On Monday, June 22, the tenth annual People’s State of the City celebrated the community’s empowerment to bring about change.
The address, usually given to a packed house, was given virtually this year by Long Beach Forward Executive Director James Suazo and former councilmember Tonia Reyes Uranga.
“People have become empowered. They have become educated and engaged in building a movement that rejects racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, capitalism and all types of oppression toward our community,” Uranga said.
In his address, Suazo noted that the pandemic exacerbated issues such as mental health and job loss in Long Beach.
According to the state’s Employment Development Department, the civilian unemployment rate in Los Angeles reached 18.8% in May 2020.
“While many of us have been harmed by the economic and social consequences of the pandemic, each community has been hit differently,” Suazo said.
Suazo highlighted the need for mental and emotional support for youth of color who navigated distance learning while being caretakers and at times breadwinners to help their families.
He also uplifted the struggle of workers in the service industry, grocery workers and port truck drivers who are asking for workplace protections and healthcare.
“As the pandemic has continued month after month, many of us have intimately felt the impact of what happens when there is no safety net,” Suazo said. “As we face these dilemmas, it has been our neighbors, our community and the people who have stepped up to take care of one another.”
Both Suazo and Uranga asked that as people move forward, they push decision-makers to take bold actions in order to address inequities, including divestment from police and reallocation of funds for housing, healthcare and other resources.
Expanding on these systemic changes and more, community leaders and organizations invited the public to join their cause during the “community fair” portion of the program.
Organizations such as the Long Beach Immigrants Rights Coalition, Long Beach Gray Panthers, Black Lives Matter Long Beach and Long Beach Residents Empowered (LiBRE) shared their current missions.
Norberto Lopez, project director at LiBRE, shared that the organization was working to extend renter protections until September and needed the people’s support.
Eviction protections were set to expire at the end of the month. However, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors voted unanimously today to extend the eviction moratorium through Sept. 30.
At the root of each message from the organizations was the same goal: to get people involved.
“What we know is true throughout every People’s State of the City address that we’ve delivered,” Suazo said, “Is that the power of overcoming fear, overcoming loneliness and coming together to actually work together, to actually change our world and our community for the better, it starts by us taking that step.”
The People’s State of the City 2021 can be viewed in its entirety here.
