Perris, California

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Perris is a city in Riverside County, California, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 46,600. The city is named in honor of Fred T. Perris, chief engineer of the California Southern Railroad; the California Southern connected through the city in the 1880s to build a rail connection between the present day cities of Barstow and San Diego.

The nearby Perris Valley Airport (FAA designator: L65) has a 5,100 foot runway. Perris has drew a crowd of skydivers, amateur and professional, in the Perris Valley Parachute Center. The area's sudden fame gave Perris the nickname: "the skydiving capital of America".

Valley Plaza Doctors Hospital is a General Acute Care Hospital in Perris with Basic Emergency Services as of 2006. ^[1]

1 Geography
2 Demographics
3 Education
4 Community Directory & Attractions
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Geography

Perris is located at 33°47′48″N, 117°13′28″W (33.796576, -117.224382)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 81.6 km² (31.5 mi²). 81.2 km² (31.4 mi²) of it is land and 0.3 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.41%) is water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2006, there were 46,600 people, 9,652 households, and 8,117 families residing in the city. The population density was 445.4/km² (1,153.5/mi²). There were 10,553 housing units at an average density of 129.9/km² (336.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 41.20% White, 15.88% African American, 1.46% Native American, 2.75% Asian, 0.33% Pacific Islander, 32.55% from other races, and 5.82% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 56.16% of the population.

Perris had developed a Latino majority in the 1990s partly by recent immigration and the descendants of Mexican traqueros in the 1890s. A large wave of African-American families, many from South Los Angeles bought homes in affordable middle-class areas to gave Perris an above-average black percentage in any California city. There is a fairly large Thai, Laotian and Cambodian communities, one of the area's Asian ethnic groups arrived in the 1980s.

There were 9,652 households out of which 56.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.2% were married couples living together, 18.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 15.9% were non-families. 12.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.73 and the average family size was 4.00.

In the city the population was spread out with 39.6% under the age of 18, 9.9% from 18 to 24, 30.8% from 25 to 44, 13.5% from 45 to 64, and 6.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25 years. Perris' large youthful demographics is a result of families moved into the city's new housing tracts. For every 100 females there were 96.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $35,522, and the median income for a family was $36,063. Males had a median income of $31,891 versus $24,634 for females. The per capita income for the city was $11,425. About 18.1% of families and 20.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.3% of those under age 18 and 14.2% of those age 65 or over.

Despite the city's image of "yuppies" and urban professionals in homes now worth over $400,000 (the May Ranch and Green Valley communities), the older sections of Perris are home to working-class and low-income residents. Much of the rural outskirts of Perris once held an image of trailer parks where economically disadvantaged whites and blacks, and migrant laborers (mostly Chicanos) lived in them before real estate values soared in the 1990s and 2000s.

[edit] Education

The city is served by two school districts: the Perris Unified School District and the Val Verde Unified School District which also serves the southern part of Moreno Valley. Perris High School of the Perris district is the city's first public (grades 9-12) school. Established in 1887, the current school remains at the site that it was relocated to in 1961, and the school's western annex on I-215 and Nuevo Road became a Continuation High School in 1993. Now, there are more high schools in the area including Rancho Verde of the Val Verde district. Also middle schools including Lakeside, Perris and Vista Verde, and ten elementary (grades K-6) schools (two are expected to open in 2007).