Florence Avenue

Florence Avenue is a major east−west street in central Los Angeles County and South Los Angeles, in Southern California.

The oldest operating McDonald's is on Florence at Lakewood, in Downey, California.

Route

It starts off as Mills Road at Janine Drive in Whittier. At Telegraph Road, it changes to Florence. West of La Cienega Boulevard, it swerves into Aviation Boulevard, which is a north-south street, in Inglewood.

Florence Avenue runs through the cities of Inglewood, Los Angeles, Huntington Park (where it intersects Pacific Boulevard), Bell, Bell Gardens, Downey, Santa Fe Springs, and unincorporated Los Angeles County bordering the City of Whittier.

Florence Avenue also crosses under Harbor Freeway (Interstate 110), Long Beach Freeway (Interstate 710), San Gabriel River Freeway (Interstate 605), and Golden Gate Freeway (Interstate 5).

Public transit

Metro Local lines 40, 111, 120, and 311, in addition to Metro Rapid line 740, run through Florence Avenue; Lines 111 and 311 run through most of Florence starting at Studebaker Road, Lines 40 and 740 run through Florence in Inglewood only and Line 120 east of Studebaker Road.

Rapid transit

The Metro Blue Line light rail serves the Florence Metro station, at Graham Avenue and Florence Avenue in the unincorporated community of Florence.

The under construction Crenshaw/LAX Line will have 2 new metro rail stations on Florence Avenue, the Fairview Heights Metro station at West Blvd in the Hyde Park district, and the Downtown Inglewood Metro station at La Brea Avenue in Inglewood.

History

The intersection of Florence and Normandie was made famous during the 1992 riots in Los Angeles when several men pulled Reginald Denny from his truck and beat him in the intersection. Segments of the avenue traverse some of the rougher neighborhoods of south Los Angeles County, however on the eastern end it goes through more of the quiet residential areas. Despite that, there are dozens of retail outlets and local restaurants especially in the city of Huntington Park at the intersection of Pacific Boulevard and Florence Avenue.