Policies

Our community has several rundown or empty business areas that should be thriving. Our most active business district is around Azusa Pacific University, but other areas of town—Downtown, Edgewood—remain virtually unchanged and blighted through the years.

Solution: Incentivize business in Azusa by offering grants, discounts on utilities, and access to resources. Focus on the development of our entire city, not just the areas around APU. Enforce existing municipal codes so that property owners will face harsher fines and penalties for vacant buildings. This should apply to City-owned buildings too!

We’re being priced out of our own community by recent developments that have been approved by current and past leadership.

Solution: Development needs to take our diverse residents into consideration at the planning phase. For example, did The Orchard need to be so massive? If development is scaled according to our community’s needs, the costs of construction can be lower, rents can be lower, and populated neighborhoods will be more attractive to businesses.

Poverty, trauma, and illness can create seemingly hopeless situations; our unhoused neighbors include college students, single mothers, and families. We want to move them out of the riverbeds and streets, but also connect them to life-critical resources. 

In 2019 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the unhoused cannot be criminally punished for sleeping outside if no alternatives exist. Without beds, there can be no enforcement. 

Solution: Partner with existing—already funded—local and statewide initiatives, such as Los Angeles County’s “Homeless Initiative” (Measure H funds) or its Roomkey Project. The San Gabriel Regional Housing Trust (SB 751) has already funded successful tiny homes in neighboring cities like Baldwin Park for women, children, veterans, and seniors in need. 

When tiny homes are built, we decide the demographics they serve. They are not an open door policy. A thorough application and vetting process is required in order to participate. 

Additionally, one of our many unused, City-owned properties could be converted into an emergency, non-congregate temporary shelter to get unhoused residents off the streets and connected to life-critical resources now.

We continue to face problems of crime, gang activity, and speeding down our streets.

Solution:  We must create more resources for our community, access to education and opportunities. An anti-gang task force comprised of community leaders should be formed. New stop lights and speed bumps should be considered for high traffic areas. Provide free signage for our residents, and a combination of passive and active patrols for speeding should be implemented.

Where do we go when we need help? Where do we refer people? More and more in our post-Covid world, we hear stories of people being evicted and needing resources.

Solution: Expand and rebrand Azusa’s Family Resource Center with community donations such as clothing and food for families in need. Reach out to local businesses and collect vouchers that could be exchanged for services such as haircuts, or local restaurants who could donate food kits.

At 14.5%, Azusa has by far the highest poverty rate in the 2020 Census compared to any of our neighboring cities.

Solution: Our City claims to have a surplus budget. We need to ensure basic living standards for all by removing barriers to opportunity, such as expanding our access to broadband internet. We also need to expand grants and incentives such as utility reductions so that companies will invest in Azusa and provide better jobs and wages for all families, not just the wealthy.

Azusa’s population is growing and housing is a basic human need, yet so many of us, from individuals to the broader working class, are struggling to afford places to live in our beloved city.

Solution: We need to increase the ratios of lower-income and affordable housing in new developments, make sure new developments take into consideration the residents of Azusa before we build them, and expand housing for seniors.

We are all in this together. No individual or group should dominate a city. Good leadership is like a relay race that serves our community. We need accountability for our elected officials to make sure there are proper checks and balances. 

Solution: No political royalties! This includes 12-year-term limits; limiting campaign contributions from anyone with an active contract with the city (e.g. Athens, Towing Companies, Developers, etc); promoting a district system in which geographic representation is more equitable; limiting the Mayoral position by rotating it among City Council.

As our fire season grows due to climate change, we are continually at risk of losing our homes. Our property taxes are rising just to pay for the increasing costs of fire protection.

Solution: On April 13, 2021, Governor Newsom signed into law the Wildfire Prevention and Resiliency Early Action Budget for Wildfire Prevention (SB 85), amending the Budget Act of 2020. We need to partner with the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains conservancy to build Azusa’s resilience to wildfire and improve fire safety.

Many of our parks are aging, and we have a robust public debate regarding new housing versus the preservation of green space. 

Solution: There’s a reality in which both affordable and new housing goals can be achieved while also preserving, maintaining—and even expanding—green space. On September 28, 2022, Gov. Newsom signed two new laws (SB 6 and AB 2011) to help cities build housing in empty retail spaces like our downtown. Creative design can implement innovations such as vertical or rooftop gardens. Using less concrete and asphalt will allow water to soak into our basins and avoid runoff that pollutes our environment.

Months before and after July 4th, our city is bombarded with illegal fireworks (not the “safe and sane” kind found at fundraising booths throughout the city). These fireworks cause major disruptions to our city’s residents, pets, and wildlife as well as risk fires which further damages our community.

Solution: Continued education on the negative effects of fireworks, a clear message of banning fireworks, increase fines, and increase patrols in unmarked vehicles the weeks prior and following July 4th. Alternative to illegal fireworks, we could bring back the Azusa City Fireworks show + Carnival and Food Festival to provide a central gathering place for us all to enjoy.

Since January 2014, Garcia Trail has been closed indefinitely. Azusa is the Canyon City and our community has historically bonded through its access to the outdoors.

Solution: The rehabilitation of our trails must be made a priority for our citizens in partnership with conservation groups, trailbuilders, and the communities who grant us access. The original trailhead will be relocated due to the selling of the previous fire station.

The San Gabriel Mountains National Monument was established in 2014, and Azusa’s planned River Wilderness Park could be a crown jewel for the City as a gateway to our Canyon. The project began in 2006 but it keeps stalling – the website says it’s currently slated to “start construction in 2017.”

Solution: Provide leadership and collaboration with the Watershed Conservation Authority and Caltrans to get this project completed as soon as possible.