Mario Guerra
A SAD STATE: DOWNEY MAYOR SLYLY PIMPS HIS PUBLIC OFFICE AT PRIVATE GROUP’S FUNDRAISER
Mario Guerra, a member of the Downey City Council doing a one-year stint as mayor, on Wednesday delivered a speech at a fundraising meeting of the Downey Chamber of Commerce that he called “The State of the City Address.” If the title of Guerra’s speech misled people into thinking this was an event that was open [...]
BLACK, WHITE & SEEING RED ALL OVER? IT’S THE MEDIA MOGUL MAYOR!
BY TINA VASQUEZ / The Downey Patriot The photo of the City of Downey’s emotionally moving memorial to fallen police officers that DowneyBeat.com editor John Zander posted March 5 on the online newspaper’s Facebook page didn’t move everybody’s emotions equally. Zander’s heart swelled for the Downey police officers who risk their lives in the line of [...]
DOWNEY MAYOR REMOVED AS DEACON AT ST. RAYMOND’S
DOWNEY – Mayor Mario Guerra’s acrimonious battle with the local fire union took a personal turn last week when the mayor was removed as deacon at St. Raymond’s Catholic Church. Guerra announced the news to the Downey congregation this past weekend. He has been reassigned as a stational deacon at the Cathedral of Our Lady [...]
MARIO GUERRA’S TOWN HALL MEETING ANOTHER “HE SAID-HE SAID” AFFAIR
Downey Councilmember Mario Guerra's annual town hall packed the Barbara J. Riley Community and Senior Center, and anybody anticipating an evening of loquaciousness and pugnaciousness was not disappointed. Guerra, who loves to talk, did.
DOWNEY FIREFIGHTERS TO CITY: RETHINK DISBANDING FIRE DEPARTMENT, CONTRACT WITH COUNTY
DOWNEY – The city’s fire union on Tuesday asked the City Council to consider disbanding the fire department and instead contract fire service to the county. Steve Davis, the president of the city’s firemen’s association, requested that Downey commission a feasibility study on going with county services. “We are asking for the City Council to [...]
AS ELON MUSK UNVEILS TESLA MODEL X, WE BURN FOR THE LOVE THAT BURNED US
If Elon Musk’s just-this-side-of-disturbingly elfin head had not been turned on that fateful May 20 of 2010---when he seemed ready to propose putting a Tesla plant in Downey after snubbing $28.3 million in incentives from Long Beach---then maybe we'd be at the big party for the Model X.
DOWNEY COUNCIL DELAYS SMOKING-BAN DISCUSSION, BUT MEMBERS TALKING
DOWNEY — The Downey City Council probably won’t discuss a possible citywide outdoor smoking ban until its meeting Aug. 23, but Councilman Mario Guerra has made sure his opposition is known. Guerra said it would be too costly to enforce the ban, but a full discussion was halted on a 2-1 vote with Mayor Luis [...]
DOWNEY COUNCIL KILLS PUBLIC ARTS COMMITTEE AND ASSUMES ITS FUNCTION
The Downey City Council killed the city’s Art in Public Places Committee by a 5-0 vote Tuesday night, in effect establishing itself as the arbiter of form and content in publicly funded displays—and inheriting the $376,000 currently in the public arts fund. Council member Mario Guerra, who proposed dissolving the committee, insisted that the decision [...]
DOWNEY COUNCIL FIDDLES WHILE CITY’S KIDS BURN … UP THEIR YOUTH
If the Downey City Council takes too much longer arguing about the rules, structure and programs of a proposed Youth Advisory Commission the whole concept is going to have to be transformed into something for seniors. After sending the latest plan back to staff for a 30-day review, the city council will again next month—for [...]
DOWNEY COUNCIL SELLS CITY LAND TO ATTRACT A NEW FIAT DEALERSHIP
DOWNEY—With gasoline prices ever increasing, the Downey City Council has agreed to sell four acres of city-owned property at 9715 Firestone Blvd., near the San Gabriel River to Paul Antepara, who plans to open a Fiat dealership by July. The selling price is $3.8 million for the property, once occupied by a Suzuki dealership and [...]
WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NEW NAMES …
The streets of Downey are suburban, almost obliged to be indistinctive, and yet driving them has begun to feel more and more … meaningful? Or maybe … inspirational? And then again, there’s always … corny? Well, at minimum, let’s hope it’s unforgettable—because committing all the new street names to memory is a challenge. Lately, the [...]
DON’T WORRY, IF FARRELL’S DOES RETURN TO DOWNEY YOU’LL HEAR IT
Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlours became a crazy-popular chain in the 1960s by dressing its employees like they were in the 1890s and making them act like they were on LSD. There used to be a Farrell's at Downey's Stonewood Center, and rumor has it there may be again.
WILL DOWNEY’S ECONOMIC OVERHAUL MEAN ANYTHING WITHOUT ARTS AND CULTURE?
These days it seems as though everywhere you look in Downey is soon going to look much different. Blueprints for restaurants, grocery stores and an assortment of civic projects are circulating in some of the best briefcases in town—and as each of these developmental plans becomes a real place, they are going to end up on the [...]
A LONG-AWAITED BUT GRAND OPENING FOR PORTO’S CUBAN BAKERY IN DOWNEY
A gaggle of Downey city officials, a couple of movie stars and a whole lot of Cuban pride greeted the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Porto’s Cuban Bakery and Café, which finally opened Tuesday nearly a year after breaking ground last Nov. 23. In some ways, the wait seemed even longer. Since the disappointing demise earlier this [...]
IT’S A DYNAMIC TIME FOR DOWNEY—BUT SADLY, NOT FOR ITS CANDIDATES
What the city needs right now is a vision. Boosterism, photo ops, discussion of variances and the water table--though important--aren’t enough. But at last week’s candidates forum, all you got was a steady gaseous release of punishing clichés and useless generalities.
HAS DOWNEY CREATED THE WORLD’S MOST-INSPIRATIONAL PARKING LOT?
The entrance to an executive parking lot behind Downey City Hall—which is also a route of much foot travel by students of Downey High School—has been named “Responsibility Row” by a 4-1 vote of the Downey City Council. That’s pretty heavy, man. But it gets even heavier. The idea behind calling the stretch of pavement [...]
VECTOR CONTROL: WOMEN’S CONFAB ADDS SEX-TAPE STARS AND A SCAREDY CAT
Kim Kardashian and Rob Lowe owe much of their fame to sex tapes, and former First Lady Laura Bush didn't publicly reveal she is pro-choice and pro-gay rights until after her husband/harbinger-of-the-apocalypse had left office.
MAYBE GUERRA CAN SPEND THAT $14K ON A SUPER-BITCHEN VICTORY PARTY
The $14,200 that Downey City Councilmember Mario Guerra has collected for his District 2 City Council re-election campaign will be more than enough to assure victory. Guerra learned Friday—the last day for candidates to file for the November election—that he will be running unopposed. In District 4, the seat currently occupied by termed-out mayor Anne [...]
TWO DAYS, TWO OPPONENTS FOR MARIO GUERRA’S RE-ELECTION BID IN DOWNEY
Another day, another opponent for Downey city council’s District 2 member Mario Guerra in his run for re-election in November. Ronald Kellogg pulled papers on Monday, and Benjamin Coutè was in the city clerk’s office today to collect the forms. Guerra is an effervescent man, but it will be interesting to see whether all the [...]
BLAH-BLAH-BLAH, MARIO GUERRA RUNNING FOR RE-ELECTION IN DOWNEY, YADDA-YADDA-YADDA
Downey’s chatterboxing city councilman, Mario Guerra, says he wants another term. Of course, Guerra doesn’t put it so succinctly as that. This guy’s got a mouth, and he likes to shoot it off. Guerra’s the guy who told me last Nov. 23 that Tesla Motors had selected Downey as the site of its manufacturing plant, [...]
