With the Lineage warehouse fire and East LA oil spill still fresh on residents’ minds, Eastside residents on Tuesday raised concerns about environmental health and other local issues during a Senate District 26 candidate.
Nearly 100 residents packed Our Lady of Guadalupe Church’s hall, eager to listen to candidates vying to succeed Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, whose term ends this year.
While both candidates, Sarah Rascón and Sara Hernandez, were scheduled to appear, Hernandez did not show up. Jonathan Garza, a regional organizer for Hernandez, told the crowd she was forced to miss due to a family emergency.
Community members sighed in disappointment. Organizers from the Maravilla Community Advisory Committee said many residents had been eager to meet both candidates ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
Karen Noga and her daughter Isabeau showed up early to ensure time for tamales and agua frescas before the forum began.
The family lives near the Lineage warehouse, where a fire tore through the structure in June before leaving 85 million pounds of food to rot for weeks. They hoped to hear candidates’ plans to prevent further environmental disasters in their “corner of Boyle Heights.”
“Our past leaders do not care about our environmental issues. There are a lot of companies around us that have been around for years that many of my local neighbors have complained about and nobody has done anything about them… People complain to the proper authorities and there’s no follow-through,” Karen Noga said.
East LA resident Mark Rodarte, 67, wanted to hear more about plans to boost the economy of the unincorporated community of nearly 120,000 people.
“I’m hoping to hear what they’re trying to do to revitalize East Los Angeles. We need them to bring more businesses in, because if you look at the city of Commerce, they’re growing like crazy,” Rodarte said.
Senate District 26 is home to nearly 943,000 people. It includes the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Boyle Heights, El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, Koreatown, Pico-Union, unincorporated East LA and the city of Vernon.
In a statement read on her behalf, Hernandez, a housing and environmental attorney and current Los Angeles Community College trustee, listed environmental justice, community representation and protecting immigrant communities as her top priorities.
The candidate committed to supporting a community-elected municipal advisory council for unincorporated East LA, pushing county leaders to improve infrastructure and keep ICE out of schools, hospitals and courthouses.
Rascón, who was raised in El Sereno, most recently worked for Mayor Karen Bass and served on the East LA Area Planning Commission. She has previously said homelessness is the most pressing issue facing the district.
During the forum, Rascón was asked questions on topics ranging from environmental justice on the Eastside to how she’d rein in the spread of charter schools in East LA.
In a question directly asking Rascón how she’d represent East LA residents, she tapped into her experience as a staffer representing the Eastside of LA.
“I think it’s important that we have representation from the community,” Rascón said. “You have my commitment that we will assign a staff person dedicated to East Los Angeles and addressing the needs of our community.”
As questions from the moderator continued, Rascón also committed to a community-led approach when addressing challenges if elected.
“I have always done my work through engaging the community. The people closest to the issue know what the problem is. If you live near the issue, you’re going to tell me what it is and we can develop a solution together,” the 36-year-old candidate said.
When probed on how she’d handle an incident like the East LA oil spill that dumped 25,000 gallons of crude oil into storm drains that led into the LA River, Rascón suggested a more centralized response would’ve led to less community impact.
“I don’t believe in pointing fingers to the county, to the state, to federal government. I think that government should be working for all of us and should be responsive… This was an environmental disaster and there was no clear coordination for all agencies for our community to hear from,” Rascón said.
At one point, 17-year-old Garfield High School students Kevin Barragan and Jeshua Ramirez sat alongside Rascón to ask how she’d keep AI advances from impacting their education and for a commitment to support student resources that help them succeed.
Although he won’t be able to vote in the coming election, Ramirez later said he would want his next senator to represent the Eastside and have lived in the community.
“Many times, these representatives are sworn in and never come back here. They don’t face our problems. They don’t go with the community. They don’t ask for their perspective. So I feel like a leader who’s strong and active within their community is who I’m looking for,” Ramirez said.
