Downtown LA development and Hispanic politics

Good morning. Thanks for listening in to Downtown Crossroads. This is show number three. And our purpose in these shows is to establish a deep context for development in downtown Los Angeles. And we're really honored here today. We have as our guest the former chief of staff for Jose Huizar in the 14th District, Princeton graduate Anna Kubas. And she'll be answering most of the questions on the show. And before we get to that, I just want to say that we're really trying hard to make some sense out of different issues. And probably if we have a chance, we'll bring up the drug war again on this program. And the fact that it doesn't seem to work. And most of the casualties are Mexican. I brought this up with our first guest, Sandy Richards. And she felt that a lot of work needed to be done in that area. And we'll get back to that. We're also going to have a call-in guest, Tony Contero. He's head of the U.S. Latina Chamber of Commerce. And he'll be sharing the podium with Anna. But now we want to get to our guest here. And we want to ask her just a little, a few questions about her own life before we get into the politics. So why don't you let us know about that? Like, where did you grow up? What was your early life like? And what do you think the politics have been like for you? Thank you, Ed. It's an honor to be here. You're such a great friend. And one of the downtown greats, I believe. So thank you for having me. And thank you for doing the show. Wow. I should stop right here. That was incredible. Downtown is a thriving community with a lot of residents. And it has a bright future. And that's what I love about the city. That's what I love about this country. I came as an immigrant from El Salvador when I was 10 years old. My family and I were escaping the Civil War in El Salvador. And this country is great. This city is great. As many of you know, as you know, I recently ran for Los Angeles City Council for the 9th Council District, which includes the area of LA Live, Staples Center, USC, the Coliseum, and South Central Los Angeles. It was an amazing experience. It was my first time running for office. And only in this country would it be possible for someone like me that came here as an immigrant from El Salvador to be able to be a top contender for Los Angeles City Council. That's fantastic. You know, I think you should tell us a little bit about that race and give us some background. Well, in a couple of years ago, the city went through a redistricting process. And during that process, we looked at the demographics of Council District 9. Myself and a few community leaders in South LA, and we noticed that the district had changed quite a bit. The demographics are such that District 9 is about 80% Latino by population. The voter registration there is about 50%. There is still a very strong African-American presence there in terms of residents and voters. So I was asked, I was asked by a group of community leaders called the Latino Coalition to run in that seat about a year and a half ago. Let's try to put that into context for our listeners who may not be in LA or in California. And we're talking about a district that was heavily African-American for years during the development of Central Avenue and much later. And these are the changes that are happening in the district. And these are the changes that we're concerned about in our show. So please continue. So, so yes, so the district has gone through a demographic shift. And I had the privilege of being supported by former Councilwoman Rita Walters, who was the Councilwoman of the 9th District prior to Councilwoman Jan Perry. And so really my campaign was a coalition campaign. The theme and the goal was always to unite Latinos and African-Americans. So city all over downtown we've had these business improvement districts develop since the 80s because the city didn't have the money to maintain the alleys and especially security in the area yes so because of the continual cutbacks in city resources we have a situation that the city itself can't take care of the basics that the city is in charge of and many people know the city of LA has a $7 billion budget the majority of that budget goes to police and fire it's about 70 percent so there's not a whole lot left for what I call the basics which is what public works all of the departments the Bureau of Engineering Bureau of Street Services those are the departments that can take care of the basics and so there's not enough to go around so that's why you saw an emergence of business improvement districts where businesses choose and vote to take the business improvement districts themselves to provide services for cleaning up the streets the alleys and public safety that's great you know we'll be inviting the heads of different business improvement districts to visit our show once we finish this foundational series of looking deeply into these issues you're really running ahead of me here and I feel like I don't even have to ask questions but please tell us some more about that election tell us a little bit more about that election. and what was the turnout like as opposed to the registration numbers so there's about 75,000 voters registered in council district 9 in both the primary and the general election only about 12,000 turned out so you're talking about between 10 and 15 percent turnout it's one of the lowest turnouts in the city of Los Angeles and I saw why I went door-to-door and most people said to me well you're the first candidate that's come to my door and I've lived here for thirty or twenty years and that was Latino and African-American voters alike so there's a lot of disenchantment and disengagement between the people of the ninth district and their government many times I had explained to people people will what does a city council member do what does an assembly member do versus a senator versus a county supervisor and I'm actually getting together with a few friends supporters during my campaign to establish a group that will go to door and promote civic engagement it's what I called government and politics 101 going door to door and explaining to people what are the different levels of government why is it important to vote because what we know is the more that voters are engaged in their communities the more reaction and response you get from your government whether it's the city level we see this on the west side we see this in the west valley where there's high voter turnout high voter participation and then you see their government responding the streets are cleaner the alleys are cleaner so it's a what I call a catch 22 for the people of south LA if they don't vote if they don't get involved you'll see a continual lack of attention to the basic needs of that council district and what I want to say too is the election was held there's there was a winner current price one he's the council member I really hope that he will work with the community to roll up his sleeves to clean up the district to really engage people because that election was very costly for him he ended up spending combined about two million dollars I ended up raising about half a million thanks so much we'll get back to that election and I want to ask you what it's like to run in a district where the stem of it is really a minority community of different minority groups but rather low income and then the and challenging topics. So it's good to hear your show's going well. That's fantastic. What we're going to do is have you on the line also as a second participant. And I know you have so much to say. And we also want to kind of get to the beginning of Anna's interview. And then we'll have you respond to similar questions concerning your own background. Does that work for you? Standing by. Okay, fantastic. So I wanted to ask you, we have Tony on the line. And just we want to remind our guests that he is a businessman that has been very successful but continued to be engaged in the issues affecting his community. Now we want to get back to Anna. What about this business of having a district that's comprised on one end of mostly minority, community, rather lower income than other parts of the city, and to have that combined with the arena, which is a huge project of the billionaire Philip Anschutz and has a tremendous impact downtown. How were you able to appeal to both constituencies? Well, what I heard often going door to door was people did not. They did not want their elected official to focus too much on downtown and the developers. That they wanted attention paid to the basic needs of the district. So that was one thing that I heard. And number two, the creation of the jobs at Staples Center, LA Live, and hopefully the future NFL stadium, although that future is up in the air, really should result in the community getting jobs out of those ventures. So I know the city council, when approving the concept for the NFL stadium, required a local hiring ordinance. So those are the two primary concerns of the constituents. On the one hand, making sure that the focus wouldn't be so much on downtown. And the other is what can we require of these large developments so that they hire locally, so that the community doesn't get left out of jobs, because that's the number one concern. And the number two is the number one concern for that community is jobs. You know, developers and businesses often complain that California leads the way in putting regulation on businesses and extra demands. Do you have any sense about that? We do pioneer in a lot of areas of the environment and worker safety. Is that a problem or is that a good example? Well, the problem is you have a bureaucracy. So whether it's city hall or the state government, the bureaucracy is not that friendly. So even though the regulation itself may not be bad, it's the treatment and the slowness of the process that I think deters businesses from locating in LA and wanting to stay in California. And I am a big fan of the city creating an economic development strategy that's focused on customer service, that's focused on friendliness and a quicker pace to the needs of the business community. That's really the number one issue. I haven't really heard too many businesses complain too much about regulation. It's about the bureaucracy and the red tape that is the biggest concern. And so I would hope that, especially with Mayor Garcetti, who seems to really get this and understands the back to basics theme, is how do we create a city government that is responsive to the needs of the business community and also to residents about what we need, basic things, courtesy and good customer service and quick responses, as opposed to a whole bunch of red tape. That's what residents have been getting. That's what businesses have been getting. So I'm a fan of reinventing government, not necessarily undoing the regulations, but making sure that the door is open for business and that the red tape and the slowness of the bureaucracy goes away. Wow. You know, before we get to a question that both you and Mr. Quintero can take a shot at, I wanted to ask you, you've had experience in Sacramento. What is it with Sacramento? Is it a different problem? Is it a different problem than LA City of responsiveness and dealing with business? Because you hear more complaints about Sacramento, really, than you do about Los Angeles. Can you shed some light on that, on the differences between the two? Yeah, and what I find interesting, Ed, is that you look at Los Angeles City Council, and I would say five or six of the current members are former Sacramento lawmakers. I think the LA Times coined LA City Hall as Sacramento South. So I don't know whether that's a good thing for the residents of the city of LA. What I see is the same issue, and I worked in Washington, D.C. also, and that's the issue of red tape and bureaucracy. The difference between Los Angeles City Hall and Sacramento, the state legislature, is really City Hall is where I call the rubber hits the road, the nitty gritty. This is what people, as they walk out of their door, expect from their government. Sacramento tends to be more removed, so there's not a lot of interaction between the legislators and their constituency, unlike in LA City Hall, where that's your job as a council member, on a daily basis, to deal with basic issues that constituents have. From the trash not being picked up to the fact that, you know, there's a lot of traffic, to the traffic jam being picked up, to stray dogs running around, to dirty alleys. So there is, at different levels of government, more disengagement, and that's the case, too, at the federal level, where most people can't think of, well, what does the federal agency do that impacts my life, for example? Whereas in the city, your daily life is impacted by what's happening in City Hall. Police and fire, local libraries, and that's really why I ran for city councilist, because I believe that that is the closest that the people have to their government, to their elected officials. Thank you. Were you influenced, and we're going to give Tony a chance to answer these same questions, were you influenced by one person or a religious leader or a parent that got you involved in politics? How did it happen? Not everybody chooses that path. You know, for me, it was my grandmother. I was born in El Salvador. I was mostly raised by my grandmother. She died when I was 10 years old. She was in our little small town in El Salvador, a community leader, a religious leader. I would actually open the door to our house, and there would always be someone there who needed help, needed food, needed clothing, needed money. And my grandmother, even though we were very humble, very poor, would give whatever she had, whether it was food in the pantry or whatever money she had or clothing. And I remember when she died when I was 10, the entire town came out to her funeral. And that's when I knew that that's what I wanted to do in my life was to help the community to be like her, because I saw how she was, how she was kind and giving and loving, and how when she died, everyone came out to pay their respects. So that was when I was 10 years old. The orange didn't fall far from the tree, or in your case, the naranja. Hey, Toni, what is it that led to your interest in politics? And why do you maintain an activism even though you're a successful businessman? Well, that's a good question, Ed. I think that, you know, I grew up with leaders like Robert Kennedy and John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez. But the most influential of all was my dad, who was undocumented, went to fight for the United States in World War II, survived five of the most deadly campaigns in the Pacific, and returned with a bronze star for valiantry in combat, yet had to face discrimination and prejudice like he'd never seen. And my parents had lived in Mexico. But with the opportunities in this country, and having served during World War II, my dad felt we should stay. But we grew up with a dad that was very, very, I would say, strong and committed to improving conditions in this country for Latinos. There's nothing like having contributed as much as he did for this country and to be treated like a second-class citizen, to be discriminated against. People forget that my dad grew up through the period when it was legal to segregate Latinos in schools. And it was. Brave leaders like Roberto Alvarez, who was the lead plaintiff in the Alvarez versus Lemon Grove that had the courts declare that it was unconstitutional. Yet we still had another major battle that involved Orange County. Westminster School District was sued because it was discriminating and putting Mexican children in separate schools. So long before Brown versus Board of Education and Latinos had been fighting these battles. And I think my dad was just incredibly influential. I had four brothers, five of us all together. We all went to college. My brother and I both went to... I know Anna's from Berkeley. We both went to Boltolle, graduated, both of us. I have a family and all my dad's grandchildren have all completed college or have PhDs or doctorates. And that's amazing when we are suffering here from discrimination and hatred, prejudice, telling us that we can't live here, that we have to deport 11 million people who are here, including young children who came here not even knowing that they were illegal or what that meant, who are contributing significantly to the society. You know, Tony, I want to get people know a little better than they know you for sure. And I want to kind of establish your commonality with the rest of our listeners. And one of the most amazing things about you to me has nothing to do with these issues, which is I'm a broker and most brokers stay as brokers. So we end up working. Working for the owners, one might say. But you, in contrast, went ahead and became an owner yourself. And you ended up owning shopping centers. Regional malls. That's right. Right. That's even bigger. What can you tell us about, what did that feel like, first of all, to become an owner when previously you just had to work for them and... What drove you to that? Is it the same education and the same parenting? Well, you know, actually, talking about parenting, you know, what drove me to that was that my first memory was living in tents across the street from a big property that later on became a regional mall. So when I was in high school, I worked in the mall. And I liked it so much, I later on decided to start buying them. And it was a thrill. It was incredible. And now I was the owner, and we bought a portfolio of regional malls. It was a great idea at the right time, right when the crisis hit, and we were dealing with the banks taking back lots of properties, particularly the regional malls. We found that the problem was that they were basically stripping down, abandoning malls, taking the good tenants out if they were in ethnic areas. And they didn't want Wall Street. They didn't want Wall Street to perceive their companies and their major five companies in this country. They didn't want to be perceived as buying ethnic malls, as they called them. So we came in with a plan to re-tenant them with tenants that were relevant to the particular ethnic community, which national mall owners have never done or never did before. And therefore, yeah, I was the first owner of regional malls, the first Latino to own a portfolio of regional malls in this country. It was thrilling. I'd fly into town. The staff would. They'd take me out. I'd be escorted through the mall with the security staff, and everybody would wonder, who is that guy? Wow. We'll have to keep. Ann is starting to look like she might be interested in you, so we'll have to. He saw your picture. As a friend, of course. As a friend. He saw your picture on Facebook, so watch out. Yeah, no, that sounds great. You're saying that. I want to give Ann a chance to comment on what you said, but you're saying that it's kind of the same thing. You said that you were a successful businessman. You wanted your community to participate in the action and not be excluded. Am I right? Exactly. Exactly. I think it all begins with economic, then social and political empowerment. But until Latinos learn to do business together, we're going to get further and further behind. And that's why it's amazing. And I think that's what we have done and the dramatic improvements we've seen in our community. What do you think about that, Ann, or like the path he took towards engagement? That's great because, again, it's a testament to the American dream that it's alive and well, whether you choose politics, whether you choose business. And I agree with him because we need economic empowerment in order to have social and political empowerment. In L.A., it took a long time. It took a long time to have a Latino elected official. And it's really been only in the past two decades that we've seen an increase in the number of Latinos, obviously to reflect the demographics of the city and the state and not to the exclusion of other groups. But as they say, the founding members worked on a premise that there's no taxation without representation. So that's what we're talking about. Yeah, you know. That's really a good point, Anna. And, you know, it reminds me that I have to announce that formally this month is the first time in the history of the state of California, well, going back to, and that's another one of my big arguments, is since the invasion of Mexico in 1847 and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Latino population has now become the... the largest ethnic group in the state of California, which is really amazing. And that just happened. The demographics are there and it's now the Latinos are the largest ethnic group in the state, larger than Anglos. That doesn't sound too... More astounding, what I have to tell you, really, really, and that happened this year. For the first time in the history of the state of California, Latinos are going to college in greater number than Anglos. This past year, the state of California is going to college in greater numbers than Anglos. This past year, 69% of Latino high school graduates went to college. Anglos was 68%. When I left law school, only 2% of the nation's students were Latino. Today, over 20% of the college students are Latino. Wow, that sounds like it might cut into my commission. I mean, you know what they say, Jesus saves, Moses invests. So, I mean, I just want to keep things on a little... So, I mean, I just want to keep things on a little... So, I mean, I just want to keep things on a little... Just a little bit of a lighter note. I want to... I had the honor years ago to work on the sale of the Banks-Huntley building to MALDEF. This was 20 years ago. This was in the middle of the battle over Proposition 187, and MALDEF under President Antonio Hernandez was leading the fight against Prop 187. She said to me at that time, quote, All we want is what everybody else wants. Period. Now, that was 20 years ago. Has it happened or has it not? I'm going to let Anna answer that and then Tony. I believe in terms of politics, it's gotten better. It's not where we should be. If you look at just focusing on Los Angeles, you have four members that are Latino. It's not half of the city. not half of the city council to reflect the population, but we've got a long ways to go to ensure that the Latino population actually votes and is registered to vote. And interesting thing about that MALDEF building, and when you said that, I didn't know that you were part of that because I had an internship in that building right before we got moved out when it got rehabbed. And that's when I met Antonia Hernandez, and I still to this day look up to her. She really is a role model, but I worked in that building as an intern on 6th and Spring. So what a great cosmic connection here that you were involved in helping them acquire the building because now it's a nonprofit center. They have MALDEF there and other nonprofits. I ended up working there 20 years later for the Youth Policy Institute, which is located there on the 10th floor. Anyway, I have this special place in my heart for that building. I wanted to say that. So I feel that way about her. I have to say that I do too, not only have I had the pleasure of working with Ed Rosenthal in the past on major real estate transactions, but I was on the board of directors of MALDEF when I was only 25 and was also in the building when I was a consultant to the Latino chamber of great for Los Angeles. That's great. So I know the building well, and it has a lot of history. And to get to my question, are we there? Or I noticed a lot has happened in those 20 years since the MALDEF deal, but what's your perspective on where Hispanics are in California and if possible in LA compared to 20 years ago? Well, let me just say that... The fact is that we still have... 40% of adult Latinos do not have a high school diploma. We are still suffering in politics. Even in politics, we've made significant changes. Today there are 30 Latinos working in the White House, and we have 21 Latinos in our state legislature. When I left law school, there were two, two Latinos in the assembly. So we've made dramatic improvements, but we're halfway there. And it's going to happen because of our burgeoning population, our commitment to civil rights, and our willingness to work together as Latinos to improve our conditions. That's the big difference we have. We have become a movement and a community that has that. Although a lot of diversity of opinions, we are very united on certain issues like immigration and many other political reforms that need to happen. What are some of those diversity of opinions, you're alluding to? Well, I mean, we have people like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who are, I would consider, Tea Party Republicans, who really don't represent the views of most Latinos, not Latinos in California, and are very close to or pushing the idea that they should be the next president, that because they're Latino that they're in line. So I almost assume that they should be considered. And I don't think they represent the views at all of the Latino community, or most of the Latino community. And the diversity is some people think we need to do it by business, and some people think we need to make changes by being extremely involved politically and having a very strong voice. Well, in fact, both of those, the inside and the outside game, are the ones that are going to make the difference. We will have people moving up the ladders, the corporate ladders and corporate boards. But we're going to also have organizations, like MALDEF and Chambers of Commerce, who are fighting for equality and justice for our community. What do you think about that, Anna? Well, obviously, on a national level, you have the division of the Democratic versus the Republican parties, and Latinos are members of the Republican party. And the issue of immigration has brought those divisions really to light. At the California level, most of the Latino electeds are Democrats. And the divisions that you see there are different cliques, different groups that have formed in the past 20 years in terms of who will have power. And what I see, and this is something you and I were talking about before the show started, is the lack of women being at the table and the creation of... this boys' network that continued to tap and fund other men to run for office. For example, in City Hall, there's one woman, one female council member, one female elected official in general. And it's Councilwoman Nury Martinez. And I congratulate her because she ran a really good campaign. She ran against another woman, Cindy Montañez, a former assemblywoman. But you see also that, you know, in the state legislature, in the state assembly, in the state senate is you see this very strong boys network and I've seen that play out in the Latino community especially that you don't have many of the Latino elected wanting to mentor and support women to run for office to replace them or to be at what I call to be on the bench to be ready to tap to be tapped and say all right you're up you're next to bat because that's how the boys network works and so that that is one area of concern that I have is yes Latinos have more political empowerment it's not where we should be and it's certainly not equal in terms of gender balance. Please call in to comment on this discussion between Ana Cubas and Tony Contero regarding issues facing Hispanic community in Los Angeles the number is 800-893-9562. I just want to throw in my own perspective on that I commented on my Facebook page today that basically my life is run by women and we live in a male dominated by female society but I was just talking about myself because Sandy Richards had said all my guests so far are women. I'm not saying that I'm not a woman. I'm not saying that I'm not a woman. I'm not What I said was, yeah, it starts at the house with my wife and daughter bossing me around. And then my editor is a female. The publisher is a female. The person writing my forward is a female. And the woman running the business improvement district is a female. So obviously that's not the situation that Anna's talking about in the Hispanic community. I need to remind you and Anna that the head of the largest political advocacy group in the country, NCLR, is run by a Latina. And actually, overall, I'm very impressed, very proud of our Latina women's organizations who have come on so strong and have been so effective. But I think what we really all agree on in the women and men's Latino groups is that we all are in this together. And that... Our differences don't separate us. Issues like immigration reform. 75% of this country wants it to happen. And here we are with a few screwballs in Congress that are holding up the whole thing. With everything from filibuster to statements like one made by Stephen King, Iowa congressman, that Latinos are not all valedictorians. In fact, most of them are. They're treated equally we want civil rights and we want justice for our people we're done with discrimination and prejudice for our children we do not want to see that in the next generation well he sounds too tough for the show well let me just read to you um i'm just kidding i want to bring it back to an la context and one of our most well-known politicians representative karen base she was quoted bass was quoted in the la times this weekend as saying quote i am not optimistic that comprehensive immigration reform is going to be brought up in the house of representatives anytime soon said base a member of the judiciary committee which is hearing most of the immigration bills quote the bills making their way through the house i would not want to see go anywhere you they are very onerous there's no pathway to citizenship in the bills and then about stephen king she said the republicans who denounced king's statement share many of his positions but express them differently there is the crude and there is the sophisticated at the end of the day i think both opinions are pretty much the same in terms of the disrespectful viewpoint of immigrants It's just a part of this country that was based upon this concept of bring me your wretched, your poor, those people that are really economic refugees, which is what is really happening. And the people coming from Latin America are economic refugees. Most of America was built on economic refugees immigrating to this country. And I think that stuff like Karen Bass's kind of negative attitude is, if she's right, I can tell you it's only going to polarize us more. And I can tell you you're going to see not just 75 percent of people in favor of it. It's definitely going to drive people more in favor of it. And I think it's also going to unify the Latino community even more. And I think the Republicans will be making the worst mistake. They've ever made, because you'll see the polls swing dramatically back to the position of immigration reform going through, being passed, and any of the issues that affect Latinos like equal justice and freedom from discrimination will start becoming much more viable, much more important. And, Ed, I'm very disappointed in Congresswoman Karen Bass, especially because... Because her district has also gone through demographic changes, and it's majority Latino as well. And her comments are discouraging because instead of playing a leadership role and telling her audience, and this came out of an immigration town hall that she had in her district, instead of saying to people, look, let's work together, let's fight to get immigration reform done, it was a very pessimistic attitude almost, basically, saying I'm not going to really work hard to make this happen. So it's disappointing to come from her as a leader. And for me, it's basic economic math, in that we have immigrants that work in the underground economy because they're undocumented. We have young people that go to school every day. We have, and are valedictorians. We have a sector of our economy that once we, normalize their status, will contribute more to this economy, will help our budget crisis that we have at the city level, at the county level, at the state and the federal level. They are not a drain to those government agencies. They will actually increase revenues. Imagine all the business taxes that the city could get. Imagine the income tax and additional revenue. Imagine the income tax and additional revenue. Imagine the income tax and additional revenue. Imagine the income tax and additional revenue. We could get by normalizing the status of people who are already here and are not going anywhere. Isn't it true that these people already pay Social Security taxes, but sometimes it's under a false name, so they never get to claim it back? Right. The money goes right into the treasury. And they never get anything in return. The Urban Institute, you were talking about downtown in L.A., we are... dealing with a situation where we're faced with constant misinformation and lies. It's been used as an economic argument and basic thinking is that... or the argument is that we're draining the resources of this country because Latinos are coming here to have children and all that kind of stuff. Completely false. The Urban Institute there in Los Angeles did a study in L.A. County, and they found that... that... for every dollar that Latinos, who are undocumented, receive in government resources, they pay into the system $4.56, more than four and a half times what they receive. They're paying into the system. Yeah, some of it is Social Security numbers. Some people, they just don't file because they've used their Social Security number, and they don't file because they don't know how to deal with a tax return, and they're afraid they're going to get in trouble. All kinds of things. But the bottom line is working people here, 95% of Latinos who are here undocumented are working. That's one of the highest employment ratios of any ethnic group. So when they did that survey, did they include uses of emergency rooms in hospitals and things like that, which the Latino community uses? Yeah. And it's probably lower than anyone else because they're afraid they're going to be arrested. Yeah. be arrested if they go in with an injury. And the thing is, you know, people don't, you know, it's nothing more than information. Latinos don't take Social Security to go back to Mexico most of the time. They're here and they're healthy. They use very little of the medical resources that other people require. And it's just all misinformation. Contributing significantly, you forget that people like my father and thousands more, Latinos have more congressional medals of honor than any other ethnic group. Ever. Because of their willingness to die for this country. And we never get any credit for those things. I think the bottom line is it makes economic sense for the country and all levels of government to ensure that there are people that can help us increase the revenue source for the services that we all need. Imagine in the city of L.A. when we normalize the status of undocumented immigrants, what that would mean for revenue. And what that would mean for the city of Los Angeles. And what that would mean for new voters. We could launch a voter registration program to ensure that those immigrants that become documented and become U.S. citizens. You know, I became a U.S. citizen when I was 19. My mom, at that time we were here legally. We had our green card. I came at the age of 10 and I remember my mom asking me, well, mija, what do you want? What do you want for your 18th birthday? And I didn't say I want clothes or shoes. I said, mom, I want to be a U.S. citizen so I could vote. Because I realized I turned 18. It's our right to vote. But I couldn't vote yet. And so at the age of 19, I got sworn in as a U.S. citizen in the West Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center. And it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. There were thousands of people in that convention hall. And to this day, you see a lot of people going to West Hall to become U.S. citizens. So that's what we want. As you said that Antonio said to you a while back, what everyone has access to education, access to our government, because we are here to contribute, to make our lives better, to make this country better, to make the city better. What do you? What do you feel is a way for minorities? What do you see? What do you see? What do you see? What do you see? communities to cooperate in getting a bigger piece of the pie because while these struggles over resources are taking place within minority communities like for example in la some african americans feel they lose jobs or they lost businesses since hispanics moved in um what is a way that those groups can cooperate together in order to achieve more for both well so far we've been talking about we've been talking about the hispanic community as if it's the only minority community in la well ed it's it's very important that you understand that uh latinos and african americans have much more common than they than they differ on and uh the media i've heard fox news push this thing that the mexicans and the blacks don't like each other there's a lot of internal strife and all that kind of stuff you that's not true and i think uh it's pretty hard to be latino and not understand what blacks go through and the discrimination and prejudice they say they suffer every day so uh the idea that we're not together is is i think something i really have to say uh latinos will not agree on that and uh differences we may have are like uh um probably uh very little compared to what we're we're on the same side about well i take that 733 bus down venice boulevard and i've heard some comments from both communities at different times that would you know they don't act exactly reflect the spirit of cooperation so could you elaborate on that a little bit more i'm saying it doesn't just come from fox news people themselves are difficult um i'd say you know you're getting down to individual personality one-on-one type um you know and i'm sure that whites have problems with whites and uh and uh african-americans have trouble with uh hispanics and all of that and i think it's really really dangerous to generalize or to say the latinos talk about blacks or vice versa i don't think that's what's important i think what's really important is we have a common issue with both communities and all ethnic communities are fighting for this to overcome the prejudice and discrimination we've all come here just like all other ethnic groups and we've all come here to fight for the prejudice and discrimination and the history as you know i was a sociologist the issue is we're coming here to overcome and just like all the other ethnic groups latinos african-americans all of us are fighting for equality and justice and to overcome the prejudice and the racism we have a lot in common and the most important issues those are the ones we're in common on mainly economics right the minimum wage we're talking about uh civil rights we're talking about uh yeah we're talking about uh civil rights we're talking about jobs we're talking about employment but we're talking about education we're talking about uh the law and how we're treated and um i think that um uh martin luther king cesar chavez they stood on the same ground and they believe the same thing and they didn't talk about each other that's really what it's all about and and for me walking door to door for a year both african-american and latino households what i realized we're all in the same boat and i'm the first person that knocked on my door and i've lived here 20 to 30 years that was both african-american and latinos both are neglected by their government actually that's what i realized at the local level so we have that in common that we are not taken into account that we're neglected that we don't have the same access to our government that we should that was one now the issue of the petition for jobs came up quite a bit as i was campaigning between uh latinos and african-americans so how did that get expressed so so it would be asked directly how will you ensure that um we african-american males especially have access to jobs how would you ensure that um not all the jobs go to mexicans or latinos i would be asked that and my answer to that is look if we work for everyone we wouldn't even be in that situation where we have to compete for the scraps because that's the situation that south la finds itself in we're competing for the scraps because no one is locating their businesses there and and my platform was to turn that around to spur economic growth and get clean tech jobs for example solar panels manufacture solar panels get an apprenticeship program with both latino and african-american and i think that's a really good lower income groups and I was just hopeful of cooperation between minorities in that regard you know one policy issue that really annoys me is the drug war and it heavily impacts both communities Latinos and blacks and the drug war there was recently a demonstration in the Pueblo you know the original city downtown and there was a group from Mexico meeting there and they had a large turnout and their whole purpose was to explain that the drug war is really fought in Mexico at the expense of Mexicans they're the ones dying and it's because of a u.s. consumption need and policy and I wonder if either of you I asked my first guest Sandy Roe Richard's whose church is actively involved trying to assist poorer communities around the world what she thought about it I wanted to ask you to about what's your impression of the drug war in terms of its impact on your community well I just gotta say that the so-called drug war is yeah it's caused over 30,000 deaths in in Mexico and but what's driving it is the the guns the the new president of mexico uh... in rickett and yet the pen and yet though has said that his one of his biggest priorities will be the other to be drug war he's working with obama and i've got with him twice uh... he's sincere about it you know politics is politics and there's so many people with their their hands india in in the pot but uh... he's he's working on it and i have faith that uh... things will improve but i i also think that uh... uh... this is a problem that stems from the demand we have in this country and uh... legalization of marijuana probably end all the cartels right there they won't have any shipments will be legal things like that are things we should think about what about do you think it's driven by contractors security contractors and weapons contractors that want to make money off the drug war and they influence policy no it's not security contractors you know i don't think so i think they're we're dealing with some uh... illegal elements that are uh... managing to uh... weapons in the country that's that's what's happened it's uh... it's just a supply and demand uh... you have the northern hemisphere u s and canada by the way who are the consumers of the drugs you have the southern hemisphere south america and then you have the thorough way central american mexico it's fascinating because if you look at the drug trade in europe you see the same phenomenon the southern hemisphere africa and this southern asian countries are the suppliers to the north the consumers europeans uh... and those that live in the northern part of the hemisphere so it's a global issue and until you cut off the demands for the supply we're going to continue to see the same problem right there i wanted to ask uh... and uh... what it feels like to be a young latina at this time period with all these things going on with all the changes in america and in general how does that feel for you to participate in a time like this here in los angeles i feel great i know that in no other country even in europe or mexico or el salvador with someone like me be able to be where i am where i was the first in my family to go to college uh... i have a master's degree from princeton i had the privilege of running for office i came so close to winning uh... and only in this country is it possible the american dream is alive and well and it's up to me and you ed and tony and everyone else who's listening to this right now is that possible? a successful investment broker. And I have a lot of fun bossing around a lot of wealthy people, actually. And it's great. I think that would be very difficult to accomplish anywhere else. And my partner grew up in a really poor part of England where they had no opportunity whatsoever post-war, post-World War II. And he feels the same way about the amazing opportunity here. I even think California is really the place to be. I don't think I could make inroads in the real estate business in New York the same way as I was able to do it in California. Here, anybody can call anybody. You could call any president of a bank, any developer, any investor. And that's... That's just not what it's like in New York. This is even more open. I mean, this is the frontier of the frontier. Absolutely. What do you think about that, Tony? You're a fighter. Yeah, well, I think L.A. is a great place and it's going to continue to be the mecca for many new and promising people that are going to contribute a lot to improve our world. And I wanted to just drop... Well, to say that the issue I see it, and it may be too profound for your show, is that... Hey, what do you mean by that? Well, just... I want to get to the bottom line. 50% of this country, more than 50% of this country will be Latino in this century in our near future. What does that mean? It means to me that maybe that's why people are so afraid of the Latino population. Because... What happens if Latinos in power treat non-Latinos the way Latinos have been treated in this country? What, you know, could be going on? I mean, people may be thinking about that. Maybe that's why they're afraid. But I can tell you that if... Speaking for myself, Latinos in power are benevolent people who care about humanitarian causes and care about human issues. We care about equality and justice. And I don't think we would ever do that. You know, if you... You know, think about it. Why don't we have a fence and $60 billion spent? We're crying about the money here. Somebody's complaining we're using up an emergency room. To ask about $60 billion for a wasted fence, what, to appease some of the extremists that think that that's going to stop drugs? Or what, immigration? It's not going to stop anything. And it's just a waste of money. That's right. That's fear-driven politics. But I'm saying that there are consequences for contractors involved promoting that that are going to make money building it. That's what I was... Well, of course. There's also people... Yeah, and... Jan Brewer in Arizona has a bunch of contractors on her payroll that are making a lot of money because she's blocking up so-called undocumented workers. There's a big, big money in that. And, you know, there's those economic issues. But I think we really, ultimately, will stand behind our beliefs, that this is a country that's going to stand behind its principles of equality and justice for all. And that it will overcome. And it may be troublesome battles at times, but this country is moving forward. Well, that sounds great. And that's a great place for everyone. That's a positive note for us to end the show on. And I hope we can have both of you back again on this show, Skid Row Studios. It'll be... It'll be on a podcast on iTunes within a few days. And you can hear this wonderful discussion over again between Anna Kubis and Tony Contero. Thank you both very much. Thank you, Ed. Great show. Thank you, Ed. Thank you, Gary. you