Baldwin Park, California

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Baldwin Park is a city located in the central San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 75,837.

City of Baldwin Park Seal

1 History
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 External links

[edit] History

Baldwin Park began as part of cattle grazing land belonging to the San Gabriel Mission. It eventually became part of the Rancho Azusa de Dalton and the Rancho La Puente properties. The community became known as Vineland in 1880. By 1906 it changed to Baldwin Park. It was named after Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin. In 1956 Baldwin Park became the 47th incorporated city in the State of California. The city has one of the lowest crime rates per capita in the general Los Angeles region. Currently the city is pushing to revitalize its economic base. There are six active Project Redevelopment Areas located in strategic areas of the city.

Projects within these redevelopment areas are as diverse, including high-quality senior housing, Home Depot, Starbucks, Harley Davidson, a transit oriented district (TOD) near the Metrolink Train Station and various other thriving businesses. Baldwin Park is home to the first In-N-Out burger stand, the first drive-thru in California, which closed in 2004 and has been replaced with a new one. The In-N-Out museum and company store opened in 2006 on Francisquito Avenue.

As of September 1882, the first school house was built on the southeast corner of North Maine and Los Angeles Avenues in 1884. It contained two rows of double seats, a central aisle leading to the teacher's desk, and a heating stove at the north end. Mr. Frazier was the first teacher. In April 1888, The Vineland School District was established according to county records.

The first Board of Trustees took office on July 1, 1888, and elected Miss Jessie Washburn to teach the district school that fall. The building was sold in 1890 and moved to another site for a private residence. The district built the second school in 1890 and hired two teachers, Miss Ellen Lang and Miss Venna O. Finney. The second school house was relegated to the past in 1912. It later became a private Japanese school and stood as a landmark until it caught fire on September 5, 1936, and burned to the ground. Today, the Baldwin Park Unified School District lies contiguously with the city's borders. There are 23 schools within this district. The budget is well over $100 million. Currently the district is building new school structures to accommodate growth. The district is adopting data driven strategies to help students achieve better scores in the API tests. There is an active push by the district to hire new teachers while providing retirement incentives for teachers who wish to retire.

In the 1950's there was Vias Turkey Ranch about one mile from the now 10 Freeway just off of Frazier Ave., that was not only a hugh commerical turkey ranch but famous in the Valley for the like wise hugh outdoor avery. It had a unique selection of birds and also housed two or three types of deer species. When the value of the land escalated, the property was sold and the Ranch moved to Apple Valley where they are currently raising ostriches.

At Elwin Elementry School you could go to the river bed next to the playground and find sea shells. It is hard to believe that this area was all under hundreds of feet of sea water at one time.

The Milikan Dairy was on Frazier and the schools enjoyed bring kins to see how their milk was processed from the cow to the bottle. It might sound dull by today's standard but you have to remember that in those days not everybody had a tv and then it was black and white with a nine inch screen.

Popular pastimes in the 1950's also included riding at the horse stables across the bridge of the San Gabriel River, which was an open sand and rock river bed, and ride one hour for the sum of $1.00. Seems cheap until you realize the minimum wage was fifty cents an hour.

In summer 2005, Save Our State, an anti-illegal immigration group based in Ventura, launched a series of protests against Danzas Indigenas, an art installation at the Baldwin Park Metrolink station designed for the MTA in 1993 by artist Judy Baca. The monument bears several engraved statements whose origins are not attributed. At issue was one particular inscription--It was better before they came--that Save Our State claimed was directed against Caucasians. In fact, according to Baca, that sentence was uttered by a white Baldwin Park resident in the 1950s; he was lamenting the influx of persons of Mexican ancestry into the San Gabriel Valley following World War II. Save Our State's founder Joseph Turner publicly vowed to continue the protests, which drew enormous numbers of counter-protesters and required considerable expenditures on crowd control and riot police, until Baldwin Park's city treasury was sufficiently depleted as to force it to remove the art installation. As of August 2006, the monument still stands and the protests have ceased.

[edit] Geography

Location of Baldwin Park, California

Baldwin Park is located at 34°4′58″N, 117°58′18″W (34.082809, -117.971677)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 17.6 km² (6.8 mi²). 17.2 km² (6.7 mi²) of it is land and 0.3 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (1.91%) is water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 75,837 people, 16,961 households, and 15,061 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,396.5/km² (11,379.2/mi²). There were 17,430 housing units at an average density of 1,010.5/km² (2,615.3/mi&sup2. The racial makeup of the city was 40.18% White, 1.61% Black or African American, 1.45% Native American, 11.64% Asian, 0.15% Pacific Islander, 40.51% from other races, and 4.48% from two or more races. 78.67% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 16,961 households out of which 55.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.8% were married couples living together, 17.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 11.2% were non-families. 8.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 3.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.44 and the average family size was 4.53.

In the city the population was spread out with 34.9% under the age of 18, 11.9% from 18 to 24, 30.6% from 25 to 44, 16.4% from 45 to 64, and 6.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 27 years. For every 100 females there were 100.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $41,629, and the median income for a family was $41,256. Males had a median income of $26,873 versus $22,186 for females. The per capita income for the city was $11,562. About 15.4% of families and 18.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21.8% of those under age 18 and 12.8% of those age 65 or over.