Mary Zendejas: ‘This is a campaign that inspires’

Location: Kress Market, 443 Pine Ave.

One of the first things you notice about Mary Zendejas is her contagious energy. A few hours before sundown and after a long day of campaigning—of making calls and taking meetings—she spoke with pep about her policy vision and personal life.

Zendejas chose Kress Market on Pine Avenue, down the street from her campaign headquarters, as the site for our interview. It’s a place near-and-dear to her heart, where she is on a first-name basis with the proprietors, Hilda and Javier Ortiz.

“They’re a family-owned business, which I like a lot. And they are family-run as well … and another thing is that they are so giving and open to the community,” Zendejas says.

The love is mutual, too. There’s a large Zendejas campaign sign displayed in the storefront window.

The journey that led Zendejas to become a candidate for the 1st District City Council seat began in Mexico, where she was born. As an infant, she was stricken with polio, which would leave her in leg braces and eventually a wheelchair. Her family immigrated to the U.S. when she was 3 years old in pursuit of better opportunities and medical care—a move she says saved her life.

They settled in immigrant-rich South Los Angeles. She says her strong relationship with her siblings—she’s one of nine children—helped buffer teasing from other kids growing up.

Even from a young age, she showed a willingness to help others in need. She remembers assisting undocumented people in her neighborhood in applying for U.S. citizenship, and translating for her Spanish-speaking mother, who took on the dual role of factory worker and homemaker.

She also has activism in her blood. Her father worked as a field hand, at one point picketing alongside Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, the co-founders of the National Farm Workers Association.

Zendejas became a U.S. citizen after graduating high school and then enrolled at Cal State Long Beach. She earned an undergraduate degree in communication studies, becoming the first in her family to graduate college.

The 30,000-feet-view of Zendejas’ life is one of resilience and community service. While maintaining personal independence has always been a big goal for her, she’s consistently set her sights beyond herself.

Since relocating to Long Beach almost three decades ago, the 48-years-old candidate has been a part of so many community and advocacy organizations it can be hard to keep track.

She’s the founder and executive director of the DisABLED Professionals Association, which advocates for better treatment of people with disabilities in the workplace. She started MAPS 2 College, a mentoring program at CSULB that assists students with special needs in their transition from high school to college. She was a board member of Housing Long Beach, a tenants rights group, for five years.

Though her resume is stacked, Zendejas casts herself as something of a political neophyte: “I’m new to this,” she says, referring to her first ever quest for public office. But on the other hand, she’s certainly made enough of a good impression within the right circles to earn the endorsement of the city’s political establishment.

Among the many endorsements Zendejas has received are those of State Senator Lena Gonzalez (who is the former CD-1 Councilmember) and Mayor Robert Garcia, who she befriended while the two were students at CSULB. She’d later go on to sit on his 2014 mayoral transition team.

Beyond political gestures, Garcia and Gonzalez have supported Zendejas’ run with cash, though somewhat tacitly. Garcia’s 2026 Lt. Governor Committee and Gonzalez’s 2019 State Senate Election Committee recently donated a combined $20,000 to the Long Beach Firefighters Association Local 372 PAC, which has made independent expenditures to flood 1st District mailboxes with mailers supporting Zendejas’ campaign. The city’s police union has also donated $10,000 to the PAC.

While these independent expenditures are out of her control, Zendejas amassed the largest war chest of all the candidates, with contributions from developers, special interest PACs, and the expected Long Beach Democratic donor class.

Zendejas says that her vast network of support, including those atop the city’s political ladder, is a direct result of the work she’s put into the community. But some of her opponents have bemoaned it as undue influence in the race by local elites with extensive financial and political resources.

Concerns were also raised about a $500 donation Zendejas’ campaign received from AES. The power company—which has given generously to many of the city’s current officeholders in the past—was dinged recently by the South Coast Air Quality Management District for emission violations at their Long Beach and Huntington Beach facilities. Zendejas was asked about the donation at a candidate forum in October and later told FORTHE Media that she had decided to refund the money, characterizing it as a “slip up” because “one of the things I had said to myself is that I wouldn’t take the oil money.”

“I don’t think that it matches our values here in the 1st District. So that’s what made me think that I would not want to accept money from them,” she said, adding that the company polluted the air and risked the health of Long Beach residents.

She says campaign contributions won’t affect her work behind the dais should she be elected, calling herself an “independent woman.” Instead she says voters should look at her track record of using the challenges she has faced as the fuel to enact positive change.

As an example, she mentions her tenure on the mayor-appointed Long Beach Transit Board of Directors, where she is serving her second term, and is the first person in a wheelchair to hold that position. There, she has worked to make the city’s bus fleet greener and more accessible.

She says her presence on the LBT Board illustrates how critical it is to have people with disabilities in public positions. One exchange from 2015 serves as a stark reminder of this.

The LBT had entered into a contract with a new operator for its Dial-a-Lift paratransit service, and during a commission meeting, one of Zendejas’ colleagues said that the agency had received good feedback about the service from customers. Zendejas, however, saw it differently.

“I’m a Dial-A-Lift rider myself, and I don’t have the same report as the statement that was said right now. A lot of people were very anxious about the change in vendors, and I’ve been getting some different kind of feedback,” she said.

She also brought to the body’s attention that the Dial-A-Lift service did not accept debit cards, and pushed for that to change.

Without representation in the rooms where decisions get made, details like that can get overlooked. But with her on the City Council, she says, they won’t: “Get the details right. You know, that’s what being in a wheelchair has taught me.”

Here’s Zendejas:

Tomisin Oluwole
Ode to Pink II, 2020
Acrylic and marker on paper
14 x 22 inches

Click here to check out our interview with Tomisin Oluwole, a a literary and visual artist based in Long Beach.

Instead of gunking up our site with ads, we use this space to display and promote the work of local artists.

There are serious health disparities between this district and other parts of the city. A big part of that is due to pollution. Are there any policies you’re excited to expand upon or bring to the City Council that would help improve the air quality?

There’s so much that we can do when it comes to air quality and policies around cleaning the environment. One of the things that I would like to see is to see more commercial vehicles coming in and out of our port that are more zero emission, or at least close to zero emission, to be able to help relieve some of that pollution that we get from the port.

Would you increase green space in the district?

Yes, yes. I know this is silly but I’m going to say it anyway. We need to include more park space for our youth, for our families, for everyone in general, and also for our pets. We have a lot of pets, but we don’t have a lot of parks for our pets, especially in the 1st District.

Homelessness is a pretty big issue facing the district. What are some of the solutions that you think can help alleviate homelessness?

Sometimes I feel like I have a million answers. There’s so many things that could be done. But one of my main things is that we really need to focus on getting permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness with wrap-around services, so that we don’t see them (going) back into homelessness, and hopefully to end that cycle, because a lot of people that are homeless are there for the second or third or fourth or fifth time. And we really need to focus on getting them help to be able to not end up back in the streets again. And what I mean by help is I mean, you know, mental health services, with rehabilitation services, and job skills services, as well as job placement services, and permanent housing services.

The city is in the process of developing an inclusionary zoning policy. In general, are you in favor of such policies?

Yes, I definitely support something like that. I think that we would be so much further along if something like that would have been implemented when we first wanted to implement it, like in the Downtown Plan. So it’s been a long time coming.

State law went into effect this year that raised the cap on what cities can charge for fines associated with building code violations—amounts that haven’t been adjusted in over three decades. The 1st District contains some of the oldest housing in the city and tenant advocates say raising those fines would help crack down on unhealthy housing conditions. Where do you stand on this?

I think I would definitely be looking at that very closely, because I need to learn a little bit more about it before I say that I am in favor of it, but I think I will be leaning towards (yes), if it does indeed help in the way that I think it would … Because one of the things is that if you are neglecting your property, and not everybody does this, of course, but there are those landlords that only want to take a check and that’s all. So one of the things that you need to do is to educate tenants more of their rights, and let them know that it’s okay to say something, and create some kind of protection for those that do say something, and also enforce more Health Department checks.

The district has had very low voter turnout in previous City Council elections. What are you doing now and what would you do if elected to increase voter engagement and increase turnout?

One of the things I’m doing right now is getting people to register to vote, and, especially, sharing my story and telling them why it’s so important for me to have their vote. And just the fact that this is a campaign that inspires is already inspiring a lot of people to go to the polls to turn in their mail-in ballots, you know, or those that don’t usually vote in little elections like this. They’re getting inspired and motivated to go vote, and I think that’s very important, very important to the outcome of this election. I hope, I’m crossing my fingers, that our efforts—and I want to say, ‘our efforts,’ because I think everybody who is running knows the importance of voting—I’m hoping that through our collaborative effort we can really motivate some of our neighbors to actually come out and vote.

Would you be in favor of reforming officeholder accounts or even abolishing them?

Well I think that (they’re) a good thing, especially if you’re investing in the community and doing events for the community. I think that that’s a really good thing to have and to do. As far as backing of candidates, if you think that there’s a candidate that’s gonna be good for whatever it is that they’re running (for), I think that might be a good thing. I think that they’re also doing it for the community, and exposing those candidates to the community, and I think that is a good thing. But like I said, before taking a real strong stance on it, I would like to learn more about what it is and what the limits are and what the limits are not, and how the general feel is about that.

Do you support the upcoming ballot measure to make the Measure A sales tax permanent?

Well, one of the things that I don’t think people understand is that we are at max capacity in our sales tax. So if we don’t pass measure A, it does not mean that our sales tax will decrease, it will stay the same. The only thing is that once we we don’t pass the Measure A, we will now be giving our dollars to the county. That tax will then be given to the county. And the only thing that we’re really guaranteed back is 40 cents on the dollar, and the rest we’re going to have to kind of like fight for it and try to get it back. But with keeping Measure A, we’re going to keep every single penny of the dollar here in Long Beach. So that’s huge for me … I know it has helped doing a lot in the 1st District. Like I said, we’ve invested like $5 million in infrastructure, and creating a new park with ADA accessibility, which I love—and our first one here. It’s also given a much needed restoration to our South Division police department. So it’s gone to very specific things, and it’s helped so much of our city that has been needed.

How would you assess State Senator Lena Gonzales’s tenure as the 1st District Councilmember?

I think that everybody does what they can during their term. I know that one of the things that I’ve been particularly proud of Lena doing is making sure that the non-English speaking community (has) always been at the table. And I think that that’s something I want to definitely continue, especially being that we have such a big Latino population and Cambodian population in the 1st District, mostly Latino, but I think that that’s something that I want to (do)—I mean, she’s focused on the Latino population, I think I want to be able to focus on all populations of non-English speaking (people). I also want to focus a little more on youth programs and bring community trust with the police department … One of the things that I would like to see come back to our district is the Latino Heritage Month celebration. (Gonzalez) was big for the Dia de los Muertos, and I love that event. And it’s not going to be the same without her. But I also want to continue that one. And also, you know, bring bring another celebration during the summer time for us and stuff. And just be very active in making sure that we build community, not only in the individual neighborhoods, but as a whole of 1st District.

How would you reduce crime in the district?

First of all I want to have a plan to rebuild trust with the police officers. And I think it’s going to take a lot of work from both the police officers and the community to come together and try to live in harmony. I know that there’s a lot of mistrust. And I think that that’s where we need to start, to rebuild that trust. And so one of the things that I want to do is have programs for youth, because that’s where really we need to start out, start them out young. Another thing that I would like to promote more is to work with the police department to really promote the program that they have; inviting community members to interview the applicants that apply to be in the police academy and want to work for us … So there’s that program that’s done by the Long Beach police officers and the Long Beach Fire Department. What they do is that they invite community members to come in during the interview period … And I would like to be active in this and recruiting people from the 1st District to participate. And they have them several times a year. So I think it’s very important to to give the community opportunities to do this.

Some law enforcement agencies in Southern California have encrypted some or all of their police radio traffic, making it inaccessible to the public, including to reporters. The Long Beach Police Department maintains its public channels, but last year bought equipment that allows them to encrypt the signals. Would you support a move toward encryption?

My first reaction is, because I’m a big believer in transparency and accountability, and those are two principles that I hold very, very highly in my everyday life, so I would say that we cannot have police officers encrypt those. But at the same time, if the reason that they’re doing it is to protect other people or themselves, then that paints a different story for me, but I’m still not convinced. I would need to be really, really convinced that it’s for protecting them if they have to encrypt that.

Do you think there should be more bike lanes in the district?

I think we need to have a smarter way of doing that. For me, it’s a problem because the bike lanes interfere with the loading and unloading of the accessible vehicles that come to pick me up from my front door and also move the bus stops to an island where there is no shelter for rain or against the sun for people. And so that’s happening right in front of my apartment and it’s just, we really need to look at smarter ways of doing that if we’re going to do that. We need to make sure that if we have these bike lanes that we do have people on the bike lanes and not on the sidewalks because that’s what it’s meant to be for but yet people are still riding on the sidewalk.

Would you support increasing funding for youth programming in the city?

Oh, absolutely. Yes.

How would you make the city more accessible for people with disabilities?

One of the things that I would like to see is I would like us to use our Citizens Advisory Commission on Disability more. We don’t use them, not nearly enough, as we should be using them. And that’s one of the things I really want to do, because they’re the experts and they’re out there doing the work. And they know what needs are out there in the communities that need to be addressed.