Citizen About Town

By Nancy C. Arcuri, Editor and Publisher

E-mail: nancyarcuri@thecitizensvoice.net

Fax: 626-307-9081

I visited with my family in Maryland last month. My brother and his wife live in Bethesda so I took a tour of their local shopping centers.  All of the business signs are in English. I noticed one Chinese restaurant had their Chinese characters in the lower part of the sign designating it as a Chinese restaurant.

My sister and her family live in Gaithersburg where all of the business signs are in English.  She raved about a new Asian market that features delicious meats and seafood as well as wonderful produce.  All of the store signs are in English.

Maryland is a suburb of Washington, DC that is the home to many embassies yet the business signs in DC are in English.  The signs in their Chinatown are in Chinese and English for the benefit of all of the tourists.

Yet here in Monterey Park we have three Councilmembers Anthony Wong, Hans Liang and Peter Chan who will not reinstate our business sign law requiring English or the Modern Latin alphabet on our business signs.  They are waiting until December 4 to hear from several professional minorities’ legal opinions on our sign law.

Has this Council requested that our city attorney or city manager get a legal opinion on our sign law from attorneys who specialize in Constitutional law?

At the October 2 meeting Councilmembers Anthony Wong, Hans Liang and Peter Chan were perceived as playing the race card by many voters in our city.

These Councilmembers angered some of our 64.1% hard-core voters with their attitudes. These residents will never vote for you again or any issues that you support.

These Councilmembers should apologize to the residents and vote to approve a new sign law or better yet vote to reinstate our old sign law on December 4.

All Monterey Park residents deserve to be treated with respect.

Currently Monterey Park has two developers who want to add more housing to our city.

City Ventures, LLC wants to purchase a large portion of our City Yard to built 25 single-family homes. The area is located between Russell Avenue and Alhambra Avenue.  This is currently a very crowded area with older homes and limited street parking.  It is located next door to Garvey Ranch Park where parking is always a problem on weekends and summer days.

The City Council has already approved the city manager signing an exclusive negotiation agreement with this developer so they can determine if their housing project is feasible.

Our one saving grace is the property is over one acre and requires a vote of the people to change the zoning.  The developer said they would pay for a special election that could cost them $100,000 or more.

The residents in this neighborhood have discussed a lawsuit against the city if they push this project into their backyards.

If the city yard is sold then the developers must pay to purchase land and rebuild it.  Currently the new location will be on Potrero Grande.

Residents are concerned that the city will suffer financial losses in moving our city yard to a new location that is better suited for commercial development.

The other project proposed by The Olson Company is to build 92 units on Potrero Grande across the street from Resurrection Cemetery.  It will feature townhomes and single-family residents. The community will be gated with monthly assessment fees for maintenance of the grounds and streets.

The voters must also approve this zoning change.  The Olson Company stated they would be paying for a special election. They thought they would be able to put it on the ballot for a March election but it remains to be seen if they can meet that deadline.

The Olson Company is keeping this project low keyed and only meeting with some members of our community. For more information on this housing project please call John W. Reuschl at 562-370-9311.

If our city yard is rebuilt on Potrero Grande it will be the next-door neighbor of this gated community.

Monterey Park is our hometown and we have the legal right to determine the future of our city.

Congratulations to the residents of San Gabriel for speaking up to their City Council regarding a business owner that wanted to pay to have a street name changed to honor his family business.

After the residents stated their wishes during a Council Meeting the Council majority voted against changing the street name.

Voters must keep an eye and ear on their local government, county government, state government and federal government to protect our cherished rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

We Americans have many things to be thankful for during this holiday season.

Please take a moment to be grateful this Thanksgivings for all of the blessings that you and yours enjoy.

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgivings!

Happy Hanukkah to our readers who celebrate this holiday!