Jesus Cisneros

As the only candidate on the ticket who is openly Republican, many of Jesus Cisneros views may find him at odds with a district that voted is overwhelmingly Democratic in the last presidential election.

Cisneros has lived in the district for two years and is a school safety officer for the Los Angeles Unified School District. He says he also works as a construction contractor on the side to make ends meet. He identifies as a devout Christian, has publicly proclaimed his love for his “monster truck,” and is vehemently opposed to increasing taxes.

A glance at his Instagram page makes it clear that the 41-year old candidate is not a fan of “safe spaces” or “political correctness.” He is particularly irked by homelessness.

“No more hugs, we need a tough stance against the homeless. All social programs have been tried and have failed,” he writes in one post before accusing unhoused people of “spreading disease,” “breaking into our homes,” and “dropping home values.” 

In a recent candidate forum, he proposed rounding up and moving unhoused individuals to the outskirts of the city. In an interview with Palacio Magazine, he said he wants to create a “skid row” in Long Beach and shift mental health services for unhoused people into the hands of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.

He is also advocating for all Long Beach Unified School District students to have access to school buses and increasing the number of adult schools, though he’s better off running for a seat on the district’s board of education to tackle that issue.

He claims to be endorsed by the Los Angeles County GOP, but a spokesperson for the organization told us they have not endorsed a candidate in the race. We asked Cisneros about this, but he did not respond as of press time.

What will be your biggest public safety priorities if elected? Do you support increasing police presence? Are there other programs or policies that are not law enforcement-based that you believe can decrease crime? 

The city spends millions on overtime for the police officers in order to have the officers necessary to keep the city safe. We need to hire more police officers and stop all that overtime. We also need better administration of our resources. You will see an overwhelming amount of officers on Pine Street and the Downtown/Pike area from Thursday to Sunday. Meanwhile, the rest of District Two only has a few officers protecting such a big area on a busy weekend when officers are most needed. There has to be a better redistribution of officers to our city. Tourists are not the priority, the residents of Long beach are the priority! Also, I would like more programs to build a better community policing program. The police are the people and the people are the police. I would have individual officers assigned to certain streets that would reach out to every household and build a relationship of trust. I would also encourage more foot beats and bike patrols.

Do you believe money in local elections plays an undue influence? Would you be in favor of reforming officeholder accounts or even abolishing them?

I do believe money plays an important role in local elections. In District One, every vote for the candidate that won cost nearly $1,000. All that money paid for influence. I am the only candidate not taking any endorsement money whatsoever, not one penny from anyone. I keep hearing the same thing: ” You won’t win because no one is giving you money, you can only win with money.” Yes, I would be in favor of reforming officeholder accounts. Level the playing field!

The mayor indicated in January that the city is committed to preserving the Queen Mary despite needing what is estimated to be over $200 million in repair work. A $23 million city bond for repair work has already been spent. Do you believe the city should continue to invest in the ship and how?

The Queen is dead. No bond money or any taxpayer money should ever be given to a private company that makes profit. Let that private company figure out how to pay for its own restorations. The community does not benefit from the Queen Mary. The community can’t afford the Queen Mary. $20 parking, $30 meals, $20 to just step aboard? The Queen Mary is for tourists. Not for the community! How about we bring back the Grand Romance riverboat? The true ship of the community. The permits to operate were taken away by the current councilwoman. The Grand Romance is not asking for millions, it’s only asking for its permit to operate!

Projected city budgets for fiscal-years 2021 through 2023 show shortfalls of up to $22 million primarily due to ballooning labor, pension and insurance costs. Would you vote for cutting city services in order to alleviate this deficit? If not, how would you deal with it?

Better administration of funds is what’s needed. We spend millions and millions on overtime for the fire and police departments. The highest paid employees of the city are fire and police personnel. Some (are) making almost a quarter of a million dollars a year (or) even more. I will not cut city services, but I will administer our budget better starting with the overwhelming spending on overtime.

LiBRE: Despite the passage of AB 1482, we are working with multiple residents in District 2 facing a 60-day notice right now. There is no proper enforcement of the law and since it’s new there’s no cases tested in court yet. There is also a loophole that allows landlords to evict a tenant if they want to “substantially” remodel the property. We would like to know what you would do to protect tenants from unjust evictions? Note: The City Council passed an ordinance to close this loophole on Feb. 18. 

No answer submitted.

Everyone In (Long Beach): Homelessness has been identified as an issue of top importance by Long Beach residents. How will you, as the District Two Councilmember, step up to help end homelessness in your community and in Long Beach as a city?

No answer submitted.

Surfrider Foundation, Long Beach Chapter: Given the certainty of increasing sea level rise how does the candidate feel about the City’s efforts to build new structures on the beach, such as the Jr. Lifeguard tower, the Belmont Pool, and the expanded Alfredo’s concession stands?

No answer submitted.

Long Beach Transportation And Parking Solutions: What are you willing to do to fight for a comprehensive Parking Plan that uses modern parking planning, data, and professional evaluation to balance the needs of drivers with other modes of transportation?

No answer submitted.

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[1] Militarily demobilized. Since WWII—which was both the death knell of European colonial empires as well as the starting shot of the American neocolonial era—Europe has had notoriously scant standing armies, and has been able to consistently slash government military spending domestically and as a percentage of their contributions to international diplomatic bodies such as the UN. This is because nowadays European nations very rarely find themselves in situations where they need to independently send their militaries abroad in order to secure trade routes, foreign resources, or privileges within markets overseas; the U.S. has been fulfilling that hard-power obligation for them for over half a century. The social results of Western Europe’s decreased militarization are striking, especially when contrasted with the U.S.: there is not a single country in Western Europe without universal healthcare, labor rights and welfare systems are strong, value is placed on corporate and financial regulation, environmental policy is lightyears ahead, and, not least of all, there is a robust governmental approach to curbing digital surveillance and reining in tech monopolies. Japan enjoys a similar arrangement with the U.S. in which it, too, is militarily demobilized yet is given full access to, and prominence in, the global economy. In the last decade there has been a reversing trend of remilitarization in some of these nations. That trend was hastened during the last four years as a result of Trump’s ultranationalist politics, but is likely to continue even after his departure in large part due to the growing bipolar geopolitical climate of competition between superpowers.

The “owner” bit of home-“owner” appears in scare quotes throughout the text for reasons that will shortly become apparent.

Nothing signals trouble quite like consensus.

More on them later.

And, anyways, what exactly remains “obvious” in an era “post-truth”?

I take as my starting position that even the “obvious” must be won.

It’s like Lenin said, you know…

Whether directly, or through a chain of investments, or through the wider speculative market in real estate.

I use “banks” in this piece as a stand-in for several sources of income that derive partly through the mortgaging of property and/or investment in institutions that have the power to mortgage property.

That is just its “ideology.”

The Ricardian “law of rent” explains that any location with an advantage over another location, can accrue an economic value, called “rent,” to the owner.

This happens without the owner needing to pitch in to create the advantage.

If the owner does pitch in, then the value accrued from that advantage cannot be called “rent.”

“Rent,” in economic terms, is only, precisely, the value accrued from that portion of the advantage for which the owner is not responsible. That is what we mean when we say, “Rent is theft.”

This does not mean places with lower property taxes ipso facto have higher property prices—and that is because the property tax is only one of the contributing factors. You could have zero taxes on land in Antarctica, for instance, and it would still sell for $0. This is why the introduction to the analogy controls for such variables.

This is the logical conclusion of believing two premises:

(1) All humans have an equal right to the Earth.
(2) Vaginal birth is a lottery system

Prop 13 is rent control for home-“owners.” You can learn more about its history and impact here.

“Hamlet” by William Shakespeare. Act 4, Scene 5

This is why the lobbyists who spend the most money to support the mortgage interest deduction are bankers, mortgagers, and realtors.

Term

Definition