Bio

By Mineo L. Gonzalez

Details about me and what I feel is important for Long Beach.

I have worked for 12 years as an Auditor for the Department of Health Care Services. While in college I worked as a college aide at Hamilton Middle School. After graduation I also started to substitute teach for Long Beach Unified School District and continued to do so twice a month up until a few years ago. I got my first job when I was 11 years old at a swapmeet selling sneakers. At 16 I left that to work two jobs during my time in high school. I worked the weekend McDonald's morning shift and pizza delivery job at night. To help pay for the college tuition my student loans did not cover I worked at a metal fabricating shop for 3 years until I got the college aide job.

The point of all this is that I have been in Long Beach for nearly 35 years. I know whats its like to grow up and live here. I am not planning on ever leaving. I am no different than any one of you. I didn't grow up dreaming to be a politician. I learned the value of hard work at a young age. Not just from working myself but from seeing all the other people around me struggle to make a living just to pay their rent and mortgages every month. I certainly did not have the most glamorous jobs growing up but I can say I worked with some of the noblest people you would ever meet. Hardworking people that just wanted to make a decent wage and raise their families in a safe environment.

I love this city and I am sick of people using it as a stepping stone for their loftier political aspirations or to pay back favors for all the campaign contributions they received. We have continually allowed professional politicians to use this great city and leave us true Long Beach residents to pay for all the messes they made while in office. They switch political parties and ideologies suddenly in order to get elected. Others jump from one politial office to another. They get elected to another office without having accomplished any real progress in the one they just left. They jusy keep running for any office and continue their ineptitude on the taxpayer's dime. This has to stop now. We can no longer just continue to ignore our duty to the city and ourselves and throw away our opportunity to elcet leaders. Lesomeone that is looking out for the best interest of everyone in the city and not just special interest groups or their own career.

I have worked directly with the youth of this city and have seen exactly the same pattern repeat itself year after year. I went through the trials and tribulations that the children in Long Beach live through now myself. It is a sad state of affairs that after all these years the problems still persist. I lived in different areas of the city and have seen firsthand how it changes from one side of the city to the other. This is one of the biggest problems facing our city. I have known people from all walks of life that live in our city. I know that we all want the same thing. A city that is safe to raise a family and grow old in.

I know what this city looked like in the 1980's and over the years I have seen many neighborhoods slowly deteriorate. I grew up here and saw the rise in gangs in the late 80's. I lived through the gang wars in the 90's that plagued our streets with drive-by shootings and murders. No one has to fill me in on the history of Long Beach over the last 30 years because I was here to experience it. I remember how tense it was in this city with both the youth and elderly living in fear of going out at night. It is my goal to make sure that Long Beach never goes through this again. What this city is lacking is true leadership. What we need are people that we can all believe in to guide us through our tough times. We need someone who plans to be here for the long haul. In order for us to make that to happen we have to elect a real leader and not just a politician on Tuesday April 8, 2014.

I find it sad that people can claim to have done so much for this city over the years when all we have to do is look around and see that nothing has gotten better. Some have the nerve to come back a few years later hoping that we all forgot the position they left us in. I also find it absurd that someone who has only been here a short while can really believe that they have the answer to our city's problems. They all just seem to say the same old thing we hear every single election. What they all have in common are empty promises and think tank generated solutions. Not an original idea in the bunch.

I am not here to ask you for donations or take special interest money. The only thing I am asking you for is to take a few minutes to take a look at my ideas and views in my platform and vote for me to help make our city the envy of California.