Livingston, California

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Livingston is a city in Merced County, California. According to the 2000 census, the city population was 10,473. (As discussed below, this may be an underestimate.)

1 Location
2 Agriculture
3 City area
4 Schools
5 Newspapers
6 Churches
7 Labor and Industry
8 Demographics
9 Sister city
10 See also
11 References
12 External links

[edit] Location

Livingston is located at 37°23′4″N, 120°43′18″W (37.384530, -120.721582)^GR1. It lies slightly uphill from where the Southern Pacific Railroad crosses the Merced River. Highway 99 follows the Southern Pacific through the city.

[edit] Agriculture

Livingston lies in the fertile San Joaquin Valley. Like the rest of the valley, it has long, dry summers with abundant irrigation water. The winters are mild, alternating between fog, rain, and sun, with occasional frost. This makes for long growing seasons, with a low risk of mold, storms, drought or other bad weather interfering with crops. Most of the valley has clay-based soils. Livingston is unusual in that the Merced River has deposited large amounts of sand. The sand is presumably the ground-up remnants of Half Dome, El Capitan, and Yosemite Valley.

The main crops of the Livingston area are:

Chickens and turkeys -- The Foster Farms poultry company's headquarters and main processing plant are in Livingston. The chicken ranches import most of their feed from other parts of the United States. The tallest building in the area is Foster Farms' grain elevator.
Dairy -- The Joseph Gallo dairy has the single largest herd in the United States. Neighboring towns (especially Hilmar) have many more cattle.
Grapes -- Ernest and Julio Gallo, the Arakelian family, and many family farmers grow grapes for wine, the table, and raisin-making. Ernest and Julio Gallo have a major grape pressing operation near Livingston.
Almonds
Sweet Potatoes -- 90% of the sweet potatoes grown west of the Rockies are grown and packed in Livingston, Delhi, and Atwater. The sweet potatoes benefit from the sandy soil.
Alfalfa, corn, and soybeans are grown to support the dairies.
Melons -- watermelons, honeydew melons, et cetera.
Peaches -- most of the peach orchards have been replaced by almonds.

A few small farms grow:

Grain -- barley, wheat, et cetera.
Onions
Berries -- strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, et cetera.
Popcorn

[edit] City area

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.0 km² (3.5 mi²), all land. Much of this area is farmland that has been annexed either preemptively, or in anticipation of future growth. The actual city is much smaller.

[edit] Schools

Merced Union High School District
- Livingston High School
Livingston Union School District elementary schools:
- Livingston Middle School
- Campus Park School
- Selma Herndon School
- Yamato Colony School
- Shelby School
Private schools
- St. Jude's Catholic Church used to have a K-8 grade school.
- Longview Mennonite School (outside the city limits)

Many students at Livingston High School attended grade school in Delhi, Ballico, and Cressey.

Features:

Most children are within walking distance of school.
The elementary schools' bus drivers are also their janitors.
Half of the kindergarten classes are bilingual (typically Spanish/English, Punjabi/English, or Portuguese/Spanish/English)
About one-fifth of fourth-grade classes are bilingual (typically Spanish/English or Punjabi/English).
Livingston High School's foreign language department offers classes in Spanish, French, and Punjabi.

[edit] Newspapers

The Livingston Chronicle is published weekly, by the company that publishes the Merced Sun-Star. The Chronicle publishes local happenings, especially Livingston High School academic and athletic events.
The Merced Sun-Star
The Modesto Bee
The San Francisco Chronicle
Livingston California News is an online-only newspaper. Its editor was the managing editor of the Livingston Chronicle for 12 years.

The Bee purchased the Sun-Star and Livingston Chronicle in December, 2003.

[edit] Churches

Livingston has many churches, including:

St. Jude's Roman Catholic Church
An Apostolic Assembly
An Assemblies of God Neighborhood Church
Emmanuel Baptist Church
A Church of Christ
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church
Livingston United Methodist Church (outside the city limits)
A Mennonite Church (outside the city limits)
Two Sikh Gurdwaras (one each of two different denominations)

Livingston is one of the few places in the United States where a mounted sheriff's deputy rides at the head of religious parades because of the religious symbolism.

After a lengthy court battle (which went to the United States Supreme Court), Sikh children as young as eight years old won the right to bring knives (kirpans) to school, if certain safety precautions are followed. The final settlement was at least as restrictive as the provisions of the state law that the school district sought to enforce.

[edit] Labor and Industry

Foster Farms (poultry company)
Joseph Gallo Farms
E & J Gallo Winery
League of Independent Workers of the San Joaquin Valley
United Farm Workers (UFW)
California Teachers Association
Merced Union High School District Teachers Association
California School Employees Association

[edit] Demographics

[edit] Heritage

The residents of Livingston are descended from people of many nations:

Mexicans from Michoacán, the Yucatán, Chihuahua, Veracruz, and other estados.
Other Central Americans from Guatemala, El Salvador, and other countries.
People from Oklahoma and other parts of the United States of America.
Portuguese from the Azores, Angola, and Brazil
Sikhs and Muslims from India and Pakistan
Japanese, mostly from Wakayama [1]
Hmong from Laos
Mennonites from Germany and Russia
Armenians
Vietnamese from South Vietnam
Filipinos
Chinese

There are very few blacks and American Indians in Livingston.

The immigration still continues. Most of the recent immigrants are from Mexico, Central America, and the Punjab.

[edit] Census problems

Because so many residents are immigrants, it is likely that Census figures underestimate the actual population. (The number of automobiles in the town is consistent with a higher population than the official figure.)

According to the census figures, Livingston has one of the highest percentages of married couples with children in California. (This may be an artifact of the population underestimate.)

Because the city is much smaller than its city limits, the population density is much higher than the value calculated by the Census Bureau.

[edit] Census figures

According to the census of 2000, there were 10,473 people, 2,390 households, and 2,143 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,165.3/km² (3,019.8/mi²). There were 2,449 housing units at an average density of 272.5/km² (706.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 36.52% White, 0.74% African American, 0.93% Native American, 14.45% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 41.54% from other races, and 5.76% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 71.81% of the population.

There were 2,390 households out of which 60.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 68.2% were married couples living together, 14.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 10.3% were non-families. 8.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 3.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.37 and the average family size was 4.57.

In the city the population was spread out with 37.7% under the age of 18, 12.5% from 18 to 24, 28.3% from 25 to 44, 15.2% from 45 to 64, and 6.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25 years. For every 100 females there were 101.0 males. For every 100 women age 18 and over, there are 99.3 men.

The median income for a household in the city was $32,500, and the median income for a family was $33,939. Males had a median income of $22,249 versus $19,693 for females. The per capita income for the city was $9,231. About 20.8% of families and 25.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 30.7% of those under age 18 and 20.9% of those age 65 or over.