Policy Platform

See Steven’s answers to the Pasadena Star-News 2026 Election Questionnaire.

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Accountability & Transparency

Stay accessible and accountable: Hold monthly rotating office hours across MPK’s neighborhoods. Publish a bi-annual multilingual accountability scorecard tracking progress on platform commitments.
Ensure residents are properly notified about major projects and zoning actions (currently the notification radius is only 300 feet). Examples of proper notifications: articles in the Cascades, notices mailed to households within a 2-mile radius of the project site, and email newsletters.
Make municipal communications more accessible to all MPK residents (e.g., city website translation accuracy, council meeting summaries to share on social media for accessibility).

Create and market programs to help people discover MPK restaurants, like restaurant crawls, food truck pods, and affordable prix fixe menu restaurant weeks (like DineLA but better).
Launch a culinary literacy program designed for new customers who don’t know what to order. This would be videos, guides, or promotional meetups. There will be different guides for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and the all important late night snack.
Create a food truck park similar to those in Portland and Austin. This would include outdoor seating and lighting.
Restaurant incubator workshop to help those who want to open their dream restaurant. The workshops would teach about: navigating Monterey Park’s health requirements and permits, food handler certifications, estimating startup costs, financing options, etc.
Ensure landlords who are sitting on empty storefronts and lots are actually investing in our community. These long-term vacant properties lower morale and walkability.
Start a mandatory Vacant Storefront Registry as a first step towards a commercial-only vacancy tax. Complement this with improved tenant-landlord matching.
After a storefront is vacant for 30 days they will pay a fee of $711. If the storefront is vacant for more that 6 months they will incur an additional fee based on $250 per linear foot of their street facing storefront. The $250 per linear foot fee will increase every year if the storefront remains vacant.

Use downtown MPK as a pilot for low cost, high value streetscape improvements:
Safer crossings: Add mid-block crossings on long blocks and create high-visibility crosswalks. At signals, a leading pedestrian interval of 3-7 seconds gives walkers a safe head start before cars.
Parklets and outdoor seating: Convert 1-2 public parking spaces into a small seating deck, and/or permit sidewalk dining.
Street trees: Shade from a continuous (native, drought-tolerant) tree canopy increases how far people are willing to walk, cools the street, and softens the hardscape.
Champion the development of Saturn Park into a landmark community space and gathering place.
Update the Saturn Park Specific Plan based on community feedback and enable reputable developers who want to build what the community envisions.
Monterey Park and Monterey Park Police Department protects all residents.
Pass a city ordinance that closes loopholes in SB 54 to take a stronger position against ICE, and end MPK’s contract with Flock.
Pass a city ordinance to prohibit BESS within city limits.