Homelessness, and Safety: A Conversation with Mayor Sharon Kwan, First Asian Woman Mayor and Former Mayor April Verlato.
What happens when a city’s first Asian woman mayor takes office during a time of significant challenges? Mayor Sharon Kwan joins former Mayor April Verlato for a candid, solutions-oriented conversation about Arcadia’s future.
The homelessness crisis takes center stage as Mayor Kwan reveals how recent legal changes finally allow the city to address the issue effectively. “Now the law is in our favor,” she explains, detailing how Supreme Court decisions have freed municipalities from previous constraints that limited enforcement of anti-camping ordinances. Former Mayor Verlato provides historical context on how the Martin v. Boise case had previously tied the city’s hands, necessitating controversial solutions like tiny homes that are no longer required.
Transcript
Downtown Arcadia
Christine Zito:
Hello and welcome back to Arcadia. FYI, I’m Christine Zito and I have a great show for you. You’re going to love it as we focus on the things that are happening here in the City of Arcadia. I live in the city of Arcadia. I’m a resident of the city of Arcadia. I grew up here in the city of Arcadia at least my childhood but my father lived here until he went home to Jesus here in the city of Arcadia. I grew up here in the city of Arcadia at least my childhood but my father lived here until he went home to Jesus here in the city of Arcadia. And there’s a lot of things going on, and that’s some of the things that we’ll be talking about. But I’d like to thank our sponsors Longo, Toyota, Lexus and El Monte. I know I’ve been telling you that you have to go. You have to go and just check it out, because they do more than just sell cars. Say hi to Brooke, say hi to Mike. They will be waiting for you. At least I hope so. At least ask for them. They’ll come out and shake your hand.
Christine Zito:
Star 7 Financial with Francine Chu. She is like one of the many people Well, I should say it this way she’s like one of the few people that I know that care about your money, your future, your kid’s future when it comes to finances. So you need to get a hold of her. The Santa Anita Park that’s an icon here in the city of Arcadia. Do you like watching the horses? I do. It’s really a lot of fun. There’s a lot of things going on at the Santa Anita Park and Pete will be here to talk about that. Hotel in Arcadia Next week you’ll be hearing from Gabby, as we talked about.
Christine Zito:
We’ll be talking about a lot of fun stuff and actually doing a tour of that hotel. It’s really a lot of fun. All right for your information, if you’re watching on YouTube, you’ll see that I have a very special lady in the studio. She’s an inspiration. Why? Because not only is she the mayor of the city of Arcadia, she is also the first Asian woman to be mayor of the city of Arcadia. Welcome to the show, thank you. And also in studio, former mayor of Arcadia and city council, and it’s we all know who she is April . So you have to come in and talk right into that mic, april, and you too, sharon, talk right into that. Yeah, am I close enough. You are close enough, I can. I can see your levels. All right, all right, first up, I can. I can see your levels, all right, all right. First.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Mayor Sharon Kwan, you’ve been in Arcadia for how long now, since 1998.
Christine Zito:
So it’s one, two, three over 20 years. Yes, over 20 years, over 20, and you and and you love Arcadia. Right, I love Arcadia and you live in Upper Rancho yes. Yes, is that what that’s called? Because you were part of the association.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yes, I’m part of the Upper Rancho Association.
Christine Zito:
yes, I love that neighborhood. I do my jogging there. I’m getting ready for a half marathon coming up and I’ll jog through that neighborhood and I’ll wave at all the houses. I don’t know where you live, but I just wave at that. I know where April lives.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Everybody knows where I live. Yes, so everybody drives by some way of some you know might be doing something else, but yeah but you were.
Christine Zito:
You were you born here in the city of Arcadia? I know you were born around here.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
April. So yes, my family lived here when I was born and your father served in the military Correct. He was in the Army drafted in World War II back in 1945.
Christine Zito:
So he didn’t for some reason I thought he served in Vietnam. I’m wrong. Okay, no World War.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
II World War II. My father was older when I was born.
Christine Zito:
Okay, yeah, I see All right. And your kids?
Former Mayor April Verlato :
go. My kids were born and raised in Arcadia, and your kids, they went to the Arcadia schools. The Arcadia school district. My daughter just graduated from Arcadia High this past.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
June.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Yes, so she’s the last. My son graduated a couple years ago. All right, so yeah.
Christine Zito:
And Mayor Kwon, your kids are. How many kids do you have? I have four kids.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
You have four kids Three boys and one girl.
Christine Zito:
Oh, all right, Three boys, wow, that’s a lot of men in your house. Yes, and you also have dogs?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yes, I do, I have two dogs, okay, I love your dogs.
Christine Zito:
One’s a German Shepherd.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
German Shepherd and Australian Shepherd.
Christine Zito:
I like that. Well, my sister right now, liz Upnar, has two Australian Shepherds and then one mutt. I can’t remember the other one, but they’re so cute. One thing I have to say, mariquan, is I didn’t know this about you until earlier this year, and I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of other people that don’t know this about you is that you’re the sister to an Academy Award winning actor okay, ki Hoi Kwan. And just so that people will be familiar, is that if you remember Indiana Jones, the Temple of Doom, he was short round. I love. You know what he made. I’m just going to say he made that movie. He was so cute and because that you know, temple of Doom, that was, you know, kind of a deep Indiana Jones and your brother just did fantastic. And then, yeah, he was also Data and the Goonies and he won his Oscar or the Academy Award for Everything, everywhere all at once. And I did see that movie and everybody that won an Academy Award in that movie deserved it. It was just really good. So are you and your brother close?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
We’re very close and you guys, he’s number seven and I’m number eight.
Christine Zito:
Number seven, number eight, how many?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
We have nine in the family.
Christine Zito:
Wow, that’s a baseball team.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Yes, that’s a large team. Yes, we have a large family.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
So because of age, very close. Yeah, we’re very close.
Christine Zito:
That is really cool. And that is so cool that you have a brother. Does he support you in who you are and what you do?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yes, he does. Oh, that is great.
Christine Zito:
That is. It’s nice to have siblings like that. I will say that my sisters and I were very close. I don’t know what I would do without my sisters.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Well, you have a twin, I have a twin. You guys were close from the moment you were conceived.
Christine Zito:
That’s right. We do come from the same egg. We were born in the Kaiser Hospital there on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, so I was born a star. I don’t know about my sister, she’s a princess. It’s identical. We’re identical. We’re four minutes apart. I’m the oldest, so I just want you to remember that, okay.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Good to know, yeah, good to know.
Christine Zito:
All right, let’s get into this, let’s talk about. Well, let me ask you this, Mayor Kwan what are you most passionate about in the city of Arcadia?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Well, I’m so blessed I raised my family here. I remembered when I was carrying my eldest son, harrison, I was searching for a place to raise my family, my first kid, and then I was hoping to have more to come. And I googled and I said the best place, the best city for school and for safety. And Arcata came up, and so I immediately researched the city and also drove by and really love the cultural and talking to the people and so I bought my home here. And so the people here are amazing. Everyone cares about each other, especially. I remember my first neighbor in Arcadia, especially I remember my first neighbor in Arcadia. You know, they’re very, very nice, they’re very genuine and it’s the people, definitely the people in Arcadia, that makes me feel like I belong here and this is my home, and so I really am very, very fortunate to find the city, to be able to live here and raise my families and give me all the support and the environment is amazing.
Christine Zito:
It is, and I and I failed to mention that you even have a business here. Yes, yes, yes.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
I don’t like to drive a lot, so wherever I live I want my office to be within five minutes or 10 minutes distance. So especially when I was having four kids and they’re very close in age, In 1999, my first child was born and then to 2005. So six years I have four kids. You can see how busy you know I was, and so I don’t think I could drive that long to commute to a place where I have to work, especially full time. So I’m very happy and, you know, also chose Arcadia to be a place where I run my business and it’s been now over 20-something years.
Christine Zito:
I know.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
And a lot has changed. Yes, it has. I don’t think the it’s not. I think the people are pretty much similar, the support that I get, and I think it’s just maybe the demographic changed a little bit. Yes, yes.
Christine Zito:
April also. You have a business here. Yes, you have to come right up on that microphone there. We want to hear you. You have a business here. What do you do outside of? I mean, people probably already know, but you’re a lawyer. Yes, yes, so that was my career of choice and what is your specialty?
Former Mayor April Verlato :
so I primarily do um personal injury, so your car accident cases, but then I also do estate planning, wills, trust, probate trust, administration.
Christine Zito:
So okay, that’s stressful, okay, I’m already stressed, just by you saying that I’m a very full practice. Yeah, yeah, it’s a very full and and and. April is like walking distance from me. You’re a stone’s throw away either that.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Yeah, not throwing rocks at me. No, I’m not throwing rocks.
Christine Zito:
I know I. I so apologize. I said that at my grand opening. I meant to say a stone’s throw away yes, yes, so it’s great.
Christine Zito:
Very close by, all right, so let’s get into this. So, since both of you guys know the issues here in the city of Arcadia, I’m going to bring it right up, because I’m a small business owner here in downtown Arcadia and one of the problems that I see is homelessness. It is so, it is such a problem. And where do you, mayor Kwan, where do you stand on all the homelessness here? I mean, what solutions is the City Council coming up, the city coming up with to handle the homelessness now here in the city of Arcadia?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yes, I have a business here, so I know I resonate with you. It’s been a problem and I think we are very fortunate nowadays that we’ve got some state and federal support. Before we were not able to enforce no camping ordinance, you know, and so now we’re able to do so it’s because now the state it’s in our favor. So I think what we need to do is we need to really ban camping no camping at all as of today. We still have it. Our city allows people to camp from 7 am to 8 pm, and so people would come, you know, during the day.
Christine Zito:
And they still have that now. They still have that now. You know, it’s not only just camping. They sleep on the sidewalk. Yes, okay, you’re not sleeping on the sidewalk, sleeping on the benches, all that kind of stuff.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
So what it was is it’s not that, no, it’s so right now we have a ban on camping in certain parts of Arcadia, right, so that was because at the time when we adopted that ordinance that was back in 2021, before she was on city council it was the law only allowed us to ban sleeping overnight in certain areas of the city, so we were able to pass that, or ban sleeping on the streets because of the idea that sleeping is a natural function.
Christine Zito:
It’s a function right.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
So it’s a function that people can’t not do, right. We can’t not sleep, so people need to sleep. But you know, yeah, sleep what’s sleep? Yeah, so the idea behind the laws that were coming out originally was that it was cruel and unusual punishment to punish somebody for committing a natural function right of sleeping. And so they were limiting where we could prohibit this function by saying, okay, you can limit it in some areas of your cities, but you can’t eliminate it completely unless you’re offering resources, meaning shelter, to them in your city. And so the law now has slightly been adjusted by the Supreme Court and you now see much more federal support and state support for cleaning up encampments.
Christine Zito:
Donald Trump, our president, just signed an executive order yes, correct Helping that situation. So is the city council, Mayor Kwan, taking advantage of that?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
I want to. I think we should definitely revisit the situation and definitely create an ordinance to combat that issue. So yeah, I think it’s important because we’ve been very lenient and, as our former April Vallada was saying, you know, we allow them to sleep at night and so there’s just restriction they are able to camp at night, but during the day, really, we don’t have, we enforce that and it’s camping in certain areas.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
In certain areas, too Certain areas.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
they’re allowed to camp in Arcadia.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
But the idea is, yes, now we revisit, or the city should revisit, this ordinance, because it doesn’t seem like it’s segregated.
Christine Zito:
It seems like they sleep everywhere. Because it doesn’t seem like it’s segregated, it seems like they sleep everywhere. Hey, I’m speaking from a resident, because I used to walk to work, because I can walk to work. I don’t walk to work as often because I was walking with my sister one day and we were confronted by a homeless person who I thought was going to hurt my sister and I was going to get ready to defend and then at that moment, just at that moment when that happened, an Arcadia police officer drove by and we called out to him and he came over and and alleviate that situation.
Christine Zito:
And that’s where I feel, where people feel like it’s unsafe. I feel it’s unsafe. If you can’t, you can’t. I mean, what is? What is the city council doing about the safety when it comes to the homeless? I mean I give kudos to the Arcadia Police Department because anytime that I’ve called them they were on it, but still it’s still a, I mean at my apartment. I mean they’ve I’ve had so many things stolen. I mean they come into the apartment complex and steal things. So I mean I know that’s a big problem, but how do you police that? I mean, what is the city council doing?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
that and giving us. Well, it’s going to be very different now. It’s because I think prior to now was that you know, people, when you think about addressing the homelessness issue is about sheltering, you know, like tiny shelter, and so every time the community doesn’t want that, I mean there’s a lot of voices about that. But now it’s very different because before I think, if you remember the verdict of Martin v Boise, you can’t enforce that. You have to allow them to be wherever they want to.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Yes, unless you had shelter in your city, and that was the whole point of tiny homes, I know I want to talk about tiny homes.
Christine Zito:
Yes, and then.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
So that’s why the public is pretty much against that, and so now the law is in our favor. We don’t need to have shelter to enforce no camping ordinance, you know, and so I think that would definitely. It’s a big improvement and it really allows us to do a better job. I think we need to readdress the issue and come up with a more enforceable way where we can. To me, my opinion is just that we should ban completely.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
It’s because they’re using a lot of our resources our police officers, the fire department and recreational Everyone is addressing the issues, and it’s a lot of manpower and a lot of money being spent, and so I think that we should redirect that resources to something more important, and it hasn’t been effective. Something more important, and so I think, and it hasn’t been effective, and so I think it’s important to revisit and then to come up with something where we can, you know, provide better safety. As you were saying. You know, you, when you come across to someone like that, you’re frightened, you know, and yeah, that is not just a story coming from you, but a lot of constituents has, you know, brought this question up to me and asked me how I’m going to address it. So I think this is a good time to talk about it, because I think we have more options today than before.
Christine Zito:
Let’s talk about tiny homes. April, okay, I mean, that’s, I mean, that was a huge challenge for you, yes, okay, so talk to me about the whole purpose of the tiny homes when you first thought of it?
Former Mayor April Verlato :
how did it come to fruition in your mind? I was serving on the San Gabriel Valley COG their homelessness committee. San Gabriel Valley COG is the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments. Cabra Valley COG is the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments. It’s a regional body that brings together elected officials from 30 cities throughout the San Gabriel Valley and we brainstorm right, we’re basically a brainstorming committee and you know we were looking at all these different shelters and you know we were taking a deep dive into martin v boise and and the requirements and how. We were basically up against a wall that if our cities wanted to be able to enforce an anti-camping ordinance, we had to have shelter in our city, otherwise you had to let people.
Christine Zito:
Basically you know, sleep in there yeah, and so um.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
so with that, uh, we were looking at different shelters and I mean, everything was so expensive. It was ridiculous. I mean the the amount of money that, uh, lasa was spending. Um, it was just horrible. And you, they’ll spend 500, 600, 700, maybe 800. I think now they’re talking about it’s closer to a million dollars per unit, per bed, to build these shelters for housing, and that’s just the building. We’re not talking about the services that come in addition to the actual structure and the actual facility. So the expense was ridiculous and so our only choices we were faced with was letting people camp on our streets, and to me that was unacceptable. This new innovative idea of using what was once FEMA product for disasters that had come out of Hurricane Katrina, when over 100,000 people had been displaced, they developed these very portable little tiny homes, basically, or shelter spaces, to house all of those people, and so that company that had done it for Hurricane Katrina was now repurposing their shelters as shelters for homeless.
Christine Zito:
Well, the tiny homes, I think that people were against is where it was going to be located.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Right and a lot of people didn’t understand where it was going to be located. Yeah, I mean a lot of people thought it was going to be right, smack dab at the you know next door to their homes.
Christine Zito:
Well, it’s interesting because I do want to say, on a personal level, that I feel bad for people who are homeless. When they’re displaced and they’re you know, they, they have nowhere to go, um, because my, my heart wants to help them, but I don’t know how to help them. Right and it’s it’s, it’s like a catch-22 you want to help them, but yet they don’t want to. Some of them, not all of them don’t even want to help themselves, and so now they’re in this place where, um, it brings this situation, and I think what I’ve seen, um, and I think, from what I hear from the people, is that the homeless just seem to there’s no sense of solution, and when the city talks about it, there’s still no action. So how would you address that, mariquan?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Because I think it’s so sensitive. You know, and I think it’s actually now, it’s very different. As I’m saying, right now the law is really in our favor. We can do a lot, a lot more.
Christine Zito:
With the law in your guys’ favor, will tiny homes be brought back up?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
No, because you have to understand. The purpose of having the tiny shelter homes is because we need to have that in order for us to enforce or to mandate a no camping ordinance. Okay, it’s a requirement from the state law. That was the previous law. That was the previous law.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
It’s no longer.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
It’s no longer that law, and so now the state, and now even federal, with the Trump administration, now the state and now even federal.
Christine Zito:
With the Trump administration, do you think your other council people will agree with what you guys are, or at least Mayor Kwan, because you’re on the council now, will agree with what?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
you’re saying. I think so because we all care about the safety of this community, I mean before, I think, with APO’s. You know she’s trying to address that and trying to find a solution, and the only solution that we have to have is to have shelter in Arcadia, to enforce no camping ordinance, but now it’s no longer the law, and so I think this issue has been a problem for us and it hasn’t been addressed, because we’re basically very much handcuffed. But now this is not a situation anymore, so we can now revisit the issue and then come up with a better ordinance where we can, you know, provide a solution to address the homelessness issue. A solution to address the homelessness issue, I think it’s now it’s going to be. There’s going to be more and more options for us to do it now compared to before.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Well, there’s more opportunity to pass a law like that, because before, if you passed an ordinance that completely banned Then you must have shouted yeah. If you completely no. Well, before, if you had an ordinance that completely banned overnight camping anywhere, everywhere throughout your city, you would. You would be sued, right, the state of California would come out and would come well, it would be a homeless organizations or whatever. They would sue you.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
So now you’re not going to get sued if you pass an ordinance like that that completely bans but you know we still have to look at other problems with addressing homelessness and because they come off the metro right.
Christine Zito:
So how you’re going to police the metro? They? Come in and you know, because they’re just right up the street.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Right, but what you do is you start with, you know, preventing the tents from being erected, right? I mean that right now, what we still have and what we still see is people are setting up their tents and you have that a lot at Second and Colorado or anywhere along our wash Right.
Christine Zito:
I mean yes.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
You know, because they can hide. Yeah, and you know the city has done things in the past. They hired three case managers, which I was really happy about. They have done an amazing job at housing people and you know, the first year they housed maybe like 50 people and then the second year it was like 100 people. But what we saw is they consistently make contact with new unique individuals that are homeless, that are found here in the city of Arcadia, or contacted here in the city of Arcadia that are finding places to sleep in the city of Arcadia. I mean, it’s a pervasive problem that is very complex because there are so many different reasons why someone could be homeless.
Christine Zito:
There’s so many different reasons why someone could be homeless right.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
There’s so many different circumstances.
Christine Zito:
And that’s why it’s such a sensitive issue, because you don’t want to be mean, you know, but you have to.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
There’s some people who are down on their luck and have medical issues that have basically, you know, used up all of their savings and now they find themselves on the street because they had a medical issue. But there’s now more and more resources. So one of the things that the COG did, the San Gabriel Valley COG did while I was on the COG and actually it was like right when I got onto the COG we created what’s called a regional housing trust fund and we’re able to collect funds from the state, from the federal government, from the county, and build shelter, housing, affordable housing and different options for people to house them. So there’s more resources out there and what you’ll find is a lot of people complain like, oh, but you know, the homeless, they don’t want to take your housing, they don’t want shelter, and that’s the crux of the problem. Yep, right, the resources are out there.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Before we did not have a mechanism to enforce people to accept those resources. That’s where the rub is right. That’s where the rub is right. That’s that’s the problem is, we’ve got to have a way to force people to accept resources. We’re trying to help, I know, and so there’s a big battle because you’ve got to understand a lot of a lot of people, um, a lot of your homeless services case managers. They’ll say, but you can’t force people to accept the resources, to accept help, especially when you’re dealing with somebody who’s using or abusing drugs and alcohol, right. But so you know, there’s studies out there that say, oh, you know, it’s not effective to force people into rehab, but then there’s other studies that say, no, it actually has good results. So it’s that conflict of. Should we be forcing people into rehab? Should we be forcing people to accept resources, resources?
Former Mayor April Verlato :
I side with you know, forcing the help, because I, you know, I see it as a parent. You know, when you have kids and you’re dealing with them and dealing just with the simple things in life, like dinner, and you say, hey, you know what do you want for dinner? And if you ask them, they’d tell you like chocolate cake, right. So you never ask your kids what do you want for dinner and leave it open. You say, what do you want? Broccoli or carrots? Right, you give them a choice. That’s a good choice. You can’t leave it open ended.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
And that’s what happens a lot, and to me it’s. You know, the system is enabling homelessness and we need to stop doing that. We need to fix all of that because we’ve been trying for years. Everybody knows the homeless count numbers go up and up every single year and people say, oh, the problem is the housing first policy. That’s a federal policy that comes from the federal government. Those, those federal tax dollars are going to be tied to a housing first policy and they’re going to have it as a requirement that if you use those funds you’ve got to have a housing first approach.
Christine Zito:
You know, and I think you know, and I think you know for me it’s always a learning experience and how all of this works and how it works in a city, how it works with the city government, how it works with the state government and how it works with the national government when it comes to these type of issues. So, because everybody has their opinion, because for me it’s just like come on, mayor Kwan, just fix it, fix it all. I mean you guys, you guys have power, just fix it. And I don’t think it’s not that, it’s just not that easy. You guys, you brought up um, affordable housing. You guys, the city council back in april I think it was you guys approved affordable housing. So does the affordable housing mean what? What does that mean? Because I would like to move on from my situation into like another apartment, but you can’t live anywhere in the city of Arcadia, it’s too expensive. So the affordable housing, I mean, what does that mean for people that want to afford a better place? Mean for?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
people that want to afford a better place. Yes, I think it’s the housing element that you know we, you know it’s required by state that we need to have certain you know building that comes in so that makes more supplied for the community, and I think we’ve been addressing that and we’ve been approving a lot of projects. Now you can see there’s a lot of construction going on, so there’s going to be more supplied but, as you were saying, completely affordable. It’s very difficult because when you have a developer that comes in and they want to develop a home in Alcadia, just the land itself is very expensive, so it needs to be made sure that it’s profitable for them. But we have a certain mandate now to require for them to build a certain percentage that is considered to be affordable for the community.
Christine Zito:
Like the apartments growing here Growing, being built here on Wheeler. Yes, I want to live there. So I mean, will I be able to maybe afford that, maybe some of it? Of course I want the suite upstairs. It’s completely affordable.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yes, so sure, we hope so. I mean, it’s now these builders are coming in. They need to make sure that they have that when they’re building the units, that there’s certain units that’s affordable by percentage. So I think that’s a good start. I think it’s a good start, it’s a very good start, but I don’t think like completely affordable. It’s pretty. I think the definition is very general. You know, it could be a be affordable for some people, but not other people. But, um, yeah, I I think it’s that one.
Christine Zito:
we’re just getting started and so we’ll see how everything plays out all right, we can talk about this for hours, because I have so many things I want to talk to you guys about, but I do want to address some, some questions that I got from from people from Facebook and from emails. Now I am going to mention to you that I’m only going to ask questions that address the city itself. I’m not into, like you know how come you walk your dog backwards. Okay, so we’re going to stick to only the issues here in Arcadia now. But one of the issues that came up like more than a couple of times is this whole surrogate story. You know this harvesting that’s going on. I mean, how, how is the city addressing these places where homes are using surrogate mothers and this harvesting so we can, I guess, create? I don’t know what they’re doing.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
So yeah, we okay that doesn’t want to be a safe haven for something that is, you know, so unethical and that exploitations. I really think it’s just very shameful. But I think this is really boils down to when people they try to get a permit and or you know to, you know for for these businesses. So I don’t think they got a permit for that home to do it, and so and nobody knew about.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
They did not. Yeah, yeah, that’s what it’s they did.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
I think it’s pretty. It’s very difficult to discover such, you know, that kind of. You know when people have that intention, of course everything is pretty much strategically planned out, so it’s going to be hard. It’s definitely. What is important, I think, for me is your neighbors. I think your neighbors know you better than anybody. If you see something, you say something, I think it’s important. I’m sure, like for that home, the surrounding neighbors probably see, maybe like more noises, or like you, you know things that are going on.
Christine Zito:
So you know it’s that we need community engagement yeah, I think the community does need to do that. I think we need to. We need to get past together yeah, come together get over your fears, past your fears. Don’t feel intimidated.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yes, you know, this is if you see something suspicious, you know, call the police, you know, and find out, and so let them do the job to go investigate, because I think something like that. It’s so hidden, I mean like I’ve been here so long and I’ve never, but even the thought of having these kids in there is just. I cannot imagine this. You know, I don’t know what’s the intention. Now there’s a lot of like question marks is like why would they do that? So you know, when you don’t have a criminal mind, you cannot have this imagination or vision of doing that you can only speculate as you speculate, but even I would not speculate, because who would do that to have 21 kids?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Well, you got close.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
You had four, yes, but the story goes deeper.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
That’s why now it’s under investigation with the FBI. They have to tell us what’s going on, because now I’ve contacted the city managers and asked and questioned them, but I think because it’s been given to the FBI to handle it, so there’s a lot of things that they cannot disclose to me. But me, I mean, I’m just it’s just the thought of it it’s giving me goosebumps.
Christine Zito:
Yeah, it’s really. When I read about it, I just thought wow, I was thinking my heart goes right to the kids. Yes, I mean, it’s these kids.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yes.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
It’s like come home to me, I’ll take care of you. But I think it is important to plug Neighborhood Watch.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
I think Neighborhood Watch is the best thing.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
That is what we need to do.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
We need to step up and do it, don’t be intimidated, because if you have like for me.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
If I have the intention of doing that, I would go to get my permit or whatever. Of course I’m going to hide all my information and have very strategically planned out how it could be a success, so you can’t like prevent these kind of things happening. Yeah, so I think your neighbor is so important and I’m sure now it’s coming out that a lot of the neighbors on the block are saying like, oh, I thought that was very suspicious, but nobody said anything you know.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
But see, a neighborhood watch group would have been able to.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
You know, on an annual basis you get together, you have your block parties, but you also you talk to one another.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
You know you’ll meet up and you’ll say, hey, you know what’s been happening at that house across the street from you, and people will start to have a conversation.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
It, I think, just facilitates a lot more um, safety within a street, within a block, because it’s the, it’s the, you know the micro part of it getting in, you know, to the, the smaller group, because you know, police departments have limited resources, police officers. We can only hire so many police officers, you know, and you can only have those police officers at any given time in so many spaces and there’s only so much a police officer can do. So something like this where you have your neighbors watching, I mean, that’s why, years ago, the city council, back when I was on city council, we started to subsidize people getting ring cameras and it was with no strings attached, but the idea was people are going to put up all these ring cameras and then we’re actually going to have access, potentially at the police department, to video when a crime is committed or when something happens, we can go back to that street and find out is that right now?
Christine Zito:
well, we don’t do the subs.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
We don’t do the subsidies anymore, but we were for a while and I think we gave out 50,000, maybe a hundred thousand subsidies for people to buy ring cameras it was more expensive to buy it, but now it’s more cost effective.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
You can go to Costco and get a system, anybody can get them. So a few years ago it was not this situation.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Oh, I see, Okay, but now it’s been you know.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Now it’s mass production, so things are more affordable. Well, what about there?
Christine Zito:
has to be some way where we can encourage people to feel safe about being bold and in reporting these type of things. I think people are so quiet these days in neighborhoods. Okay, I’m just going to say when I grew up in the city of Arcadia, I mean the front yards had no fences I mean we played in each other’s yards, we had people who sat out on their porches and said hi to the neighbor across the street and you know, we had barbecue. It’s nothing like that right now.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
I can tell you like, when I moved in on my block, all the information I got was from my neighbors. It’s like they like encouraged me and they give me the information and they said, oh, sharing that house, what they do, they have how many kids, because your neighbor is watching. And when it comes to these kind of terrible intentions, having these kids, I think it’s just. And also you have to have privacy. There’s just so much that the police officers can do. So the best strategy is really to have neighborhood watch and to be more actively involved and, you know, say something, you know when you see something that’s so important and that’s how you know what’s going on. And so involvement, I think for the north side of Arcadia, we take neighborhood watch very seriously. We have constant meetings, you know, but on the south side of Arcadia, I think some of them they have not implemented these plans you know these strategies of having Neighborhood Watch because they don’t have an association, and so we have an association.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
On the north side we have five associations and all the associations have been very actively involved in getting the community to understand how important it is.
Christine Zito:
All right, our city of Arcadia. We need to be smart about our own safety because we can’t just rely on everybody else. We can step up and be safe and bring community together and we can be an example to other cities and how people can come together I don’t and and drop all the racism, drop all the discriminatory stuff and let’s come together as people right and to be able to help each other and be safe. You know, gosh, that was a great. That was great. So, okay. So many things I want to talk about here. Let me drink another drink. Don’t think that this is just coffee. It is just coffee, okay.
Christine Zito:
Another question this is from Emily. That was from Lance and Martha Okay, so I’m not going to say last names, but here’s one from Emily. She had all kinds of stuff, but I’m’m just gonna focus on this because I think this is. I’m a mental health, I love mental health. I nobody knows. I’m a caregiver to a disabled veteran and they struggle with mental health. And her question was will will Arcadia host its first city of Arcadia, city of Arcadia, mental health Resource, fair Mental Health Seminars?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yes, we’ve created a new health commission and so they are thinking about putting together these programs and I think it will be starting the beginning of 2026.
Christine Zito:
That is great See. Emily there? Yes, I think I think that’s. I mean we talked about homeless, we talked about these deep issues and it’d be great to have to be educated.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yes.
Christine Zito:
To go beyond what we had just talked about?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yes, and also, this coming September we’re gonna have our health fair so you have a lot of doctors in different kind of their specialties. They volunteer the time so they can address when you have a problem. Yes, exactly, the health fair coming up, she’s got the flyer.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yeah, I’m going to talk about that, yes, so I mean, you know, there’s these amazing doctors in our community. They volunteer their time, so please come out and then you can talk to them, you know, casually, and if you have any questions, it’s free. The event is free. It’s free, you know, and I do encourage for people to go, you know, if you have any health questions.
Christine Zito:
Yeah, and I will promote this now. The first one is going to be Saturday, augustust 10th, from 9 am to 12 pm at the arcadia community center. Okay, so that’s right there on it’s. It’s 365 campus drive and it will be on arcadia fyicom. I’ll have these resources there. The second one will be in september that mayor kwan just talked about. Uh, september 20th, from 9 am to 1 pm at the Arcadia Community Center, and I will have this on there. And so there you go, emily. They’re already. The city of Arcadia is already proactive in this particular issue.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yeah, and just in addition to that, is that every month the Health Commission invites a doctor to talk about different topics. You know and so, and it’s going to be on the website in City of Arcadia. Everybody can just go search and find out the location and the time and the topic matter, and so they can.
Christine Zito:
And I did get this right off the City of Arcadia website. So I’ll have that link on there also. So all right. So here’s some other stuff that people were. I’m not going to ask that question. I won’t ask that, okay. So what are you going to do about what can you do? He says what can she do about our hard water? It is hard. I mean, do we get water softeners? So what do you think? Mariquan, come on, you have all the answers to this.
Christine Zito:
Well, I think April can, but I think our water comes from our groundwater.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Yes, we have groundwater and also we do purchase some waters from outside vendors From.
Christine Zito:
Colorado River, but yes, it’s basically.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
yes, we have hard water. If you want it softened, you have to buy your own softener.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yeah, your own system, yes, and now it’s not expensive too. If you go to Costco, they have all kinds of Is everything available at Costco.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
What is it with you?
Christine Zito:
and Costco I am a bargain person or Amazon Well yeah, Target, Walmart, Okay so.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Well, I need to physically see the product, you know, and I mean I don’t buy much from Amazon, but yeah, you know.
Christine Zito:
I am a show me. I really should live in the state of Missouri. Show me state. Yeah, you know, I am a show me, I really should live in the state of Missouri.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Show me state yeah, Because I got to see it.
Christine Zito:
But you know I love sunshine, so I’m here in California, so all right In fact, I think we’re having a meeting that’s coming up regarding to our water supply.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
So I mean, if I get more information and it’s something that’s new, I would definitely share.
Christine Zito:
Oh, I know one thing we were talking about. There was a question here about with April. Here, Let me see if I can find it. Talk among yourselves here.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
What do you mean?
Christine Zito:
talk among ourselves, yeah just talk among yourselves here.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Should we talk some more about Costco and what else?
Christine Zito:
is available at Costco. Go ahead and talk about.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Do we all shop at Costco? Go ahead and talk about I don’t think we all shop at Costco. I don’t shop at Costco, oh, because I have a lot in my household, a lot of people you have to buy in bulk.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
I get in bulk and it’s at a discount. With three boys Well, actually four, because you include your husband You’re buying in bulk.
Christine Zito:
This is from Lance.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
He says okay, so ignore the beeps, ignore the beeps, ignore the beeps.
Christine Zito:
It’s just one of my cameras. Okay, he says. First of all, he says thank you very much for your service. This is from Lance. I would love to know the mayor’s opinion about redoing the downtown Arcadia area. I know what he’s doing. He’s comparing us probably to Monrovia downtown, which happens often. But are you going to do anything with changing up downtown Arcadia? We?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
have our founder of Downtown Arcadia Association. She’s doing an amazing job.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Yeah, I think it’s come a long way.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yes, come a long way. You can see there’s more food traffic. But if you ask, is there more improvement? I mean I would thank God I was part of the board member as well for previous years and so I I think it’s, it’s, it’s been more you, you know, foot traffic, you know. But if you say more like better improvement, of course there’s always room for improvement.
Christine Zito:
And when are we going to see that happen? I’m kidding.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
So this is, I think, we are seeing it happen, I mean you’re getting more and more restaurants coming into downtown.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Arcadia A lot of new restaurants. Yes, Like All.
Christine Zito:
India Cafe. I love it there they’re gonna be here on FYI.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
If Arcadia FYI told great, tell them okay, I’m gonna.
Christine Zito:
I’ll say this I I’m Mexican, I’m Italian or Mexican and I’m not really into other cultural type foods, except for Taiwan. I like Taiwanese, but the, the Indian Cafe, their food I’m addicted to their food.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
It is so good I’m going to try it this weekend.
Christine Zito:
Oh my gosh, yeah, it’s really good. It is so good. But we have a lot of great restaurants and more and more are coming right.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
More and more are finding downtown Arcadia. They’re coming. It’s about being able to bring in those businesses. It also is tied to, you know, reducing our homeless population, because a lot of businesses look, they come, they, they, they scout it out and if they see people sleeping on the benches, sleeping in front of businesses, they’re going to be deterred from coming to downtown arcadia so that’s why I’m so passionate about addressing homelessness is because it does affect the business community and what kind of businesses are going to come into your city or your business districts if you’ve got a large homeless population?
Christine Zito:
Yeah, because they sleep in front of those doors. Yes, people need to feel safe to come out at night.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Back to downtown Back to the businesses that are coming in. We’re seeing a lot of really great new businesses and it’s just a matter of then. We’ve got to make sure that we’re supporting them, Make sure that we have the parking. Parking is always huge. A lot of businesses they come.
Christine Zito:
I love the parking here, I know At least we can park for free. Yes, not talking about the other cities, but okay.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Okay. So yes, that’s very important to businesses. They want to make sure that there’s ample parking. They want to make sure that, you know, there’s a good like base of pedestrians walking, you know, because that helps to improve and increase sales.
Christine Zito:
All right. So what we need to do, not only get our community watch going, let’s start walking downtown Arcadia, Right, Okay, yes, and because I see like I don’t want to neglect another part of Arcadia Baldwin and Huntington. There it’s busy there.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Baldwin and Duarte.
Christine Zito:
yeah, baldwin and Duarte you know it’s busy there, but here in downtown Arcadia, where it’s downtown Arcadia, okay, I do want to say Okay, so we have the restaurants. I just want to kind of go through in my mind here we have All Indian Cafe, we have Matt Denny’s yes, we have Denny’s yes Outback.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
We have Japanese food too. Japanese food, I was going to say.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
We’ve got Goki.
Christine Zito:
Goki Cafe.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Love Goki Goki Cafe. We’ve got White Springs, white Springs Cafe.
Christine Zito:
Okay, if you have not tried White Springs Cafe, that is such a great fusion.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
It’s vegan, it’s vegetarian. It is such great food run by Mama. We’ve got Manjotai Kur. I can never pronounce that one. That’s the one that took over where the sprouts was Bean sprouts or whatever it was called.
Christine Zito:
Oh, yes, I know exactly, they have good food there too. Yes, my sister and I, my twin sister and I we went there and they thought it was really good and people love Chengdu.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Oh, Chengdu impression.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
That’s like a higher end, like fine dining.
Christine Zito:
Okay, so it’s Beijing, fine dining Sichuan.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Beijing, I think Sichuan Beijing very similar.
Christine Zito:
There’s Hyper Coffee. Who’s the one there?
Former Mayor April Verlato :
on Alta and First oh, the Shabu Lin, shabu Lin.
Christine Zito:
Lots of hot pots that we have so come and patronize these businesses and let’s eat and let’s have fun. Let’s come, let’s come and meet together as a community in in these places, you know um, I think, I think that’s great, and I mean, moffitt’s just had their re-grand opening yes, yes, oh, that was great, I was at the grand opening. What a were at the grand opening.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
What a great story. I know, I love it. I love Moffitt’s.
Christine Zito:
We have such great small businesses here, in Arcadia.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
I mean, it’s the families that are behind these businesses that make them so special. Little.
Christine Zito:
Provence. Yeah, oh yeah.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Love that place and again, the story behind it, the family behind it right.
Christine Zito:
I love that place and again, the story behind it, the family behind it right.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
There’s just such great culture here, great food, great people. Oh, and we can’t forget to mention Did Taifun, just because it’s there.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yeah, we can’t forget, yeah, this city is very business-friendly too.
Christine Zito:
I testify.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yes, we encourage people to open the business here Very very. And I think that people there’s a lot of improvement and now there’s a lot of food traffic in the downtown area, but I do have to say that I think people still have that thinking where you just go and eat. I think maybe we can have more retail shops where there’s going to be more lighting where like you can you can go in and like those mama pop-up shops now it’s missing.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
You know where you can buy cute stuff, you know, so I think we need amazon.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Amazon is taking over a lot.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
But but these are the stores where you just sometimes you don’t see the traffic as much because they come in, they park and they go into the restaurant and it’s so quiet outside the street. But actually there’s a lot of activities that people don’t know.
Christine Zito:
And there’s a lot of choices too. Yeah, I’m going to be having Donna and MJ back. I’m going to be talking about the businesses and stuff in downtown Arcadia and April.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
You have to be there, okay, okay.
Christine Zito:
Now I do want to say that we should have in downtown Arcadia a place where we can grow a vineyard and do wine tasting.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Zito.
Christine Zito:
You know I’m going to talk about that.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
That’s why you don’t get elected to city council, because, if that’s your priority, vote for me.
Christine Zito:
I’ll be running. I’m going to get a vineyard in the city of Arcadia.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Wow, yes Van.
Christine Zito:
Dome will be the competition there.
Christine Zito:
So but thank you for being here, mayor Kwan. Thank you so much, former Mayor April you for being here, mayor Kwan. Thank you so much. Thank you, former mayor April Velardo being here. You guys are doing a lot for the city and, as we hear from the other council, I think we can come together and grow together and work together, because that’s what I mean, that’s what people really want to see, is that? So thank you so much and and you’ll definitely be coming back on, I mean we only there’s so many other things to be that we can address. So thank you so much thank you.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Thank you for having us.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
I know, thank you for having us it’s great.
Christine Zito:
So all this information that we talked about will be on arcadiafyicom so you can go there and look at what we talked about about the health fairs. I know that at Met Denny’s they have summer concerts coming up. I’m going to put that on the website because if you ever been to a concert at Met Denny’s and you haven’t been, you got to go. I mean, they have some great bands that come in there. And oh, do you guys play pickleball?
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Oh, yes, you do my children.
Christine Zito:
Yes, Well then, your children play, but you just watch.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Well, now, a lot of my children are not here. They’re in Chicago, yes.
Christine Zito:
I didn’t know this. I announced this on the last show. The pickleball has opened up at Tierra Verde Park.
Mayor Sharon Kwan:
Yes, yes, I was at the grand opening. On that, yes.
Christine Zito:
I hate to confess it. I didn’t even know it’s so nice.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
They transformed the tennis courts into pickleball courts.
Christine Zito:
I think that is so great. Are you guys going to be opening up any batting cages soon?
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Wow, this keeps coming back to you, zito, somehow.
Christine Zito:
I’m trying. I’m trying here. You can hear arcadia fyi at arcadia fyi fyicom or on your favorite podcast channel like youtube apple podcast, where we broke. We broke the top 200 on apple podcast. You’re awesome it made me so nervous that that happened. But it’s so great. What do you mean? Why are you nervous? Top 200 in the category of daily news.
Former Mayor April Verlato :
Of course you’re top 200. Woo Spotify, of course you are.
Christine Zito:
I love you guys. You’re coming back on tomorrow Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart radio and again, if you have anything to hear, like we did here. If you have any questions or concern, please go on ArcadiaFYIcom. Fill out the form. It comes right to me. I’ll look at it and, for those of you that have contacted me, please I thank you for your patience. I will get a hold of you and we’ll talk about your concerns that you want to hear. Again, I want to thank our sponsors, Longo, Toyota, Lexus and El Monte, Star 7 Financial, Santa Anita Park, the Hotel in Arcadia and Pasadena. Until next time, please be blessed and make it a great day, thank you.
