One of the biggest issues facing Gardena has to do with the foul-smelling black sludge coming out of local home faucets. The situation is so bad that Golden State Water Co. held a special meeting with residents to address the concerns and offer solutions.
Gardena City Councilman Dan Medina has taken the lead on this issue by not only developing a home-made solution to the water issue but also by standing up for a local resident whose skin was adversely affected by the toxic water.
One of the biggest issues facing Gardena has to do with the foul-smelling black sludge coming out of local home faucets. The situation is so bad that Golden State Water Co. held a special meeting with residents to address the concerns and offer solutions.
Gardena City Councilman Dan Medina has taken the lead on this issue by not only developing a home-made solution to the water issue but also by standing up for a local resident whose skin was adversely affected by the toxic water.
Part of Medina’s platform is ensuring that Gardena’s water supply is clean and safe. He says that Golden State’s solution of having residents regularly flush their toilets will not fix the problem.
“The flushing is basically a band-aid,” Medina said. “We need new pipes to have clean water. They [Golden State Water] need to replace the pipes.”
Medina’s solution was to install a Y plug that could connect to the fire hydrant that had a valve that would divert flushed water to a street sweeper that could hold a couple of hundred gallons of water.
Other issues on Medina’s platform include establishing greater financial oversight by creating a fiscal transparency taskforce; and expanding senior services by establishing a center for Alzheimer’s disease.
Medina also wants to establish youth services that will partner with LAUSD to improve literacy and writing skills among the city’s school children. He also wants to use community grants to build more businesses and generate more revenue for the city.
“We need businesses that will bring revenue to the city such as Applebee’s and Red Lobster,” Medina said. “We don’t want to be a city that people go through. We want to be a city that people go to.”
On the issue of public safety, Medina was able to get federal funding to address the city’s public safety needs. He says that adding more neighborhood watch programs is crucial to the city’s public safety, especially when it comes to the goal of keeping drugs and drug use out of Gardena.
Medina emphasized that watchful and active residents are the key to making the city safe for everyone.
“I encourage everyone that witnesses a crime to get out there and report what you see,” Medina said.
Public safety is not Medina’s only concern. He is also working to eradicate the homeless problem through PATH, an organization in Long Beach that focuses on helping communities across the country implement solutions to address homelessness.
While Medina has touted his deep involvement in the water issue, he is also just as involved in transportation having raised grant money for Measure R, a half-cent sales tax for Los Angeles County to finance transportation projects such as pothole repair, clean-fuel buses, and traffic signal synchronization along the Rosecrans Corridor.
