September 13, 2025 • 61 mins
The journey from immigrant to civic leader is a classic American story, and Councilman Paul Cheng's path exemplifies this transformative experience with remarkable emotion. Arriving on Christmas Day 1977, Cheng recalls his family's pursuit of opportunity amid the challenges of being visibly different in a predominantly white Orange County neighborhood.
What makes this conversation particularly compelling is Cheng's philosophical approach to governance. He shares his pre-meeting ritual of praying over each council member's chair while playing Beatles music to create a harmonious atmosphere—not as political theater, but as a personal commitment to seeing beyond differences. "If I pray for somebody, I'm invested in their success," he explains, revealing how personal practices inform his public service.
Truly a nice coversation.
Tell me what you want to hear at https://ArcadiaFYI.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Christine Zito (00:05):
Hello and welcome back to Arcadia.
Fyi, I'm Christine Zito, yourhost of this wonderful show.
I love this show and I thankyou for making it a success.
I had no idea it'd be thisgreat.
So thank you to those that arelistening, to those that are
listening as we focus.
(00:25):
We're going to be focused oncommunity Today.
I have a great show for you.
Okay, focusing on the city ofArcadia.
I was born in well, I was bornin Hollywood, I was born a star.
Then I moved to Arcadia andI've lived here.
And then I moved to Walnut andmy dad.
He actually grew up here andlived here all his life until he
went home to Jesus.
And, furthermore, we're goingto be talking about activities
(00:48):
when they come up outside thecity, because we're all one big,
happy family here in the SanGabriel Valley and I want to
invite other activities to comein.
I want to thank our sponsorsLongo Toyota Lexus in El Monte.
Say hi to Mark and Brooke NotMark, mike and Brooke.
(01:08):
They are great people.
I keep telling you to go outthere and visit, because they do
more than just sell cars.
Star 7 Financial with FrancineChu, one of the best financial
advisors here in the city ofArcadia, the Santa Anita Park.
Pete's going to be coming in, Ithink, at the end of september,
beginning of october, right inthere, to talk about some of the
(01:29):
things that are happening atthe racetrack, the limeridian
hotel in arcadia and pasadena.
We'll be talking with gab.
We're going to actually do areally cool tour of the hotel so
you can see for yourself.
All right, and saying all ofthat I have sitting in front of
me.
If if you're watching onYouTube, you will see this great
(01:49):
man here.
He came to America to live theAmerican dream, but of course it
did not come without struggles.
Okay, every dream has astruggle.
Today he's the managing partnerat the law offices of Paul P
Cheng Associates, also known asPPRC Law.
He is a doctor and he is one ofour councilmen on the city
(02:15):
council here in the city ofArcadia.
Councilman Paul Cheng, welcometo the show, thank you.
I am so happy that you're here.
All right, let's get to knowyou a little bit.
From what I understand, youcame to America in the 70s.
City Councilman Paul P. (02:30):
Correct December 25th 1977.
Christine Zito (02:34):
You were a gift.
City Councilman Paul P. (02:37):
America was a gift for my family.
I was a baby, obviously, but myfamily still talks about eating
their first Christmas dinner onan airplane and coming to
America.
Christine Zito (02:48):
Well, tell me a little bit about your parents.
They said that I was reading alittle bit about missionaries.
I guess some missionarieshelped you, helped your family,
the military.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (03:00):
Yeah .
So you know, one of theblessings that we have about
being across the world is havingmissionaries as well as service
members go across the world.
And you know I you know as akid you ask your father random
statements and I remember I wasa kid, I was like you know
(03:22):
when's the first time you saw awhite person?
That's what you say when you'rea kid, right unfiltered.
And he said well, you know, Iwas in China and a Catholic
father came and he said come toAmerica.
And so you know, we're soblessed as immigrants, as Asian
(03:44):
Americans, because many of thereasons why we came for those
that didn't have TV was having amissionary or having a US
service member hugging us,taking care of us, not knowing
us.
Christine Zito (04:02):
And this is outside of America.
City Councilman Paul P. (04:04):
Outside of America.
The story of the Asian Americanimmigrant is one where we
didn't know America, but we knewthat there was a country that
wanted immigrants to come, thattold us that we had value.
Yeah.
Christine Zito (04:24):
You know how do you, as an immigrant, see the
American dream?
What does that mean to you?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (04:33):
Well , you know, when I first came to
America, you know Vietnam Warwas, depending on who you talk
to, ending or ended.
Obviously, from the historybooks it continued quite a bit,
but I grew up in Orange Countyand Orange County was a place
where there were very few Asianpeople.
So when I was growing up in theStates, there was kind of this
(04:56):
struggle where people thatdidn't look like you would tell
you that you couldn't walk onthe same street sidewalk as them
, while at the same time yourparents were working very hard
and your best friends were ofthe same color, of people that
told you to get off the streetsand so, um, you know, as a young
(05:17):
, um, american really, thatdidn't look like other people,
it was somewhat of a struggle.
But I can be able to say thatthe first tuna melt I ever had
on a muffin was with someonethat didn't look like me.
(05:38):
You know, I remember, you know,my neighbor, seeing him throw a
softball with his daughter, dayafter day after day, seeing a
father committed it was not myfather, because he was working
all the time.
Christine Zito (05:57):
What did your father do, real fast.
City Councilman Paul P. C (05:59):
There were a lot of businesses when
we first came to the States.
There were many, many differentbusinesses.
The one I remember was he had amotel.
We would go there.
Uh, he helped develop valleyboulevard when in in the san
gabriel rosemead area, when itwas just dirt, um, so I saw him
there.
(06:19):
Yeah, you know, I I miss him alot 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 bornin 1930.
And so, yeah, Is your?
Christine Zito (06:36):
is your mom still walking with us?
City Councilman Paul P. Che (06:39):
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 thatmy mom is, you know, still able
to talk to me, but she'sdefinitely getting to a point
(06:59):
now where her, her body iscatching up with her.
She was such a huge fire whenshe was young, kind of that
immigrant mom, scary, and to seeher now just a fraction of what
I remember her is.
Christine Zito (07:19):
It's tough and you're married.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng (07:21):
I am.
Christine Zito (07:22):
How many years?
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (07:24):
So , yeah, we kind of debate.
So it was April 12, 2012, whenI went to the courthouse to get
married, but we got ourdocumentation stamped Friday,
april 13th, and so it was.
Christine Zito (07:47):
Nothing scary yeah we always laugh about that.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (07:50):
We always laugh about that in
terms of just the dates and thetimes and, oh, you know, across
any country.
These numbers are all bad.
Christine Zito (07:59):
How did you meet your wife?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (08:01):
Yeah , so she is.
Christine Zito (08:02):
And what's her name?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (08:03):
Aini .
Christine Zito (08:04):
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. Ch (08:07):
Yeah , we were introduced by.
You know a friend, this personnamed Andrew, who's always
linking up different people, andyeah, she works as a news
anchor at one of the Chinesetelevision stations.
Yeah, that's how I met her.
Christine Zito (08:26):
So you get to hide behind a star, huh.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng (08:28):
I know I know A lot of people
don't realize that she's muchmore famous.
If being famous on city councilcan be called famous, but she's
much more famous than I am.
So when she broadcasts, shebroadcasts in North and South
America, the Western Hemisphere,so you'll have millions of
people watching her.
Christine Zito (08:48):
Was it love at first sight when?
City Councilman Paul P. Che (08:49):
you saw her?
Christine Zito (08:50):
walk.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (08:52):
No , no, it's funny because, you
know, I did see somebody.
She was super pretty, superbeautiful.
She grew up in Japan, she'sfrom China, grew up in Japan, so
she's not outside of her job,this bubbly person, and I
thought it was her, but thenwhen she got done up as kind of
the news anchor, that's when shecame and I was like, oh no, I
don't, you know, because shelooks so much older than I was,
(09:13):
she's a lot younger than I amand I was like who is this
person?
But yeah, we ended up justcontinuing to talk, yeah, to
talk.
Yeah, she's been such ablessing in my life.
Christine Zito (09:29):
I really thank God that I'm allowed to be with
her.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (09:31):
She allows me to be with her.
She's a very sweet lady, yeah,yeah, yeah, she definitely.
You know, because she's sointroverted, people don't
realize at home we don't reallytalk, and so she speaks more
when she's trying to be a brightperson with me, but, yeah, we
don't really talk.
And so she speaks more whenshe's trying to be a bright
person with me, but, yeah, wedon't really have that much
conversation.
(09:51):
She's very introverted, veryquiet.
Christine Zito (09:53):
So what do you guys do?
Just stare at each other overdinner and then, read each
other's minds.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (10:00):
You know there have been many.
There have been many days likethat.
Yeah, and it's not a negativething, it's just her personality
is.
She's just very quiet, shedoesn't like to talk.
Christine Zito (10:12):
Wait, wait, wait .
You got a woman that's quietand she listens and you do all
the talking.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (10:17):
Okay , this is really backwards.
Christine Zito (10:19):
Councilman Ball.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (10:21):
No , she's just very, you know,
because typically, like couples,they like to gossip about
people, they like to just chatand so we won't be.
You know, she doesn't gossipabout people.
So usually when she speaks I'mvery attentive because it's
pretty serious and I think it'sher upbringing of in Japan.
(10:45):
You don't want to impact otherpeople's lives, which includes
me, so if she's speaking, ittypically means that it's a
pretty serious issue and shewouldn't bring it up unless she
could resolve it.
Christine Zito (10:59):
That's a very wise lady.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (11:01):
Yeah , maybe.
Christine Zito (11:02):
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. Ch (11:08):
I'll just say that, no, no, me too I
talk a lot I love it.
Christine Zito (11:13):
Well, do you have any kids, do you guys?
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (11:15):
No kids, no kids.
We did have a baby once andunfortunately we lost our child.
Christine Zito (11:25):
I am so sorry, I did not know that.
Yeah yeah.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (11:28):
So , um, you know, kind of changed
our relationship.
Obviously, in many ways Ididn't realize, you know, at
least as a guy you know, youdon't realize how these things
could have such a deep traumaand an impact, um, on people.
Christine Zito (11:43):
Yeah.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (11:43):
Yeah , but yeah okay.
Christine Zito (11:47):
Yeah, well, I didn't know that.
Okay, let's get into.
Sure, what are you mostpassionate about here in the
city of Arcadia?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (11:59):
Yeah , most passionate.
There's just going to beseveral things.
I believe that we have tosupport 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
(12:27):
expenses are our staff.
But at the same time, you kindof wonder, you know, are we a
destination city or are we atransition city?
We're a destination city.
People save and they work threeto four jobs to come into the
city of Arcadia.
And the question is why?
And ultimately it's the staffthat responds to emails quickly.
(12:58):
You know they have an internalrequirement internal If there's
an email, it doesn't matter.
If you're off, it's 15 minutesresponse.
So I had a staff member tell meshe was at the ocean and she
couldn't even keep her eyes onher kids that are in the ocean
because she needs to make sureshe's responding to emails.
And so the question is if youhave staff that have such a high
(13:18):
standard and you have ourresidents that come into our
city that have an equally highstandard, and you begin to ask
yourself you know, what is itthat makes Arcadia so much
different than other cities?
It's really our city staff thatmake it happen.
I mean, if you call 911, youknow the goal is two minutes.
(13:42):
Five minutes is unacceptable,unacceptable.
So I mean if you're in othercities and you call 911 for a
car accident, you're not goingto get a response.
You may get an email, a textmessage or no response at all.
Christine Zito (14:01):
Well, okay, so now that you brought up dialing
911, I think most, I think, fromwhat I understand you can
correct me if I'm wrong thatmost of the 911 calls are
basically for the homeless.
So how does the city counciladdress that, or is that a
misunderstanding?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (14:21):
Yeah , so the 911 calls are going to
be distributed across manydifferent issues, from emergency
and non-emergency, andeverybody has dealt with
homelessness and focused onhomelessness in a vastly
different way.
But we've moved the ballforward, right, yeah?
And so one of the things that Idesired to do was to retain the
(14:47):
best and to recruit the best.
You know, we used to have eightpolice officers throughout the
city.
You had five for each district,sometimes one floater car,
sometimes up to three floatercars, some dealing with traffic.
Now we could be down to aslittle as four.
Christine Zito (15:09):
For each district.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (15:10):
For across the city.
Christine Zito (15:11):
Oh wow, so how you guys are handling safety.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (15:15):
So dealing with homelessness is
not as easy when you aren't ableto retain and recruit, when you
have, essentially, departmentturnover, that is very
significant, and so homelessnessis a complicated issue.
There is not one council memberzero in my opinion that says you
(15:38):
know what.
We're okay with homelessness,we would just love homeless
people to be walking around andto essentially many of them that
have mental health issues to bewalking around the city.
I went to the gas station so Iwas waiting for you and I said,
oh, you know, I'm just gonna putin gas, because I thought about
my wife.
My wife would never allow gasto get into the little red thing
(16:01):
that ends up popping up.
So I'm like, okay, in homage tomy wife, I'm gonna go put in
gas half, you know half tank ofgas.
And so I was there andessentially I saw homeless
people congregated at that gasstation.
That didn't feel good at all,because outside of this kind of
downtown Arcadia area you don'treally see that.
(16:22):
I mean, the reality is they arecongregated near this transit
stop and they float down fromtransit.
Christine Zito (16:28):
It's because of the metro.
That's correct, they come downhere and I'm in downtown Arcadia
and I'm walking distance and Idon't walk to work as much just
because of what you just said,and it's unfortunate.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (16:39):
Look , we have to be very frank.
Is that the definition ofhomelessness, or the definition
of having unhoused, or howeveryou want to say it?
In our city?
It is not acceptable.
It doesn't matter that thenumbers have fallen, it doesn't
(16:59):
matter that, you know, used tobe at three digits, now it's at
two digits and at times, in apoint in time count it's 36.
But then when it goes to LACounty and comes back, it's 100.
It doesn't matter, right.
What matters is can we be ableto move the ball forward about
the individuals that are?
Christine Zito (17:18):
here Can we.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (17:19):
We can.
We have.
Actually, if you go to our citystaff and you have real
authentic, non-soundbiteconversations with them, with
them we actually have 99% doing99% more than other cities.
(17:40):
See, what had happened was in2021, there was a big fight over
are we going to build sheltersin our city?
Christine Zito (17:51):
Yes.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (17:56):
And so, publicly, part of the city
council or council was sayingshelters are to help them, but
in study sessions that peopledon't go to, that are many times
not recorded but are public,they were saying if we build
shelters, we can eject them, wecould run them out of our city.
And that was the goal.
Now, whether we are building itout of kindness or whether we
(18:18):
are building it because we seekto eject them from our city and
push them to other cities, thegoal is Arcadians are not okay
with the unhoused and thehomeless within our city.
Christine Zito (18:33):
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 togive assistance to the homeless.
I have learned from just beingin my career being in radio for
many, many, many years a talkshow producer was that
(18:54):
homelessness it's a funny issue.
I have a heart for them.
Sometimes I just don't knowwhat to do because some of them
are there not by choice andthose are the ones that want
help.
And then you've got those thatdon't want the help.
They just want to be homeless.
Then you have those with themental issues.
So with the sheltering, that'sinteresting.
(19:17):
I've never heard that aspect,that someone would build housing
just to eject them.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (19:23):
Yeah , so the rule is that if you
have a at that time, if you havea specific amount of housing
some council members werelooking at 20, Some council
members were looking at 100.
This very vague kind of movingtarget that was occurring.
If they didn't go into ashelter, you could eject them,
you could arrest them.
Christine Zito (19:43):
Oh, I see those are the people that didn't want
the shelter.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (19:47):
And maybe I'm not being clear.
Christine Zito (19:49):
When.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng (19:49):
I use the word ejectment, I'm
using the word arrest, right, soif they don't go into a shelter
, you can arrest them.
Okay, right.
And so the people that weresupporting shelters in part, it
was kind of a multi-pronged typeof statement, which is we're
really helping them, wink wink,they're not going to be in our
(20:12):
city if they don't get into ashelter.
Wink wink, they're not going tobe in our city if they don't
get into a shelter.
Wink, wink.
And so the wink wink that I sawand that I see on city councils
or really any type of body, isthat every position is
multifaceted, with layers ofpositions within them, with
(20:32):
layers of positions within them,and the questions that we need
to do as a city council iswhether we agree with them,
whether we agree with ourselvesor not.
How do we move the ball forward?
Christine Zito (20:45):
Well, I think too, with the shelters I was
conflicted.
I liked them because it gavehelp, but also, too, it would
bring more people in, morehomeless people in, and then it
became like a safety issue.
So I think there was aconversation amongst residents
about that and then it justended up falling off.
(21:09):
Was it rejected altogether?
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (21:12):
No .
So in 2021, what I did is Ipresented to the city council
what's considered a five-pointplan, which formed the
foundation, in some ways, of ourhomeless plan for the city,
which is to get an authenticcount, which is to see if we can
(21:34):
be able to work with othercities and, fortunately, at that
time, our council supported itand it was, you know, every
council member supported it andthat's what I've tried to do.
Being on city council is to tryto incrementally move things
forward.
I understand from residentsthat may not be at city council
(21:58):
all the time, watching everymeeting, reading every staff
report, that it's not exciting,right?
It's not exciting becauseessentially they want to wake up
and see no homeless in our area, which I understand.
But we were able, from the fivepoint plan, to hire seven day a
(22:23):
week staff members that can beable to go out and work with
homeless people that wantshelters, that want to be in
shelters.
And half of the people thatwe've met have wanted it.
Another reason why I presentedthat issue and to kind of say,
hey, look, sheltering, whetherit's for one purpose or another
(22:47):
purpose, instead of saying thatyou're just a bad person for
wanting sheltering for whateverreason and creating kind of an
enemy, creating a devil, is tobe able to say your ideas aren't
bad ideas, it's an idea thatmaybe we can look at for the
future.
And that's what I've tried todo.
(23:10):
You know I may not be good atit, but look, I'm in a
profession Earlier you said Iwas a physician.
You know I'm an attorney, butI've, I've, I've.
I am in a profession where youwant to create enemy, you want
to create evil.
On the other side.
You know, person even has onedegree of separation from you.
(23:33):
They are not wrong, but I'mgoing to burn down your house
and people take that energy andthey bring it on city council.
And I've realized even in thepractice of law it does not work
.
Screaming and yelling atsomebody and calling them stupid
and calling them names may bethe correct soundbite but it
(23:55):
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, butyou're not.
You're not.
(24:18):
You may feel like it, butyou're not.
And if you can't count to threeand understand that one day
you're not going to be in thethree, then what you need to do
is to be gracious and kind toeveryone on city council and
even when you disagree withsomeone, even when it's in your
eyes like you can see me as I'mspeaking I have all this
(24:38):
historical data that makes memad.
You need to be calm.
Christine Zito (24:44):
How do you handle this is a question for me
how do you handle thedissension among the city
council today, with all thedifferent personalities and then
some, you know I mean, how doyou you deal with the discord?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (25:04):
well , what I try to do is I'm always
early to council meetings and Idon't do it for them, I do it
for is.
I go up to each chair.
I'm not a religious person butI grew up in a religious family.
I pray over each chair.
I ask God to please give themwisdom.
I do it more for me is becauseif I pray for somebody then I'm
(25:26):
invested at least in theirsuccess.
That I've touched the chair,I've raised my hand, I prayed
for them and then I playedBeatles music.
So if you come to city councilmeeting, to my understanding I'm
the first person that hasplayed great music throughout
(25:47):
the chamber and I do it so thatthere's a vibe and an energy of
excitement and thoughtfulnessfrom different music genres.
But you know, really kind ofthat Beatle-esque exciting.
But you know every record theyhave is a different vibe and
(26:07):
energy, but all very deep.
Christine Zito (26:09):
Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to think Prayer and the
Beatles song Hard stay night,drive my car.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (26:17):
Now I'm trying to think Prayer and
the Beatles song Hard stay night, Drive my car.
Now I have to ask you what isyour favorite.
What is your favorite?
Christine Zito (26:23):
Okay, go ahead, Go ahead.
I'm sorry, but I have to saythat is so cool.
I don't even have the words tosay how sweet that is that you
pray over each of those prayers.
City Councilman Paul (26:33):
Councilman is to say how sweet that is
that you pray over each of thoseprayers.
Council Member.
Well, I think I have to,because sometimes the statements
that are made are through a lotof pain.
Look, it's kind of odd, is thatas soon as the shining lights
occur council meetings I thinkwe have maybe 100 people
(26:58):
watching it.
Maybe it'll get redistributedand maybe my wife will watch it
another 50 times, so it'll be150 and that's it.
But for whatever reason, whenthe lights begin to shine, there
is so much pressure that endsup occurring and you want to say
the right things and you wantto do the right things, that I
(27:22):
think what ends up happening isyou 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 yousurvived as a child, and many
times you were able to conquersomething by standing up for
(27:43):
what you believe is against anevil person, and so you say
things that are very harsh, butunfortunately, when that ends up
occurring is those words cannotbe taken back.
As a child, you may havesurvived it, but as an adult,
you're constantly reminded man,I shouldn't have said that, I
(28:06):
shouldn't have done that youknow I shouldn't have said that.
You know this person has, youknow is beholden to another
person.
You know I shouldn't say thatthey're ridiculous or they're
stupid.
You know I shouldn't poke attheir family.
These are all things that,fortunately, when I got on
(28:27):
council, I took the advice of mycity manager very, very
seriously, because I didn't knowI was outside of my element and
you know some people don't knowDominic.
He's like this 6'4", you know,super good looking guy, very
well spoken.
So he's not just good lookingbut very well spoken.
Right, he has that almostYoda-esque type of feeling where
(28:50):
, at least for a moment, you'regoing to take what he says
extremely seriously.
But I took his worldview andhis thought and his experience
being that he's amulti-generational city manager
His father was a city managerand he would explain yeah, from
(29:10):
his father's standpoint, hisbrother's a city manager.
Christine Zito (29:13):
Yeah, I was just going to say.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (29:14):
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'sabsolutely wrong, but he has the
historical data to be able tounderstand that.
(29:34):
You know, when you say thosethings, 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 werecursing at me.
I've had council members infront of city staff put their
(29:55):
finger in my face.
Call me the f-word.
You know all these reallyintense, you know feelings,
right, and the city manager,when I talk to him, has he
typically says, well, you can godown that route, but to what
end?
I mean, he doesn't say it, buthe's really asking you what is
(30:18):
the end goal?
And so I think what he's sayingis what do you really want?
What is it that you reallydon't want?
Add those together and say areyou really going to be saying
that?
Are you really going to bedoing that?
Right?
What is it that I want, forexample, with sheltering, what
(30:40):
do I really want?
Well, I want to endhomelessness period full stop.
Every council member, what isit that I really don't want.
I don't want this issue to bean issue that I can never talk
to another council member orcouncil members and then add it
together together and say areyou going to curse back, are you
going to point your finger intheir face back?
(31:01):
What point does it have forpeople that you know, for
example, well, people thatsupport me don't like certain
people.
Okay, so therefore, that's whatyou're going to do.
This is just an example.
Christine Zito (31:18):
Wow, that is, yeah, some deep stuff.
To see you emotionally involvedin who you are in the council
is pretty amazing, councilman,paul.
I mean because to bring up itis true I mean we're human
beings, sure, and we all have apast and to bring up
(31:40):
childhood-type struggles andthen to have that to be brought
up and remembered as being onthe city council or involved in
an emotional aspect of the citycouncil during the meetings,
that's pretty deep.
I mean.
That really puts you on acompletely different level, that
(32:01):
you really do feel you are afeeling man.
I mean that is my opinion.
I mean people might think,christine, you're really, but I
have to point that out.
And plus, for you to see thatyou're shadowing someone like I
love Dominic and I say that in away where I got to meet Dominic
(32:23):
before I knew he was citymanager and he was just a neat
guy, he was just a veryapproachable man.
And then when I met him at oneof the chamber events, I'm all
like, hey, wait a minute, you'recity manager and he was just a
humble man 70% of the time I'mall like, hey, who are you?
I mean you're city manager andhe was just humble man 70% of
the time he won't agree with me.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng (32:40):
I mean, it takes phone calls, it
takes mentorship.
I mean you know, look, I'm.
You know.
You talked about being afeeling person.
I'm a human being too right, Imean you know, when someone says
something that's inappropriateor does things that I think are
truly unhinged, you know itmakes me want to be even more
(33:04):
unhinged, because in litigationsometimes it's just people.
You know who's going to topeach other, and for city council
it feels like that too.
Right Is that?
If you don't, if you're goingto mess with me, I'm really
going to take you out.
So therefore you got to beunder me.
(33:27):
But counting to three see, thisis so critical is that if your
goal is to count to three, thereare going to be times when
you're in the minority and youneed the support of the majority
and they can stop you at anytime.
It could be the greatest ideain the world, and Dominic
(33:48):
reminded me of that.
He said you know, being in themajority doesn't happen.
Throughout all of your councilI've been in the minority before
, so I can understand how thatfeels.
But I didn't understand that,because when you first get on
council, there's a wave ofexcitement and people that come
out of the woodworks and peoplethat didn't want to support you,
(34:10):
but now are your biggestsupporters and you're like, oh,
wow, and you think that you'resomeone special.
No, you're not supposed to bespecial.
You're supposed to actuallyblend into the background.
Your goal as a council member isto recognize and support the
people that make a hugedifference in our city city
(34:32):
staff, first responders, many ofour seniors that didn't walk
away from our city when thedemographic 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 whicheverybody wants to do, without
(34:55):
me, this city will burn down.
Basically, what you'rebasically saying is nobody else
matters but you, and that's sounfortunate because we do get
that energy on council and I'mnot saying that I've never
wanted to have that energy,because you see other council
members in other cities and themore they're you know,
(35:20):
outlandish, and the more thatthey get up and the more they
scream and the more they do allthat, they seem to have even
more support and they seem toget the most attention.
But what happens after theyleave?
Nobody remembers them.
Christine Zito (35:34):
What they remember are all of these old
battles and scars and they don'tknow where it started yeah, and
see, I would always think thatthe goal of any council of a
city, as they oversee the city,is the well-being of the
residents and those you knowwith us living here and we still
(35:58):
have some time I wanted one ofthe things I wanted to ask you
that is probably more my littlegem is the affordable housing.
Okay, affordable housing.
You know you guys did.
I was there at that councilmeeting when I voted.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (36:13):
Yeah , you guys voted on.
I was there at that councilmeeting.
Christine Zito (36:15):
When you guys voted I was all like, yes, is it
starting to move that way whereI can actually go and move out
of my apartment that I'm in nowand actually go to another
apartment and actually afford it?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (36:27):
Well , it depends on income, the
affordable housing component.
For true affordable housing.
It has a three-tier level, soto qualify for it you would have
to be fairly low income andlikely.
I don't think that you wouldqualify oh man.
Christine Zito (36:50):
I want the penthouse on top for the
40-yougal car price.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (36:57):
Yeah , but it's going to, I think,
bring in a more well-roundedcity, which I think is the goal.
The fight against it was that itwould bring unhoused plus if
they got $300 a month, right, Idon't, of course, we're not
gonna know until it happens,right, but I think that the goal
(37:23):
of the state is to have morehousing and you know this is
what I have to say, since we'retalking about just different
energies is I don't believe that, even people that I disagree
with or that I've met here orother cities, nobody's evil,
evil elected officials, wherethey're truly evil, I think is
(37:45):
very rare.
I do think that when they have alofty goal, the logistics and
the consequences are very, verydifficult.
So, for example, when we haveaffordable housing, for example,
with all the laws that arepassed, many of them eliminate
(38:08):
local control, and so, ineliminating local control, it
makes it that we have to almostbe a rubber stamp when it comes
to housing, and that's verydangerous, because a city
traditionally should have areaswhere they have apartments and
condos, more dense housing, andthen you're going to have single
(38:32):
family residences where there'sanother group of housing, right
, and then you're going to havesingle family residences where
there's another group of housing, but, for example, based upon
you know, for example, we usedto have I think it's Coco's on
Michelinda and Colorado.
Christine Zito (38:46):
Boulevard.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (38:49):
What about if they suddenly wanted
to put a multi-story as high asyou want in the sky, housing no
ceiling limits, no parkingrestrictions, and the city
council has to rubber stamp it?
We haven't seen it, but thereality is those are the laws
that are being passed, so you'regoing to have essentially
(39:11):
single-family residences andthen you suddenly have this.
You know, people talk aboutmansions.
That would be more than amansion blocking out the sky.
You know, and that's whathappens when you relinquish
local control.
I believe that if they wantedto have more development, which
I understand more housing, moresupply, they should allow local
(39:34):
control, and when we don't do it, then they can sue us.
But when you have a citycouncil across Southern
California that are basicallysaying please allow us to serve
our residents, because we're onthe ground, we know what our
residents need.
We are staring at our city maps.
Christine Zito (39:55):
Is the state.
From what I understand, thestate is, didn't they?
And again, correct me if I'mwrong.
I just read this in thenewspaper.
Well, I actually read it on theinternet and everything on the
internet is true so.
California did put restrictions.
You guys have to have some typeof affordable housing, and how
do you guys regulate that?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (40:17):
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 ofCalifornia and say this is what
we're going to do.
And then they're going to comeback and they're going to say we
agree, we disagree, or we wouldagree if you would amend Right.
And so that, I think, isunderstandable, Because the
(40:41):
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 upwith the judge.
If you accept this housingquantity of homes or residences
that need to be built, then youneed to give us a plan.
(41:02):
So if a developer comes up toyou, you will approve that plan.
That actually makes total sense.
Christine Zito (41:08):
Well, how many more people can you fit in
Arcadia?
Just this morning I heard fromSuperintendent Dave David Dr V.
9,000 kids in the Arcadiaschool district started school
today.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (41:24):
Yeah .
Christine Zito (41:25):
I mean wow, 9,000.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (41:27):
Yeah .
Christine Zito (41:28):
How many more people can we fit in Arcadia?
I mean, is there a limit, isthere a law, or is the state
saying you just have to put allthese people somewhere?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (41:38):
Well , I believe that the 3,000 goal
that we have residences in thecity of Arcadia, if it's built
well, can be developed indowntown Arcadia built well can
(42:02):
be developed in downtown arcadia, as well as the las tunas live
oak corridor.
Yes, okay, right, and so Ibelieve if we do that and we
develop, then it will create avibrant area.
Christine Zito (42:10):
Well, yeah, pretty soon we're going to be
building apartments above theshops of Santa.
City Councilman Paul P. C (42:18):
Anita , that's what people have been
talking about.
Christine Zito (42:28):
And laws were passed to say that if you have
commercial businesses on theground 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. Ch (42:33):
They do.
It's a very mixed use.
I mean, you know everybodyacross the world does mix use,
apart from really SouthernCalifornia, right.
Because our land is so spreadout, 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 (42:53):
Yes, right.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (42:53):
And so again.
Arcadia has always been abouthousing rights, meaning that our
property rights are valuableand don't affect our property
rights, and so I believe thatthat's a good, correct view,
with obviously some gentlepushbacks back and forth.
(43:14):
But now, with the state and therules that are coming down,
with people that don't live inour community, that literally
would just desire to live anddie in Sacramento to have power
which I totally understand, butkeep it there.
Totally understand, but keep itthere when you're telling us us
(43:47):
whether it's Monrovia, arcadia,any of our cities that I don't
care what you think Like housingis the most critical, so you
can build it up to the sky.
You can fill 3,000 units up tothe sky.
That's the rule.
That's an extreme statement,it's not true.
Christine Zito (44:00):
I hope we don't see that type of sky rise of
apartments here in Arcadia.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (44:08):
Do you think it's going to?
I do.
If we do not have the people inSacramento, it doesn't matter
which party you belong to thatdoesn't understand property
rights.
Christine Zito (44:22):
Do we need to be careful who we're voting into
Sacramento here on the localarea?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng (44:27):
I think so.
I mean we have a super majority.
We talk about Congress rightwhere it's Republican,
Republican, Republican, but thereality is in California we have
Democrat, Democrat, Democrat,but it's not just right on the
right, on a 5049, you know, ifsomeone's sick then the vote
(44:50):
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, isthat I've enjoyed being on city
council because many times I'veliterally just been three, two,
two, three, literally back andforth.
That is where incrementalmovement occurs, and I
(45:13):
understand that people say youhave to have political strength
and political will, which Iunderstand what that statement
means.
It means that when you're inthe majority, you crush the
other side yes, yeah but.
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 (45:33):
well, it doesn't it does.
Oh my gosh, now you're going toget me on a song, Okay, well,
yeah, I agree with that.
I'm just going to say it likethat, just from my experience I
was.
I wanted to talk to you aboutADUs, but I will save that for
another time.
I do want to get to questions Igot from Facebook and my email.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (45:51):
Okay , yeah, all right, so okay
here's one from Kevin.
Christine Zito (45:59):
I am not going to say any last names and again
I want to say to everybody I'monly going to ask the questions
that are relevant to the issueshere in the city of Arcadia, or
comments within the city of.
Arcadia.
Okay, so here's one from Kevin.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (46:07):
Sure .
Christine Zito (46:07):
When are we going to reopen Wilderness Park?
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (46:10):
We would love to All right.
Christine Zito (46:13):
I mean, I ride my bike up there.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (46:15):
The problem is that we have other
agencies that come before us.
Look when Wilderness Park, whenthe rains came, the council was
very good about going to seewhat was there and we're talking
about 20 feet of mud.
(46:35):
We're talking about the museumthat is covered in mud there's a
museum up there.
A lot of people don't reallyknow Wilderness Park unless you
stumble across it or you're partof the Boy Scouts, girl Scouts,
but it's not anywhere nearwhere it can be safe.
So when other agencies that areabove us come in, the rule is
(46:58):
you can't come in until we'redone, and so, unfortunately,
we're in a situation wherethey're still hauling out the
mud.
If you go which I've gone againthere's a huge conveyor belt
where mud is traveling andtrying to get out but can't even
get in.
Even the bridge, uh, is youcan't cross in safely across a
(47:21):
bridge.
Christine Zito (47:21):
so you, you go up yeah, you know, yeah, you go
up, you go down and so eventhere's a last bridge, that's
not even safe, and so so are welooking at a couple of years?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng (47:34):
I just don't know I think it's
going to be within the next twoyears, if there are not more
rain.
Christine Zito (47:39):
Oh, okay.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (47:40):
And people up north love Wilderness
Park because nobody reallyknows it unless you live in the
city.
Arcadia is so unique in thesense that you can have
literally big bear-like, bigbear-like living, big bear, like
, big bear like living, big bearlike feeling, and three minutes
later you're at the mall.
(48:01):
I know three minutes.
Christine Zito (48:02):
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'slistening to this, okay.
Well, linus Park will be opensoon, so all right, so already.
There are some questions herewe already addressed.
One of them is Oris wanted toknow about the change of price
(48:23):
in rent.
Okay, so does the city ofArcadia have any control of rent
control and how high a landlordor property management can
raise the rent here in the cityof Arcadia?
No, or property management canraise the rent here in the city
of Arcadia.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (48:35):
No , but the law is that, look,
cities can create their own rentcontrol.
But you also have to realizethe 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 freemarket, when I was young and I
was growing up in America, theyalways talked about free market.
(48:58):
They said that's what makesAmerica great, right?
Yes?
Christine Zito (49:03):
Except for high rent.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (49:04):
Yeah , you know when government comes
in.
Well, you know.
You know you didn't bring upthis issue, but it is very
interesting.
You know, on council, yes, I'mthe most conservative, but I am
Asian, and Asian people,particularly Chinese people,
(49:24):
particularly Chinese people fromChina, although I'm not are
warning Americans.
They have seen this occur intheir country, where government
becomes bigger and bigger andbigger and the only thing that's
left is government and bigbusiness.
The Chinese people are warningAmericans that we have to be
(49:48):
careful is that if every singleday the government gets bigger,
every single day, you'redependent on less free market,
more government control, thereis going to be a line that you
cannot cross, which usually areso dependent on the government
(50:08):
for survival or big businesseslike Amazon.
Everybody else is gone.
Christine Zito (50:15):
Well, doesn't China do they have a free market
.
City Councilman Paul P. (50:19):
That's when everything began to boom,
when they decided to go towardfree market.
You know, when I first went toChina and I was very young there
was a lady.
I saw her.
She was sweeping the floor, butshe's sweeping where there's no
dust.
And the question I finallyasked her is I didn't know if
(50:45):
she was crazy.
You know what I mean.
But the thing is I said butthere's no dust there.
She said but you don'tunderstand.
I need government.
If I don't sweep and act likethere's dust there and I stop, I
don't have anywhere to go.
Christine Zito (51:04):
Oh well, that's interesting.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (51:07):
And so that's the question that we
have is what has been morebeneficial for America?
Look, when I grew up in the 80sand 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 toVegas and everybody in Vegas
(51:28):
they have those eyes and youthink, oh, those are just
gambler eyes.
They're just excited.
They talk about their state.
They love everything that'sgoing on.
They want to tell you whatthey're doing on the weekend In
2025, as a Californian, are youwaking up, excited about the
state?
Are you like man, what's goingon Doesn't matter what party you
(51:52):
are.
We are tired.
We are tired because the, thegovernment has gotten too big,
and and and we have to askourselves, in such a big
government situation which I'mnot saying government should not
be involved but the question iswhat's happening to our free
(52:12):
market?
Look, going back earlier towhat we talked about, if we, as
a city council, are just rubberstamping, rubber stamping, isn't
that the epitome of just biggovernment, where we can't be
able to say I don't know aboutbuilding 400 condos, what about
(52:36):
the traffic?
What about the parking?
What about the electricity?
No, I'm sorry, you just have torubber stamp it.
That's the concern that we have.
We need to ensure that.
We need to preserve our freemarket, because the preservation
our free market, because youknow the preservation of free
market, you know who it benefits.
(52:57):
Small business when I grew upin California, it was all about
small business, all about smallbusiness.
I understand that the internethad not been developed or maybe
it was, but we didn't know aboutit.
But that's a huge concernthat's going to impact all of us
.
Christine Zito (53:18):
I think so too, and I think with the rise of
artificial intelligence, the waytechnology is moving I think
it's we're going to see a lot ofdifference in how people
approach, approach job market,the housing market, gosh, you
know, there are so many things Iwant to talk to you about.
(53:39):
There's only one small thingthat I want to bring up, because
when I went on Facebook and theemails that I've gotten and the
responses I got from Facebookand I know I'm jumping around
without ending a conversationhere or different subjects- it's
okay.
Is one of the.
I didn't expect this, but itwas brought up the whole thing
(54:00):
about the San Gabriel Chamber ofCommerce.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (54:04):
Sure .
Christine Zito (54:04):
And that whole situation, all the fallout of
that chamber, and the questionwas to ask you about it and the
money question was to ask youabout it and and you know the
money that was involved in.
You know, I'm gonna let youaddress that issue about why
(54:26):
people are looking to you, asthat's why the san Gabriel
Chamber of Commerce dissolved.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (54:37):
Yeah , I was a board member.
Well, when it dissolved I wasnot a board member, but when I
was a board member.
First of all, the San GabrielChamber of Commerce is something
that really came out of theground again through a person by
the name of Sandy Roscoe, rudyKasuma, and she always mentions
(55:00):
somebody else, but I always kindof don't know whether that
person was part of that kind ofrestarting of that energy, and
what ended up happening is thatthere was a vendor that we used
consistently, that was a boardmember and eventually there was
(55:23):
a reconciliation issue where theboard member wasn't reconciling
his services with the Chamberof Commerce.
Half of the board felt at thattime that it was possibly an
embezzlement issue.
The other half of the boardobviously said it was not right,
(55:45):
that this is a vendor thatwe've always used.
He's part of the foundation ofour chamber and there was
massive infighting that ended upoccurring, which was the first
time, at least being part of theSan Gabriel Chamber of Commerce
as well as being part of theboard that I could see.
So what I pushed and what I doon council as well is when I see
(56:09):
kind of two warring factions ishow can we be able to move the
ball forward see kind of twowarring factions is how can we
be able to move the ball forward?
My desire at the time was for itnot to become public, for it to
be resolved internally in-house, and for us to kind of continue
(56:29):
that vibe and that energy,because the people that wanted
to essentially say it wasn't anissue was to kind of close the
financial records, don't evenworry about it, it'll, it's fine
.
But the other side was we haveto sue, we have to publicize, we
have to get down to the bottomof it.
And so again, my desire was tokind of move it forward by not
(56:52):
airing out the dirty laundry.
But what ended up happening was, you know, the board members
that didn't want thereconciliation resigned.
They ended up going to citycouncil saying how bad the
Chamber of Commerce was.
My part, I think, was justwanting not to.
(57:12):
I think was just wanting not tomake it so bad.
We ended up not really meeting.
The board of directors weren'tmeeting consistently at that
time.
It was difficult.
It was during COVID and allthat type of you know during
that time as well and so itcouldn't.
it couldn't ultimately moveforward because a lot of the
(57:34):
board excuse me, the San GabrielChamber essentially was
fiscally.
They needed support, like manychambers, not just San Gabriel.
But I think that that's in partwhat led to kind of the
dissolution.
It ended up having no supportfrom city council or support
(57:57):
with conditions that wereunacceptable to the board.
Half of the board had left,another part of the board were
still looking at we got to takethis person out or that person
out.
How could this happen?
You know it wasn't there whenit dissolved because you know my
term was already up, it wasclose to being up and I think it
(58:17):
dissolved like maybe half ayear or a year later.
Christine Zito (58:21):
Yeah, it was just like this whole money thing
too.
You weren't involved in any ofthe money or anything that.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (58:28):
No , I think that's kind of been a
statement that's been put on meTo the extent money was involved
.
It's basically should we goafter 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 toair out things that most people
(58:55):
don't understand.
It's going to become asoundbite issue.
It's going to embarrass people,you know, particularly with
people that have been on theboard, for I mean, you know
we're talking about decades now.
We're not talking about youknow, kind of a fly-by-night
person talking about you know,kind of a fly-by-night person.
(59:17):
I still believe that it was adark time for for the chamber.
I mean, it's obviously beendisbanded.
I hope it could come backtogether again.
Christine Zito (59:23):
It was a dark time, you know, in the city of
San Gabriel because it becamevery, it became a real political
football yes, I, yeah, well,thank you for addressing that
and, um gosh, we talked a longtime, so, which was great, it
was a.
It was a great conversation.
Thank you so much for beinghere and thank you for your
story imagine imagine, I do, Ido like that and I, I do like
(59:48):
the fact that you do really careabout the city of arcadia no,
no, that's the song.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (59:53):
Oh , Not specifically Beatles,
right, yeah, I was going to sayit's John Lennon.
John.
Christine Zito (59:59):
Lennon.
Okay, now you got me thinkingof the Beatles again.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (01:00:04):
Good , that's all that matters.
Christine Zito (01:00:06):
One of my favorite songs is hey Jude.
I love that song.
City Councilman Paul P. (01:00:09):
That's a very sweet song too.
Christine Zito (01:00:10):
I love that song and here Comes the Sun.
That's probably my mostfavorite.
City Councilman Paul P. (01:00:13):
That's a very good song too, that's
probably my most favorite.
Christine Zito (01:00:16):
Here Comes the Sun, so thank you so so much.
City Councilman Paul P. C (01:00:20):
Thank you.
Thank you for allowing me to behere.
Christine Zito (01:00:22):
Oh, you're going to come back.
We have other things.
I mean look at all this, lookat this, look at all these
things.
So thank you so much forlistening.
I just want to thank oursponsors again Longo Toyota in
El Monte, longo Toyota Lexus inEl Monte, star 7 Financial
Services with Francine Chu,santa Anita Park, the Lemuridian
(01:00:48):
Hotel in Arcadia and PasadenaLook to ArcadiaFYIcom.
I have some events on therethat you can look at that are
coming up in the month ofSeptember and October Some
really great stuff going on atthe Arboretum, great stuff going
on with the city of Arcadia.
And until next time, be blessedand make it a great day.
Hello and welcome back to Arcadia.
Fyi, I'm Christine Zito, yourhost of this wonderful show.
I love this show and I thankyou for making it a success.
I had no idea it'd be thisgreat.
So thank you to those that arelistening, to those that are
listening as we focus.
(00:25):
We're going to be focused oncommunity Today.
I have a great show for you.
Okay, focusing on the city ofArcadia.
I was born in well, I was bornin Hollywood, I was born a star.
Then I moved to Arcadia andI've lived here.
And then I moved to Walnut andmy dad.
He actually grew up here andlived here all his life until he
went home to Jesus.
And, furthermore, we're goingto be talking about activities
(00:48):
when they come up outside thecity, because we're all one big,
happy family here in the SanGabriel Valley and I want to
invite other activities to comein.
I want to thank our sponsorsLongo Toyota Lexus in El Monte.
Say hi to Mark and Brooke NotMark, mike and Brooke.
(01:08):
They are great people.
I keep telling you to go outthere and visit, because they do
more than just sell cars.
Star 7 Financial with FrancineChu, one of the best financial
advisors here in the city ofArcadia, the Santa Anita Park.
Pete's going to be coming in, Ithink, at the end of september,
beginning of october, right inthere, to talk about some of the
(01:29):
things that are happening atthe racetrack, the limeridian
hotel in arcadia and pasadena.
We'll be talking with gab.
We're going to actually do areally cool tour of the hotel so
you can see for yourself.
All right, and saying all ofthat I have sitting in front of
me.
If if you're watching onYouTube, you will see this great
(01:49):
man here.
He came to America to live theAmerican dream, but of course it
did not come without struggles.
Okay, every dream has astruggle.
Today he's the managing partnerat the law offices of Paul P
Cheng Associates, also known asPPRC Law.
He is a doctor and he is one ofour councilmen on the city
(02:15):
council here in the city ofArcadia.
Councilman Paul Cheng, welcometo the show, thank you.
I am so happy that you're here.
All right, let's get to knowyou a little bit.
From what I understand, youcame to America in the 70s.
City Councilman Paul P. (02:30):
Correct December 25th 1977.
Christine Zito (02:34):
You were a gift.
City Councilman Paul P. (02:37):
America was a gift for my family.
I was a baby, obviously, but myfamily still talks about eating
their first Christmas dinner onan airplane and coming to
America.
Christine Zito (02:48):
Well, tell me a little bit about your parents.
They said that I was reading alittle bit about missionaries.
I guess some missionarieshelped you, helped your family,
the military.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (03:00):
Yeah .
So you know, one of theblessings that we have about
being across the world is havingmissionaries as well as service
members go across the world.
And you know I you know as akid you ask your father random
statements and I remember I wasa kid, I was like you know
(03:22):
when's the first time you saw awhite person?
That's what you say when you'rea kid, right unfiltered.
And he said well, you know, Iwas in China and a Catholic
father came and he said come toAmerica.
And so you know, we're soblessed as immigrants, as Asian
(03:44):
Americans, because many of thereasons why we came for those
that didn't have TV was having amissionary or having a US
service member hugging us,taking care of us, not knowing
us.
Christine Zito (04:02):
And this is outside of America.
City Councilman Paul P. (04:04):
Outside of America.
The story of the Asian Americanimmigrant is one where we
didn't know America, but we knewthat there was a country that
wanted immigrants to come, thattold us that we had value.
Yeah.
Christine Zito (04:24):
You know how do you, as an immigrant, see the
American dream?
What does that mean to you?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (04:33):
Well , you know, when I first came to
America, you know Vietnam Warwas, depending on who you talk
to, ending or ended.
Obviously, from the historybooks it continued quite a bit,
but I grew up in Orange Countyand Orange County was a place
where there were very few Asianpeople.
So when I was growing up in theStates, there was kind of this
(04:56):
struggle where people thatdidn't look like you would tell
you that you couldn't walk onthe same street sidewalk as them
, while at the same time yourparents were working very hard
and your best friends were ofthe same color, of people that
told you to get off the streetsand so, um, you know, as a young
(05:17):
, um, american really, thatdidn't look like other people,
it was somewhat of a struggle.
But I can be able to say thatthe first tuna melt I ever had
on a muffin was with someonethat didn't look like me.
(05:38):
You know, I remember, you know,my neighbor, seeing him throw a
softball with his daughter, dayafter day after day, seeing a
father committed it was not myfather, because he was working
all the time.
Christine Zito (05:57):
What did your father do, real fast.
City Councilman Paul P. C (05:59):
There were a lot of businesses when
we first came to the States.
There were many, many differentbusinesses.
The one I remember was he had amotel.
We would go there.
Uh, he helped develop valleyboulevard when in in the san
gabriel rosemead area, when itwas just dirt, um, so I saw him
there.
(06:19):
Yeah, you know, I I miss him alot 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 bornin 1930.
And so, yeah, Is your?
Christine Zito (06:36):
is your mom still walking with us?
City Councilman Paul P. Che (06:39):
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 thatmy mom is, you know, still able
to talk to me, but she'sdefinitely getting to a point
(06:59):
now where her, her body iscatching up with her.
She was such a huge fire whenshe was young, kind of that
immigrant mom, scary, and to seeher now just a fraction of what
I remember her is.
Christine Zito (07:19):
It's tough and you're married.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng (07:21):
I am.
Christine Zito (07:22):
How many years?
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (07:24):
So , yeah, we kind of debate.
So it was April 12, 2012, whenI went to the courthouse to get
married, but we got ourdocumentation stamped Friday,
april 13th, and so it was.
Christine Zito (07:47):
Nothing scary yeah we always laugh about that.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (07:50):
We always laugh about that in
terms of just the dates and thetimes and, oh, you know, across
any country.
These numbers are all bad.
Christine Zito (07:59):
How did you meet your wife?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (08:01):
Yeah , so she is.
Christine Zito (08:02):
And what's her name?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (08:03):
Aini .
Christine Zito (08:04):
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. Ch (08:07):
Yeah , we were introduced by.
You know a friend, this personnamed Andrew, who's always
linking up different people, andyeah, she works as a news
anchor at one of the Chinesetelevision stations.
Yeah, that's how I met her.
Christine Zito (08:26):
So you get to hide behind a star, huh.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng (08:28):
I know I know A lot of people
don't realize that she's muchmore famous.
If being famous on city councilcan be called famous, but she's
much more famous than I am.
So when she broadcasts, shebroadcasts in North and South
America, the Western Hemisphere,so you'll have millions of
people watching her.
Christine Zito (08:48):
Was it love at first sight when?
City Councilman Paul P. Che (08:49):
you saw her?
Christine Zito (08:50):
walk.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (08:52):
No , no, it's funny because, you
know, I did see somebody.
She was super pretty, superbeautiful.
She grew up in Japan, she'sfrom China, grew up in Japan, so
she's not outside of her job,this bubbly person, and I
thought it was her, but thenwhen she got done up as kind of
the news anchor, that's when shecame and I was like, oh no, I
don't, you know, because shelooks so much older than I was,
(09:13):
she's a lot younger than I amand I was like who is this
person?
But yeah, we ended up justcontinuing to talk, yeah, to
talk.
Yeah, she's been such ablessing in my life.
Christine Zito (09:29):
I really thank God that I'm allowed to be with
her.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (09:31):
She allows me to be with her.
She's a very sweet lady, yeah,yeah, yeah, she definitely.
You know, because she's sointroverted, people don't
realize at home we don't reallytalk, and so she speaks more
when she's trying to be a brightperson with me, but, yeah, we
don't really talk.
And so she speaks more whenshe's trying to be a bright
person with me, but, yeah, wedon't really have that much
conversation.
(09:51):
She's very introverted, veryquiet.
Christine Zito (09:53):
So what do you guys do?
Just stare at each other overdinner and then, read each
other's minds.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (10:00):
You know there have been many.
There have been many days likethat.
Yeah, and it's not a negativething, it's just her personality
is.
She's just very quiet, shedoesn't like to talk.
Christine Zito (10:12):
Wait, wait, wait .
You got a woman that's quietand she listens and you do all
the talking.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (10:17):
Okay , this is really backwards.
Christine Zito (10:19):
Councilman Ball.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (10:21):
No , she's just very, you know,
because typically, like couples,they like to gossip about
people, they like to just chatand so we won't be.
You know, she doesn't gossipabout people.
So usually when she speaks I'mvery attentive because it's
pretty serious and I think it'sher upbringing of in Japan.
(10:45):
You don't want to impact otherpeople's lives, which includes
me, so if she's speaking, ittypically means that it's a
pretty serious issue and shewouldn't bring it up unless she
could resolve it.
Christine Zito (10:59):
That's a very wise lady.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (11:01):
Yeah , maybe.
Christine Zito (11:02):
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. Ch (11:08):
I'll just say that, no, no, me too I
talk a lot I love it.
Christine Zito (11:13):
Well, do you have any kids, do you guys?
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (11:15):
No kids, no kids.
We did have a baby once andunfortunately we lost our child.
Christine Zito (11:25):
I am so sorry, I did not know that.
Yeah yeah.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (11:28):
So , um, you know, kind of changed
our relationship.
Obviously, in many ways Ididn't realize, you know, at
least as a guy you know, youdon't realize how these things
could have such a deep traumaand an impact, um, on people.
Christine Zito (11:43):
Yeah.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (11:43):
Yeah , but yeah okay.
Christine Zito (11:47):
Yeah, well, I didn't know that.
Okay, let's get into.
Sure, what are you mostpassionate about here in the
city of Arcadia?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (11:59):
Yeah , most passionate.
There's just going to beseveral things.
I believe that we have tosupport 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
(12:27):
expenses are our staff.
But at the same time, you kindof wonder, you know, are we a
destination city or are we atransition city?
We're a destination city.
People save and they work threeto four jobs to come into the
city of Arcadia.
And the question is why?
And ultimately it's the staffthat responds to emails quickly.
(12:58):
You know they have an internalrequirement internal If there's
an email, it doesn't matter.
If you're off, it's 15 minutesresponse.
So I had a staff member tell meshe was at the ocean and she
couldn't even keep her eyes onher kids that are in the ocean
because she needs to make sureshe's responding to emails.
And so the question is if youhave staff that have such a high
(13:18):
standard and you have ourresidents that come into our
city that have an equally highstandard, and you begin to ask
yourself you know, what is itthat makes Arcadia so much
different than other cities?
It's really our city staff thatmake it happen.
I mean, if you call 911, youknow the goal is two minutes.
(13:42):
Five minutes is unacceptable,unacceptable.
So I mean if you're in othercities and you call 911 for a
car accident, you're not goingto get a response.
You may get an email, a textmessage or no response at all.
Christine Zito (14:01):
Well, okay, so now that you brought up dialing
911, I think most, I think, fromwhat I understand you can
correct me if I'm wrong thatmost of the 911 calls are
basically for the homeless.
So how does the city counciladdress that, or is that a
misunderstanding?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (14:21):
Yeah , so the 911 calls are going to
be distributed across manydifferent issues, from emergency
and non-emergency, andeverybody has dealt with
homelessness and focused onhomelessness in a vastly
different way.
But we've moved the ballforward, right, yeah?
And so one of the things that Idesired to do was to retain the
(14:47):
best and to recruit the best.
You know, we used to have eightpolice officers throughout the
city.
You had five for each district,sometimes one floater car,
sometimes up to three floatercars, some dealing with traffic.
Now we could be down to aslittle as four.
Christine Zito (15:09):
For each district.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (15:10):
For across the city.
Christine Zito (15:11):
Oh wow, so how you guys are handling safety.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (15:15):
So dealing with homelessness is
not as easy when you aren't ableto retain and recruit, when you
have, essentially, departmentturnover, that is very
significant, and so homelessnessis a complicated issue.
There is not one council memberzero in my opinion that says you
(15:38):
know what.
We're okay with homelessness,we would just love homeless
people to be walking around andto essentially many of them that
have mental health issues to bewalking around the city.
I went to the gas station so Iwas waiting for you and I said,
oh, you know, I'm just gonna putin gas, because I thought about
my wife.
My wife would never allow gasto get into the little red thing
(16:01):
that ends up popping up.
So I'm like, okay, in homage tomy wife, I'm gonna go put in
gas half, you know half tank ofgas.
And so I was there andessentially I saw homeless
people congregated at that gasstation.
That didn't feel good at all,because outside of this kind of
downtown Arcadia area you don'treally see that.
(16:22):
I mean, the reality is they arecongregated near this transit
stop and they float down fromtransit.
Christine Zito (16:28):
It's because of the metro.
That's correct, they come downhere and I'm in downtown Arcadia
and I'm walking distance and Idon't walk to work as much just
because of what you just said,and it's unfortunate.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (16:39):
Look , we have to be very frank.
Is that the definition ofhomelessness, or the definition
of having unhoused, or howeveryou want to say it?
In our city?
It is not acceptable.
It doesn't matter that thenumbers have fallen, it doesn't
(16:59):
matter that, you know, used tobe at three digits, now it's at
two digits and at times, in apoint in time count it's 36.
But then when it goes to LACounty and comes back, it's 100.
It doesn't matter, right.
What matters is can we be ableto move the ball forward about
the individuals that are?
Christine Zito (17:18):
here Can we.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (17:19):
We can.
We have.
Actually, if you go to our citystaff and you have real
authentic, non-soundbiteconversations with them, with
them we actually have 99% doing99% more than other cities.
(17:40):
See, what had happened was in2021, there was a big fight over
are we going to build sheltersin our city?
Christine Zito (17:51):
Yes.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (17:56):
And so, publicly, part of the city
council or council was sayingshelters are to help them, but
in study sessions that peopledon't go to, that are many times
not recorded but are public,they were saying if we build
shelters, we can eject them, wecould run them out of our city.
And that was the goal.
Now, whether we are building itout of kindness or whether we
(18:18):
are building it because we seekto eject them from our city and
push them to other cities, thegoal is Arcadians are not okay
with the unhoused and thehomeless within our city.
Christine Zito (18:33):
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 togive assistance to the homeless.
I have learned from just beingin my career being in radio for
many, many, many years a talkshow producer was that
(18:54):
homelessness it's a funny issue.
I have a heart for them.
Sometimes I just don't knowwhat to do because some of them
are there not by choice andthose are the ones that want
help.
And then you've got those thatdon't want the help.
They just want to be homeless.
Then you have those with themental issues.
So with the sheltering, that'sinteresting.
(19:17):
I've never heard that aspect,that someone would build housing
just to eject them.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (19:23):
Yeah , so the rule is that if you
have a at that time, if you havea specific amount of housing
some council members werelooking at 20, Some council
members were looking at 100.
This very vague kind of movingtarget that was occurring.
If they didn't go into ashelter, you could eject them,
you could arrest them.
Christine Zito (19:43):
Oh, I see those are the people that didn't want
the shelter.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (19:47):
And maybe I'm not being clear.
Christine Zito (19:49):
When.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng (19:49):
I use the word ejectment, I'm
using the word arrest, right, soif they don't go into a shelter
, you can arrest them.
Okay, right.
And so the people that weresupporting shelters in part, it
was kind of a multi-pronged typeof statement, which is we're
really helping them, wink wink,they're not going to be in our
(20:12):
city if they don't get into ashelter.
Wink wink, they're not going tobe in our city if they don't
get into a shelter.
Wink, wink.
And so the wink wink that I sawand that I see on city councils
or really any type of body, isthat every position is
multifaceted, with layers ofpositions within them, with
(20:32):
layers of positions within them,and the questions that we need
to do as a city council iswhether we agree with them,
whether we agree with ourselvesor not.
How do we move the ball forward?
Christine Zito (20:45):
Well, I think too, with the shelters I was
conflicted.
I liked them because it gavehelp, but also, too, it would
bring more people in, morehomeless people in, and then it
became like a safety issue.
So I think there was aconversation amongst residents
about that and then it justended up falling off.
(21:09):
Was it rejected altogether?
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (21:12):
No .
So in 2021, what I did is Ipresented to the city council
what's considered a five-pointplan, which formed the
foundation, in some ways, of ourhomeless plan for the city,
which is to get an authenticcount, which is to see if we can
(21:34):
be able to work with othercities and, fortunately, at that
time, our council supported itand it was, you know, every
council member supported it andthat's what I've tried to do.
Being on city council is to tryto incrementally move things
forward.
I understand from residentsthat may not be at city council
(21:58):
all the time, watching everymeeting, reading every staff
report, that it's not exciting,right?
It's not exciting becauseessentially they want to wake up
and see no homeless in our area, which I understand.
But we were able, from the fivepoint plan, to hire seven day a
(22:23):
week staff members that can beable to go out and work with
homeless people that wantshelters, that want to be in
shelters.
And half of the people thatwe've met have wanted it.
Another reason why I presentedthat issue and to kind of say,
hey, look, sheltering, whetherit's for one purpose or another
(22:47):
purpose, instead of saying thatyou're just a bad person for
wanting sheltering for whateverreason and creating kind of an
enemy, creating a devil, is tobe able to say your ideas aren't
bad ideas, it's an idea thatmaybe we can look at for the
future.
And that's what I've tried todo.
(23:10):
You know I may not be good atit, but look, I'm in a
profession Earlier you said Iwas a physician.
You know I'm an attorney, butI've, I've, I've.
I am in a profession where youwant to create enemy, you want
to create evil.
On the other side.
You know, person even has onedegree of separation from you.
(23:33):
They are not wrong, but I'mgoing to burn down your house
and people take that energy andthey bring it on city council.
And I've realized even in thepractice of law it does not work
.
Screaming and yelling atsomebody and calling them stupid
and calling them names may bethe correct soundbite but it
(23:55):
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, butyou're not.
You're not.
(24:18):
You may feel like it, butyou're not.
And if you can't count to threeand understand that one day
you're not going to be in thethree, then what you need to do
is to be gracious and kind toeveryone on city council and
even when you disagree withsomeone, even when it's in your
eyes like you can see me as I'mspeaking I have all this
(24:38):
historical data that makes memad.
You need to be calm.
Christine Zito (24:44):
How do you handle this is a question for me
how do you handle thedissension among the city
council today, with all thedifferent personalities and then
some, you know I mean, how doyou you deal with the discord?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (25:04):
well , what I try to do is I'm always
early to council meetings and Idon't do it for them, I do it
for is.
I go up to each chair.
I'm not a religious person butI grew up in a religious family.
I pray over each chair.
I ask God to please give themwisdom.
I do it more for me is becauseif I pray for somebody then I'm
(25:26):
invested at least in theirsuccess.
That I've touched the chair,I've raised my hand, I prayed
for them and then I playedBeatles music.
So if you come to city councilmeeting, to my understanding I'm
the first person that hasplayed great music throughout
(25:47):
the chamber and I do it so thatthere's a vibe and an energy of
excitement and thoughtfulnessfrom different music genres.
But you know, really kind ofthat Beatle-esque exciting.
But you know every record theyhave is a different vibe and
(26:07):
energy, but all very deep.
Christine Zito (26:09):
Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to think Prayer and the
Beatles song Hard stay night,drive my car.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (26:17):
Now I'm trying to think Prayer and
the Beatles song Hard stay night, Drive my car.
Now I have to ask you what isyour favorite.
What is your favorite?
Christine Zito (26:23):
Okay, go ahead, Go ahead.
I'm sorry, but I have to saythat is so cool.
I don't even have the words tosay how sweet that is that you
pray over each of those prayers.
City Councilman Paul (26:33):
Councilman is to say how sweet that is
that you pray over each of thoseprayers.
Council Member.
Well, I think I have to,because sometimes the statements
that are made are through a lotof pain.
Look, it's kind of odd, is thatas soon as the shining lights
occur council meetings I thinkwe have maybe 100 people
(26:58):
watching it.
Maybe it'll get redistributedand maybe my wife will watch it
another 50 times, so it'll be150 and that's it.
But for whatever reason, whenthe lights begin to shine, there
is so much pressure that endsup occurring and you want to say
the right things and you wantto do the right things, that I
(27:22):
think what ends up happening isyou 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 yousurvived as a child, and many
times you were able to conquersomething by standing up for
(27:43):
what you believe is against anevil person, and so you say
things that are very harsh, butunfortunately, when that ends up
occurring is those words cannotbe taken back.
As a child, you may havesurvived it, but as an adult,
you're constantly reminded man,I shouldn't have said that, I
(28:06):
shouldn't have done that youknow I shouldn't have said that.
You know this person has, youknow is beholden to another
person.
You know I shouldn't say thatthey're ridiculous or they're
stupid.
You know I shouldn't poke attheir family.
These are all things that,fortunately, when I got on
(28:27):
council, I took the advice of mycity manager very, very
seriously, because I didn't knowI was outside of my element and
you know some people don't knowDominic.
He's like this 6'4", you know,super good looking guy, very
well spoken.
So he's not just good lookingbut very well spoken.
Right, he has that almostYoda-esque type of feeling where
(28:50):
, at least for a moment, you'regoing to take what he says
extremely seriously.
But I took his worldview andhis thought and his experience
being that he's amulti-generational city manager
His father was a city managerand he would explain yeah, from
(29:10):
his father's standpoint, hisbrother's a city manager.
Christine Zito (29:13):
Yeah, I was just going to say.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (29:14):
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'sabsolutely wrong, but he has the
historical data to be able tounderstand that.
(29:34):
You know, when you say thosethings, 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 werecursing at me.
I've had council members infront of city staff put their
(29:55):
finger in my face.
Call me the f-word.
You know all these reallyintense, you know feelings,
right, and the city manager,when I talk to him, has he
typically says, well, you can godown that route, but to what
end?
I mean, he doesn't say it, buthe's really asking you what is
(30:18):
the end goal?
And so I think what he's sayingis what do you really want?
What is it that you reallydon't want?
Add those together and say areyou really going to be saying
that?
Are you really going to bedoing that?
Right?
What is it that I want, forexample, with sheltering, what
(30:40):
do I really want?
Well, I want to endhomelessness period full stop.
Every council member, what isit that I really don't want.
I don't want this issue to bean issue that I can never talk
to another council member orcouncil members and then add it
together together and say areyou going to curse back, are you
going to point your finger intheir face back?
(31:01):
What point does it have forpeople that you know, for
example, well, people thatsupport me don't like certain
people.
Okay, so therefore, that's whatyou're going to do.
This is just an example.
Christine Zito (31:18):
Wow, that is, yeah, some deep stuff.
To see you emotionally involvedin who you are in the council
is pretty amazing, councilman,paul.
I mean because to bring up itis true I mean we're human
beings, sure, and we all have apast and to bring up
(31:40):
childhood-type struggles andthen to have that to be brought
up and remembered as being onthe city council or involved in
an emotional aspect of the citycouncil during the meetings,
that's pretty deep.
I mean.
That really puts you on acompletely different level, that
(32:01):
you really do feel you are afeeling man.
I mean that is my opinion.
I mean people might think,christine, you're really, but I
have to point that out.
And plus, for you to see thatyou're shadowing someone like I
love Dominic and I say that in away where I got to meet Dominic
(32:23):
before I knew he was citymanager and he was just a neat
guy, he was just a veryapproachable man.
And then when I met him at oneof the chamber events, I'm all
like, hey, wait a minute, you'recity manager and he was just a
humble man 70% of the time I'mall like, hey, who are you?
I mean you're city manager andhe was just humble man 70% of
the time he won't agree with me.
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng (32:40):
I mean, it takes phone calls, it
takes mentorship.
I mean you know, look, I'm.
You know.
You talked about being afeeling person.
I'm a human being too right, Imean you know, when someone says
something that's inappropriateor does things that I think are
truly unhinged, you know itmakes me want to be even more
(33:04):
unhinged, because in litigationsometimes it's just people.
You know who's going to topeach other, and for city council
it feels like that too.
Right Is that?
If you don't, if you're goingto mess with me, I'm really
going to take you out.
So therefore you got to beunder me.
(33:27):
But counting to three see, thisis so critical is that if your
goal is to count to three, thereare going to be times when
you're in the minority and youneed the support of the majority
and they can stop you at anytime.
It could be the greatest ideain the world, and Dominic
(33:48):
reminded me of that.
He said you know, being in themajority doesn't happen.
Throughout all of your councilI've been in the minority before
, so I can understand how thatfeels.
But I didn't understand that,because when you first get on
council, there's a wave ofexcitement and people that come
out of the woodworks and peoplethat didn't want to support you,
(34:10):
but now are your biggestsupporters and you're like, oh,
wow, and you think that you'resomeone special.
No, you're not supposed to bespecial.
You're supposed to actuallyblend into the background.
Your goal as a council member isto recognize and support the
people that make a hugedifference in our city city
(34:32):
staff, first responders, many ofour seniors that didn't walk
away from our city when thedemographic 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 whicheverybody wants to do, without
(34:55):
me, this city will burn down.
Basically, what you'rebasically saying is nobody else
matters but you, and that's sounfortunate because we do get
that energy on council and I'mnot saying that I've never
wanted to have that energy,because you see other council
members in other cities and themore they're you know,
(35:20):
outlandish, and the more thatthey get up and the more they
scream and the more they do allthat, they seem to have even
more support and they seem toget the most attention.
But what happens after theyleave?
Nobody remembers them.
Christine Zito (35:34):
What they remember are all of these old
battles and scars and they don'tknow where it started yeah, and
see, I would always think thatthe goal of any council of a
city, as they oversee the city,is the well-being of the
residents and those you knowwith us living here and we still
(35:58):
have some time I wanted one ofthe things I wanted to ask you
that is probably more my littlegem is the affordable housing.
Okay, affordable housing.
You know you guys did.
I was there at that councilmeeting when I voted.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (36:13):
Yeah , you guys voted on.
I was there at that councilmeeting.
Christine Zito (36:15):
When you guys voted I was all like, yes, is it
starting to move that way whereI can actually go and move out
of my apartment that I'm in nowand actually go to another
apartment and actually afford it?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (36:27):
Well , it depends on income, the
affordable housing component.
For true affordable housing.
It has a three-tier level, soto qualify for it you would have
to be fairly low income andlikely.
I don't think that you wouldqualify oh man.
Christine Zito (36:50):
I want the penthouse on top for the
40-yougal car price.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (36:57):
Yeah , but it's going to, I think,
bring in a more well-roundedcity, which I think is the goal.
The fight against it was that itwould bring unhoused plus if
they got $300 a month, right, Idon't, of course, we're not
gonna know until it happens,right, but I think that the goal
(37:23):
of the state is to have morehousing and you know this is
what I have to say, since we'retalking about just different
energies is I don't believe that, even people that I disagree
with or that I've met here orother cities, nobody's evil,
evil elected officials, wherethey're truly evil, I think is
(37:45):
very rare.
I do think that when they have alofty goal, the logistics and
the consequences are very, verydifficult.
So, for example, when we haveaffordable housing, for example,
with all the laws that arepassed, many of them eliminate
(38:08):
local control, and so, ineliminating local control, it
makes it that we have to almostbe a rubber stamp when it comes
to housing, and that's verydangerous, because a city
traditionally should have areaswhere they have apartments and
condos, more dense housing, andthen you're going to have single
(38:32):
family residences where there'sanother group of housing, right
, and then you're going to havesingle family residences where
there's another group of housing, but, for example, based upon
you know, for example, we usedto have I think it's Coco's on
Michelinda and Colorado.
Christine Zito (38:46):
Boulevard.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (38:49):
What about if they suddenly wanted
to put a multi-story as high asyou want in the sky, housing no
ceiling limits, no parkingrestrictions, and the city
council has to rubber stamp it?
We haven't seen it, but thereality is those are the laws
that are being passed, so you'regoing to have essentially
(39:11):
single-family residences andthen you suddenly have this.
You know, people talk aboutmansions.
That would be more than amansion blocking out the sky.
You know, and that's whathappens when you relinquish
local control.
I believe that if they wantedto have more development, which
I understand more housing, moresupply, they should allow local
(39:34):
control, and when we don't do it, then they can sue us.
But when you have a citycouncil across Southern
California that are basicallysaying please allow us to serve
our residents, because we're onthe ground, we know what our
residents need.
We are staring at our city maps.
Christine Zito (39:55):
Is the state.
From what I understand, thestate is, didn't they?
And again, correct me if I'mwrong.
I just read this in thenewspaper.
Well, I actually read it on theinternet and everything on the
internet is true so.
California did put restrictions.
You guys have to have some typeof affordable housing, and how
do you guys regulate that?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (40:17):
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 ofCalifornia and say this is what
we're going to do.
And then they're going to comeback and they're going to say we
agree, we disagree, or we wouldagree if you would amend Right.
And so that, I think, isunderstandable, Because the
(40:41):
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 upwith the judge.
If you accept this housingquantity of homes or residences
that need to be built, then youneed to give us a plan.
(41:02):
So if a developer comes up toyou, you will approve that plan.
That actually makes total sense.
Christine Zito (41:08):
Well, how many more people can you fit in
Arcadia?
Just this morning I heard fromSuperintendent Dave David Dr V.
9,000 kids in the Arcadiaschool district started school
today.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (41:24):
Yeah .
Christine Zito (41:25):
I mean wow, 9,000.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (41:27):
Yeah .
Christine Zito (41:28):
How many more people can we fit in Arcadia?
I mean, is there a limit, isthere a law, or is the state
saying you just have to put allthese people somewhere?
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (41:38):
Well , I believe that the 3,000 goal
that we have residences in thecity of Arcadia, if it's built
well, can be developed indowntown Arcadia built well can
(42:02):
be developed in downtown arcadia, as well as the las tunas live
oak corridor.
Yes, okay, right, and so Ibelieve if we do that and we
develop, then it will create avibrant area.
Christine Zito (42:10):
Well, yeah, pretty soon we're going to be
building apartments above theshops of Santa.
City Councilman Paul P. C (42:18):
Anita , that's what people have been
talking about.
Christine Zito (42:28):
And laws were passed to say that if you have
commercial businesses on theground 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. Ch (42:33):
They do.
It's a very mixed use.
I mean, you know everybodyacross the world does mix use,
apart from really SouthernCalifornia, right.
Because our land is so spreadout, 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 (42:53):
Yes, right.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (42:53):
And so again.
Arcadia has always been abouthousing rights, meaning that our
property rights are valuableand don't affect our property
rights, and so I believe thatthat's a good, correct view,
with obviously some gentlepushbacks back and forth.
(43:14):
But now, with the state and therules that are coming down,
with people that don't live inour community, that literally
would just desire to live anddie in Sacramento to have power
which I totally understand, butkeep it there.
Totally understand, but keep itthere when you're telling us us
(43:47):
whether it's Monrovia, arcadia,any of our cities that I don't
care what you think Like housingis the most critical, so you
can build it up to the sky.
You can fill 3,000 units up tothe sky.
That's the rule.
That's an extreme statement,it's not true.
Christine Zito (44:00):
I hope we don't see that type of sky rise of
apartments here in Arcadia.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (44:08):
Do you think it's going to?
I do.
If we do not have the people inSacramento, it doesn't matter
which party you belong to thatdoesn't understand property
rights.
Christine Zito (44:22):
Do we need to be careful who we're voting into
Sacramento here on the localarea?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng (44:27):
I think so.
I mean we have a super majority.
We talk about Congress rightwhere it's Republican,
Republican, Republican, but thereality is in California we have
Democrat, Democrat, Democrat,but it's not just right on the
right, on a 5049, you know, ifsomeone's sick then the vote
(44:50):
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, isthat I've enjoyed being on city
council because many times I'veliterally just been three, two,
two, three, literally back andforth.
That is where incrementalmovement occurs, and I
(45:13):
understand that people say youhave to have political strength
and political will, which Iunderstand what that statement
means.
It means that when you're inthe majority, you crush the
other side yes, yeah but.
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 (45:33):
well, it doesn't it does.
Oh my gosh, now you're going toget me on a song, Okay, well,
yeah, I agree with that.
I'm just going to say it likethat, just from my experience I
was.
I wanted to talk to you aboutADUs, but I will save that for
another time.
I do want to get to questions Igot from Facebook and my email.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (45:51):
Okay , yeah, all right, so okay
here's one from Kevin.
Christine Zito (45:59):
I am not going to say any last names and again
I want to say to everybody I'monly going to ask the questions
that are relevant to the issueshere in the city of Arcadia, or
comments within the city of.
Arcadia.
Okay, so here's one from Kevin.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (46:07):
Sure .
Christine Zito (46:07):
When are we going to reopen Wilderness Park?
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (46:10):
We would love to All right.
Christine Zito (46:13):
I mean, I ride my bike up there.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (46:15):
The problem is that we have other
agencies that come before us.
Look when Wilderness Park, whenthe rains came, the council was
very good about going to seewhat was there and we're talking
about 20 feet of mud.
(46:35):
We're talking about the museumthat is covered in mud there's a
museum up there.
A lot of people don't reallyknow Wilderness Park unless you
stumble across it or you're partof the Boy Scouts, girl Scouts,
but it's not anywhere nearwhere it can be safe.
So when other agencies that areabove us come in, the rule is
(46:58):
you can't come in until we'redone, and so, unfortunately,
we're in a situation wherethey're still hauling out the
mud.
If you go which I've gone againthere's a huge conveyor belt
where mud is traveling andtrying to get out but can't even
get in.
Even the bridge, uh, is youcan't cross in safely across a
(47:21):
bridge.
Christine Zito (47:21):
so you, you go up yeah, you know, yeah, you go
up, you go down and so eventhere's a last bridge, that's
not even safe, and so so are welooking at a couple of years?
City Councilman Paul P. Cheng (47:34):
I just don't know I think it's
going to be within the next twoyears, if there are not more
rain.
Christine Zito (47:39):
Oh, okay.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (47:40):
And people up north love Wilderness
Park because nobody reallyknows it unless you live in the
city.
Arcadia is so unique in thesense that you can have
literally big bear-like, bigbear-like living, big bear, like
, big bear like living, big bearlike feeling, and three minutes
later you're at the mall.
(48:01):
I know three minutes.
Christine Zito (48:02):
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'slistening to this, okay.
Well, linus Park will be opensoon, so all right, so already.
There are some questions herewe already addressed.
One of them is Oris wanted toknow about the change of price
(48:23):
in rent.
Okay, so does the city ofArcadia have any control of rent
control and how high a landlordor property management can
raise the rent here in the cityof Arcadia?
No, or property management canraise the rent here in the city
of Arcadia.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (48:35):
No , but the law is that, look,
cities can create their own rentcontrol.
But you also have to realizethe 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 freemarket, when I was young and I
was growing up in America, theyalways talked about free market.
(48:58):
They said that's what makesAmerica great, right?
Yes?
Christine Zito (49:03):
Except for high rent.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (49:04):
Yeah , you know when government comes
in.
Well, you know.
You know you didn't bring upthis issue, but it is very
interesting.
You know, on council, yes, I'mthe most conservative, but I am
Asian, and Asian people,particularly Chinese people,
(49:24):
particularly Chinese people fromChina, although I'm not are
warning Americans.
They have seen this occur intheir country, where government
becomes bigger and bigger andbigger and the only thing that's
left is government and bigbusiness.
The Chinese people are warningAmericans that we have to be
(49:48):
careful is that if every singleday the government gets bigger,
every single day, you'redependent on less free market,
more government control, thereis going to be a line that you
cannot cross, which usually areso dependent on the government
(50:08):
for survival or big businesseslike Amazon.
Everybody else is gone.
Christine Zito (50:15):
Well, doesn't China do they have a free market
.
City Councilman Paul P. (50:19):
That's when everything began to boom,
when they decided to go towardfree market.
You know, when I first went toChina and I was very young there
was a lady.
I saw her.
She was sweeping the floor, butshe's sweeping where there's no
dust.
And the question I finallyasked her is I didn't know if
(50:45):
she was crazy.
You know what I mean.
But the thing is I said butthere's no dust there.
She said but you don'tunderstand.
I need government.
If I don't sweep and act likethere's dust there and I stop, I
don't have anywhere to go.
Christine Zito (51:04):
Oh well, that's interesting.
City Councilman Paul P. Che (51:07):
And so that's the question that we
have is what has been morebeneficial for America?
Look, when I grew up in the 80sand 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 toVegas and everybody in Vegas
(51:28):
they have those eyes and youthink, oh, those are just
gambler eyes.
They're just excited.
They talk about their state.
They love everything that'sgoing on.
They want to tell you whatthey're doing on the weekend In
2025, as a Californian, are youwaking up, excited about the
state?
Are you like man, what's goingon Doesn't matter what party you
(51:52):
are.
We are tired.
We are tired because the, thegovernment has gotten too big,
and and and we have to askourselves, in such a big
government situation which I'mnot saying government should not
be involved but the question iswhat's happening to our free
(52:12):
market?
Look, going back earlier towhat we talked about, if we, as
a city council, are just rubberstamping, rubber stamping, isn't
that the epitome of just biggovernment, where we can't be
able to say I don't know aboutbuilding 400 condos, what about
(52:36):
the traffic?
What about the parking?
What about the electricity?
No, I'm sorry, you just have torubber stamp it.
That's the concern that we have.
We need to ensure that.
We need to preserve our freemarket, because the preservation
our free market, because youknow the preservation of free
market, you know who it benefits.
(52:57):
Small business when I grew upin California, it was all about
small business, all about smallbusiness.
I understand that the internethad not been developed or maybe
it was, but we didn't know aboutit.
But that's a huge concernthat's going to impact all of us
.
Christine Zito (53:18):
I think so too, and I think with the rise of
artificial intelligence, the waytechnology is moving I think
it's we're going to see a lot ofdifference in how people
approach, approach job market,the housing market, gosh, you
know, there are so many things Iwant to talk to you about.
(53:39):
There's only one small thingthat I want to bring up, because
when I went on Facebook and theemails that I've gotten and the
responses I got from Facebookand I know I'm jumping around
without ending a conversationhere or different subjects- it's
okay.
Is one of the.
I didn't expect this, but itwas brought up the whole thing
(54:00):
about the San Gabriel Chamber ofCommerce.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (54:04):
Sure .
Christine Zito (54:04):
And that whole situation, all the fallout of
that chamber, and the questionwas to ask you about it and the
money question was to ask youabout it and and you know the
money that was involved in.
You know, I'm gonna let youaddress that issue about why
(54:26):
people are looking to you, asthat's why the san Gabriel
Chamber of Commerce dissolved.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (54:37):
Yeah , I was a board member.
Well, when it dissolved I wasnot a board member, but when I
was a board member.
First of all, the San GabrielChamber of Commerce is something
that really came out of theground again through a person by
the name of Sandy Roscoe, rudyKasuma, and she always mentions
(55:00):
somebody else, but I always kindof don't know whether that
person was part of that kind ofrestarting of that energy, and
what ended up happening is thatthere was a vendor that we used
consistently, that was a boardmember and eventually there was
(55:23):
a reconciliation issue where theboard member wasn't reconciling
his services with the Chamberof Commerce.
Half of the board felt at thattime that it was possibly an
embezzlement issue.
The other half of the boardobviously said it was not right,
(55:45):
that this is a vendor thatwe've always used.
He's part of the foundation ofour chamber and there was
massive infighting that ended upoccurring, which was the first
time, at least being part of theSan Gabriel Chamber of Commerce
as well as being part of theboard that I could see.
So what I pushed and what I doon council as well is when I see
(56:09):
kind of two warring factions ishow can we be able to move the
ball forward see kind of twowarring factions is how can we
be able to move the ball forward?
My desire at the time was for itnot to become public, for it to
be resolved internally in-house, and for us to kind of continue
(56:29):
that vibe and that energy,because the people that wanted
to essentially say it wasn't anissue was to kind of close the
financial records, don't evenworry about it, it'll, it's fine
.
But the other side was we haveto sue, we have to publicize, we
have to get down to the bottomof it.
And so again, my desire was tokind of move it forward by not
(56:52):
airing out the dirty laundry.
But what ended up happening was, you know, the board members
that didn't want thereconciliation resigned.
They ended up going to citycouncil saying how bad the
Chamber of Commerce was.
My part, I think, was justwanting not to.
(57:12):
I think was just wanting not tomake it so bad.
We ended up not really meeting.
The board of directors weren'tmeeting consistently at that
time.
It was difficult.
It was during COVID and allthat type of you know during
that time as well and so itcouldn't.
it couldn't ultimately moveforward because a lot of the
(57:34):
board excuse me, the San GabrielChamber essentially was
fiscally.
They needed support, like manychambers, not just San Gabriel.
But I think that that's in partwhat led to kind of the
dissolution.
It ended up having no supportfrom city council or support
(57:57):
with conditions that wereunacceptable to the board.
Half of the board had left,another part of the board were
still looking at we got to takethis person out or that person
out.
How could this happen?
You know it wasn't there whenit dissolved because you know my
term was already up, it wasclose to being up and I think it
(58:17):
dissolved like maybe half ayear or a year later.
Christine Zito (58:21):
Yeah, it was just like this whole money thing
too.
You weren't involved in any ofthe money or anything that.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (58:28):
No , I think that's kind of been a
statement that's been put on meTo the extent money was involved
.
It's basically should we goafter 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 toair out things that most people
(58:55):
don't understand.
It's going to become asoundbite issue.
It's going to embarrass people,you know, particularly with
people that have been on theboard, for I mean, you know
we're talking about decades now.
We're not talking about youknow, kind of a fly-by-night
person talking about you know,kind of a fly-by-night person.
(59:17):
I still believe that it was adark time for for the chamber.
I mean, it's obviously beendisbanded.
I hope it could come backtogether again.
Christine Zito (59:23):
It was a dark time, you know, in the city of
San Gabriel because it becamevery, it became a real political
football yes, I, yeah, well,thank you for addressing that
and, um gosh, we talked a longtime, so, which was great, it
was a.
It was a great conversation.
Thank you so much for beinghere and thank you for your
story imagine imagine, I do, Ido like that and I, I do like
(59:48):
the fact that you do really careabout the city of arcadia no,
no, that's the song.
City Councilman Paul P. Chen (59:53):
Oh , Not specifically Beatles,
right, yeah, I was going to sayit's John Lennon.
John.
Christine Zito (59:59):
Lennon.
Okay, now you got me thinkingof the Beatles again.
City Councilman Paul P. Ch (01:00:04):
Good , that's all that matters.
Christine Zito (01:00:06):
One of my favorite songs is hey Jude.
I love that song.
City Councilman Paul P. (01:00:09):
That's a very sweet song too.
Christine Zito (01:00:10):
I love that song and here Comes the Sun.
That's probably my mostfavorite.
City Councilman Paul P. (01:00:13):
That's a very good song too, that's
probably my most favorite.
Christine Zito (01:00:16):
Here Comes the Sun, so thank you so so much.
City Councilman Paul P. C (01:00:20):
Thank you.
Thank you for allowing me to behere.
Christine Zito (01:00:22):
Oh, you're going to come back.
We have other things.
I mean look at all this, lookat this, look at all these
things.
So thank you so much forlistening.
I just want to thank oursponsors again Longo Toyota in
El Monte, longo Toyota Lexus inEl Monte, star 7 Financial
Services with Francine Chu,santa Anita Park, the Lemuridian
(01:00:48):
Hotel in Arcadia and PasadenaLook to ArcadiaFYIcom.
I have some events on therethat you can look at that are
coming up in the month ofSeptember and October Some
really great stuff going on atthe Arboretum, great stuff going
on with the city of Arcadia.
And until next time, be blessedand make it a great day.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.