After more than a year under a state of emergency in response to homelessness, it remains one of the most pressing issues facing Long Beach. What would you do differently to address this crisis of housing, addiction and mental health? 

Homelessness is a crisis affecting not only people’s lives but also the quality of our communities. I’ll work towards a comprehensive plan to expand proactive services, quickly shelter and stabilize people experiencing chronic homelessness, and promptly facilitate connections back to permanent housing with the necessary supportive services. We need a hands-on approach from all our leaders, which is why I volunteered to participate with the homeless count on January 25. It is important to have accurate data that will help to better assess the specific needs of the unhoused population in our district.  

As council member, I’m committed to taking the following steps:

1. Direct services to get people off the street, away from schools and parks and  into permanent supportive housing; 

2. Improve accessibility and services provided by the shelter system, including job or apprenticeship opportunities, financial literacy training, and more;

3. Invest in our public health department to prioritize effective homeless  prevention policies with an emphasis on drug counseling and mental health  treatment programs; 

4. Bring together nonprofits, service providers, and state and regional agencies  to ensure there are no missing gaps when improving access to resources for the  homeless population; 

5. I will look into more opportunities for local homeowners and developers to work together to promote ADUs and ensure the construction of new housing has a mix of market-rate and low-income units. 

We can uplift those who are most in need and ultimately uplift our entire community if we work together and prioritize the needs of people who need help the most.

The city has recently had extensive hiring shortages affecting everything from trash pickup to police and fire response. How would you speed hiring and improve retention?

Several of the unfilled roles affecting city services have historically followed months-long hiring practices. This is unacceptable if we want to hire quickly and ensure residents don’t experience any interruption in the city services they rely on. I’m committed to cutting red tape to speed up this process and investing in our human resources staff to speed up the process to under a month. And many neighboring cities offer hiring bonuses that are significantly higher than Long  Beach, so we’re losing out on many qualified, homegrown residents who end up going to work in other cities. We need to invest and recruit from our own community to meet this shortage.

Additionally, to improve retention, I would secure funding to support retention bonuses which are beneficial to both the employees and the city.  

Long Beach has long been dependent on oil revenue, but that stream of money is going away. How should the city make up that revenue to avoid major budget deficits?

Although state, county, and local governments have worked to set and meet goals to transition to renewable energy in order to address the climate crisis, it’s important to address the consequences of those policies. Many city services have a history of benefiting from funding that comes from oil revenue, so we must ensure there are solutions available to be able to still provide funding for crucial services that help make Long Beach a great place to live, shop, and raise a family.

As the Head of Environment and Sustainability for a major stevedore company at the Port of Los Angeles, I have a deep understanding of the need for green jobs and training people to be prepared for the future. While the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles have secured a $1.2 billion hydrogen grant to aid their efforts to reach zero emission goals, it’s important to ensure there’s accountability so these funds are used properly and the city is prepared to capitalize on this revenue. I have the experience and knowledge needed to advocate for new and innovative ways to produce revenue for the city, including cutting red tape to attract and sustain quality businesses and doing so without raising taxes or fees that make it harder to live and work here. 

An ongoing complaint by residents of the 8th District is a lack of investment in their communities. Late last year, a developer pulled out of a long-planned development along  Atlantic Avenue where there are multiple vacant storefronts. What are your specific plans for bringing more development and businesses to the district? 

In addition to hosting meetings with members of the business community through a strong collaboration with the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, I would strongly advocate for a concerted strategy to promote strong business development as follows: 

a) Establish a Business Improvement District that caters to the needs of North Long Beach. 

b) Review and revise rules and regulations to streamline the granting of permits. 

c) Provide access to capital through the small business lending program, including for entrepreneurs of color. 

d) Make available pertinent information to potential businesses that detail demographics, real estate property values, and potential investors.

As a candidate who was born and raised in Long Beach, I’ve seen how businesses have changed in our community over time. In the Bixby Knolls  Shopping Center, we lost both CVS and Rite Aid. Most businesses are concerned with homelessness and issues involving public safety. As a city council member, I  will work hard to tackle those issues to make our district friendlier to quality local businesses that serve our residents. There is great potential for small businesses in the new 8th  District, but we need to meet the moment and do more innovative work to reverse the negative image of potholes, crime, and rising homelessness.

The 8th District, like many outside of East Long Beach, lacks park space. What will you do to help prioritize spending to create more usable open space in the 8th District?

The 8th District is dense and does not have a lot of open space compared to other ZIP codes in Long Beach, which limits building and expanding on parks. North Long Beach has approximately 1 acre per 1000 residents, whereas in the east and south areas of Long Beach, there are approximately 17 acres per 1000 residents. I am committed to partnering with local nonprofit organizations to bring inclusive community programs for all residents to existing parks, trails, and existing green spaces. Open space can improve our mental and physical health, provide opportunities for physical activity and social interaction, and help clean the air and water.

I am committed to working with the city and nonprofit organizations to find innovative ways to create more green spaces to not only add beauty but improve the health and well-being of the residents. Some examples are creating mini-forests or wall gardens along buildings. I am part of the 2024 Leadership Long Beach cohort and my group collaborated with the Office of Climate Action & Sustainability, Councilman Al Austin’s office, Litter Free Long Beach, and many community volunteers to plant 15 trees in addition to picking up almost 50 pounds of trash on 48th Street in North Long Beach on MLK Day. By increasing biodiversity in the district, we will reduce smog and air pollution, retain rainwater and trap CO2, and allow every resident the opportunity to enjoy a strong quality of life.

After more than a year under a state of emergency in response to homelessness, it remains one of the most pressing issues facing Long Beach. What would you do differently to address this crisis of housing, addiction and mental health?

Our national and regional homelessness crisis has been ongoing for decades. The difference is that we have city, regional, state, and federal leadership locking arms with one another to drive resources and strategies to help move people from the streets on a path toward stability. Solving homelessness means we need a holistic approach to ensuring those who need additional supportive services are met where they are and that we do more to prevent families from spiraling into an unstable financial situation. I know this firsthand, growing up with a single mom who sometimes struggled to make ends meet. These experiences inspired me to pursue a career in urban planning and economic development. In my decades of leading organizations that build affordable housing and help small businesses get access to capital, I have seen the transformation that happens when communities and families get the investment they need to thrive.

The approach I would take as a City Council member is collaborative leadership, where we work together with Mayor Rex Richardson, the City Council, and the department staff to rapidly respond to the delivery of services while also looking forward to a stable housing future for all Long Beach residents. I support more multi-departmental coordination and positioning our city to seek additional county, state, and federal funding. We need to continue to treat homelessness like the emergency that it is and focus on addressing the root causes. That means bringing better-paying jobs to the city, rapidly building affordable units, and converting nuisance motels into long-term housing opportunities. I will also work to localize more mental health supportive services and additional regional resources dedicated to substance use treatment.

The city has recently had extensive hiring shortages affecting everything from trash pickup to police and fire response. How would you speed hiring and improve retention?

I grew up in a family of proud public servants. My grandfather was a union sanitation worker, and my grandmother was a janitorial supervisor. They both took pride in working for their local government and providing essential services to their community. Our city workforce is being asked to do more with less support and less personnel to deliver the quality services our residents expect.

As the co-chair of Mayor Rex Richardson’s transition team, we identified several opportunities to address staffing shortages and reimagine the future of the city’s workforce. The first area of focus was on public safety. I was proud when the mayor announced at the recent State of the City that our efforts have resulted in the fire department and refuse collection services being staffed 100% for the first time in many years. We continue to make progress on new hiring and retention strategies for the police department with aggressive financial and benefits incentives to attract new officers to our city. I support the city’s plan to bring 100 recruits through new police academies.

I support the proposal to streamline hiring and bring the entire process under one hiring department, emphasizing hiring local residents and reducing the total time to fill a position to less than 90 days. We need to continue to make progress. As a Council member, I will continue to push for accountability in meeting our goals and ensure our residents know about the career opportunities available in our city.

Long Beach has long been dependent on oil revenue, but that stream of money is going away. How should the city make up that revenue to avoid major budget deficits?

As a mom of a son who has asthma, I know all too well the impacts car-generated pollution has on our communities. Our city has been a leader in taking local climate action and creating plans for climate resiliency and a clean energy future. We must thoughtfully plan the transition to protect frontline environmental justice communities, deploy appropriate clean energy technologies, and continue delivering high-quality city services to our residents. I support the city’s transition from its financial dependence on oil revenue and support innovative ways to attract new revenue to our city.

We need to grow our revenue in a new direction through economic development, such as Mayor Richardson’s Grow Long Beach initiative to recruit new companies to the city aligned with our core business sectors. The Atlantic Avenue and Long Beach Boulevard business corridors are ideal locations to expand existing businesses and relocate new companies.

When I co-chaired Long Beach’s Everyone In Economic Inclusion Policy Task Force, I brought ideas forward to design a local economy that includes and benefits every resident. I am proud that many of our recommendations are implemented in the city. I will continue to work on prioritizing a more business-friendly city by establishing incentives that draw more small businesses. I will identify and promote “opportunity areas” where we can incentivize small businesses to start in Uptown Long Beach. Our city is positioned to take advantage of a sustainable economic recovery and will work collaboratively to build resiliency that will take us into the future.

An ongoing complaint by residents of the 8th District is a lack of investment in their communities. Late last year, a developer pulled out of a long-planned development along Atlantic Avenue where there are multiple vacant storefronts. What are your specific plans for bringing more development and businesses to the district?

I was also disappointed to hear the new development along the Atlantic Avenue Corridor would not fully move forward. While the 84 new townhomes are still underway, the economic turmoil caused by the pandemic has prevented the larger development project. I support the city’s decision to reclaim those unused properties and work with a new developer to attract the amenities that my community deserves, such as retail, restaurants, grocery stores, and live entertainment. I will partner with 9th District Councilwoman Dr. Joni Ricks-Oddie to develop a comprehensive North Long Beach Economic Development Plan anchored in collaboration with the Uptown Business Improvement District and build on my work with the Everyone In Economic Inclusion Policy. In 2018, I co-chaired the City of Long Beach’s Everyone In Economic Inclusion Policy Task Force, an initiative designed to provide economic inclusion recommendations to create a local economy that includes benefits for every Long Beach resident. Many of those recommendations have already been adopted by the city council and incorporated into the city’s economic blueprint.

Economic Development has the potential to positively impact many areas of life in North Long Beach, such as reducing gun violence, preventing people from falling into homelessness, beautifying our business corridors, and attracting the diverse neighborhood-serving businesses our residents deserve. I will also focus on investing in homeownership programs, new affordable housing developments, supportive housing, and wrap-around services for our homeless population. Our neighborhoods in District 8 have suffered from neglect, with lots sitting empty for years and streets and sidewalks that have been deemed unsafe. I will focus on organizing block by block to ensure every part of the 8th district gets proper attention from our city and put proven economic development tools in place to spur economic activity in vacant lots and empty storefronts.

The 8th District, like many outside of East Long Beach, lacks park space. What will you do to help prioritize spending to create more usable open space in the 8th District?

Open spaces are crucial to creating a healthy and safe North Long Beach community. I support establishing more parks in our community and pursuing equitable open space planning for our entire city. The Trust for Public Lands recently reported that only 8% of land in Long Beach is made available for public park space, while the national average is 15%. I will fight for more park programming and open green space in the 8th District, especially where vacant lots currently sit, and consider converting unused spaces into new public parks or pocket parks. I will work to see the ultimate completion of the 5.6-acre Ed Pops Davenport Park expansion and the 52nd Street Greenbelt project, which expands the Deforest Park Wetlands. Those projects will immediately bring more open space with walking trails, fitness stations, children’s play areas, and stormwater capture systems.

The Long Beach City Council recently approved a new Parks, Recreation, and Marine 10-Year Strategic Plan to add more open spaces. I will prioritize more city and county funding to implement the North Long Beach recommendations in the upcoming fiscal years.