Welcome to The Citizen’s Voice Newspaper

This newspaper was established by my husband, Frank J. Arcuri in May 1986 to be a voice of the residents of Monterey Park and later expanded the paper to include the residents of Alhambra, Rosemead and San Gabriel.

In 1986 the residents of Monterey Park realized that most of the new businesses established in downtown all had their business signs in a foreign language.  We were not able to read them and asked the City Council at the time to have English put on the signs so we could still enjoy shopping in our hometown.

One Councilmember Lily Lee Chen told the Americans that the business signs would have English on them. Yet the signs still had no English subtitles for us.

The then Councilmembers did not care about their American voters and would not accept our petition requesting English subtitles be place on the signs to unify our city.

Several members of the community decided that the Chinese immigrants had more rights than the longtime residents and opposed our requests for English subtitles on the business signs. They still to this day refer to our requests as “English Only” because we joined with many other voters to make English the official language of California.

English was voted in as the official language of California but as usual the courts overturned the decision of the voters.

Many greedy landlords increased the rents to force a change in the demographics of Monterey Park. Their actions forced many longtime residents and businesses out of town.

Our city became known as the first suburban Chinatown. Many American chain businesses would not establish their stores in our city because they believe that the new immigrants would not shop in them.

English subtitles were finally added as a health and safety issue so the fire and police departments could respond to emergencies.

Fast forward 20 plus years later and most of the new immigrants are Americans and want to shop in American brand name stores. However the city government is still trying to overcome our media title “the first suburban Chinatown”.

We still use our power of the press to get out the truth.  Some of our local politicians are trying to impress their major donors. They vote according to their donors’ wishes and not for the benefit of their hometowns.

We have several writers who share their views with our readers. We also report on the local issues that affect our hometowns.

We have writers who share their world tours with our readers who enjoy armchair travel.

We will prove information on upcoming events in our cities. We will publish letters to the editor.

We will still provide the police blotters for Alhambra and Monterey Park

This is our first venture into the Internet as we have been published in newsprint.

We welcome you to enjoy our local newspaper.

Nancy C. Arcuri,
Editor and Publisher