The Palacio Podcast
Mayor Robert Garcia: Cheerleader and Pragmatist
Mayor Robert Garcia has many descriptions: the youngest Mayor in Long Beach history, first Latino Mayor, the first openly gay Mayor, serious about and fluent in policy issues, and definitely the city’s most enthusiastic cheerleader. He is also an immigrant. The Mayor was born in Lima, Peru and came to the United States with his mother when he was five years old. His story is older than the United States. An immigrant comes as a young person, their family works low-wage jobs and long hours to survive and help the next generation to succeed.
PalacioMagazine.com recently interviewed the Mayor Robert Garcia in his conference room on the 14th floor of City Hall. Behind him was a postcard-perfect picture of downtown Long Beach and the Harbor, two symbols of the strong Long Beach economy that he boasts.
Mayor Robert Garcia (Photo courtesy Mayor’s office)
Mayor Robert Garcia and His Teachers
Before being elected in 2014, Mayor Robert Garcia previously represented the First Council District which includes large areas of downtown Long Beach and parts of the Port of Long Beach. He attended California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) graduating with a degree in Communication Studies. He went on receive his Master’s Degree from the University of Southern California and then a doctorate in Educational Policy from CSULB.
Mayor Garcia recognizes that, as a young immigrant, his climb through new American schools and a different culture could only succeed with help from others. For him, that would be his teachers.
“I was very lucky. I had very good public school teachers and I feel like a lot of them really made a big impact on me growing up.”
Those close relations with his teachers right up through college, the Mayor believes, is why he decided to go into education.
“Later on, someone who mentored me in college [CSULB] was the actual President of the University Bob [Robert] Maxson.”
For the Mayor, Maxson was the first transformational leader that he had met.
“His leadership style was leading through kindness and not leading through fear but through the facts and critically examining…and shared governance…so I really liked that and it made an impact on me.”
That example would go on to be part of Mayor Robert Garcia. It would serve him well as CSULB Student Body President. The experience taught him that he had something to say.
“And I noticed that people would look to me for ideas, for leadership. That’s when I thought that maybe I could do this political thing at some point.”
But, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to make it a career. His first ambition was to be a teacher.
“Being on college campuses is what finally opened my eyes even more to public service and to good policy work.”
The first term of Mayor Robert Garcia
…is ending next year even while he prepares to run for a second term. We asked the Mayor about the challenges and issues that marked his first term. Among those first challenges was uniting an electorate after a very divisive election. The second was pulling together the thousands of city workers and getting them to step out of the old way of doing things and looking forward to the future. The third challenge that Mayor Garcia faced surprised us. He said he lost a lot of his private time.”
“People assume that I’m very extroverted and love to go out, not really. I love my job but I love spending time at home, reading a book, eating alone, I love eating along actually which is weird…spending time with my partner. So, I think you lose a lot of that.”
However, there is nothing shy about the passion of Mayor Robert Garcia for Long Beach. Whether it’s talking about the accomplishments of his first term or critical issues that need solutions. We named three issues: Affordable Housing, planning for the future, and economic development/jobs. He methodically went through each one, interconnecting them and elaborating on the steps he and the City Council are taking to address each one. (Listen to his responses HERE). Among one of his more significant responses to the issue of Affordable Housing and its interconnection to planning for the future was the reality that any solutions must deal with certain realities.
“We’re going to build a lot of housing but it’s going to be in the downtown and we’re going to build up and we’re going to build more housing along the blue line. We’re going to provide housing for seniors and housing for veterans and a growing workforce. But…”
There was this reality check.
“The truth is that across most of East Long Beach or in the north, these are single-family neighborhoods. We’re not going to build a lot of apartments there and it’s not appropriate, it’s not part of the community character…the planning issue ties in with the affordable housing issue.”
The Accomplishments of a First Term
Mayor Robert Garcia proudly cites the statistics of a strong economy with the lowest unemployment rate in years, the airport’s record growth, and hotels are full. He’ll rattle off more glowing descriptions about small business growth and corporations moving to Long Beach. Mayor Garcia has enjoyed the ride of his first term.
“I’ve really, really enjoyed it…Overall, you look at what’s going on in our education system, with the economy, the growth of the port…the envisioning of the downtown…for everyone, with infrastructure…all the investments in public facilities in parks and streets. I feel really good about the first few years and I’m excited about the next term.”
You can follow Mayor Robert Garcia on his website HERE and on Facebook HERE. Listen to the entire interview on Soundcloud above or HERE.
