Wednesday, November 16, 2011

A Tale of Two Cities: Commerce Vs. Industry

When I moved to LA in 1981, I was an outside sales rep, so I had to learn the city “on the run”. The first time I saw these two cities on the map:

City of Commerce
City of Industry

I tried to envision what they looked like based on their names. I thought the City of Commerce would resemble Wall Street, with financial institutions everywhere. And the City of Industry would look like Cleveland or Pittsburgh, with smokestacks forever.

Boy, was I wrong.

The City of Commerce, aside from its casino, and its outlet center The Citadel (which started life as the Samsom Tire & Rubber factory), looks like the industrial city (not quite like Cleveland though).


The Citadel- above and below




The City of Industry, with its 219 residents (much like Vernon) and oddly gerrymandered shape, is newer, and relatively green. Although it is geared towards business- 92% is industrial, 8% is commercial- it doesn’t have that Rust Belt city feeling. It has a regional shopping mall (Puente Hills), an award-winning golf course (Pacific Palms Resort, formerly Industry Hills Sheraton), and wants to be the new home of Los Angeles Stadium, if Los Angeles ever gets an NFL team again .
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 19, 2011 at 9:43 PM

    The first time I went to the Citadel Outlet was several years ago and I was very disappointed. I returned last year and I was pleasantly surprised by how the outlet had expanded. I heard from employees that the expansion is not finished yet. Check out their directory online and you will see how much better it is. Thanks, Lisa, for the info on this. I love the site!!!

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  2. BarbaraDecember 20, 2011 at 11:19 AM

    I have been to the Citadel recently. Quite a change. Glad to have a good outlet so close. Is the reason for the design the fact that it used to be a rubber factory?

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