As a member of the Los Angeles City Council representing District 14, José Huizar, 42, is the best-known politician in Eagle Rock. Residents routinely flock to the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, to listen to his Town Hall addresses as well as his animated talks on topics as diverse as neighborhood traffic and medical marijuana.

Voted to the City Council in a special election in 2005, Huizar was re-elected to a four-year term in 2007. He will be seeking re-election this coming March, the very month 100 years ago when Eagle Rock was incorporated as a city—only to be annexed by the City of Los Angeles in the same month 12 years later.

In a wide-ranging interview with Eagle Rock Patch Editor Ajay Singh, Huizar talks about his intimate relationship with Eagle Rock as well as his achievements, hopes and disappointments regarding the neighborhood.

Eagle Rock Patch: What does Eagle Rock mean to you? Tell us about your connection to it over the years.

José Huizar: I knew Eagle Rock as a boy living nearby [in Boyle Heights]. I always thought of Eagle Rock as an area with a lot of character—it has a small-town feel to it and you get a nice neighborhood feeling when you live here. I think people who live in Eagle Rock get the best of both worlds—a small neighborhood in a big city where they have the advantages of a large metropolitan area and what it has to offer. So what I have been supporting in Eagle Rock is more community events, like the farmers market and the Eagle Rock Music Festival, so that people can continue to have a connection with the neighborhood.

Eagle Rock Patch: What would you say is your greatest achievement as a politician in Eagle Rock?

José Huizar: Maintaining the quality of life and the sense of a small-town feel has been an achievement. There have been some proposals for monstrous development in Eagle Rock, whether it's near the hills or around the major corridors. One thing about Eagle Rock is that it's very active, very involved, and I've got to thank most of the organizations that are active here—we've all worked together for the common goal and purpose of keeping Eagle Rock's small town feel and not allowing it to be over-developed.

The other thing is not letting Eagle Rock get over-commercialized. For example, we saw a flood of new medical marijuana facilities come here a few years ago. Part of the reason that happened was that there was no city ordinance in place to control where these facilities can be located. I'm a supporter of medical marijuana but we can't have an over-concentration of these facilities—they're going to cause neighborhood problems and concerns. And so we were able to not only get control of the situation at the local level but I was able to move forward an ordinance that better controls for medical marijuana dispensaries.

Eagle Rock Patch: You mentioned in your Town Hall address in October that you are personally against Proposition 19. Why?

José Huizar: In California, particularly local governments, are not ready to implement a state law that says marijuana is legal. Just like Proposition 218, [the 1996 ballot measure that ensures all taxes and property assessments meet voter approval], which has left a lot of responsibilities for local governments to handle, Proposition 19 is badly written. And local governments aren't prepared to handle Prop. 19 because on the one hand you have a federal law that says marijuana is illegal and on the other hand you have a number of loopholes in the state law that are out of the local government's jurisdiction. So that has created a situation regarding medical marijuana that is very difficult for local governments to manage. 

(Editor's Note: Prop 19 was defeated by voters on Tuesday; we talked with Huizar during the day before the results were known.  With the cooperation of Eagle Rock residents, Huizar introduced an ordinance in January, which created a limit of 70 medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles. The legislation, aimed at protecting neighborhoods such as Eagle Rock from an over-proliferation of medical marijuana facilities, was approved by the L.A. City Council.)

If you have a federal law that says marijuana is illegal, the obvious result is that it's going to be more expensive. And when that happens there will be criminal elements who will be trying to make money out of that. I don't see the price [of marijuana] dropping, I don't see the profit being removed. You will still have a lot of criminal organizations involved even if marijuana is legalized in California.

Eagle Rock Patch: Going back to your college years, would you say you were like President Clinton, who said he had tried marijuana but didn't inhale? Or are you like President Obama who has said he did inhale—because that was the point?

José Huizar: (Laughs) I'll tell you what man—none of the above! For me, I believe in medical marijuana—I think it has a lot of medicinal value to it, but we need to have tighter control on it in California. What my preference would be is to have a federal law that decriminalizes marijuana. That is the right approach. That would help—and then you can tax it [marijuana]. I'm still wondering how you're going to be able to tax something that's illegal on the federal level.

Eagle Rock Patch: What's been your biggest disappointment in Eagle Rock?

José Huizar: There aren't many disappointments. Generally I've been disappointed with the city red tape in allowing us to do what we want to do in Eagle Rock. For example, it takes a very long time for local small businesses to get their approval [from the city] to conduct their business. The lack of available parking—very restrictive parking ordinances have not allowed for some of the older, historical buildings on our commercial quarters to revitalize themselves. So I've been more disappointed with the city, which has been holding back the community from fully realizing its potential in terms of supporting small businesses in the area.

Eagle Rock Patch: As a former LAUSD board member, what are you doing to restore the slashed budgets of schools in Eagle Rock?

José Huizar: One of the biggest problems in the state of California is the disinvestment in public education—80 percent of the budget that the school district receives comes from the state government. When I was on the board, we were forced to slash a lot of money, and it has continued to do so. I'm very concerned about how the school district will continue to function in the future. We should all be concerned, even if our children are not in public schools in California, because our futures depend on the workers of the future, the majority of whom are getting educated in public schools. Whether California will be able to sustain its public education system is one of the biggest hurdles this state faces in the future.

Aside from that, more locally in Eagle Rock, I've been supporting local schools wherever I can. For example, a few years ago I supported a football team with some of their operational costs. In Eagle Rock Elementary, I supported a health program, funded it for two years. What I've been doing is allowing for the local schools to let me know what their needs are, and I try to supplement them wherever I can find money, either by directing private dollars to them or if there's some city funding available to me. A lot of times, it really comes down to the supplemental services that the schools need—athletics, art, health programs, all areas that our local schools have needed. I understand how they're hurting and empathize with them. And I try to support them every which way I can.

Eagle Rock Patch: How do you respond to the complaints from some organizations and individuals in Eagle Rock who would like traffic along Colorado Boulevard to be slower?

José Huizar: The Department of Transportation, given that Colorado Boulevard is a major thoroughfare between Glendale and Pasadena, is trying not to slow down traffic. Otherwise there will be bottlenecks. We have had a couple of accidents on Colorado not too long ago. As people get off the 2 freeway and head west, they go downhill and speed naturally without stepping on the gas. But I've been able to work on some mitigating traffic measures. For example, during rush hours, the traffic is allowed to flow more freely. But in other hours there is synchronized lighting [on intersections], more red lights that slow down traffic. So it's not always just a rush on Colorado. In my view, we've done a very good job of finding a balance between regional transportation needs and allowing the neighborhood to continue to feel like a neighborhood by slowing down the traffic.

Eagle Rock Patch: Are there any discussions to reduce the number of lanes along some stretches of Colorado Boulevard from three to two?

José Huizar: There's a lot of interest. I am open and would love to entertain a discussion about how we can not only reduce the number of lanes but also put in a bike lane. I know there are some local organizations that are part of this discussion—I want to hear from them and see what their ideas are.

Eagle Rock Patch: There are also complaints that because of city budget cuts some portions of the medians along the boulevard are not being properly maintained.

José Huizar: In the last round of budget cuts, Street Services surprised us. Workers who maintained the medians were laid off and what happened was that the medians in those parts of the city where the workers were laid off weren't being maintained any more. Medians were being maintained only in those parts of the city where private contractors were hired to maintain them. But in my district [and several others] the medians weren't being taken care of and we started noticing it after July 1^st, when the workers were laid off.

Come August, we saw a lot of grass growing [on the medians]. I immediately put in some of my discretionary funding and sent in private contractors to take care of the medians. And they reported back that a lot of our irrigation systems had been broken. So I took some more of my discretionary funding to fix them. On top of that, I worked with [13^th District Councilmember] Eric Garcetti to come up with a plan to maintain all the medians in the city until the end of the fiscal year. So we've got it under control.

In that process I recognized that a lot of local residents were interested in the medians and wanted to do something to help. So we've created a task force that will advise my office and the city as to how we can change landscaping on these medians, how we can get drought-resistant plants so that we don't have to be concerned about watering them all the time, given our water conservation efforts.

You know, some people say 'why pay so much attention to medians?' But at the end of the day, when you come out of the community onto Colorado and Eagle Rock Boulevard, if the grass is growing and the medians are not taken care of, aesthetically it just doesn't help the community.

Eagle Rock Patch: If you could do anything in Eagle Rock, what would it be?

José Huizar: I think we have to do a better job of supporting our local small businesses, making it easier and quicker for them to navigate the permitting process. I'd like to also focus on Eagle Rock Boulevard. There are some small businesses there that could use support. One thing I started to do three years ago, but because of the budget cuts the money was no longer available, was to get a one-stop small businesses assistance center within my City Hall office so that local businesses can go there and get the assistance they need. I also wanted to get more parking for local businesses so that residents are not affected. As I said, Eagle Rock is a small town within a large city, and one of the things small local businesses need is attention within this large bureaucracy.

Eagle Rock Patch: What's your favorite restaurant in Eagle Rock and what do you like about it?

José Huizar: My favorite restaurant is Cacao. It's a small Mexican restaurant on Colorado and the food there is authentic, it has fresh ingredients, you can really taste the authenticity. They've gone very creative with the food. My wife and I love to go there for dinner. For breakfast, after we go to church in Boyle Heights, where we live, it's been a tradition now for us to go to Camilo's. My wife and I and our four kids take up a huge table there. (Laughs). I always order the frittata—it's got all sorts of goodies in it.

Eagle Rock Patch: Tell us about your hobbies and what sort of person you are when you're not wearing a political hat.

José Huizar: I love music—different types of music, and what I can download on iTunes. I listen to everything. I'm a child of the 80s, when classic rock and hip hop were all around me. In the last three to four years I've gone into all kinds of Spanish music. I really enjoy playing golf but I don't have so much time to play golf. And at the end of the day whatever time I have I like to spend it with my kids.

Eagle Rock Patch: As you prepare to run for re-election in March 2011, what's your pre-campaign message to Eagle Rockers?

José Huizar: Working with the various community groups, we've been able to maintain the small town atmosphere in Eagle Rock and been able to preserve those core qualities of Eagle Rock that make it a great place to live. This relationship we've developed has been a very good one to continue for the future of Eagle Rock as we go into its centennial next year in 2011. I think we've done a very good job of preserving the quality of life in Eagle Rock and I look forward to continuing the good work that we've done together.