The state of Baldwin Park

Baldwin Park officials hosted the annual State of the City Address this morning at the Performing Arts Center. It was a full house — probably about 400 people. Guests included Baldwin Park school board members, several water district officials like Municipal Water District board President Leon Garcia and West Covina City Councilman Roger Hernandez.

Mayor Manuel Lozano was the keynote speaker for the address, which was basically one big pat on the back for Baldwin Park.

Among the key areas Lozano emphasized for improvement were public safety, economic vitality, redevelopment and quality of life.

He spent a large portion of the speech talking about the proposed downtown development, which has drawn the ire of a group of residents and business owners who have accused the city of “pushing out the poor.” Lozano criticized these opponents, calling them “hecklers.”

Lozano also touted police and their efforts to extinguish crime in the city. He cited a 7 percent decrease in crime in the last year. Ironic, considering just a few weeks ago the city brought up public safety as one of the reasons they were concerned with former Police Chief Edward Lopez.

I wonder if Lozano and the rest of the council knows Bisno — which is in talks with the city to develop that downtown development I was talking about earlier — is promoting Baldwin Park as crime-laden? A press release I got this week from Bisno’s PR Firm referenced BP’s downtown area as “currently riddled with crime.”