Lauren Boland

The small pocket neighborhood of Lakewood Village Located in Long Beach California is one of many years of history made with love and devotion. If you speak with anyone from Lakewood Village the first thing they will tell you is how proud they are to live in such a wonderful community. I know what you're thinking, "everyone says that about their neighborhood." True, but my perspective goes back three generation. Here are some tid bits about the early days of the neighborhood.

I am slightly bias about the area due to the fact that my family has lived here for almost 80 years. But don't let my family stories tell you how wonderful the neighborhood is, the history alone of why the area was credited and devolved is interesting enough.

Lakewood Village was devolved primarily as a community to house the large work force for Douglas and was centered around Long Beach City College. During World War Two, Lakewood Village was the main community for those hard working Americans who were building the air planes for the war effort. Many of the homes were built with "guest quarters" or "a guest house". These were built to help the large number of workers needed to keep up with the war demands. Also, money was tight during this era so renting a room or a portion of your home was not un-common.

Safety was a top priority during this time and many corners in the neighborhood had anti air craft guns just incase the enemy was able to make it to Long Beach. Lakewood Village was extremely venerable during that time due to the fact that Douglas was heart of our air craft manufacturing for the war.

My father always tells us the story of the day the warning sirens went off and they truly believed the enemy had finally arrived. He described the load sounds of the anti air craft guns going off and the pandemonium in his home. His mother was working at Douglas at the time and his father gathered he and his brothers in to the bath room. My grandfather had to put them all on top of each other separated by mattresses so as to protect them if they were bombed. This is the technique they were taught in case bombing occurred. Lucky it was only a mistake but anyone who lived in Lakewood Village in the early 40's will remember that day.

Foreclosures and Lakewood Village

As many of you know the real estate and mortgage markets have spiraled downward for over a year and have left many foreclosed homes on the market. As much as we don't want to admit it, this trend has crept in to our neighborhood and there are a few things we should be aware of for the preservation of our safety in our wonderful community.

1. Most foreclosures are abandon properties and can be inhabited by just about anyone who can get it.
2. Just about anyone can get a list of these properties with little effort on the internet, thus potentially bringing in unwanted persons in our neighborhood.
3. A large lending institution will be releasing their foreclosures this summer and this may put a few more in our neighborhood we need to be aware of.

How to spot new foreclosures and what you can do to help your neighborhood

All foreclosed properties eventually have a real estate agent who is hired by the banks (or assets managers) to list the properties for sale. Often, we don't know them by name because they are from out of the area. Also, they don't know each property individually due to the fact that they may have up to 500 listing from that particular bank. Bottom line, neighbors know more about what's going on at the property than they do when it comes to day to day activities. If you see any suspicious activities- call the police. If the property appears to be in bad shape (over grown grass, broken windows, a terrible smell, trash, junky, ect, you can call and report the property to the city. The City of Long Beach Building Inspector is the department who handles these issues. You can call the office to report any problems with vacant homes or get information at 562-570-CODE.

Together we can take preventive measures to help our wonderful neighborhood stay safe and beautiful. If you have any further questions you can email Lauren Boland at info@laurenboland.com or call 562-989-4091.