A Perfect City vs. A Good City

By Jerry Bernstein

On Mar. 8 Cerritos voters will be going to the polls to fill three city council seats. Incumbents Mayor Joseph Cho and Councilmember Bruce Barrows are seeking a second four-year term on the council. Five other candidates are seeking to fill the position being vacated by Mayor Pro Tem Laura Lee who is leaving the council because of term limits.
The five are former Mayor Grace Hu, Chris Fuentes, School Board member Mark Pulido, Harshad Mody and Kiran Rami. All are upstanding residents of the city. However, listening to some of them campaigning, one can’t help but wonder if they are seeking a seat on the Cerritos Council or another city.
Apparently our neighborhoods are in disrepair with the streets crumbling making it almost impossible to drive on them without hitting a pothole. Our neighborhood sidewalks are being uprooted by tree roots making it almost impossible to walk on them. One of the candidates accuses the Council of being a rubber stamp body that does everything the city manager allegedly dictates to them and is leading the city down to an abyss of “Bell” corruption.
The Performing Arts Theater has been described as a financial albatross around the city’s neck, ignoring the benefits it brings to the city in the way of theatergoers who frequent the city’s restaurants and shop at Cerritos stores, providing much needed sales tax to the city.
While Cerritos is not perfect, each of the candidates state they are proud of the city, its schools, its parks, and programs for both seniors and its children. However, the way some of them describe it, Cerritos sounds like a shantyville in a bad novel. Cerritos is not perfect, but its imperfections need to be looked at in perspective. If you attend or watch the city council on television, you know its members are listening to you when you come before them with a grievance. If an item is not on the council agenda the members can’t take any action on the matter, but it can and does ask the staff about it and if necessary instructs them to report back to them. The council can also recommend the matter be referred to one of the city’s commissions or put on the agenda for its next meeting when it can be discussed.
During this time of economic duress, resulting in job loss throughout California and the nation, Cerritos has managed to maintain its fiscal integrity, bringing new businesses into the city. The Cerritos Center is a good example with the new Nordstrom Department Store, Forever 21, Apple, and a new “Lazy Dog” restaurant scheduled to open March 9. The Cerritos Auto Square is once again vibrant, having climbed out of the recession doldrums.
It’s true the city is not immune to the recession and loss of revenue but Cerritos is solvent. The Council is aware of some of the needs in the neighborhoods and tries to address them, but they don’t ignore them. They are aware of the city walls that need to be repaired if not replaced, but unlike Merlin in King Arthur’s Court, it can’t wave a wand and new walls appear. The council has had to reduce the city’s budget that has slowed the city’s response to neighborhood concerns, but they are being addressed, if not as fast as some residents would want.