Recommendation to request City Manager to study feasibility and explore support or financing options in for the creation of a Latino cultural district and a mixed-use small business economic development hub significantly similar to the El Mercado de Long Beach proposal supported by Centro CHA, and suggest support from upcoming grants and revenue including recovery investment funds, Measure US funds, and other grants that support health and equity for our Latino communities.
Public comment is complete. We're going to go to the items that have the most folks right now signed up. So I we do item 22/1. Item 22 Communication from Councilwoman Zendejas, Councilwoman Allen, Councilwoman Mango Councilmember Urunga Recommendation to request City Manager to study feasibility and explore support or financing options for the creation of a Latino cultural district and a mixed use small business economic development. Okay, Councilwoman Zendejas. Thank you, Mayor. At this moment, I would like to ask if we could please hear public comment on this item, if there is some. Madam Clerk. Yes. Our first speaker is Alan Armijo. All right. Good to hear. Yes. Please begin. Thank you. Hi, I'm Alan Ami Hope. Local business owner of Ami Enterprises, Inc. I'm calling in to express support of item number 21, Dash 018 and the Long Beach. The ongoing pandemic and protests for social justice have focused a spotlight on our communities of color, not because the events exposed disparities and inequalities in these communities, but because they proved the disparities and inequalities exist and are ongoing, if not systemic. Please read Jessica Container's Concept Paper Report on Ricardo The Long Beach. This project takes a lot of boxes for helping our Latino community achieve what a lot of people take for granted because of better access to opportunity. Keep in mind that Jessica did not write this concept paper overnight. It is a 20 year work of devotion to helping a Long Beach Latino community prosper and thrive. And whose time has come. I encourage the City Council to study, fund, implement and develop The Mikado of Long Beach. There's enough intelligence, talent and work ethic in the Long Beach Latino community to make this a success. But it requires financial and governmental support to get it off the ground. To sum up my support in an equation economic opportunity plus business and property ownership equals economic and social justice. It only gets better from there for everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Chris Chavez. Yes, I may heard. Yes. Please begin. Yes. Thank you. Yes. My name is Chris Chavez. I am actually resident of the sixth district. I want to state my support for item 20 10182, which would start the process of creating as Mercado the Long Beach. This project will better serve languages Latino, Latina, Latin, its community, which comprises over 42% of the city's population. Working with a trusted community partner like Central Cha is vital in ensuring the Mercado is culturally appropriate. Inclusive and helps address the community's needs is also important to note that the Mercado could provide a convenient, accessible location for community organizations and services. Creating a place like the Mercado de Long Beach is important for historically underinvested. Neighborhoods such as Park is isn't a census tract that ranks in the 90 to 90 fifth percentile of column virus screens disadvantaged communities. Lastly, while measure US is a potential source for funding of the project, I urge you to carefully consider how any project addresses the community's environmental, health and or youth and economic employment needs. Given the limited funding. I do think that this is a good potential source for it, but certainly want to see that funding used in the most effective way possible. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is David Selzer. David Selzer. Mary Garcia, members of the city council and city staff. My name is David Salazar. I'm a resident of District five. I speak tonight as a longtime board member of Central Cha and the founder and executive director of the Long Beach Community Design Center. The creation of a remarkable mixed use project in a Latino cultural district is an idea whose time has come. The project has been talked about in the Long Beach, Mexican-American and Latino community since the 1980s. You have before you tonight is the. 2021. Class 2.0 version of that dream. The project has equity at its core. It will provide affordable housing, workforce development, health services, retail, commercial, all within a district that will showcase the city's vibrant and historic Mexican-American and Latino community. Presently, there is not an established commercial area that represents a city burgeoning Latino population in our government. Cultural district will provide identity and recognition for this population and can. Be integrated. Into the city's downtown, core and waterfront. The creation of place is critical at this moment in establishing a center, a hub for the Long Beach Latino community to call home. But it will also serve as a regional economic generator, offering residents, visitors and tourists an authentic cultural experience. In summary, the combination development of the Mercado Mixed Use Project and the designation of the Latino Cultural District will provide the following creation of a community of community, wealth and self-determination. Affordable workforce. Housing, entrepreneurial and small business opportunities and economic development. Mexican-American and Latino heritage recognition and identification and equity. And just as important, the creation of a place that promotes art, culture and social space. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jessica Quintana. Jessica Quintana. Our next speaker is Lourdes Ramos. Hello. Hello. Hi. Please begin. Okay. Hello. My name is Lord. This grandma signed the Brazilian SEAL at Mola. The Museum of Latin American Art here in Long Beach is an honor to support the proposal to develop a civility study to understand the need for a Latino district in Long Beach. We will also like to express our interest to be an active part of this process agrees align with our mission and enforce doors, inclusion, diversity and equity among all on the presented communities. In language, it is cause for celebration that at the time when the Mola began the 24th anniversary and after two years of planning for the future expansion of the museum, the possibility arise of contributing to the development of the great Latino District of Art Cultural Corridor that will provide more opportunity for the benefit of all in Greater Long Beach. We hope that we can building up this dream together. And thank you for your attention. Bye bye. Thank you. Our next speaker is Megan Anaya. Hello. My name is Megan and I am and I am speaking on behalf of Central Trust. Today I am here in support of the miracle of the Long Beach, a mixed use Latino Economic Development Cultural District. Now it's important to remember that we need to support our Latino community here. Our community our Latino community in Long Beach is a powerful and resilient force in the local economy. They represent over 40 nearly 43% of the city's population, with 198,872 citizens residing within the city. Now, these this population also represents 42.6% of the residential labor force. So the workforce in Long Beach and of the Latinos working in Long Beach, that's a 70% labor force participation rate, which is amazing in the economy. But we have to remember that in order for this group to continue to thrive and contribute to the local economy, we must proportionately support them by dedicating resources and allocating them towards projects like Medicaid or to make sure that there's continued success within this community. So to give you an understanding of what this community means to Long Beach, in our 2019 report, we discovered that of the $90 billion generated in the local Long Beach economy, 34.3 billion is directly contributed from Palm Beach working Latino residents. And of that, 13.7 billion was contributed by our Long Beach immigrant population in our Long Beach Latino resident immigrant population. So overall, the Latino population in Long Beach supports 38.1% of Long Beach total contribution to the greater region. And we need to make sure that we have a space dedicated and carved out to this resilient group because there are no existing spaces within the city to dedicate to our Latino youth families or small businesses or individual to make sure that they can have the strength and prosperity to continue to grow within our community. Additionally, we find that 16% of our Latino families are living in poverty. And that's representative of over 6273 families within the city. Further, there are additional economic disparities faced by our community that we hope that this Mercado and this economic district can help us support. And when it comes to digital access gaps, we see that our Latino residents have less digital access than our other residents within within Long Beach. We see that there's a health disparity among our Latino population, and this has only been exacerbated by the past year and the effects of the COVID 19 virus. And not to mention. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jessica Quintana. Hi. Good evening there, Garcia. Members of the city council. City Manager Tom Modica. My name is Jessica Quintana and I'm the executive director of Center Cha and we are so excited for this item to be presented before you today. I know you heard speakers before talk about all the needs of the Mercado project, but we just want to also provide how important this establishment of a Latino cultural district will serve to connect the development of the El Mercado mixed use development and become a designation that offers a vibrant collection of retail, commercial housing, art, cultural venues and businesses that respect the history and cultural values of the Long Beach Mexican-American Latino community. Presently, there is not an establishment commercial area that represents the city. Latino community, which stands at 42% and growing of the population. A cultural district will provide identity and recognition for this population and can be integrated into the city's downtown, core and waterfront. The creation of this place will not only be a showcase for the vitality and spirit of a Long Beach Latino community, but will also become a regional economic generator offering visitors. And tourists, an authentic cultural Latino experience. I just want to take this time to thank our two champions. I'd like to thank Councilmember Mary, Cynthia House and Councilmember Stacy Mango for being bold and taking this project forward. As you heard in previous comments, this is not new. This hasn't been discussed overnight. This initiative has been well over 25 years in our community. And so I just also want to thank Cindy Allen and Councilmember Roberto Ranga for signing on to this initiative, because it really takes innovation to be able to bring forward a project like this. And we are pleased to be working in partnership with our city, with our economic development, with the director John Kiser and Sergio Ramirez. Projects like this only come about through through community and public partnership. And so we'd just like to thank them for their innovation and understanding our community demographics and the need of how we are going to really look at how this pandemic has really impacted our community and looking at a long term economic recovery for our community. So I just want to thank you so much again. Thank everybody for their leadership. This means so much to our community and we look forward to moving this project forward. So thank you so much. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this item. Thank you. Barb, back to you. Councilman's in the house. Thank you very much, Mayor. And I'd like to thank all of the people who spoke or in support of this item and met up over Long Beach is an exciting vision that has been happening for years in the city of Long Beach. We have one of the biggest and biggest Latino communities here in the city of Long Beach. So it is with no doubt why this would come up over and over throughout the years. I think that the timing is is perfect right now. I think it's it's long overdue. And it's time that we move with something for such a great project. It's going to be a mixed use project that would include and not be limited. And we have to tell them we're an item number 22 that they get through others. I'm sorry. Someone's on the on the line. Please, please mute. Councilman, please go ahead. Thank you. Like I was saying that this project will not only be to restaurants, grocery store, commercial housing, entertainment, but also so many other social services that will be available. One of the most exciting things that is happening is that right now we're also working on the development of our Latino Cultural Center in the Cesar Chavez Park , which is an amazing thing to be part of right now. So I'm really excited that we're going to be bringing this together side by side. I feel that this is perfect timing for it. I really want to thank Councilmember Mongeau for her contribution to this and Councilmembers Allen and and around that. Thank you so much for for joining in on the mission of this project and for councilmember long up for your vision as well on this project. I know that so many community members, especially Center Cha, have been working on this for a very long time. And so I just, you know, I'm I'm grateful that the time has come and I'm grateful that we are able to move forward on this item. I also wanted to to have a little bit of clarity on the on the funding that I know that part of the funding we were hoping that we could look at and measure us. And I know that measure us is mostly for four years and stuff like that and health and climate. But there are other, other appropriate funds that we could look into. So I don't want to limit ourselves. So as we do this to really be studies, let's not limit ourselves to the funding and let's explore all possibilities because this is going to take a really a city effort to create something like this. It's going to be huge. I can already see it. It's going to be attracting so many people, not only locally here from Long Beach, but it's going to be attracting people regionally. And I can I can see how much it's going to drive our economic our economics here in the Long Beach. I mean, just just imagining and just gives me so much excitement. So I'm really looking forward to it. And I'm to invite to hear from my council colleagues as well on this item, and I'll come back to it as well. Thank you. Customers in the US accountable mango. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilman Sun Hoss. I'm so proud of so many district residents who have really championed this for many, many, many years. I want to recognize Suzanna Edman and David Mercado and Carmen Perez. And I also believe Cynthia Cordero, just so many of our Latino Latina leaders have really championed this and it is their work that has come to fruition. I am just a supporter here in ensuring that their voices are heard and that we here can work towards ensuring that cultural districts across the city for not just the Hispanic community have been invested in, but at this time we need to focus that and the resources where they are most needed and the time has come, as Councilman Sun has said, for this community to have an area that really supports the growth and flourishing and respect. And I can't think of the word that I had in mind, but to ensure that that goes on for generations to come. Thank you. Thank you. But Richardson. They queued up to lend my voice in support of this this item. I think it's a great way to demonstrate creative ways to boost our local economy. We have to play to our strengths, our cultural districts, create a safe place for culture and music and art and food and commerce and exchange and overall community. And the more we can play to our strengths in areas, particularly in areas that have had longstanding economic issues or or over time, they haven't grown in the same ways that other areas have. This is a great way to invest in those communities. So I certainly support this. We had a good, healthy conversation in the Economic Development Committee today about this and economic zones and cultural zones across the city. And so I'm certainly happy to support this. I want to congratulate and thank council members and De Haas and your contributions, Councilmember Mongo and all the signers, because I think this is a great item and I look forward to walking through McCardle some day and with my girls and talking about the process to get there. So I'll certainly look forward to supporting this. Thanks. Thank you, Councilmember Ringo. Becky Baron. I want to thank all the councilmembers who have spoken in favor of this item. It's a wonderful we had a discussion about this about a week and a half ago or so. And that and that was part of that discussion as well as people have seen. This is not new. It's it's it's a project that it's been many years in the making. And it's one of those situations where the timing was perhaps not right 30 years ago or so. It was in 1930, mid eighties, where an idea like this concept of this would feature was first brought forward, but the stars were not aligned. And I think that now we have the stars aligned, we have the right people in the right places doing the good things. And I think that once we are concluded with the study, we can move forward with an actual project that will bring people to the region to learn more about the Latino culture. In all its grandeur and amazement, we have also a New Zealand American. I'd like to see how we can connect art into this project as well. I think it would be very important. This is art and food and culture is very important to the Latino community and it would be a wonderful addition to have that inclusion as well. So I'm very supportive of this and I'm so happy to be here. Be able to vote on this project is something that I didn't have an opportunity to do back nearly 30 years ago, which is coming full circle for me. So thank you for bringing this forward to Mary and Stacey and all the Crusaders on this. So it's a wonderful opportunity to move the community forward. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Councilwoman Allen. Thank you, Mayor. I also want to thank Councilmembers and de Haas and Mongo and your ranga for bringing this forward. I'm just happy to support it. And I absolutely agree with so many of the comments that were made. It's the time has come to invest in this dream that so many people have advocated for years. So this is got to be a great day for all of you. You should be proud. Your hard work and your advocacy paid off. And I just strongly support small businesses and business hubs and the disproportionately impacted areas. And having been a small business owner myself, I know that there's a lot of value in these community business hubs, and seeing more minority owned businesses encourages local entrepreneurship and provides jobs and also help small businesses grow. And I also believe that this is going to be an amazing economic generator for the city. And I also would like to see other institutions, including Lola in the second District, included in the feasibility process. So, again, congratulations. You all happy to support this. Thank you. Thank you. I come to him in sorrow. Thank you, Mayor. I want to also express my support for this item and how excited I am to see this come in this form of a not only cultural center, but an economic development component, too, and really lifting out to address various equity issues in the Latino community. And I think it's just a great way to create inclusion in our city, to celebrate and really reflect the diversity and the population that has lived here and has contributed greatly to this amazing city that we live in. So I just want to also make sure to thank council members than they have for leading the item with Councilmember Roberto Urunga and Councilmember Mongo and Allen and as well as Central Park are leading the efforts. And I also just want to make sure we have a process that will also include many of the other various Latino businesses and nonprofit groups that I think will be able to just work together. In addition to Mal as well. So thank you very much and thank you to staff for working on this item as well. Thank you, Councilwoman Pratt. This. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to chime in and say that I support this, too. And Councilwoman I mean, Councilman Ranga recently said something. He was obviously not the first to say it, but it really rings true on this. He said, build it. They will come. And I thought, you know, when we're talking about integrating our diverse communities in the city of Long Beach, how wonderful it is to have spaces that have their own character, their own offerings, their own vibe. And that celebrates the rich diversity and culture of all parts of our city, and have that as something that every resident in the city can enjoy. And I love that the small business aspect of it and supporting our small business owners enough in a corridor like this. So thank you very much, Councilwoman Sunday House and the Cosigners for bringing this forward. I wholeheartedly support it. Thank you and catch me. Ringgit, did you queue up again? I'm sorry about that. No. But I do want to have a final comment in the sense that the. Perhaps stop and look at the archives when we brought the Lusk Center back in around 1987, 88 around there. But we did the study with them. Many very well known to take in the area at the time. I led that that group and we came up with a plan. But again, it was the right time to witness people of a council that were supportive of it. And so it was sort of put on a shelf. And I was wondering if we could have staff look at the archives and dusted off and and see what would be presented back then as part of the place, giving the historical perspective. You know, the more things change, the more they stayed the same. And so I'm pretty sure that there's some material in there that would be of help in getting this project off the ground. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Austin. Thank you. And unfortunately, Councilmember Durango, you didn't have the last word. I guess we cued up the cued up after you. But I did want to express my my support for this this item, obviously. Thank you. Council members and de Haas Co endorsers of the sidewalk. Anytime we can celebrate culture and memory that with economic development, we're winning as a city. And so this is a a a motto I think that we should look at. I did I know we were all in support of this and we will vote in support of this. But I did have a question for staff. I'm related to the process in terms of how the feasibility study will be conducted and with stakeholder groups and would be this be engaging our Economic Development Commission. Yeah. Council member this is John Kaiser. I'm here with Sergio Ramirez and this is this is a great project for economic development. So typically what what we would do is we would start with a market analysis in taking a look at potential stakeholders as well as community needs and perform some community outreach. And then we would engage with some financial analysis to to see what the different recommended areas might require. Of course, we want to look at land use and zoning, so we would work with our partners over in development services to take a look at the different uses that are currently allowed for those areas that are recommended. And and then we would come back to the City Council with some recommendations. So it would take, you know, a couple of months to, to do this the right way and engage with the community and different stakeholders. But this is something that per the Council direction, we would get together with the city manager and put together a process with some of those timelines and resources that are needed as soon as possible. Well, thank you for that clarification. And I think I heard one or two of the commenters mentioned ideal locations. Have we? Are we there yet? Or is that part of the feasibility study? Yes. So I'll just tell you. I know of a couple of excellent business corridors in the eight district. That would be awesome candidates. I just wanted to throw that in there. Thank you. Customer Supernova. Thank you. I just wanted to thank all those who brought this forward. And I really do appreciate the longevity of the project here. The infrastructure project came up and 20 years on. And so I really appreciate the fact that 30 years old and no one lost sight of that. So congratulations and thank you for being able. Thank you. Councilman's in Dallas. Thank you, everyone, for your comments and your support on this. Again, there reconfirms how the timing is is perfect right now for for bringing a study forward on this amazing project. I also wanted to give a big shout out to some of the supporters that have been supporting this for a while, like Senator Lena Gonzalez, who continues to be a champion and continues to be supportive of the first District and having something like this in the first District would be super amazing. I also want to thank our school board member, Juan Benitez, for for his support on this item as well. The him being part of this district is very important to have his support. I also want to thank our trustee for one city college, Linda Chico, who continues to support this item as well. These are elected officials who continue to support the Latino community in any way possible. And I think it's super important that that we as a community unite and become very inclusive of all the organizations that represent Latino the Latino community, in order to make this a very successful project going forward. So I look forward to the visibility study and I can't wait to see what staff will come up with because I have full confidence that they are going to bring back something amazing working with all of the stakeholders. So again, thank you. Central charge for board meeting on this as well. And I look forward to working with you hand in hand on this. Thank you. Thank you. And I just wanted to just add, of course, my thanks to everyone and most importantly, all the community members that have been advocating and really working and fighting for this project for so many years, particularly central GI and all the community organizations that have been involved. This process and especially thank you, Councilman in the House. I want to thank Councilman Mongo, who is very involved in the development of this and the other folks that are on the item as well. Councilman Ranga, Councilwoman Allen. Thank you, everyone, to supporting this this project. I think it's going to be fantastic. And thank you all for working on it so much. And with that, we've done public comment. Let's go ahead and go to a vote. District one. I District two. I District three. I. District four. I. District five. I. District six. I. District seven. I. District eight. District nine. I know she carries. Thank you. Let's go on now and move on to item 17.