Downey used to be a middle class, conservative city. With the closing of North American Rockwell and nearby General Motors and facilities the conservatives moved out and the area is now Dem stronghold.
From the time I discovered it in 1978 until it closed, I used to go to Wenzel's at least once or twice a month--I lived in Whittier. I probably bought hundreds of records there.
Yes, Downey was once a conservative city. After a series of pro-Communist and pro-criminal decisions by the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Downey school board ruled that Earl Warren High School be simply called Warren High School, as it is today.