Cerritos is a city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, within the Gateway Cities region that lines the corridor between Los Angeles and Orange County. It is bounded roughly by the 605 freeway on the east and the 91 freeway on the south, placing it about twenty miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles and adjacent to the Orange County line. The land that became Cerritos was once part of the Rancho Los Cerritos, and for generations the area was farmed and ranched. By the mid-twentieth century it was dominated by dairy operations, and when residents moved to incorporate in 1956 they named the new city Dairy Valley. That agricultural identity proved short-lived. As Southern California's postwar suburban boom reached the area, the city transformed rapidly, and in 1967 residents renamed it Cerritos, adopting the name of the Spanish land grant and signaling a new, master-planned suburban orientation. Cerritos is known today as a deliberately planned community. Its public amenities are unusually strong for a city of its size: the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts is a regionally significant venue, and the Cerritos Library has drawn national recognition for its design and programs. The Los Cerritos Center serves as the city's major regional shopping destination, and a large auto-sales corridor operates along its freeway frontage. The city's population of roughly 48,000 is notably diverse. Residents are served by the ABC Unified School District, and the city's planning history, cultural facilities, and freeway access make it a stable, amenity-rich suburban community within one of the nation's largest metropolitan regions.