Our Community and Our Aspirations

Our Del Rey community is an economically, ethnically, linguistically, and age diverse community.  Residents range from newly arriving immigrants, many of them undocumented and so forced to subsist on incomes well below mandated minimums, to wealthy professionals. 

The area is particularly characterized by its ethnic diversity and by the ease with which the various ethnic groups are able to interact and communicate with each other.  Local ethnic communities range from those of Japanese ancestry, who are the descendants of those interred during World War II, to the newest arrivals, new Americans from Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, and other lands to the south, who cluster in neighborhoods like that along Slauson Avenue south of Braddock Drive.

Our community is a beautiful area blessed with a wonderful climate.  The people who live here are friendly folks, committed to each other and to improving their homes.  They work hard to maintain the Del Rey community as an attractive, friendly place in which to live, work, or play.

Some of the residents have the means and the educational background to assert the community’s needs vocally and effectively.  Others fear recrimination and deportation if they become too visible, even while they seek to become valued citizens of their new homeland.  Yet, rich or poor, privileged or undocumented, native-born or aspiring citizen, we stand united in our common quest to establish and sustain the happy, prosperous lifestyle that is the right of all community members.

One result of this inter-ethnic communication is the oneness of purpose that manifested itself recently in the outpouring of popular support from all groups and ethnicities to save the local hospital from closure.  That oneness continues in a united desire to improve the welfare and well-being of all in our community and to enhance the lifestyle of all community constituents.

Our community is also age diverse.  There is a large group of young people drawn to the area by the opportunity to find a better life and to provide opportunities for their children.  Other groups of young people are drawn by the outdoor lifestyle and they seek a community of which they can be proud and where they can build their futures.

The elderly, on the other hand, represent a growing segment of the local population.  The elderly present special needs.  The Del Rey Homeowners & Neighbors Association urges the development of innovative programs to help the elderly to stay longer in their familiar home surroundings,  to maintain good health and an energetic lifestyle well into the elder years, and to reduce the costs ordinarily associated with aging.

The Del Rey Homeowners & Neighbors Association is unusual in welcoming renters to full membership in the Association.  Yet, the local homeowners have long been the solid core that keeps our community the attractive place that it is.  We view it as an achievement every time that a local resident is able to advance economically to join the ranks of homeowners. 

We are not satisfied.  We want our community to be all that it can be so that it can shine as a beacon of the achievable for others to follow.  We want our City to be responsive to the needs of its citizens.  We seek to break down the barriers of distance, size, and indifference that too often separate the citizens of our City from the municipal employees who maintain essential services in the community.

These are ambitious undertakings, but we are a committed group of neighbors.  Together we can accomplish greatness.