A Conversation with City Councilman Paul P. Cheng
I sit down with Councilman Paul Cheng shares his journey from arriving in America as a Chinese immigrant to becoming an Arcadia City Council member while discussing his approach to local governance through thoughtful leadership and incremental progress.
• Arrived in America on Christmas Day 1977 as a child immigrant
• Prays over each council member’s chair before meetings and plays Beatles music to set a positive tone
• Implemented a five-point plan to address homelessness with practical solutions rather than political soundbites
• Advocates for affordable housing development while maintaining local control against expanding state mandates
• Warns about government overreach based on lessons from Chinese immigrants who’ve experienced loss of free markets
• Believes city council members should support those who make the city work rather than seeking personal recognition
• Emphasizes the need for measured debate rather than divisive rhetoric to achieve meaningful progress
• Suggests that successful leadership requires the ability to “count to three” – finding majority support through coalition building
We’d love to hear from you! Visit ArcadiaFYI.com to see upcoming events in the city of Arcadia for September and October.
Transcript
Christine Zito:
Hello and welcome back to Arcadia. Fyi, I’m Christine Zito, your host of this wonderful show. I love this show and I thank you for making it a success. I had no idea it’d be this great. So thank you to those that are listening, to those that are listening as we focus. We’re going to be focused on community Today. I have a great show for you. Okay, focusing on the city of Arcadia.
Christine Zito:
I was born in well, I was born in Hollywood, I was born a star. Then I moved to Arcadia and I’ve lived here. And then I moved to Walnut and my dad. He actually grew up here and lived here all his life until he went home to Jesus. And, furthermore, we’re going to be talking about activities when they come up outside the city, because we’re all one big, happy family here in the San Gabriel Valley and I want to invite other activities to come in. I want to thank our sponsors Longo Toyota Lexus in El Monte. Say hi to Mark and Brooke Not Mark, mike and Brooke. They are great people. I keep telling you to go out there and visit, because they do more than just sell cars.
Christine Zito:
Star 7 Financial with Francine Chu, one of the best financial advisors here in the city of Arcadia, the Santa Anita Park. Pete’s going to be coming in, I think, at the end of september, beginning of october, right in there, to talk about some of the things that are happening at the racetrack, the limeridian hotel in arcadia and pasadena. We’ll be talking with gab. We’re going to actually do a really cool tour of the hotel so you can see for yourself. All right, and saying all of that I have sitting in front of me. If if you’re watching on YouTube, you will see this great man here. He came to America to live the American dream, but of course it did not come without struggles. Okay, every dream has a struggle. Today he’s the managing partner at the law offices of Paul P Cheng Associates, also known as PPRC Law. He is a doctor and he is one of our councilmen on the city council here in the city of Arcadia. Councilman Paul Cheng, welcome to the show, thank you.
Christine Zito:
I am so happy that you’re here. All right, let’s get to know you a little bit. From what I understand, you came to America in the 70s.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Correct December 25th 1977.
Christine Zito:
You were a gift.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
America was a gift for my family. I was a baby, obviously, but my family still talks about eating their first Christmas dinner on an airplane and coming to America.
Christine Zito:
Well, tell me a little bit about your parents. They said that I was reading a little bit about missionaries. I guess some missionaries helped you, helped your family, the military.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah. So you know, one of the blessings that we have about being across the world is having missionaries as well as service members go across the world. And you know I you know as a kid you ask your father random statements and I remember I was a kid, I was like you know when’s the first time you saw a white person? That’s what you say when you’re a kid, right unfiltered. And he said well, you know, I was in China and a Catholic father came and he said come to America. And so you know, we’re so blessed as immigrants, as Asian Americans, because many of the reasons why we came for those that didn’t have TV was having a missionary or having a US service member hugging us, taking care of us, not knowing us.
Christine Zito:
And this is outside of America.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Outside of America. The story of the Asian American immigrant is one where we didn’t know America, but we knew that there was a country that wanted immigrants to come, that told us that we had value. Yeah.
Christine Zito:
You know how do you, as an immigrant, see the American dream? What does that mean to you?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Well, you know, when I first came to America, you know Vietnam War was, depending on who you talk to, ending or ended.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Obviously, from the history books it continued quite a bit, but I grew up in Orange County and Orange County was a place where there were very few Asian people. So when I was growing up in the States, there was kind of this struggle where people that didn’t look like you would tell you that you couldn’t walk on the same street sidewalk as them, while at the same time your parents were working very hard and your best friends were of the same color, of people that told you to get off the streets and so, um, you know, as a young, um, american really, that didn’t look like other people, it was somewhat of a struggle. But I can be able to say that the first tuna melt I ever had on a muffin was with someone that didn’t look like me. You know, I remember, you know, my neighbor, seeing him throw a softball with his daughter, day after day after day, seeing a father committed it was not my father, because he was working all the time.
Christine Zito:
What did your father do, real fast.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
There were a lot of businesses when we first came to the States. There were many, many different businesses. The one I remember was he had a motel. We would go there. Uh, he helped develop valley boulevard when in in the san gabriel rosemead area, when it was just dirt, um, so I saw him there. Yeah, you know, I I miss him a lot because you, you know, in my early twenties he passed, um, he was a lot older, he was a lot older than me, uh, he was born in 1930. And so, yeah, Is your?
Christine Zito:
is your mom still walking with us?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yes, yes, my mom is still. She’s still with me. She’s getting older, you know, and I hope I can have her for forever. Yeah, I’m very fortunate that my mom is, you know, still able to talk to me, but she’s definitely getting to a point now where her, her body is catching up with her. She was such a huge fire when she was young, kind of that immigrant mom, scary, and to see her now just a fraction of what I remember her is.
Christine Zito:
It’s tough and you’re married.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
I am.
Christine Zito:
How many years?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
So, yeah, we kind of debate. So it was April 12, 2012, when I went to the courthouse to get married, but we got our documentation stamped Friday, april 13th, and so it was.
Christine Zito:
Nothing scary yeah we always laugh about that.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
We always laugh about that in terms of just the dates and the times and, oh, you know, across any country. These numbers are all bad.
Christine Zito:
How did you meet your wife?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah, so she is.
Christine Zito:
And what’s her name?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Aini.
Christine Zito:
Aini, that’s right. And how did you meet your wife? Yeah, so she is. And what’s her name? Aini Aini, that’s right. And how did you meet?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah, we were introduced by. You know a friend, this person named Andrew, who’s always linking up different people, and yeah, she works as a news anchor at one of the Chinese television stations. Yeah, that’s how I met her.
Christine Zito:
So you get to hide behind a star, huh.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
I know I know A lot of people don’t realize that she’s much more famous. If being famous on city council can be called famous, but she’s much more famous than I am. So when she broadcasts, she broadcasts in North and South America, the Western Hemisphere, so you’ll have millions of people watching her.
Christine Zito:
Was it love at first sight when?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
you saw her?
Christine Zito:
walk.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
No, no, it’s funny because, you know, I did see somebody. She was super pretty, super beautiful. She grew up in Japan, she’s from China, grew up in Japan, so she’s not outside of her job, this bubbly person, and I thought it was her, but then when she got done up as kind of the news anchor, that’s when she came and I was like, oh no, I don’t, you know, because she looks so much older than I was, she’s a lot younger than I am and I was like who is this person? But yeah, we ended up just continuing to talk, yeah, to talk. Yeah, she’s been such a blessing in my life.
Christine Zito:
I really thank God that I’m allowed to be with her.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
She allows me to be with her. She’s a very sweet lady, yeah, yeah, yeah, she definitely. You know, because she’s so introverted, people don’t realize at home we don’t really talk, and so she speaks more when she’s trying to be a bright person with me, but, yeah, we don’t really talk. And so she speaks more when she’s trying to be a bright person with me, but, yeah, we don’t really have that much conversation. She’s very introverted, very quiet.
Christine Zito:
So what do you guys do? Just stare at each other over dinner and then, read each other’s minds.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
You know there have been many. There have been many days like that. Yeah, and it’s not a negative thing, it’s just her personality is. She’s just very quiet, she doesn’t like to talk.
Christine Zito:
Wait, wait, wait. You got a woman that’s quiet and she listens and you do all the talking.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Okay, this is really backwards.
Christine Zito:
Councilman Ball.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
No, she’s just very, you know, because typically, like couples, they like to gossip about people, they like to just chat and so we won’t be. You know, she doesn’t gossip about people. So usually when she speaks I’m very attentive because it’s pretty serious and I think it’s her upbringing of in Japan. You don’t want to impact other people’s lives, which includes me, so if she’s speaking, it typically means that it’s a pretty serious issue and she wouldn’t bring it up unless she could resolve it.
Christine Zito:
That’s a very wise lady.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah, maybe.
Christine Zito:
I should hang out with her and learn how to be wise. I don’t know you know me. I talk a lot.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
I’ll just say that, no, no, me too I talk a lot I love it.
Christine Zito:
Well, do you have any kids, do you guys?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
No kids, no kids. We did have a baby once and unfortunately we lost our child.
Christine Zito:
I am so sorry, I did not know that. Yeah yeah.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
So, um, you know, kind of changed our relationship. Obviously, in many ways I didn’t realize, you know, at least as a guy you know, you don’t realize how these things could have such a deep trauma and an impact, um, on people.
Christine Zito:
Yeah.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah, but yeah okay.
Christine Zito:
Yeah, well, I didn’t know that. Okay, let’s get into. Sure, what are you most passionate about here in the city of Arcadia?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah, most passionate. There’s just going to be several things. I believe that we have to support our city staff. When I first got on council, there was a lot of turnover. In some departments it was 30%, 35% turnover. And so we are a service city, meaning that a majority of our expenses are our staff. But at the same time, you kind of wonder, you know, are we a destination city or are we a transition city? We’re a destination city. People save and they work three to four jobs to come into the city of Arcadia.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
And the question is why? And ultimately it’s the staff that responds to emails quickly. You know they have an internal requirement internal If there’s an email, it doesn’t matter. If you’re off, it’s 15 minutes response. So I had a staff member tell me she was at the ocean and she couldn’t even keep her eyes on her kids that are in the ocean because she needs to make sure she’s responding to emails. And so the question is if you have staff that have such a high standard and you have our residents that come into our city that have an equally high standard, and you begin to ask yourself you know, what is it that makes Arcadia so much different than other cities? It’s really our city staff that make it happen. I mean, if you call 911, you know the goal is two minutes. Five minutes is unacceptable, unacceptable. So I mean if you’re in other cities and you call 911 for a car accident, you’re not going to get a response. You may get an email, a text message or no response at all.
Christine Zito:
Well, okay, so now that you brought up dialing 911, I think most, I think, from what I understand you can correct me if I’m wrong that most of the 911 calls are basically for the homeless. So how does the city council address that, or is that a misunderstanding?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah, so the 911 calls are going to be distributed across many different issues, from emergency and non-emergency, and everybody has dealt with homelessness and focused on homelessness in a vastly different way. But we’ve moved the ball forward, right, yeah? And so one of the things that I desired to do was to retain the best and to recruit the best. You know, we used to have eight police officers throughout the city. You had five for each district, sometimes one floater car, sometimes up to three floater cars, some dealing with traffic. Now we could be down to as little as four.
Christine Zito:
For each district.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
For across the city.
Christine Zito:
Oh wow, so how you guys are handling safety.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
So dealing with homelessness is not as easy when you aren’t able to retain and recruit, when you have, essentially, department turnover, that is very significant, and so homelessness is a complicated issue.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
There is not one council member zero in my opinion that says you know what. We’re okay with homelessness, we would just love homeless people to be walking around and to essentially many of them that have mental health issues to be walking around the city. I went to the gas station so I was waiting for you and I said, oh, you know, I’m just gonna put in gas, because I thought about my wife. My wife would never allow gas to get into the little red thing that ends up popping up. So I’m like, okay, in homage to my wife, I’m gonna go put in gas half, you know half tank of gas. And so I was there and essentially I saw homeless people congregated at that gas station. That didn’t feel good at all, because outside of this kind of downtown Arcadia area you don’t really see that. I mean, the reality is they are congregated near this transit stop and they float down from transit.
Christine Zito:
It’s because of the metro. That’s correct, they come down here and I’m in downtown Arcadia and I’m walking distance and I don’t walk to work as much just because of what you just said, and it’s unfortunate.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Look, we have to be very frank. Is that the definition of homelessness, or the definition of having unhoused, or however you want to say it? In our city? It is not acceptable. It doesn’t matter that the numbers have fallen, it doesn’t matter that, you know, used to be at three digits, now it’s at two digits and at times, in a point in time count it’s 36. But then when it goes to LA County and comes back, it’s 100. It doesn’t matter, right. What matters is can we be able to move the ball forward about the individuals that are?
Christine Zito:
here Can we.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
We can. We have. Actually, if you go to our city staff and you have real authentic, non-soundbite conversations with them, with them we actually have 99% doing 99% more than other cities. See, what had happened was in 2021, there was a big fight over are we going to build shelters in our city?
Christine Zito:
Yes.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
And so, publicly, part of the city council or council was saying shelters are to help them, but in study sessions that people don’t go to, that are many times not recorded but are public, they were saying if we build shelters, we can eject them, we could run them out of our city. And that was the goal. Now, whether we are building it out of kindness or whether we are building it because we seek to eject them from our city and push them to other cities, the goal is Arcadians are not okay with the unhoused and the homeless within our city.
Christine Zito:
I thought the shelters, are we talking about the tiny homes, correct? Okay, so from what I understood, that the tiny homes, the shelters, were to be able to give assistance to the homeless. I have learned from just being in my career being in radio for many, many, many years a talk show producer was that homelessness it’s a funny issue. I have a heart for them. Sometimes I just don’t know what to do because some of them are there not by choice and those are the ones that want help. And then you’ve got those that don’t want the help. They just want to be homeless. Then you have those with the mental issues. So with the sheltering, that’s interesting. I’ve never heard that aspect, that someone would build housing just to eject them.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah, so the rule is that if you have a at that time, if you have a specific amount of housing some council members were looking at 20, Some council members were looking at 100. This very vague kind of moving target that was occurring. If they didn’t go into a shelter, you could eject them, you could arrest them.
Christine Zito:
Oh, I see those are the people that didn’t want the shelter.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
And maybe I’m not being clear.
Christine Zito:
When.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
I use the word ejectment, I’m using the word arrest, right, so if they don’t go into a shelter, you can arrest them. Okay, right. And so the people that were supporting shelters in part, it was kind of a multi-pronged type of statement, which is we’re really helping them, wink wink, they’re not going to be in our city if they don’t get into a shelter. Wink wink, they’re not going to be in our city if they don’t get into a shelter. Wink, wink. And so the wink wink that I saw and that I see on city councils or really any type of body, is that every position is multifaceted, with layers of positions within them, with layers of positions within them, and the questions that we need to do as a city council is whether we agree with them, whether we agree with ourselves or not. How do we move the ball forward?
Christine Zito:
Well, I think too, with the shelters I was conflicted. I liked them because it gave help, but also, too, it would bring more people in, more homeless people in, and then it became like a safety issue. So I think there was a conversation amongst residents about that and then it just ended up falling off. Was it rejected altogether?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
No. So in 2021, what I did is I presented to the city council what’s considered a five-point plan, which formed the foundation, in some ways, of our homeless plan for the city, which is to get an authentic count, which is to see if we can be able to work with other cities and, fortunately, at that time, our council supported it and it was, you know, every council member supported it and that’s what I’ve tried to do. Being on city council is to try to incrementally move things forward. I understand from residents that may not be at city council all the time, watching every meeting, reading every staff report, that it’s not exciting, right?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
It’s not exciting because essentially they want to wake up and see no homeless in our area, which I understand. But we were able, from the five point plan, to hire seven day a week staff members that can be able to go out and work with homeless people that want shelters, that want to be in shelters.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
And half of the people that we’ve met have wanted it. Another reason why I presented that issue and to kind of say, hey, look, sheltering, whether it’s for one purpose or another purpose, instead of saying that you’re just a bad person for wanting sheltering for whatever reason and creating kind of an enemy, creating a devil, is to be able to say your ideas aren’t bad ideas, it’s an idea that maybe we can look at for the future. And that’s what I’ve tried to do. You know I may not be good at it, but look, I’m in a profession Earlier you said I was a physician. You know I’m an attorney, but I’ve, I’ve, I’ve. I am in a profession where you want to create enemy, you want to create evil. On the other side. You know, person even has one degree of separation from you. They are not wrong, but I’m going to burn down your house and people take that energy and they bring it on city council.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
And I’ve realized even in the practice of law it does not work. Screaming and yelling at somebody and calling them stupid and calling them names may be the correct soundbite but it doesn’t move the ball forward. You know, the city manager, dominic excellent person, told me when I first got on council. You have to count to three. I’m like what does that mean? He said you’re not a king, you’re not. You may feel like it, but you’re not. You’re not. You may feel like it, but you’re not. And if you can’t count to three and understand that one day you’re not going to be in the three, then what you need to do is to be gracious and kind to everyone on city council and even when you disagree with someone, even when it’s in your eyes like you can see me as I’m speaking I have all this historical data that makes me mad. You need to be calm.
Christine Zito:
How do you handle this is a question for me how do you handle the dissension among the city council today, with all the different personalities and then some, you know I mean, how do you you deal with the discord?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
well, what I try to do is I’m always early to council meetings and I don’t do it for them, I do it for is. I go up to each chair. I’m not a religious person but I grew up in a religious family. I pray over each chair. I ask God to please give them wisdom. I do it more for me is because if I pray for somebody then I’m invested at least in their success. That I’ve touched the chair, I’ve raised my hand, I prayed for them and then I played Beatles music. So if you come to city council meeting, to my understanding I’m the first person that has played great music throughout the chamber and I do it so that there’s a vibe and an energy of excitement and thoughtfulness from different music genres. But you know, really kind of that Beatle-esque exciting. But you know every record they have is a different vibe and energy, but all very deep.
Christine Zito:
Yeah, yeah, I’m trying to think Prayer and the Beatles song Hard stay night, drive my car.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Now I’m trying to think Prayer and the Beatles song Hard stay night, Drive my car. Now I have to ask you what is your favorite. What is your favorite?
Christine Zito:
Okay, go ahead, Go ahead. I’m sorry, but I have to say that is so cool. I don’t even have the words to say how sweet that is that you pray over each of those prayers.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Councilman is to say how sweet that is that you pray over each of those prayers. Council Member. Well, I think I have to, because sometimes the statements that are made are through a lot of pain. Look, it’s kind of odd, is that as soon as the shining lights occur council meetings I think we have maybe 100 people watching it. Maybe it’ll get redistributed and maybe my wife will watch it another 50 times, so it’ll be 150 and that’s it.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
But for whatever reason, when the lights begin to shine, there is so much pressure that ends up occurring and you want to say the right things and you want to do the right things, that I think what ends up happening is you begin to get into a survival mode of when you were a child, and so the punching that ends up occurring. That, I see, is how you survived as a child, and many times you were able to conquer something by standing up for what you believe is against an evil person, and so you say things that are very harsh, but unfortunately, when that ends up occurring is those words cannot be taken back. As a child, you may have survived it, but as an adult, you’re constantly reminded man, I shouldn’t have said that, I shouldn’t have done that you know I shouldn’t have said that. You know this person has, you know is beholden to another person. You know I shouldn’t say that they’re ridiculous or they’re stupid. You know I shouldn’t poke at their family.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
These are all things that, fortunately, when I got on council, I took the advice of my city manager very, very seriously, because I didn’t know I was outside of my element and you know some people don’t know Dominic. He’s like this 6’4″, you know, super good looking guy, very well spoken. So he’s not just good looking but very well spoken. Right, he has that almost Yoda-esque type of feeling where, at least for a moment, you’re going to take what he says extremely seriously. But I took his worldview and his thought and his experience being that he’s a multi-generational city manager His father was a city manager and he would explain yeah, from his father’s standpoint, his brother’s a city manager.
Christine Zito:
Yeah, I was just going to say.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
All the way to him is that I’ve taken his advice very seriously. Even when I disagreed with him, I would default unless I said no, you know 100%, he’s absolutely wrong, but he has the historical data to be able to understand that. You know, when you say those things, it does not help the situation. You know. And so, for example, you know, when I presented that five-point plan I was, people online were cursing at me. I’ve had council members in front of city staff put their finger in my face. Call me the f-word.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
You know all these really intense, you know feelings, right, and the city manager, when I talk to him, has he typically says, well, you can go down that route, but to what end? I mean, he doesn’t say it, but he’s really asking you what is the end goal? And so I think what he’s saying is what do you really want? What is it that you really don’t want? Add those together and say are you really going to be saying that? Are you really going to be doing that? Right?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
What is it that I want, for example, with sheltering, what do I really want? Well, I want to end homelessness period full stop. Every council member, what is it that I really don’t want. I don’t want this issue to be an issue that I can never talk to another council member or council members and then add it together together and say are you going to curse back, are you going to point your finger in their face back? What point does it have for people that you know, for example, well, people that support me don’t like certain people. Okay, so therefore, that’s what you’re going to do. This is just an example.
Christine Zito:
Wow, that is, yeah, some deep stuff. To see you emotionally involved in who you are in the council is pretty amazing, councilman, paul. I mean because to bring up it is true I mean we’re human beings, sure, and we all have a past and to bring up childhood-type struggles and then to have that to be brought up and remembered as being on the city council or involved in an emotional aspect of the city council during the meetings, that’s pretty deep. I mean. That really puts you on a completely different level, that you really do feel you are a feeling man. I mean that is my opinion.
Christine Zito:
I mean people might think, christine, you’re really, but I have to point that out. And plus, for you to see that you’re shadowing someone like I love Dominic and I say that in a way where I got to meet Dominic before I knew he was city manager and he was just a neat guy, he was just a very approachable man. And then when I met him at one of the chamber events, I’m all like, hey, wait a minute, you’re city manager and he was just a humble man 70% of the time I’m all like, hey, who are you? I mean you’re city manager and he was just humble man 70% of the time he won’t agree with me.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
I mean, it takes phone calls, it takes mentorship. I mean you know, look, I’m. You know. You talked about being a feeling person.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
I’m a human being too right, I mean you know, when someone says something that’s inappropriate or does things that I think are truly unhinged, you know it makes me want to be even more unhinged, because in litigation sometimes it’s just people. You know who’s going to top each other, and for city council it feels like that too. Right Is that? If you don’t, if you’re going to mess with me, I’m really going to take you out. So therefore you got to be under me. But counting to three see, this is so critical is that if your goal is to count to three, there are going to be times when you’re in the minority and you need the support of the majority and they can stop you at any time. It could be the greatest idea in the world, and Dominic reminded me of that. He said you know, being in the majority doesn’t happen. Throughout all of your council I’ve been in the minority before, so I can understand how that feels. But I didn’t understand that, because when you first get on council, there’s a wave of excitement and people that come out of the woodworks and people that didn’t want to support you, but now are your biggest supporters and you’re like, oh, wow, and you think that you’re someone special. No, you’re not supposed to be special. You’re supposed to actually blend into the background.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Your goal as a council member is to recognize and support the people that make a huge difference in our city city staff, first responders, many of our seniors that didn’t walk away from our city when the demographic changed. You’re supposed to. At the end of the day, hopefully nobody will remember you, but they’ll remember them. That should be your true goal. If your goal, for example which everybody wants to do, without me, this city will burn down. Basically, what you’re basically saying is nobody else matters but you, and that’s so unfortunate because we do get that energy on council and I’m not saying that I’ve never wanted to have that energy, because you see other council members in other cities and the more they’re you know, outlandish, and the more that they get up and the more they scream and the more they do all that, they seem to have even more support and they seem to get the most attention. But what happens after they leave? Nobody remembers them.
Christine Zito:
What they remember are all of these old battles and scars and they don’t know where it started yeah, and see, I would always think that the goal of any council of a city, as they oversee the city, is the well-being of the residents and those you know with us living here and we still have some time I wanted one of the things I wanted to ask you that is probably more my little gem is the affordable housing. Okay, affordable housing. You know you guys did. I was there at that council meeting when I voted.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah, you guys voted on. I was there at that council meeting.
Christine Zito:
When you guys voted I was all like, yes, is it starting to move that way where I can actually go and move out of my apartment that I’m in now and actually go to another apartment and actually afford it?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Well, it depends on income, the affordable housing component. For true affordable housing. It has a three-tier level, so to qualify for it you would have to be fairly low income and likely. I don’t think that you would qualify oh man.
Christine Zito:
I want the penthouse on top for the 40-yougal car price.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah, but it’s going to, I think, bring in a more well-rounded city, which I think is the goal.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
The fight against it was that it would bring unhoused plus if they got $300 a month, right, I don’t, of course, we’re not gonna know until it happens, right, but I think that the goal of the state is to have more housing and you know this is what I have to say, since we’re talking about just different energies is I don’t believe that, even people that I disagree with or that I’ve met here or other cities, nobody’s evil, evil elected officials, where they’re truly evil, I think is very rare.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
I do think that when they have a lofty goal, the logistics and the consequences are very, very difficult. So, for example, when we have affordable housing, for example, with all the laws that are passed, many of them eliminate local control, and so, in eliminating local control, it makes it that we have to almost be a rubber stamp when it comes to housing, and that’s very dangerous, because a city traditionally should have areas where they have apartments and condos, more dense housing, and then you’re going to have single family residences where there’s another group of housing, right, and then you’re going to have single family residences where there’s another group of housing, but, for example, based upon you know, for example, we used to have I think it’s Coco’s on Michelinda and Colorado.
Christine Zito:
Boulevard.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
What about if they suddenly wanted to put a multi-story as high as you want in the sky, housing no ceiling limits, no parking restrictions, and the city council has to rubber stamp it? We haven’t seen it, but the reality is those are the laws that are being passed, so you’re going to have essentially single-family residences and then you suddenly have this. You know, people talk about mansions. That would be more than a mansion blocking out the sky. You know, and that’s what happens when you relinquish local control. I believe that if they wanted to have more development, which I understand more housing, more supply, they should allow local control, and when we don’t do it, then they can sue us. But when you have a city council across Southern California that are basically saying please allow us to serve our residents, because we’re on the ground, we know what our residents need. We are staring at our city maps.
Christine Zito:
Is the state. From what I understand, the state is, didn’t they? And again, correct me if I’m wrong. I just read this in the newspaper. Well, I actually read it on the internet and everything on the internet is true so. California did put restrictions. You guys have to have some type of affordable housing, and how do you guys regulate that?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah, so basically we have a housing element, Our housing element, that we have to present every eight years. We have to go to the state of California and say this is what we’re going to do. And then they’re going to come back and they’re going to say we agree, we disagree, or we would agree if you would amend Right. And so that, I think, is understandable, Because the housing element basically says, when it comes back to you, you have this goal that we give you. You can disagree with our goal. If you do, you can bring it up with the judge. If you accept this housing quantity of homes or residences that need to be built, then you need to give us a plan. So if a developer comes up to you, you will approve that plan. That actually makes total sense.
Christine Zito:
Well, how many more people can you fit in Arcadia? Just this morning I heard from Superintendent Dave David Dr V. 9,000 kids in the Arcadia school district started school today.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah.
Christine Zito:
I mean wow, 9,000.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah.
Christine Zito:
How many more people can we fit in Arcadia? I mean, is there a limit, is there a law, or is the state saying you just have to put all these people somewhere?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Well, I believe that the 3,000 goal that we have residences in the city of Arcadia, if it’s built well, can be developed in downtown Arcadia built well can be developed in downtown arcadia, as well as the las tunas live oak corridor. Yes, okay, right, and so I believe if we do that and we develop, then it will create a vibrant area.
Christine Zito:
Well, yeah, pretty soon we’re going to be building apartments above the shops of Santa.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Anita, that’s what people have been talking about.
Christine Zito:
And laws were passed to say that if you have commercial businesses on the ground floor, you’re allowed to build on top of them. Yeah, I was just like. Well, they do that in New York.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
They do. It’s a very mixed use. I mean, you know everybody across the world does mix use, apart from really Southern California, right. Because our land is so spread out, yeah, but I do think that we’re at a point where well, we’re actually at a point where we don’t have a choice.
Christine Zito:
Yes, right.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
And so again.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Arcadia has always been about housing rights, meaning that our property rights are valuable and don’t affect our property rights, and so I believe that that’s a good, correct view, with obviously some gentle pushbacks back and forth. But now, with the state and the rules that are coming down, with people that don’t live in our community, that literally would just desire to live and die in Sacramento to have power which I totally understand, but keep it there. Totally understand, but keep it there when you’re telling us us whether it’s Monrovia, arcadia, any of our cities that I don’t care what you think Like housing is the most critical, so you can build it up to the sky. You can fill 3,000 units up to the sky. That’s the rule. That’s an extreme statement, it’s not true.
Christine Zito:
I hope we don’t see that type of sky rise of apartments here in Arcadia.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Do you think it’s going to? I do. If we do not have the people in Sacramento, it doesn’t matter which party you belong to that doesn’t understand property rights.
Christine Zito:
Do we need to be careful who we’re voting into Sacramento here on the local area?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
I think so. I mean we have a super majority. We talk about Congress right where it’s Republican, Republican, Republican, but the reality is in California we have Democrat, Democrat, Democrat, but it’s not just right on the right, on a 5049, you know, if someone’s sick then the vote turns. No, it’s a super majority. Yeah, and I would say this, even if it was in a state where it was majority Republican, is that I’ve enjoyed being on city council because many times I’ve literally just been three, two, two, three, literally back and forth. That is where incremental movement occurs, and I understand that people say you have to have political strength and political will, which I understand what that statement means. It means that when you’re in the majority, you crush the other side yes, yeah but.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
But in doing that, it it doesn’t. It doesn’t make it better, because your decisions are going to be extreme yeah, well it.
Christine Zito:
well, it doesn’t it does. Oh my gosh, now you’re going to get me on a song, Okay, well, yeah, I agree with that. I’m just going to say it like that, just from my experience I was. I wanted to talk to you about ADUs, but I will save that for another time. I do want to get to questions I got from Facebook and my email.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Okay, yeah, all right, so okay here’s one from Kevin.
Christine Zito:
I am not going to say any last names and again I want to say to everybody I’m only going to ask the questions that are relevant to the issues here in the city of Arcadia, or comments within the city of. Arcadia. Okay, so here’s one from Kevin.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Sure.
Christine Zito:
When are we going to reopen Wilderness Park?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
We would love to All right.
Christine Zito:
I mean, I ride my bike up there.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
The problem is that we have other agencies that come before us. Look when Wilderness Park, when the rains came, the council was very good about going to see what was there and we’re talking about 20 feet of mud. We’re talking about the museum that is covered in mud there’s a museum up there.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
A lot of people don’t really know Wilderness Park unless you stumble across it or you’re part of the Boy Scouts, girl Scouts, but it’s not anywhere near where it can be safe. So when other agencies that are above us come in, the rule is you can’t come in until we’re done, and so, unfortunately, we’re in a situation where they’re still hauling out the mud. If you go which I’ve gone again there’s a huge conveyor belt where mud is traveling and trying to get out but can’t even get in. Even the bridge, uh, is you can’t cross in safely across a bridge.
Christine Zito:
so you, you go up yeah, you know, yeah, you go up, you go down and so even there’s a last bridge, that’s not even safe, and so so are we looking at a couple of years?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
I just don’t know I think it’s going to be within the next two years, if there are not more rain.
Christine Zito:
Oh, okay.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
And people up north love Wilderness Park because nobody really knows it unless you live in the city. Arcadia is so unique in the sense that you can have literally big bear-like, big bear-like living, big bear, like, big bear like living, big bear like feeling, and three minutes later you’re at the mall. I know three minutes.
Christine Zito:
I know it’s, that’s one of the things. Well it well. If it’s a if it’s a kept secret, we should be keeping it secret yeah so everybody who’s listening to this, okay.
Christine Zito:
Well, linus Park will be open soon, so all right, so already. There are some questions here we already addressed. One of them is Oris wanted to know about the change of price in rent. Okay, so does the city of Arcadia have any control of rent control and how high a landlord or property management can raise the rent here in the city of Arcadia? No, or property management can raise the rent here in the city of Arcadia.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
No, but the law is that, look, cities can create their own rent control. But you also have to realize the city of Arcadia has always been about free market, right, that’s always been kind of the history of Arcadia. And when I talk about free market, when I was young and I was growing up in America, they always talked about free market. They said that’s what makes America great, right? Yes?
Christine Zito:
Except for high rent.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah, you know when government comes in. Well, you know. You know you didn’t bring up this issue, but it is very interesting. You know, on council, yes, I’m the most conservative, but I am Asian, and Asian people, particularly Chinese people, particularly Chinese people from China, although I’m not are warning Americans. They have seen this occur in their country, where government becomes bigger and bigger and bigger and the only thing that’s left is government and big business. The Chinese people are warning Americans that we have to be careful is that if every single day the government gets bigger, every single day, you’re dependent on less free market, more government control, there is going to be a line that you cannot cross, which usually are so dependent on the government for survival or big businesses like Amazon. Everybody else is gone.
Christine Zito:
Well, doesn’t China do they have a free market.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
That’s when everything began to boom, when they decided to go toward free market. You know, when I first went to China and I was very young there was a lady. I saw her. She was sweeping the floor, but she’s sweeping where there’s no dust. And the question I finally asked her is I didn’t know if she was crazy. You know what I mean. But the thing is I said but there’s no dust there. She said but you don’t understand. I need government. If I don’t sweep and act like there’s dust there and I stop, I don’t have anywhere to go.
Christine Zito:
Oh well, that’s interesting.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
And so that’s the question that we have is what has been more beneficial for America? Look, when I grew up in the 80s and I’m a Californian everybody was excited to wake up and work. They loved it. The eyes that they have. It’s almost like when you go to Vegas and everybody in Vegas they have those eyes and you think, oh, those are just gambler eyes. They’re just excited. They talk about their state. They love everything that’s going on. They want to tell you what they’re doing on the weekend In 2025, as a Californian, are you waking up, excited about the state?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Are you like man, what’s going on Doesn’t matter what party you are. We are tired. We are tired because the, the government has gotten too big, and and and we have to ask ourselves, in such a big government situation which I’m not saying government should not be involved but the question is what’s happening to our free market? Look, going back earlier to what we talked about, if we, as a city council, are just rubber stamping, rubber stamping, isn’t that the epitome of just big government, where we can’t be able to say I don’t know about building 400 condos, what about the traffic? What about the parking? What about the electricity? No, I’m sorry, you just have to rubber stamp it.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
That’s the concern that we have. We need to ensure that. We need to preserve our free market, because the preservation our free market, because you know the preservation of free market, you know who it benefits. Small business when I grew up in California, it was all about small business, all about small business. I understand that the internet had not been developed or maybe it was, but we didn’t know about it. But that’s a huge concern that’s going to impact all of us.
Christine Zito:
I think so too, and I think with the rise of artificial intelligence, the way technology is moving I think it’s we’re going to see a lot of difference in how people approach, approach job market, the housing market, gosh, you know, there are so many things I want to talk to you about. There’s only one small thing that I want to bring up, because when I went on Facebook and the emails that I’ve gotten and the responses I got from Facebook and I know I’m jumping around without ending a conversation here or different subjects- it’s okay.
Christine Zito:
Is one of the. I didn’t expect this, but it was brought up the whole thing about the San Gabriel Chamber of Commerce.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Sure.
Christine Zito:
And that whole situation, all the fallout of that chamber, and the question was to ask you about it and the money question was to ask you about it and and you know the money that was involved in. You know, I’m gonna let you address that issue about why people are looking to you, as that’s why the san Gabriel Chamber of Commerce dissolved.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Yeah, I was a board member. Well, when it dissolved I was not a board member, but when I was a board member. First of all, the San Gabriel Chamber of Commerce is something that really came out of the ground again through a person by the name of Sandy Roscoe, rudy Kasuma, and she always mentions somebody else, but I always kind of don’t know whether that person was part of that kind of restarting of that energy, and what ended up happening is that there was a vendor that we used consistently, that was a board member and eventually there was a reconciliation issue where the board member wasn’t reconciling his services with the Chamber of Commerce. Half of the board felt at that time that it was possibly an embezzlement issue. The other half of the board obviously said it was not right, that this is a vendor that we’ve always used. He’s part of the foundation of our chamber and there was massive infighting that ended up occurring, which was the first time, at least being part of the San Gabriel Chamber of Commerce as well as being part of the board that I could see. So what I pushed and what I do on council as well is when I see kind of two warring factions is how can we be able to move the ball forward see kind of two warring factions is how can we be able to move the ball forward?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
My desire at the time was for it not to become public, for it to be resolved internally in-house, and for us to kind of continue that vibe and that energy, because the people that wanted to essentially say it wasn’t an issue was to kind of close the financial records, don’t even worry about it, it’ll, it’s fine. But the other side was we have to sue, we have to publicize, we have to get down to the bottom of it. And so again, my desire was to kind of move it forward by not airing out the dirty laundry. But what ended up happening was, you know, the board members that didn’t want the reconciliation resigned. They ended up going to city council saying how bad the Chamber of Commerce was. My part, I think, was just wanting not to. I think was just wanting not to make it so bad. We ended up not really meeting. The board of directors weren’t meeting consistently at that time. It was difficult. It was during COVID and all that type of you know during that time as well and so it couldn’t.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
it couldn’t ultimately move forward because a lot of the board excuse me, the San Gabriel Chamber essentially was fiscally. They needed support, like many chambers, not just San Gabriel. But I think that that’s in part what led to kind of the dissolution. It ended up having no support from city council or support with conditions that were unacceptable to the board. Half of the board had left, another part of the board were still looking at we got to take this person out or that person out. How could this happen? You know it wasn’t there when it dissolved because you know my term was already up, it was close to being up and I think it dissolved like maybe half a year or a year later.
Christine Zito:
Yeah, it was just like this whole money thing too. You weren’t involved in any of the money or anything that.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
No, I think that’s kind of been a statement that’s been put on me To the extent money was involved. It’s basically should we go after this? Should we go after our vendor, who happens to be a board member or now an export member? And my answer to this day is no. I don’t think it’s healthy to air out things that most people don’t understand. It’s going to become a soundbite issue. It’s going to embarrass people, you know, particularly with people that have been on the board, for I mean, you know we’re talking about decades now. We’re not talking about you know, kind of a fly-by-night person talking about you know, kind of a fly-by-night person. I still believe that it was a dark time for for the chamber. I mean, it’s obviously been disbanded. I hope it could come back together again.
Christine Zito:
It was a dark time, you know, in the city of San Gabriel because it became very, it became a real political football yes, I, yeah, well, thank you for addressing that and, um gosh, we talked a long time, so, which was great, it was a. It was a great conversation. Thank you so much for being here and thank you for your story imagine imagine, I do, I do like that and I, I do like the fact that you do really care about the city of arcadia no, no, that’s the song.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Oh, Not specifically Beatles, right, yeah, I was going to say it’s John Lennon. John.
Christine Zito:
Lennon. Okay, now you got me thinking of the Beatles again.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Good, that’s all that matters.
Christine Zito:
One of my favorite songs is hey Jude. I love that song.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
That’s a very sweet song too.
Christine Zito:
I love that song and here Comes the Sun. That’s probably my most favorite.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
That’s a very good song too, that’s probably my most favorite.
Christine Zito:
Here Comes the Sun, so thank you so so much.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng:
Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to be here.
Christine Zito:
Oh, you’re going to come back. We have other things. I mean look at all this, look at this, look at all these things. So thank you so much for listening. I just want to thank our sponsors again Longo Toyota in El Monte, longo Toyota Lexus in El Monte, star 7 Financial Services with Francine Chu, santa Anita Park, the Lemuridian Hotel in Arcadia and Pasadena Look to ArcadiaFYIcom. I have some events on there that you can look at that are coming up in the month of September and October Some really great stuff going on at the Arboretum, great stuff going on with the city of Arcadia. And until next time, be blessed and make it a great day.
