A rural island with tranquil streets and...

A rural island with tranquil streets and small-town charm, El Segundo is surrounded by a sea of noise, fumes and commerce. Once the self-proclaimed “aerospace capital of the world,” the city today leads a more down-to-earth existence.

The tiny residential enclave, west of Sepulveda Boulevard, is so sheltered that residents sometimes call their town Mayberry. But El Segundo is wrestling with some big-city problems. Jets scream overhead 24 hours a day on their way to and from Los Angeles International Airport. Vandals on all-terrain vehicles threaten the Dunes Blue Butterfly Nature Preserve, the largest remaining coastal dune area in Southern California. And fumes from the Hyperion sewage treatment plant, which absorbs the bulk of Los Angeles’ waste, are the source of the nickname “El Stinko.”

El Segundo is a child of the oil industry, born a company town and created lock, stock and barrel by Standard Oil. Many of its residents are descended from the hard-working roustabouts who constructed the refinery in 1911 with the help of 500 mules.

El Segundo--which means “the second one”--is the home of the state’s second Standard Oil refinery. A 1920s newspaper ad was described the town as “the Standard Oil payroll city.”

Yet for all the refinery’s importance, the town also manufactured some of the world’s most dazzling defense hardware.

Donald Douglas and Jack Northrop were among the first to set up shop there six decades ago, drawn to ideal flying weather, the region’s enthusiasm for aviation and a bounty of cheap land near Mines Field, the predecessor of LAX.

By the late 1980s, nearly 100,000 workers clogged the streets, many owing their livelihoods to a vast web of defense contracts handled by Hughes, Rockwell, Northrop, TRW and Aerospace Corp.

Over the past decade, the number of workers in the city has shrunk by the thousands. City officials hope that their own kind of defense conversion--using real estate vacated by the military for a retail, office and entertainment park--will attract families from nearby cities and airport travelers when it opens next year.

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El Segundo Inside Out

SELLING EL SEGUNDO: A long, cold war between the city and Los Angeles International Airport has taken many twists and turns, mostly about noise and pollution. But earlier this year, the city claimed bragging rights to its proximity to the airport. In an agressive public relations campaign, billboards and posters went up portraying El Segundo as an alternative to the City of Angels. Among the slogans: “One mile from the beach. One mile from LAX. A million miles from L.A.” and “From El Segundo you have a perfectly clear view of the smog that hangs over L.A.”

UPSCALE LOCKUP: Hungarian-born actress Zsa Zsa Gabor brought national attention to El Segundo when she chose the city’s private cells, with catered meals at $85 per day, in which to serve a 72-hour sentence for slapping a Beverly Hills police officer in 1989. The city’s jail cells are no longer for rent.

MAKING WAVES: To make up for destroying the popular surfing spot “El Porto” by building a jetty in the early 1980s, Chevron Oil Co. agreed last year to re-create the spot by building an artificial reef. This joint agreement by Chevron, the Surfrider Foundation and the California Coastal Commission marks the first time that a reef will be built in the United States for the sole purpose of creating waves for surfing.

MUNICIPAL MUNCHERS: If there is a goat paradise, El Segundo’s eat-’em-as-they-grow weed abatement program seemed to be it. In 1983, a sanitation supervisor came up with the idea of using goats to eat brush and ground cover, keeping storm-drain basins clear and saving the city about $15,000 a year. Two years later, El Segundo’s four cud-chewing pals narrowly escaped two kidnaping attempts, and two newborn kids were gnawed to death by a red fox. Soon after, the four goats were killed by wild dogs and replaced with four new ones. --Larry, Freda, Georgina and Nancy--and a little lamb called Shep. The unusual municipal work crew continues to work diligently on patches of vegetation, while Hughes Aircraft workers stare at them through chain-link fences.

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By the Numbers

City Business

Date Founded: Jan. 18, 1917

Area in square miles: 5.5

Number of parks: 10

Number of city employees: 343

1995- 96 budget: $51 million.

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People

Population: 15,223

Households: 6,835

Average household size: 2.23

Median age: 34.3

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Money and Work

Median household income: $46,352

Median household income / L.A. County: $34,965

Median home value: $353,000

Employed workers (16 and older): 9,344

Percentage of women employed: 69.5%

Percentage of men employed: 83.1%

Self- employed: 595

Car- poolers: 915

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Retail Stores

Total number of stores: 242

Number of employees: 3,633

Annual sales: $433 million

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Ethnic Breakdown

Latino: 9%

Black: 1%

Asian: 5%

White: 85%

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Number of Cars per Household

One: 35%

Two: 49%

Three or more: 15%

None: 5%

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Ages

65 and older: 10%

50- 64: 14%

35- 49: 24%

18- 34: 33%

17 and younger: 19%

Source: Claritas Inc. household expenses are averages for1994. All other figures are for 1990. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number.