An Inconvenient Truth

Jay and Gary are seeking to retain their seats on the Rosemead City Council.  But they have to contend with some inconvenient truths:

                                 ROSEMEAD    Alhambra   Montebello   El Monte

National Chain

  Supermarket Stores          0                3                 2              2

   Young Adult

      Restaurants                  0               4                 1               1

Cinema Screens                 0               24               10              8

Private Sector Jobs,

   % Change, 1991-2000   -32%           +20%          +10%        +3%

Murder rate                      10.7             2.3               9.3          5.5

Burglary rate                   679.8            534             423.4       586.3

Police response times

   to Priority One calls       8:01            1:00               5:35       N/A

[Edited 9/10--In my original post, I inadvertently placed Monterey Park's Priority One response time (1:15) under Montebello.  Also, I mis-remembered Rosemead's time as 8:05.  It is actually 8:01.  For any one interested, other Priority One response times in the west San Gabriel Valley:  Monrovia, 2:12; Arcadia, 3:00; Sierra Madre, 3:00; South El Monte, 3:04; Duarte, 3:05; Temple City, 3:08; South Pasadena, 3:30; Irwindale, 4:00; San Gabriel, 4:00; Unincorporated Temple, 4:06; Bradbury, 4:07; La Canada, 5:06; Pasadena, 6:55.  Priority One response times in San Marino, El Monte, and some unicorporated areas were not provided in the report].

Questions to ask yourself:

1.  Why have all the national supermarket chains left Rosemead, when they haven't left Alhambra, Monterey Park, Montebello, Arcadia, Temple City, or most of our neighboring cities, all of which have similarly high minority populations?

2.  Why do Gary and Jay's political material always talk about "in the last four years," or "since 2001"?  They've been in office for thirty years!  Don't they have any "accomplishments" to point to besides ramming a Wal-Mart down our throats?

[On the other hand, you can now see why they use the "since 2001" for job creation, given their dismal record in the preceding decade.  Rosemead lost 6,600 jobs in the 1990s.  Even if their claims of new jobs "since 2001" are correct (and I have never seen them cite a source for their claim), we're still over 6,100 jobs behind where we were in 1990.  We're probably down net jobs since 1980, and possibly down since 1976 and 1974, when those guys were first elected.]

3.  Why are the Rosemead crime statistics and response times so poor?

[p. 36 of the LAFCO study gives a hint:  "Among the Sheriff contract cities . . . Rosemead contracts for the lowest staffing level on a per capita basis."]

4.  What is it about this record that the Jay and Gary supporters believe to be good?

Sources: 

Supermarkets, young adult restaurants, cinema screens:  just check the yellow pages.  "National chain supermarkets" are those owned and operated by the parent companies of Albertson's, Von's, or Ralph's, or are otherwise "national" in scope and sell primarily food stuffs.  "Young adult restaurants" are those that are national in scope and target the young adult demographic, such as Applebee's or Chile's.   Employment figures:  from Table 2 of "San Gabriel Valley Job Creation and Growth," report to the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments, June 2001, p. 7.  View it at: www.sgvcog.org/1san_gabriel_valley_job_creation.htm

Crime figures are from the 2004 FBI statistics, standardized to events/100,000 population.

Police response times are from Figure 2-9 of "West San Gabriel Valley Final Municipal Service Review," report to the Local Agency Formation Commission for Los Angeles County, November 30, 2004, p. 35.  View it at: www.burrconsulting.com/upload/LA%20LAFCO/WSG%20Draft%20Final%20MSR%20Nov%2030%20_clean_.pdf