Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

E-mail: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

Fax: 626-307-9081

The taxpaying voters in Monterey Park are becoming more and more frustrated by the lack of local shopping for all of the residents.  The famous Market Place is still several years from being an active shopping center since the developers need two major chains to sign contracts to be the anchor stores so they can obtain a construction loan.

City Manager Paul Talbot, an Alhambra resident, has been pushing the Council to vote to have more housing built in the city. One location is on a city owned parking lot. Another location is our city yard.  A third site is the old nursery across from Resurrection Cemetery that would have a better use as a shopping center for the residents on the east side of town.

I expressed our frustration at Oral Communication at the October 2 Council Meeting.

I have lived in Monterey Park since September 1971. My husband and I moved into a little house on Mooney Drive on the east side of town. Our home has a beautiful view of Mount Wilson and New Avenue dead ended next door to Councilmember Marty Martinez’ property.

The east side of Orange was not developed and Country Road just south of us dead-ended at the end of a housing development.  The speeding cars on Mooney caused several accidents as parked cars were damaged.  Residents had to drive down from the hills on Kays to get to Mooney and drive down Pomelo, Orange or Cathryn to reach Graves since Country Road was closed to thru traffic. So I contacted Los Angeles County and Monterey Park to see if they could help reduced the speeding cars and possible deadly crashes.

In 1972 the county and city posted signs to warn drivers about the blind curve and reduced the speed limits.

We purchase our home in 1975 and were not notified that a developer made a sweetheart deal with the City Council to develop the vacant land off of Orange and keep County Road closed to thru traffic. Peter Chan, Judy Chu and Mike Eng live in that new development built in 1976.

Our city attorneys have advised me that Country Road cannot be opened to thru traffic because of the real estate deal made by the Council.

In the 1980s developers decided to take advantage of the residents and built as many condo units on each property without providing any green or open space for the residents.  One such project is on Pomelo near Monterey Vista School that is so overbuilt that the fire department has a fire stand in the project and the only green belt is between the sidewalk and the curb.

The residents took a stand and we enacted several laws reducing the number of units in each project and our right to vote on zoning changes on projects of one acre or more.

The residents are not happy with the sweetheart deal made to TELACU on property that was purchased to extend our library and add additional parking to our civic center.

Now this Council majority has approved selling another one of our parking lots to a developer across street from TELACU.

This Council has also approved an exclusive contract with another developer to determine it if is feasible to built 25 homes at our city yard and move the yard to another property on Potrero Grande.

Another developer said they want to build 95 homes on Potrero Grande across the street from Resurrection Cemetery.

We get to vote on the zoning changes for the city yard and Potrero Grande since the property is one acre or more.

This Council should listen to the residents’ concerns about overcrowding our hometown.

We want shopping centers not more housing.  We want Monterey Park to still be one of the best places to live, work and shop.

Item 15 on the agenda was a request to grant a pre-development loan to LINC .

I reminded the Council that LINC, the developers, have been approved for a $834,833 loan to built a six unit low to moderate housing project on our city parking lot by this Council majority in July 2013.  The funds are from HUD, which are our federal tax dollars so there was be no impact to our General Fund.

Tonight they are requesting another $83,483 or 10% of the loan to determine if the project is feasible.  It sounds like LINC is looking for maximum financing from HUD funds.

Do you remember what happen when the Real Estate Market crashed because of maximum financing to borrowers who defaulted on their loans? It almost destroyed our economy.

What guarantee will we have if the project does not fly and LINC defaults on this loan?

Are we going to place a lien on their bank accounts or real estate to protect Monterey Park?

You have already promised us that the city would not invest in any questionable deals in our investment policy.

Please do not make another sweetheart deal to developers that will impact the residents of our hometown.

The Council discussed the issue and asked for clarification from Paul Talbot and City Attorney Mark Hensley about this loan.  They were advised that this loan was part of the previously approved loan. Since this is HUD money the city will not be at a financial risk.

Councilmembers Teresa Real Sebastian, Anthony Wong, Hans Liang and Peter Chan voted to provide additional funds to the developer.  Mitch Ing voted NO as his did on the original sales agreement and loan.

So the residents can look forward to another housing project across the street from City Hall and the library if LINC determines that the parking lot is a good location to construct their latest project.

Be prepared to spend $350,000 more or less to purchase another home in the neighborhood so it can be torn down to pave another parking lot for our civic center.

Our new city motto should be “Welcome to Monterey Park. Now go home because you have no place to park at the civic center”.

Item 20 was the second reading of the Identification Signs for Non-Residential Properties. The code amendment is to require subtitles on the Chinese business signs in the modern Latin alphabet.  The old ordinance requiring English subtitles on the business signs was removed from our city’s laws based on our city attorneys’ legal opinion that is was unconstitutional in May 2013 after 27 years on the books.

I reminded the Council they will be voting to have subtitles on our Chinese language business signs in the modern Latin lettering as a code amendment.

Please vote to approve this amendment spelling out the business names in English our common language so we can report any emergencies to 911.

I do not want to be standing on Garvey Avenue in front of 5 restaurants and call 911 to report an emergency at a restaurant without being able to specify which restaurant needs fire or police assistance.

This ordinance is a matter of public safety. This ordinance is a matter of life and death.

Approximately 22 other residents spoke on this issue or had their e-mails read into the record.  Most of the speakers wanted the signs with English subtitles. Only three people did not want this ordinance amended to include the modern Latin alphabet. One of the speakers suggested that the city remove the “Mom and Pop” shops and that would solve the issue.

Councilmembers Hans Liang, Anthony Wong and Peter Chan wanted this issue tabled until they had reports on the constitutionality of requiring English or the modern Latin alphabet descriptions on the business signs.  They are waiting for several civil rights groups to weigh in on the subject before they would vote on the issue.

Councilmembers Teresa Real Sebastian and Mitch Ing wanted to approve this ordinance that could be amended later if there was a legal issue.  They pointed out that a business could apply for a sign now without any requirements of English or a description of the business.  They city could not legally require them to add any additional language to their signs.

Councilmembers Liang, Wong and Chan expressed their desire to table this ordinance until a later date.  A number of the voters in the audience became very upset, as they believed these Councilmembers were playing the race card against them.  Many of the residents walked out of the meeting while Mr. Liang was speaking.  He made a remark that they perceived as racist.

Several residents have remarked that they will never vote for these three members again.

Councilmembers Real Sebastian and Ing expressed their desire to vote on this ordinance tonight.

The Council majority voted to table this issue until the December 4 meeting.

Residents are very concerned that Councilmembers Liang, Wong and Chan are catering to a special interest group.

They are waiting for legal opinions from several civic rights groups that may not support the constitutional rights of all of the residents of our hometown.

English is our common language that bonds us together as Americans.

Is America becoming a foreign country? This question was asked by the news media in the 1980s.

Monterey Park residents resolved this question with requiring English on the business signs 27 years ago.

Now this same issue could divide our city again.

Thank goodness we Americans still have our rights to free speech. Please voice your opinions on our hometown to City Hall and the City Council on the many issues that we need to resolve as a community.

There are several local elections being held on November 5.  Please be sure to exercise another of our freedoms, the right to vote.