What to Expect When Visiting Paramount

Apr 5
08:46

2012

Bjorn Brieman

Bjorn Brieman

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

Paramount, CA is a great city that is centrally located in southern CA. It's close proximity to everything popular about southern CA makes it a great place to live and visit.

mediaimage

Most southern CA natives know that Paramount is located in the heart of Southern California and is less than 30 minutes from cities like Los Angeles, Redondo Beach and Long Beach. However,What to Expect When Visiting Paramount  Articles there are probably a few things about the city that you don’t know yet.

One of the things that makes Paramount such a popular destination, other than its prime location is its climate and weather. Paramount, like other cities in the Southern California area has a subtropical-Mediterranean climate. This means the summers are dry and warm while the winters are mildly cool and sometimes wet. Anyway you look at it, Paramount’s climate is mild year-round with the average highest temperature being 85 degrees in July and the average lowest temperature being 49 degrees in January.

Paramount covers an area of only 4.8 square miles, but has a population of 54,098 (according to the 2012 Census). The population of Paramount grew rapidly during the 1990s and early 2000s, it has slowly been decreasing since then. Paramount is a fairly youthful city as the majority of the population is made up of people ages 40 and under.

Paramount started out in the late 1700s and was separated into two ranchos that were both controlled by the Spanish government. Later on, California was ceded to the United States after the Mexican-American War. Much later in 1948, Paramount was finally established as a city in Los Angles County. In its early days, Paramount was the meeting place for area hay traders would announce the price for hay that would then be used by the New York mercantile markets as the standard hay-price worldwide.

As Paramount’s population grew so did the amount of restaurants and stores in the area. Also, because Paramount’s population is so eclectic, so are the choices of restaurants. You can find everything from Mexican and Vietnamese to Hawaiian and Jamaican restaurants in Paramount, not to mention American classics like BBQ, sandwiches and pizza.If you want to go out for drinks, keep in mind that last call is at 2 am and lots of restaurants and bars offer happy hour until about 7pm usually.

Paramount’s population also means there are many opportunities for celebration. Some of the annual festivals you can enjoy while visiting Paramount include the The Los Angeles County Irish Fair and Music Festival typically held in March. Nearby you can check out the South Bay Greek Festival held every July in neighboring Redondo Beach and the National Hispanic Heritage Month festival every September and Long Beach as well as the Long Beach Scottish Festival every February.

If you’re going to be driving to Paramount or renting a car, you’ll probably need to know which highways are easily accessible. Paramount is actually bordered by major highways on all four sides. To the south is the Artesia Freeway (SR 91) which will take you Anaheim, driving east and to the coast and Gardenia Freeway, driving west. The west side of Paramount is bordered by the Long Beach Freeway (Interstate 710), which can take you south down to Long Beach or north up to Los Angeles. 

Bordering Paramount’s east side is the Lakewood Boulevard (SR19) which can also take you north to Los Angeles through Downey or south to Long Beach and the San Diego Freeway. Running across Paramount’s northern border is the Glenn Anderson/Century Freeway, also known as I-105 or the 105. This major highway can take you west to Redondo Beach and the Los Angeles International Airport or east to Norwalk where it dead ends into Interstate 605, which runs north and south.

There are several major roads in Paramount that lead to the neighboring towns of Downey, Bellflower and Lakewood. These roads are where you will find most of the best shops, restaurants and attractions in Paramount. The main roads include Alondra Boulevard, Paramount Boulevard, Rosecrans Avenue, Downey Avenue and Somerset Boulevard. Most of these streets do not change names when they enter the neighboring towns so if you want to visit somewhere in a different town with the same street name as one in Paramount, chances are you just need to get on that road in Paramount and just stay on it as you go right into the next town.