True Community Leaders Made an Incredible Difference for the Parents and Students of Rowland Heights
A story about how Mr.
Cary Chen, Vice President of Board of Education at Rowland Unified School District
and Mr. John Hsu, President of
Rowland Heights Chinese Association and CEO of STC Management reached out to
help a decades old dilemma for many Rowland Heights residents.
By
One Chu
It
all started in October of 2011, when I decided enough is enough. I am referring to having enough nightmares of
the awful daily traffic jam at Alvarado Intermediate School on Desire Avenue
during the morning rush hour and afternoon dismissal hour.
I
started asking around, and all I got was something like this: “Oh, the problem
has been notorious amongst students and parents of Alvarado for decades, but
nobody could do anything about it.” As a
parent of a student of Alvarado, I have been tolerating this dreadful situation
for nearly two years. I suddenly
realized I must do something about it, or the problem will not simply disappear
on its own.
After conducting careful studies
and on-site evaluations, I came to a conclusion that by simply enforcing a
parking restriction from 7:30 AM ~ 8:30 AM and 2:30 PM ~ 3:30 PM along 2 commercial
plazas on Desire Ave will bring an extremely
effective aid to ease the horrible traffic jam during morning and afternoon
rush hours. By imposing non-parking zone
in the said curbside area, vehicles making right turns (East bound on Colima
Road) after dropping off and picking up students will not be blocked by
vehicles parked by the curbside of plazas, and will be able to flow smoothly
and ease the traffic load on Desire Avenue making left (West) turn onto Colima
Road.
Once the remedy of the
problem is identified, I approached Mr. Dickie Simmons, the Field Deputy of Los
Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe’s office.
Dickie kindly and aggressively hooked me up with Los Angeles County’s
Department of Public Works, but the result of DPW’s field study was not
encouraging. The whole section of Desire
Avenue south of Colima Road is private; therefore, it is out of DPW’s
hands.
Desperate, but not out of
hope; I reached out to Mr. Cary Chen in February 2012 through Rowland Heights
Chinese Association. Coincidentally,
Rowland Heights Chinese Association had just elected Mr. John Hsu, a well-known
local business leader, philanthropist, and the CEO of STC Management as the
President of the association. I suddenly
remembered the 2 commercial shopping plazas are managed by STC Management. And I have actually provided services to STC
Management as a waste and recycling consultant back in 2008. Cary and I immediately approached John and
explained everything in details. Without
hesitation, John was first shocked by the problem that parents and students of
Alvarado have been going through daily for decades, and then John
instantaneously agreed to help with all his resources. John and Cary continued to work with Los
Angeles County Sheriffs Department, and on May 2, 2012, the No Parking signs
were installed. I wish you could see the
smiles on the faces of parents and students when they drive by Desire Avenue
nowadays.
I remember Mr. John Hsu once
stated in a Rowland Heights Chinese Association meeting that his goal as the
leader of the association is to establish the association as a role model for
our community in order to unite people of the community and help people of the
community to eventually create a harmonious community with prosperity to
further our higher goals of a best quality of education, business environment,
and every resident’s daily life. Well,
my views, John and Cary are already true leaders and role models in the
community of Rowland Heights. All we
residents need to do is simply stand by our leaders to reach the goals of bettering
our community.
Comments