Baldwin Park, California

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.

Related Topics:
San Gabriel Valley - Los Angeles County, California - United States - 2000

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Like many aging working-class suburbs throughout the Los Angeles area, Baldwin Park has massive crime problems such as vandalism, violent street gangs, prostitution, and drug dealing. A rundown motel once filled with vice has since been redeveloped as a large shopping center anchored by Wal-Mart with other retailers and fast food restaurants. The city has attracted a Harley-Davidson retailer as a major sales tax revenue generator as well.

Related Topics:
Wal-Mart - Harley-Davidson

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Baldwin Park is home to the first In-N-Out burger stand, the first drive-thru in California, which closed in 2004 and will soon be converted into a museum. The previous In-N-Out has been replaced with a new one, in which the museum is still being constructed on Francisquito Avenue.

Related Topics:
In-N-Out - California - 2004

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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.

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In summer 2005, Save Our State, an anti-illegal immigration group based in Ventura, launched a series of protests against the installation at the Baldwin Park Metrolink station of an artwork that allegedly contained anti-Anglo overtones. At issue was an inscription--It was better before they came--that Save Our State claimed was discriminatory toward Caucasians. In fact, the inscription is a quote uttered by a white Baldwin Park resident in the 1950s, lamenting the influx of persons of Mexican ancestry into the San Gabriel Valley following World War II. Save Our State's founder Joseph Turner has publicly vowed to continue the protests, which have drawn enormous numbers of counter-protesters and required considerable expenditures on crowd control and riot police, until Baldwin Park's city treasury is sufficiently depleted as to force it to remove the art installation.

Related Topics:
Illegal immigration - Ventura - Metrolink - Mexican - World War II

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