At a community meeting Thursday, Councilmember Ysabel Jurado pledged to be more present in Boyle Heights as residents sounded off on issues affecting their lives, including a lack of working streetlights and street maintenance, housing insecurities, and immigration raids.
“I want to keep being here with you and not just sending my staff,” Jurado told residents. “Best believe that when there comes [to] decisions about this neighborhood, I have asked for you all to be in those rooms.”
About 75 people attended the community meeting at Dolores Mission hosted by Proyecto Pastoral. It was held in Spanish with translation services made available to non-Spanish speakers.
The meeting was originally scheduled for mid-September and aimed to address safety and immigration in Boyle Heights, but was postponed due to a scheduling conflict, according to Jurado’s team. The postponement did not sit right with some stakeholders who felt she wasn’t prioritizing Boyle Heights.
The community forum was centered on a handful of questions posed by Proyecto Pastoral leaders, who asked about how she plans to ensure residents get preference for affordable housing projects, how she is responding to immigration raids, how she aims to fix street lights, and what she’s doing to address pedestrian safety.
Jurado also answered questions from residents.
Housing and local preference
On housing, Jurado touted an interim control ordinance – in place until next year – that prohibits the demolition of rent-controlled units in Boyle Heights. Jurado said she’s working toward making the ordinance permanent.
Jurado assured residents that when it comes to privately-funded affordable housing projects, “we can negotiate with community members to make sure there’s local preference.” However, she noted, it’s different for projects funded with government money. “There is no local preference provision because it could violate the fair housing law,” she said.
She mentioned an upcoming report exploring efforts by the nonprofit Eastside LEADS, seeking to prioritize local preference in affordable housing.
Addressing immigration raids and tenant protections
Regarding immigration, Jurado said she supported legislation prohibiting immigration agents from entering childcare facilities. She said members of her team are also involved in neighborhood patrols to keep watch for ICE activity.
The councilmember mentioned her efforts to secure more funding for RepresentLA, a private-public partnership providing legal aid to undocumented immigrants facing removal. An update on that effort is forthcoming, she said.
Jurado said she’s seeking to ensure landlords provide “Know Your Rights” information to tenants and is looking for funding to support renters impacted by immigration raids. She noted about $1 million for rental assistance that came from ULA.
She pointed to efforts put forth by the county in protection of renters that the city is seeking to emulate.
Streetlight repairs and neighborhood cleanup
Residents said they were disappointed with the lack of improvements to streetlights and street maintenance since Jurado took office last December.
“You promised during your campaign that you would bring light to the city within the first 100 days. We’re almost a year in, and we’re still in the dark,” said Margarita Amador, a lifelong Boyle Heights resident who works with Proyecto Pastoral.
Jurado pointed to a $1.07 million allocation for a streetlight repair team that will address widespread outages caused by copper wire theft and aging infrastructure. She said the city is hiring two more people and will start working to address the issue in three weeks. Jurado said her team will work with Proyecto Pastoral to prioritize repairs.
“In addition to fixing the bulb, it’s about fortification to figure out different ways to make sure it won’t be susceptible to copper wire theft,” Jurado said.
Regarding neighborhood cleanup, Jurado said the LA Conservation Corps cleans two times per week. For residents like Antonio Garcia, 52, that is not enough.
Garcia worked more than nine years with Fuego Tech, a Boyle Heights group previously funded by CD 14 to conduct daily street cleanups, landscaping, power washing and bulky item collection. He said Fuego Tech stopped receiving funding last year and urged Jurado to reinvest.
“I hope she takes responsibility for what she’s saying so that people will trust her,” Garcia said.
Boyle Heights Beat reached out to Jurado’s office to learn more about the funding of Fuego Tech and will update this story if we hear back.
What residents had to say
Patricia Romero, who has lived in Boyle Heights for about 30 years, said that while she voted for Jurado, she is disappointed in her efforts in Boyle Heights. The Fourth Street bridge, she said, “is the dirtiest I’ve seen. … The cleaning is horrible.”
“We need you to pay more attention,” she said.
Olga Muñoz, of Boyle Heights, said it was good to see Jurado take note of complaints and requests being made to her. Muñoz also found it helpful to hear Jurado talk about city finances and about the funding she is seeking to secure.
For Muñoz and her family, immigration raids have been a main issue. She hopes city leaders like Jurado could do more to push federal officials to change course on immigration. “We go out to work in fear,” she said. “My son told me, ‘Mom, I’m enjoying that time is passing quickly because I want this to be over already.’ … This is also impacting our children,” she said.
Eloina Chavez, a Boyle Heights resident, said Jurado “still has a long way to go.”
Chavez said she’d like to see more effort from the councilmember to beautify Boyle Heights streets with new trees. She also wants to see more effort to combat homelessness.
Looking ahead
Toward the end of the meeting, Jurado touted the upcoming groundbreaking of the Benjamin Franklin Branch Library. She also stressed patience with project financing and street repairs. Those things take time, she said. “We’re trying to work as fast as we can,” Jurado said.
She referenced a Bible verse, Ecclesiastes 3:11, declaring, “God makes everything good in his own time.”
“I am trying to make sure I make good by all of you …,” she said. “I really mean it … I want to keep being here with you.”
“I want to be a partner, and not an absent one at that,” she said.