Dear Santa,

I haven’t written to you in years, but this year I’m calling an audible.

As I reflect on the past year, it’s hard to be jolly on what is usually my favorite season in Downey.

This year has been extremely difficult, so that’s why I’m writing to you now.

This season, I am not asking for a toy or a gadget from your big burly sack. Instead, I submit my holiday wish list for the city of Downey in the upcoming year.

These types of requests are usually reserved for the last week of December or first week of January, but seeing as this week marks the penultimate Patriot of 2020, I figured I might try and tap into some of your holiday magic.

First and foremost, I wish for a safe and speedy road towards the end to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is heartbreaking to think about the over 100 individuals that our community has lost; devastating to think of the businesses that are struggling to stay open or who have already shuttered. I hurt for our students, our teachers, and our school district board and staff. And even with the glimmer of hope that a handful of vaccines brings, I still fear for our essential workers and the healthcare professionals in our community’s pharmacies and three hospitals.

My hope is that our community can work together and do its part to bring this nasty disease to its bitter end. May our residents – regardless of their beliefs, politics, or other biases – unite under the banner of humanity and goodwill and continue to look out for the health of themselves and their neighbors.

Secondly, I wish that our city council be able to work together.

Part of the difficulty of this year was that the election cycle was – at least in recent memory – one of the nastiest; it left me with more than a few trepidations on how (or if) the newly formed council will operate as a unit.

Let the new members grow, learn, and mature into their newfound responsibilities. Let tenured members err on forgiveness. Where there may be fracture and division, let both not be stubborn, instead choosing to dialogue and compromise. Let cooler heads prevail, and the city be less sensitive when criticized.

Let all members – Mayor Claudia M. Frometa, Mayor Pro Tem Blanca Pacheco, and Council Members Sean Ashton, Catherine Alvarez, and Mario Trujillo – remember that though they may not always agree, they need one another just as much as we all depend on them to guide our city as a whole.

Onto a couple of less serious notes.

Downey is in desperate need of more “family outing” type businesses and entertainment, like a Dave and Busters or a trampoline park. Something other than our movie theaters (not that they aren’t great as well).

Wrapping up, I hope to see the return of the Downey Pod.

I bet a lot of our residents didn’t even know there was a podcast all about Downey. Well, there is…uh…was… I don’t know, it’s complicated (I just noticed that they uploaded their “last and final” episode, and I am DEVASTATED!).

The thing is, the show put on by Warren High School teachers Justin Muller and Greg Elsasser is exactly the kind of thing Downey needs.

Sure, we have a weekly paper that covers a lot of the nuts and bolts. But listening to Justin and Greg is genuinely entertaining. It’s informative. Sometimes, it actually gets you to think about the issues in our city and explore ideas for what could make it even better.

Sometimes you just want to listen to two average dudes talk about their city.

If their most recent episode is indeed their last hurrah, then I will kick myself for not writing about them sooner. They really should reconsider; they were a hidden gem in our community.

On a similar note, Downey Memes on Instagram has been slacking, and their Onion-esque website is no longer active. A little satire is healthy and can break-up some of the humdrum news.

He knows who he is. Yes, I’m calling him out.

Finally, as always, my final wish as I head into the new year is that I am able to continue in the profession that I love, writing for a paper and staff that I adore, in the community that raised me.

I hope that whether our readers have agreed with me or not, that they see that every word I have written this year has been in service to Downey.

I hope that in 2021, I will continue to grow and hone my craft, and that I continue to improve in my effort to keep my community educated and informed.

I love my city. It’s a great one worthy of your nice list.

Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. God Bless you.

Alex