“The taxes are high, so I would want to see at least some tax money to go to fixing small aspects of the city [such as the appearance]…The rent is…completely overpriced. And sometimes the square footage of the rooms or houses, the place that you’re living in [is] very small, and then you’re paying almost $1,500 just for a studio.”

– Pryscilla Adame, South Gate resident since 2003

“If it wasn’t for this COVID [pandemic], I would think that some of the major things to deal with are our housing issues, things that lead to homelessness…Housing is way out of control so that’s something that, here in South Gate, we’ve taken steps to bring in affordable housing…What I don’t want to do, and I hope it’s not the negative effect, is that instead of helping tenants that are already here, that [new housing] would bring additional population to the community because that’s not good. It hurts our infrastructure, the additional parking issue, it adds to the already overcrowded schools, so we have to be careful about how we approach this.”

– Gil Hurtado, a neighborhood council member in South Gate

“It’d probably be more parking spaces because my neighbors are always fighting over the parking…That kind of negatively affects my life because of the fact that we live right across them. So sometimes when we’re outside and they’re outside, they’re like making faces or something but we try to avoid any confrontation.”

– Isela Rodriguez, a South Gate resident for 21 years

“I would like more educational equity…The majority of our…schools are, unfortunately, not high-performance schools. That really affects me as a public official when you have economists and people that want to invest in the community and they see the education level. They don’t bring the best of the best to the community.”

– Denise Diaz, a local neighborhood council member

“If I could change things from my city, it would be to just have a little more surveillance in terms of providing more security for the citizens of South Gate…Things used to be calmer, you would see people walking around at 4 a.m. or 5 a.m., ladies walking from California to Atlantic [avenues] to get the bus to get to work but now people can’t walk around too much because there are assaults that happen at 2 p.m. or 3 p.m., so it would be nice if they could patrol the neighborhood more. To us, it affects us negatively because with our business, we have to pay bills, and well, the business has gone down let’s say like, 30%.”

– Arturo Nuñez, whose family owns Panaderia Penjamo/Penjamo Bakery in South Gate

“The street zoning sanctions [under] the ‘food peddlers’ law passed about a year and a half ago have been very difficult under these times. You have small businesses that apply for permits and are put on waiting lists.”

– Jesus Jauregui, owner of Chuyitos Pizza and resident of La Puente

“Living in the city of La Puente over a decade, I have seen an increase in homelessness on the main streets of the city such as Amar … I wonder if these types of activities have discouraged … shops to open up in La Puente, as many times, I find myself shopping in neighboring cities.”

– Angela Ayala, owner of Gratitude Joy Candles and resident of La Puente

“The middle school that I attended was located right next to a factory and there were days where students were not allowed to do any physical activities due to the air quality caused by the factories.”

– Eileen Gonzalez, owner of E Vanity Lashes and resident of La Puente

“All the things that go with having a city that is completely built up versus having a city like the City of Industry that is open: They have very few residents, mostly businesses and they have a lot of land, they have a lot of tax revenue. We have very little tax revenue. We have a few businesses but we have no major malls, we have no big box stores in our city, just mostly mom-and-pop. So, all of that affects our residents and our ability to provide them services and to do all the things that we would like to do…But we don’t have the money.”

– Dan Holloway, La Puente City Council Member who is up for re-election in November

“If I could change one thing in East L.A., it would be changing various streets’ landscapes to be safer for pedestrians. By prioritizing pedestrian safety, it [encourages] physical activity like walks and running in our neighborhood…In a time of COVID-19, having narrow sidewalks and car-prioritized landscapes limits the possibility of physically distanced walks that we can potentially have in our neighborhood…Our Latinx dominant population of East LA is over-represented in various characteristics that put us at risk for complications and exposure in this pandemic: Diabetes, essential work, and living in crowded multi-generational households all contribute to our vulnerability as a population.”

– Tamar Galindo, East LA resident and UCLA Public Health program alumna

“If I could change one thing about East Los Angeles, it would be the gentrification that’s happening in the community. I’m not sure what would need to happen for this issue to be resolved, whether it be a policy change or legislation protecting longtime residents of the area or both, but to my understanding it’s an issue that is negatively affecting many people’s lives. 

Gentrification causes longtime residents of an area such as East Los Angeles to become displaced as more affluent businesses and individuals come into the area. Instead of improving living conditions for folks in the area, gentrification raises rent, which leads to residents and existing small businesses who cannot afford the increased prices being forced to relocate.”

– Ashley Valdez, resident of Monterey Park and member of La Luz del Mundo in East Los Angeles

“There’s a lot of tagging in East L.A. That’s one thing I’ve noticed on a lot of walls…and it looks junky. If you go downtown, there’s tagging but it looks like someone got paid for it…You know what it feels like? Have you ever seen a cat mark its territory? It smells so bad; that’s exactly what I feel.”

– Benjamin Quinn, owner of Ben’s Auto Magic East Los Angeles Resident

If East L.A. “was its own city, you can make different laws that can help more businesses and bring more businesses out here. It’s like Monterey Park. We don’t have movie theaters or shopping centers in East L.A…There’s not one major department store in East L.A. I would [create] some kind of policy to help bring tax revenue to the community…I think that would help alleviate a lot of stress but the problem is that East L.A. is unincorporated and there’s a lot of red tape.”

– Tony Gomez, owner of So-Cal Burgers in East Los Angeles

 “El Sereno was a fun, safe place. We were able to hang out without anyone causing problems. The group kinda stuck together…No lights, no fighting, no drama, no violence, no pressure, no prejudice.”

– Esther Esparza, who grew up in El Sereno

 “Being a primarily working class community, the median income in the community is low compared to the rest of the city. I’m not sure how we give the community a raise but the economic increase may directly affect the community in many ways. However, most importantly, I feel the community has been neglected by the local city government in terms of infrastructural improvement and commercial development for decades.”

– Raymond Gutierrez, an architect and third-generation resident of El Sereno

“I would like to see more civic engagement by the community. Lincoln Heights is known as an area that is underreported in the Census. The same with voter registration and vote casting. Very, very low. There is a saying: ‘If you don’t vote, don’t complain.’” 

– Gilberto Arevalo, a member of the Lincoln Heights neighborhood council who spoke as an individual

“If Lincoln Heights school systems were adequately funded, these schools would be able to provide much more support in the community.”

– Solmayra Jacobo, small business owner and Lincoln Heights resident

“If I could change one thing in Lincoln Heights, it would be to decrease the homeless population. I know that a lot of these homeless people suffer from mental health issues. Maybe that is something that should also be addressed. I believe this would decrease crimes, including car jackings, home invasions, as well as the cleanliness of our streets and drug exposure for our children.”

– Elvia Zepeda, a Lincoln Heights neighborhood resident

“If I could change one thing about Inglewood it would be to have outreach programs for the youth. It would be nice if more assistance was given to the children to give them the exposure and knowledge and assist in their educational development….More sports programs, after school tutoring, mental health, and free or reduced lunch would help the community come together and really provide adequate support for these young teens to help them conquer any real life issues that they might be going through.”

– David Casillas, Inglewood resident

“If I can change anything about Inglewood, it would definitely have to be all the White people moving in. Why? Because they have begun to gentrify my neighborhood drastically. They make everything expensive and it has become costly to live in Inglewood nowadays.”

– Femi Boirard, Inglewood resident

“The biggest problem with homelessness in my community is that we believe no one should live on the streets. It affects our community because we would have to come together and put the city’s resources towards the homeless and place them in shelters, affordable housing units, give them counseling, and provide them with medical attention.”

– Elias Garcia, treasurer for the Central Alameda Neighborhood Council

“By having all this graffiti in the streets, we spend our city money on things we can prevent. For instance, if we can report to the police we see someone doing graffiti [and that then has to be painted over], our city money could [instead] be used for educational benefits to make our schools better for our youth community.”

-Sandy Solavei, a front desk attendant who lives in East Los Angeles

“There is one root that leads to all of the problems we face…White Supremacy. There are many ways it shows up as when internalized racism divides the Black and brown people. It shows up in the way police disproportionately target Black and brown men. They are incarcerated at higher rates than their white counterparts for the same offenses.”

-Jessica De Luna, a vice chairperson for the Central Alameda Neighborhood Council

“In recent years, rent, property values, and the overall cost of living in Eagle Rock has become a burden. This comes as a result of the community being a part of the gentrification that’s been sweeping parts of the city. I have family and friends struggling to continue to stay in their homes because of increasing prices, my household included. New properties are charging prices higher than before due to a new clientele surging into our community who are paying almost twice, or three times as much as most of the community either used to pay, or paid for their house in the past. Should this trend continue, Eagle Rock will become another community that loses its roots and stays as another trendy spot in LA.”

– Gabriel Partida

“If I could change one thing from or about…Eagle Rock, I would change the ongoing displacements of the original businesses and families that helped make the community so wonderful in the first place. The ongoing issue that I have with the displacements is that most of the newer transplants that come and try to enjoy what the community has to offer, fail to realize or understand that once they show an interest in a particular community it puts those who were already there at risk of displacement. This is due to the ‘property values’ increasing, which attracts more like-minded transplants who are anxious to relocate somewhere away from their original homelands. Unfortunately, there are a lot of underlying issues that accompany this process. The displacement of families and smaller-owned businesses create a drift between the original community members and transplants due to uncommon interests and upbringings.”

– Marcus Licon