Cityhood or not, East LA residents want more transparency

This story was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat on Aug. 8, 2024, is the third installment in a series on the efforts to explore East L.A. cityhood. Read the first part here and the second here.

Kristie Hernandez remembers how excited she felt as an 18-year-old gearing up to vote for the first time, especially after volunteering in the campaign to elect Antonio Villaraigosa for mayor back in 2001.

But her enthusiasm quickly shattered upon realizing that, as a resident of unincorporated East L.A., she wouldn’t be able to vote in Los Angeles city elections. Hernandez assumed L.A. City Council members were her representatives. To this day, she said, “a lot of people in this community don’t know that we’re unincorporated.”

This experience as a teen led Hernandez to become a proponent of efforts to incorporate East L.A. into a city, both in 2012 – when the most recent cityhood plans failed – and today, as Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo is pushing forward a bill that seeks to explore whether incorporation is possible this time around.

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Introduced in March by Carrillo, Assembly Bill 2986 calls for a study exploring whether East L.A. has the tax base to be able to sustain itself as its own city or special district. After a critical amendment in July, the bill now requires the county of Los Angeles to submit the feasibility study to the state. Carrillo has made it clear that the bill would not mandate cityhood. It would simply study the possibility of it.

To Hernandez and other residents, this bill is not just about cityhood. It’s a way to call attention to what they say is a need for increased financial transparency, services and representation for East L.A., a region of nearly 120,000 who are mostly Latino.

District 1 County Supervisor Hilda Solis represents East L.A. and portions of 20 other cities, as well as dozens of unincorporated communities and L.A. neighborhoods, encompassing nearly 2 million residents.

In East L.A., services like police, street maintenance, building and development, libraries and parks and recreation are deferred to the county.

Given the size of the region’s population and its cultural significance, some residents would like to have more say when it comes to decision-making in the region. They want to know if East L.A. is getting an equitable share of county services. And, they’re calling on the county to be more transparent in how it spends on services across the region.

For example, Hernandez wonders what happens to the money generated from parking citations in the region.

“Is that money coming back to East L.A.? How are we going to know that? You have no budget specifically for unincorporated East Los Angeles,” Hernandez said at a community meeting in April that Carrillo held to inform residents about the bill.

Kristie Hernandez (left) shares stories about growing up in East L.A. at a meeting with other East L.A. residents at La Terraza Cafe in City Terrace.

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Lack of parking is a big issue as developers build more housing in the unincorporated region, Hernandez said.

“I know we get called NIMBYs, but if you live in a community where they keep bringing development without parking … What are you going to want? Anyone with a family wants at least one parking space,” she said during the meeting.

Having local representatives, who live and are from the region, can help better address these kinds of issues, Hernandez said, “because we all know the daily struggles and the daily challenges that we face every day that impact our quality of life.”

For Genesis Coronado, a 32-year-old community organizer whose family planted roots in East L.A. after immigrating from Mexico, living in an unincorporated area feels like residents are getting “taxation without representation.” She hopes the study’s findings lead to change in her neighborhood.

“If the study comes back and says that we don’t have a lot of money to sustain ourselves, then okay,” Coronado said. “Then how do we then build? How do we then make sure that the county is investing in more small businesses on our corridors? What are the next steps to help us become financially feasible and financially sustainable?”

The latest version of Carrillo’s bill was amended to reflect language from two motions that Solis spearheaded and that the rest of the county supervisors unanimously approved in April and May.

The county said that on top of conducting the feasibility study, it would give annual reports detailing services and investments in unincorporated communities with populations of over 10,000. It would also look into the viability and costs associated with forming a town council or municipal advisory committee to better represent the needs of East L.A., acting as a bridge between the county and the unincorporated community.

With these proposals, Solis, who opposes Carrillo’s bill, is saying the county can do this work without overreach from the state. Carrillo, however, said she made these amendments as a way to hold county officials accountable.

People walk by El Pino, a landmark in the hills of East L.A., on August 5, 2024.

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Coronado used to work with former District 1 Supervisor Gloria Molina and said she understands the importance of Solis’ role in East L.A., but she added, a town council or municipal advisory committee might be the missing link between the community and the county.

She said the county should invest in the formation of a town council or municipal advisory committee that could better represent East L.A.

“I think the question is, why isn’t the voice of our community worth a couple of investment dollars?” Coronado said.

East L.A. residents can look to the unincorporated community of Altadena, which is represented by L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. The community of about 42,000 residents also has a town council of volunteer residents who connect other residents to county leaders and services.

Diane Marcussen, one of 16 elected members on the Altadena Town Council, said the council’s connections with the county and law enforcement is beneficial for residents.

Marcussen lauded that when a developer sought to build a five-story apartment complex in Altadena in 2021, the town council got in touch with the supervisor’s office to express community concerns over the building exceeding the allowable zoned height for a residential area. Both the town council and the county were able to convince the developer to bump it down to four stories.

Since 1975, Altadena residents have been elected to volunteer to serve their neighbors. Other issues they’ve tackled have dealt with whether a resident’s backyard chickens are up to code or if pigs are allowed in someone’s front yard.

“We do big stuff, and we do pig stuff,” Marcussen said.

Dancers rehearse outside the Edward R. Roybal Health Center in East L.A.

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A retired California Highway Patrol officer, William Preciado, grew up in City Terrace and recalls patrolling East L.A.for more than 30 years.

Being on patrol helped him understand the dynamics of the region’s neighborhoods. He’s seen a lack of steady consumer tax sources from big-box stores like Costco or Home Depot.
Now a realtor, Preciado, 59, said the hilly topography in certain areas of the region makes it harder for developers to build there. Many residents’ property taxes, he said, can still be very low. These things hurt East L.A.’s tax revenue, he added.

“Let’s see those sales tax figures that are generating there. Let’s see what the property taxes are,” Preciado said.

According to Solis’ timeline, the results from the county’s study of East L.A.’s tax revenue will be publicized in the fall. If AB 2986 makes it through the state Legislature and is signed by the governor, the county will have to submit results to the state in March 2025.

The seven members of the Senate Appropriations Committee will review the bill next week.

While Preciado now lives in Chino, his mother still lives in City Terrace and he visits her several times a week. He doesn’t see incorporation as realistic, but supports increased transparency for a neighborhood in which he has deep roots.

Preciado takes great pride in being from East L.A. and lives by the motto: “Once from East Los Angeles, always from East Los Angeles.”

He thinks of his former neighbors and the families he saw grow up around him.

“We want what’s best for East L.A. If cityhood is the way to go, great. Let’s just make sure it’s done right,” Preciado said.