The crime rate in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood of South Los Angeles County more than doubled just since 2019.

Its violent crime rate per 100,000 residents was 2,659 in 2021, up from 823 in 2019, according to reports from Los Angeles County’s public health department. The neighborhood’s 2021 crime rate was also 17% higher than the rate in Los Angeles County, 2,273.

Several longtime residents said this is part of a larger decline of the neighborhood since they have been there.

The 3.5-square-mile Florence-Firestone community in unincorporated Los Angeles County was once a bustling area with factories such as Goodyear and others, like Firestone tires, nearby.

But the area suffered as factories shut down in the 1960s and 1970s, according to a PBS SoCal story.

“It was pretty common to have a fear of either getting in a fight, getting jumped, being robbed,” said former resident, Alma Olaguez. “It feels like a bubble where you forget that there’s other ways to live, or you forget that there’s other opportunities and then people…continue that cycle.” 

Olaguez said she left the neighborhood because she was always on high alert and had consistent anxiety there.

Residents in high-crime areas can suffer from mental health issues, even trauma, from being near or witnessing crimes. In some cases, this trauma can cause PTSD.

“The reason people get post-traumatic stress from trauma is because it violates their sense of the world being a safe and predictable place. Once that’s violated, all bets are off,” said Mitchell L. Eisen a forensic psychology professor at Cal State LA.

Neighborhood resident Joseph Macillas is concerned about the gangs tagging his neighborhood.  

Macillas said the fear of violence breaking out near him is on mind a lot because of frequent vandalism by the gangs — making their presence clear. 

That “can’t really be changed much,” he said. “Walls or houses tagged up, just kind of makes you feel kind of eerie.”