Eight cities south of downtown Los Angeles were ranked Tuesday among the worst small cities in America by the Washington-based national finance website WalletHub.
Bell, Bell Gardens, Compton, Huntington Park, Lynwood, Maywood, Paramount and South Gate in Los Angeles County were in the bottom 10 among 1,268 U.S. cities analyzed by WalletHub. Delano near Bakersfiled and Watsonville south of San Jose rounded out the bottom ten.
The rankings of cities with a population between 25,000 and 100,000 were based on 22 measures of affordability, economics, education, health and quality of life.
WalletHub said the ranking was designed “to identify the small cities where Americans can enjoy good quality of life and affordable living costs.”
No California city made it into the top 100, primarily because of the high cost of housing. Los Gatos near San Jose was ranked the state’s best at 109. Manhattan Beach at 179 was the highest ranked in Los Angeles County, and Newport Beach at 456 was the top small city in Orange County.
Two of the cities in Los Angeles County are well known nationally, notably Compton for its hip-hop music and gang violence, and Bell for a scandal involved highly paid elected officials.
The complete ranking is available online.