CERRITOS CITY COUNCIL GIVES THE THUMBS DOWN TO A SECOND GOODWILL STORE
By Los Cerritos Community Newspaper Group
CERRITOS — In one of the most heated meetings in recent memory, the Cerritos City Council voted down a plan that would have brought a second Goodwill Thrift Store to the east side neighborhood shopping complex which has been left half vacant for the past three years.
Voting to shelve the plan was Cerritos Mayor Jim Edwards, Mayor Pro Tem Bruce Barrows, Councilman Joseph Cho and Councilwoman Carol Chen. The lone supporter of the project was Councilman Mark Pulido.
More than 200 opponents of the project attended the meeting on Thursday night, many of them carrying protest signs against the project that read “No Second Goodwill Store in Cerritos,” and “Goodwill Stores Bring Crime to Communities.”
Richard Lee, one of more than 30 residents who spoke in opposition to the project, presented a petition signed by Cerritos residents who lived in the immediate area where the store was to be built at the corner of Artesia Boulevard and Carmenita Road.
“We have 1,031 Cerritos families who live near this proposed store who have signed this petition demanding that you, our elected city leaders reject this poorly planned project,” Lee said.
