Speaker 3: Thank you. With that, we will go ahead. And do we have a request to move, I believe 21, 25, 25 as. Go ahead. 25 and then I'll pass it over to Councilmember Saro.
Speaker 0: Item 25. Communication from Councilwoman Sauro Councilwoman Allen, Council Member, Your Anger. Councilman Austin recommendation to Recognize and Celebrate Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage Month.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I want to first thank Councilmember Austin for recognizing the Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage Month in the city of Long Beach for the last few years. And appreciate him passing on the mantle for me to introduce this item to lead on it. And I'm happy to have his support as well as council member Yuan Guy and Allen on on it. May May is Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage Month. Many will hear Asian Pacific Heritage Month. But the reason why I chose Asian Pacific Islander American is that oftentimes Pacific Islander are left out from being identified as Americans when they are as well. So that is why Asian Pacific Islander, American and the month of May was chosen to commemorate the emigration of the first Japanese to the US on May 7th of 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad on May ten. And as some may know, majority of workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants. And we certainly seen the heroic examples of what APIs have done to sacrifice their lives for this country, serving on the front line of the pandemic. Examples are that nearly 31.5% of them nurses have died of the coronavirus in the US are Filipino, even though they make up 4% of the nursing population and according to the 2010 census in the city of Long Beach, Asian makes up 12.6% of our population and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander makes up 1.1% of our population. And APIs have a rich history here in Long Beach from Japanese arriving in Long Beach in the early 1920. In the early 20th century, by 1907, almost 200 B.C. had established business here. But sadly, in 1942, the executive order of 999066 authorized by President Roosevelt, removed Japanese national and Japanese-American internment facilities, and most did not return back to Long Beach because of that. And that's why there's less than 1% of Japanese community members here. But the Japanese community centers still remain as well as Japanese Buddhist church. And we also seen a concentration of Filipinos in the west side of Long Beach because in the 1940s many were enlisted in the United States Navy, and that's the location of the naval ship. And an influx of native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders arrive in California in the 1950s after World War Two. And so after the war, it's brought many Pacific Islanders into Long Beach, as well as you've heard about Cambodians settling resettling in Long Beach due to evacuating the fall of Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge back in 1975. And why we have the largest Cambodian community. And today I want to make sure we celebrate by not only hearing from my colleagues, but also we'll be hearing from our diverse Asian Pacific Islander American community leaders and members as well. So I like to open up to my colleagues if you can't remember us and if you like to share some words as well as other colleagues.
Speaker 4: Well, sure. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Councilwoman Sara. Dr. Sara, I appreciate it. It's I look forward to this time of year. Every year I wish we could be together to celebrate culture with food and and and, you know, fellowship with our AAPI residents and staff members here at City Hall. We have been recognizing AAPI month, Heritage Month since 2014. And, you know, I think it gets a better every year. This year is special because we have a Sally Sara on the city council and I'm very happy to pass the torch and pass the mantle for you to take over this during your tenure on the council. Obviously, the Asian-Americans have and Pacific Islanders have contributed so greatly to our city, to our country. And they are part of the fabric of our city with a significant population here and a very diverse population within the Asian community itself. You know, just a couple of the historical facts that we were able to pull up in the early 1900s. Terminal Island here had nearly 3000 Japanese American residents as part of a vibrant fishing village with dozens of Japanese owned stores and restaurants. And this community was tragically dismantled as groups of residents were taken into custody and placed into detention centers. During World War Two. Our Long Beach City has such a rich history with the Navy, and it was a major factor in the location of many, many Filipino Americans to our city. And according to our census data data, more than 14,000 Filipinos in Long Beach were born actually in the Philippines. And many people don't realize that the Filipino community was was very, very active and instrumental in our farmworker organizing the farmworkers with Cesar Chavez and the the No Graves campaign. That was that was Filipino migrants making that happen. A lot of of Latinos in the Central Valley. And today we have a significant Pacific Islander community, especially Samoan, in Target. There are also due to our naval ties in World War Two. In fact, some reports indicate that Long Beach has the second largest Samoan community outside of Samoa, only second to Honolulu to significant. We have such a rich diversity and we should continue to support and celebrate the diversity that we have. And when I look at the city council, I think it reflects our city in a big way. And so I'm happy to celebrate today. We should also celebrate our Vietnamese residents. Our long residents are Chinese residents are Korean or Indian or South Asian communities as well. It is a big continent. And, you know, there are many countries and many languages spoken there. And I would say much of that is represented and proud and much of that is represented here in the city of Long Beach. So those are my comments. Proud to celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and I look forward to us being together again so that we can enjoy fellowship with that good food as well.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilmember. I have some comments as well and a few others, but why don't we go to public comment? Do we have a public comment? And we'll come back to.
Speaker 0: Mayor. We don't have any of the callers on the line yet. We're getting them right now. If any of the other council members would like to speak. We're going to work on getting public comment callers in the meeting as soon as possible.
Speaker 3: Okay. Do any customers want to start with Councilwoman?
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. A big, big thanks to Councilwoman Ciro for bringing this item forward. I think it's very important. I am very grateful that we are able to celebrate our Asian and Pacific Islander American residents here in our city of Long Beach as we acknowledge the work ahead of us and all the things we must do to fully realize the equality and dignity of our AAPI, a neighbors. It's also so critically important that we take these opportunities to celebrate and lift the history and heritage of our communities. I think it is crucial and very important that we we definitely celebrate this. The city of Long Beach, as we know, is a very diverse city, and that is what makes us so incredibly strong. So with that being said. Very happy for this item to be brought in front of us and very excited for all the accomplishments and all the contributions that the API community has had in making our city such a success. And I'm so delighted that we get to celebrate them this this month.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilmember. And next up, I have councilwoman votes.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I, too, wanted to thank Councilwoman Sara for bringing this item forward. I'm very happy and honored to support it and be part of a city that has such a rich and diverse make up. And I think it's wonderful. I cannot wait until we're back together again and able to celebrate some of the.
Speaker 2: Traditions of the.
Speaker 1: Cultures and the holidays and the dates of significance to our various communities in person and having them here with us at City Hall. So thank you very much, and I am honored to support you.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Next up, Councilmember Turanga.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Mayor. And I want to thank Customer Sorrell for bringing this forward. It's always a great pleasure to celebrate our cultures and as I look at our city council, we got had, I think what we said before, the most diverse city council in the country, if not the world. But I was here when the Cambodian. Individual Cambodians can't allow me back in 1978, when they first started coming here as a result of the Khmer Rouge. Would you call that broke the well anyway. The killing fields. There you go. And so, I mean, we need to celebrate that and more. And as a council member, Soros said, West Nile League is one of the largest communities of Filipinos in Long Beach in the area, and I'm very proud to represent that area. And I want to say is two words that the only two words that I know. So I might pull it up, but.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Next up is Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My colleagues said very eloquent statements. So I stand up. I'll stand with them on those comments. And I just would add that Long Beach is incredibly diverse. We love this city and every particular group in our AAPI community. If you think about the contributions culturally from music to dance to language lobbies would not be the same if it were not for the contributions of our AAPI communities. I happen to represent North Long Beach. This is an area with significant AAPI population Somalians, Cambodians and and we're all part of the same cultural tapestry. So I certainly wanted to just chime in and offer my support. Thank you. Councilmember Sol sorrow. Councilman Oscar. On this item. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor. And I'll let me just go ahead and just add another getting to public comment, folks. We are having some tech issues tonight in case it hasn't been apparent. And the clerk is also the WebEx system is having an issue with public comments, but moving folks over to, I think, another system right now and not all the mikes are working correctly. So we we'll regroup on on some of the some of the bugs. But want to just note that and just to speak to this, I want to just thank council and sorrow. But everyone who signed on and just add I think I've been comfortable and you said it best our our API population community our our neighbors and friends are some of the best things about our city and make it such a great important part of who we are and add to the diversity, to the culture, to the fabric of what makes one each, each. And so I'm just very happy to just add my support and thank you for bringing this. And with that, Madam Clerk, are we able to be able to get the public comment?
Speaker 0: Unfortunately, not at this time. If you'd like to move on, we may revisit this item and take public comment as soon as we get them on the line. We're not able to get them through right now. They are waiting patiently.
Speaker 3: Okay. Let me let me do this, because this this item actually had significant public comment, and it was the one of the only ones that did. So why don't we just we can just hold this item where it's at. We'll come back to it. If there wasn't any objection and do the public comment, we can pose kind of comment, council comment would be public comment and indeed vote on this item and listen to the objection to that. So we'll go ahead and do that. They will move on. Can I go back in the consent calendar? There was an item which was item 18 or I believe. And I want to make sure that councilman in the House wanted to pull that item from the consent calendar for whatever reason, did not end up on my call list. And so I want to make sure that we we do that. That could be an office mix up there. So I want to make sure that we do it the right way for her. For her, because you want to pull that and can we go ahead and reconsider item 18, no.
Recommendation to request the City Council to recognize and celebrate Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage month.