Mayor's Corner: May 2021

Hello Downey, there is reason to celebrate, we are finally turning the corner with the pandemic!  

According to the latest numbers from L.A. County Public Health, (update from 5/21) the vaccination rate for Downey residents 16 years of age and older is now 62.2%; for adults 65 years of age and older, it is 85.7%. Downey is surpassing L.A. County vaccination rates in both categories. 

This is a significant milestone for our community as we continue to see Covid-19 cases plunge across LA County and across the country. Just this week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported a 90% drop in the daily infection rate. In January, the daily infection rate was 250,000 across the country. Earlier this week, the reported daily infection rate was 25,000 nationwide. 

Let’s continue to do our part and increase the vaccination rate in our community. Our goal is to surpass 75% within the next few weeks! The return to normalcy will only happen by increasing our vaccination rate thus allowing us to reach herd immunity.

Our plan is to reopen our Council Chambers for our City Council meetings on June 22.

Downey City Library Is Now Open: Our library is now open at 50% capacity. We held a small ribbon cutting ceremony last weekend to commemorate such a historic milestone. Thank you to our residents for your patience during the extended closure and reopening delays due to the pandemic. Our community will be able to enjoy this gem in our city for generations to come. 

As the state continues its reopening phase and LA County guidance is updated, modifications will be made to allow for 100% capacity in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, you can enjoy two hours of browsing time, borrow up to 20 items, bring your children to browse the children’s collection, use a study room, and use computers, laptops, and the Wi-Fi service.

Hours of operation are currently: Monday through Thursday 10 am-6 pm, Friday-Saturday 10 am-5 pm.

More Good News, Concerts in the Park will be back this summer! The City’s Parks and Recreation office will be providing more details about the line-up for concerts this summer at the newly renovated Furman Park. Stay tuned for additional details in the coming weeks.

Regarding Public Events in Downey: I’d like to remind everyone, there is a process in Downey to host/hold a public event in any of our parks, especially if vendors are involved, even if this gathering is of religious nature. City permits need to be acquired and the event must go through an approval process. 

To prevent any future events from being cancelled and the organizers fined, please visit city hall to ask about the event permit process. 

Keep Downey Beautiful Monthly Street Volunteer Clean-up is Back: After more than a year, the first Keep Downey Beautiful volunteer clean-up event is scheduled for Saturday, June 19, from 9-10am in the back parking lot of Big Lots located at 9200 Firestone Blvd.

Trash and Illegal Dumping: Over the last 14 months cities across Southern California, not just Downey, reported a significant increase in trash accumulation. Lockdowns, restaurant closures, more people at home, meant more trash was created everywhere. The impact has been so significant in our city that back in September of 2020, I first sounded the alarm after driving throughout the four corners of our city and seeing furniture items dumped everywhere. I asked to increase daily code enforcement monitoring and we increased our Cal Met pick-ups along with our Public Works pick-ups. From December 2020 to the end of February 2021, 292 tons of trash/illegally dumped items were picked up; of those, 73 tons were picked up by CalMet, and 219 tons by our public works staff. I will share with you the March – May numbers in next month’s column.

I’d like to ask our Downey residents who are currently conducting spring cleaning, or having yard sales, to please verify the donation area is open to receive your donation when taken to Goodwill, Salvation Army stores in our city. Please, do not leave your unwanted items outside the closed stores. Otherwise, we receive numerous reports of transients taking items left outside those areas that end up scattered throughout adjacent parks (Discovery being the closest to the Goodwill store).

Transient Activity: Many of you continue to contact me with concerns about transients and the safety of your children, youth playing sports and your families visiting our local parks. I want you to know your safety and that of your families and your children is my highest priority as Mayor. I will continue to work with our Chief of Police to ensure there are increased patrols around all our city parks to mitigate any public safety threats/risks, (especially with summer activities starting). If you have additional questions and/or concerns, please email me directly at CFrometa@downeyca.org

Downey’s anti-litter campaign #BINIT: Let’s continue to do our part by putting all trash in its place. To report illegally dumped items to the City of Downey, please call (562) 904-1161. If you would like bulky items removed, please call CalMet at (562) 259-1239 (option 3) save these numbers on your phone. Better yet, I’d like to encourage all our Downey residents to download the Downey App on your mobile device. Through this app you will be able to immediately report illegally dumped items, street repairs, trash, graffiti removal, neighborhood light repairs, etc., 

Mayor’s Virtual Townhall, Downey @Work4U and Q&A: Thank you to those of you that participated in my first Mayor’s Virtual Townhall last month. Due to the townhall, I didn’t provide an April Mayor’s Column. The townhall had over 100 people in attendance and many of you submitted questions on various topics ranging from trash/illegal dumping, street racing, speed enforcement, adherence to noise ordinance in neighborhoods, keeping Downey beautiful, the return of concerts in the park this summer, transient activity in our parks, public safety, etc., We continue to address all those issue daily and I want to assure you, I am committed to addressing your concerns/needs. 

To recap some of the activity around important aspects of our city’s Covid-19 response, here is some data around that work. These activities are aside from the day-to-day city operations and public safety along with other concerns we receive from our residents. We have a small but mighty city staff team that works tirelessly to serve you. I want to recognize all of their efforts.

To date, we have had three food distribution events in partnership with county and state representatives. These food distribution events have served 6,903 households. The last one took place in April.

Our city conducts 255 senior wellness check calls (on average) two times per week. We have distributed 65,618 senior meals and we currently distribute 1,175 meals to 168 seniors per week (on average).

There have been 204 virtual enrichment videos, 17 virtual/drive-by community events. Our city continues to offer free transit rides on Downey Link, we offer Free Wi-Fi throughout our city parks, library, and city buildings.

Regarding Rental Assistance: There have been 1,422 applications distributed for the city’s rental assistance program. This program has a budget of $950,000. Close to 1,000 door hangers have been distributed door-to-door to rental properties in the city to ensure the information gets to our renters. New applicants that qualify and go through the process will automatically receive three month’s rental assistance. Those that received one-month assistance previously, please contact our Community Development office at (562) 299-6706 or visit our website at www.downeyca.org/rentalassistance 

For our Business Community: 60 small business grants have been processed ($750,000 budget), 36 temporary outdoor dining applications received, 10 temporary outdoor business applications received. The city’s code enforcement division has contacted 707 businesses and organizations to address violations.

Public Updates: There have been 21 videos from the Mayor, city staff has answered 3,315 Covid-19 hotline calls, there have been 4,193 social media posts pandemic related with information and updates, and 36 press releases.

Rehabilitation of City/Neighborhood Streets:

In previous columns, I shared that our $5.3 million annual budgetary allocation for street rehabilitation only allows us to prioritize certain areas based on our City’s Street Management Plan. As your Mayor, and together with my Council colleagues we continue to look for additional ways to increase that allocation and allow for additional repaving and resurfacing of various critical segments in neighborhoods throughout our city. As you’re probably already aware, I’m happy to report that Old River School Road is undergoing the much-needed repair. Thank you for your patience as major street rehabilitation projects take time and may be disruptive.

Speed Enforcement Continues: Our Downey Police Department Street Racing detail has continued to diligently patrol segments throughout our city prone to speed and street racing. If there is street racing in your neighborhood, please report it to the Downey PD.

If you must report a non-emergency issue, please contact our DPD Dispatch at (562) 861-0770.

Thank you Downey for allowing me to serve you as Mayor this year. Please stay safe, healthy, and be well. 

Do not hesitate to contact my office with any questions or concerns at (562) 904-7274 or email me at CFrometa@Downeyca.org I also welcome appointments for face to face visits.

You can also follow my Facebook page for regular updates at Claudia M. Frometa Mayor, City of Downey, along with our City’s Facebook page, City of Downey Government Agency for regular updates.

#DowneyStrong, #EngagedCommunitiesAreStrongCommunities, #ThisIsDowney, #UnitingForce, #MayorFrometa