Dear Editor:

Between the 2022 fatal shooting of an off-duty Monterey Park police officer at the Promenade, mob-style looting of various stores, the quadruple mass shooting at Mambo Grill, the shooting at The Glen, and now innocent people getting their lives taken by reckless speeding drivers, not to mention all of the criminal vagrants who come from the riverbed to burglarize and steal from parked cars, we should consider renaming our city to NorGate, or perhaps SouthWalk, whichever rolls off the tongue better.

People from Downey like to make fun of the "ghetto" neighboring cities like Norwalk, Bellflower, and South Gate, but the reality is that there is no longer a discernible difference between the four cities. In fact, one could argue that violent crime rates in Downey are worse than the others. When was the last mass shooting in Norwalk or South Gate?

We are the "ghetto" city now. And to put it in perspective, South Gate and Norwalk are expected to have more crime because they have active criminal street gangs in their cities. Downey does not have any active street gangs, yet we still have all the crime that comes with it. How does that even make sense?

We have been demoted to an extension city with slightly nicer looking homes.

Rob Mendoza
Downey