Torrance has an improved economic landscape, Mayor George Chen said during his second state of the city address, citing a balanced budget, low unemployment rate, the opening of new businesses and newly formed international connections as some of the city’s recent accomplishments.

Chen delivered his speech Friday in front of hundreds of attendees, including city employees, business representatives, community leaders and others, during an event organized by the Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce.

Chen became the mayor during the June 2022 statewide primary, making history as the city’s first non-White top elected official. He was first elected to the City Council in 2018 in the at-large election and then reelected in 2020 during the city’s inaugural district-based election.

He took the helm as the South Bay’s largest city continues to confront various issues, including economic uncertainties caused by the pandemic.

When Chen ran for mayor, he counted improving Torrance’s financial outlook, attracting new businesses and addressing the homeless crisis among some of his top priorities.

At least some of the goals had been achieved, he said.

Chen focused the majority of his speech on the city’s improved economic landscape.

The Torrance City Council adopted a balanced budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year in June. The citywide budget currently stands at almost half a billion dollars.

The city had a “structural deficit for the long-term” when it entered fiscal year 2021 after the pandemic, leading to a budget cut of $20 million that same year, Finance Director Sheila Poisson previously said.

But this year marks the first time since the pandemic that the city will not have to make any significant budget cuts. The savings will allow the city to allocate additional funds to improving public services, safety and programs for the community, Chen said.

“Do you remember when our city’s reserves were down to $585,000? And we are now projecting reserves of $58 million dollars, do you know how hard that is to do? To move two digits to the right? Our financial ratings are moving up,” the mayor said. “And that’s huge.”

As a testament to Torrance’s financial stability, new businesses are opening up across the city, Chen said. City staffers had issued 542 new business licenses issued in the past eight months, he said.

Apple will soon launch a store at the Del Amo Fashion Center, the mayor said, eliciting excited murmurs from the audience. New tenants, such as Hadrian, a space and defense manufacturer, and Yonex, a sporting goods company, have moved in to Torrance Gateway Property, an office park owned by the Sares Regis Group.

At the same time, the city’s unemployment rate has continued to decline. It stood at 4.1% as of July, one of the lowest in the South Bay and across the county, Chen said.

Torrance is also adding additional housing stock. An apartment complex with 218 units will be built on the site of the former Gable House Bowl. Also on the horizon is a new 200-unit luxury apartment complex by Legacy Partners.

Besides improving the local economy, Torrance is also expanding its international footprint. The city launched the new Friendship Cities Program this year in partnership with cities overseas to better pursue business opportunities and attract foreign direct investment, Chen said.

It has hosted a number of foreign delegations, including those from Pakistan, Austria, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. In just a few weeks, the City Council will depart for Torrance’s sister city, Kashiwa, Japan, to commemorate their 50-year relationship. From there, the council will travel to Hwaseong, South Korea, to sign Torrance’s third friendship cities agreement.

In regard to homelessness, the mayor said the city has secured nearly $3.3 million in funding, which allows it to extend the life of its tiny homes village, a 40-unit complex that provides transitional housing to people who are homeless, to July 2025.

The city’s effort on the issue is making an impact, Chen said, citing the most recent statistics from the Los Angeles County Homeless Services Authority, which noted that street homelessness in Torrance had declined by 44% since 2022.

“We know the village will not solve the epidemic of homelessness,” Chen said, “but it is addressing the crisis with tangible solutions, offering opportunities to those unhoused to change the course of their lives, for the better.”

While the economy comprised the bulk of Chen’s speech, he did touch on other topics, including the Torrance Police Department — which he praised.

The city has had its challenges on that front. To this day, for example, Black Lives Matter advocates have continued protesting the killing of Christopher De’Andre Mitchell during City Council meetings.

In 2018, Torrance police fatally shot Mitchell, a Black man, after seeing him appear to move his hands toward a gun in his lap, which turned out to be an air rifle.

Torrance police had also been involved in other controversies, such as a 2021 scandal involving racist texts and another in 2020 involving the police’s painting of a swastika on an impounded car.

Chen did not directly address the scandals in his speech. But he praised the Torrance Police Department’s contribution to public safety. The overall crime rate in the city has dropped 13%, with reductions in assaults, auto theft, hate crimes, and residential and commercial burglaries, he said.

A new real-rime response Center is slated to open by the end of the year. This will allow the police to capture an incident in real-time by using video technology and crime analytic software before deploying officers to the scene, Chen said.

The mayor also gave a shout out to the Fire Department, which “responded to a record number of service calls, including 12,433 rescue and emergency medical service incidents and 174 fires,” he said.

In his speech, the mayor also touted the opening of the new regional transit center in Torrance in June. The decades-long project was completed with the goal of extending the Metro C-line project to Torrance.

That plan, however, is in danger of being axed, as two of Torrance councilmembers, Aurelio Mattucci and Jon Kaji, sought to scrap the project during a Transportation Committee meeting in July, citing concerns about the increase of unhoused individuals.

Chen had yet to comment publicly on his colleagues’ suggestion. Instead, he noted the transit center’s role in expanding passenger access.