’s now active pursuit of business development is changing the city’s tax base, along with its image. Four privately owned Huntington Beach companies are among 500 named by Inc. magazine as the fastest growing in the nation, and the City Community Development Department plans to attract more. Planners see a renaissance ahead in the city’s deteriorating downtown district--a $345-million mixed use development is awaiting approval--and city-sponsored redevelopment areas extend to the northeastern edge of the city. Near the Huntington Center shopping mall, a new One Pacific Plaza office center is changing the low-rise city’s horizon with a mid-size skyline of towers.

Statistics: Donnelley Demographics