Voter turnout high in Rosemead, Pasadena Star News, Wed 09 March 2005.
"The council is gaining its first Asian-American member but losing one Latino member. The city is about 53 percent Asian and 40 percent Latino."
The former and current City Council is 60% White (Clark, Imperial, Taylor), highly disproportionate to the actual population of Rosemead. It is difficult to find the make-up of previous Rosemead City Councils, but it seems Clark has been the only woman for a while, and Joe Vasquez was the first Latino councilmember (elected in 1999?). So before 1999, the council was 100% White (Bruesch, Clark, Imperial, McDonald, Taylor).
Rosemead Residents: 55,000+
Registered voters: 15,000+
Actual Voters: 4,000+(?)
Rosemead Demographics (US Census 2000)
more demographics
Those demographics are interesting. I didn't realize the Latino population was only 40%. I always thought of Rosemead as a mostly Latino city until recently. It's definitely a place where more Asians and Latinos should work their way up in politics. The political networks here seem to be an overap between SGV and East LA politics (and not so much with the politics up in the foothills). (Parents, get your kids with political aspirations to come back here after college.)
I was bummed out that Bill Alarcon hadn't switched his vote. He seemed concerned about our issues, just a little. SOC would have backed him, for sure. A lot of people had nice things to say about him... but... in politics, the leaders choose their votes to get the votes. Guess he made a bad choice.
continued
Growing up here, I noticed throughout my elem/jr/high school years that indeed the student make up was rougly 40% Latino, 40% Asian, with some White and Black students in the mix.
There are definitely cultural tensions in the city. The TV still portrays Latinos as criminals and thieves, which causes Asian business owners to be less friendly with their Latino neighbors and customers. In turn, Latinos feel resentment towards Asian business owners, plus a sentiment that they are taking over "all the businesses in Rosemead."
For example, the Carniceria/Panaderia on Mission and Valley that closed, and the Asian Water and Eggs market that opened in its place.
Rosemead-Colored Glasses
Notice that 40,000 residents are not registered to vote, over 2/3 of the population.
A recent paper from UCLA list
A recent paper from UCLA listed Rosemead as one of the cities where there's a significant number of non-citizen adults who cannot vote.
Political Apartheid in California: Consequences of Excluding a Growing Noncitizen Population by Joaquin Avila, Esq.
This is definitely an issue, because it means that a lot of folks who participate in the economy, pay taxes, and have their kids in schools, don't have any political leverage over their situation. They become dependent on those who are citizens for a lot.