Twice each weekday, Alhambra undergoes a population...

Twice each weekday, Alhambra undergoes a population migration unique among American cities:

As the Alhambra school district’s 20,000 elementary and high school students go home for the day, more than 22,000 adults arrive for evening English and citizenship classes offered to the foreign-born who increasingly define the landscape of Southern California.

The once predominantly non-Latino white community has seen a 36% decrease in the number of white residents since 1980, when the moon cake was as unfamiliar as the hamburger once was to Russians.

But today, the bean-filled Chinese delicacy is as common as a glazed doughnut in most Alhambra bakeries. Asians now make up 37% of the city’s population. In 1995, minority-group enrollment in Alhambra’s schools hit 92%, with Asian American students making up 54% and Latino students 38%.

Newcomers are drawn by the city’s well-maintained parks and its convenient location, eight miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

And Valley Boulevard, less than a mile from Monterey Park--the San Gabriel Valley’s original hub of Asian immigration--became a natural choice for business owners interested in capturing the Asian market.

In the 1950s, earlier migrants came from Lincoln Heights and other parts of Los Angeles; Italian Americans opened delicatessens, novelty shops and other businesses along Alhambra’s three-mile stretch of Valley Boulevard.

In the 1960s, the Junior Chamber of Commerce, hoping to draw more attention and business to Valley Boulevard, revived its annual postwar “Hi Neighbor Day” parade, bringing back for its revival Grand Marshal Cheryl Tiegs, an Alhambra High School graduate turned cover girl.

For two decades, the chamber gamely staged its April parade, but it didn’t work. Only in the years after the parade ended and the composition of Alhambra changed did Asian immigrants start opening up restaurants, supermarkets and furniture stores.

Although Valley Boulevard has always been busy, it was never the sentimental heart of the city. Through the 1970s, Main Street was lined with specialty shops, anchored by popular stores such as J.C. Penney, Woolworth and the local department store, Liebergs.

Eventually, it too fell victim to shopping malls. It wasn’t until 1987 that redevelopment millions spruced up the original storefronts and rebuilt others, attracting strollers and shoppers to its quaint tile-and-stucco shops.

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Romanticism--Alhambra was christened by 19th century bookworms. The daughters of the city’s founding father, Benjamin D. Wilson, had read Washington Irving’s book titled after the Moorish palace in Spain and suggested it to their father. The first streets of the area were named after characters and places in the novel: Granada, Vega, Almansor and Boabdil, which was later changed to Main Street.

A First--1939 was a stellar year for movies in more ways than one. That year, James Edwards Sr. opened what is widely believed to be the earliest version of a multiscreen theater in the nation, a two-screen operation on Main Street. Today, 10 screens have replaced the original two at the site.

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By The Numbers

City Business

Incorporated: July 11, 1903

Area in square miles: 8

Number of city parks: 5

City employees: 411 full time

1995-96 budget: $46 million

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People

Population: 82,106

Households: 28,362

Average household size: 3

Median age: 32

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Ethnic Breakdown

Asian: 37%

Black: 2%

Latino: 36%

White: 24%

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Money and Work Median household income: $31,368

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

Median home value: $227,900

Employed workers (16 and older): 41,205

Percentage of women employed: 54%

Percentage of men employed: 73%

Self-employed: 2,527

Car- poolers: 6,073

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Retail Stores

Number of stores: 525

Number of employees: 5,301

Annual sales: $471.2 million

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Families:

Married couples with children: 26%

Married couples with no children: 22%

Non-family households: 31%

Other types of families: 21%

Source: Claritas Inc. Household expenses are averages for 1994. All other figures are for 1990. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number.