{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"SGV Connect 151: Hilda Solis","description":"Transcript: SGV Connect: Interview with Supervisor Hilda Solis Chris Greenspon: Welcome to SGV Connect 151. I'm Chris Greenspon, bringing you a special feature interview with Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis. Hilda Solis: This was about environmental justice, and it was about telling the story of the lives of people who grew up here and had to suffer through having the landfill, sometimes without even knowing it. Some people don't even know this was a landfill. Greenspon: She's talking about her legacy project: converting the former Puente Hills landfill into LA County's next regional park, its first in decades. The 140-acre Esperanza Hills Park will have an extensive trail system and stunning aerial views of Los Angeles. It won't be finished until at least next year, but by Earth Day, the Environmental Justice Center at the park's entrance will open its doors to the public after being built in just 14 months. Streetsblog got a sneak peek at the building's dedication ceremony this past weekend. You can see pictures in the article accompanying this episode. We also taped an exclusive interview with Supervisor Solis about environmental justice in the Puente area, her goals in Congress following the blue wave, and the 30-year journey to turn the biggest landfill west of the Mississippi into the Griffith Park of the San Gabriel Valley. Before we listen, I just need to remind you that Streetsblog San Gabriel Valley's coverage is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley, with connections to A Line stations across the foothills and commuter express lines traveling into the heart of downtown LA. To plan your trip, visit foothilltransit.org. Foothill Transit: Going good places. I'm here with Los Angeles County District One Supervisor Hilda Solis, soon to be a member of Congress representing the 38th District, which includes northern Gateway Cities like Whittier and Norwalk. But for now, we're on the other side of the Puente Hills, and you're still our supervisor. Solis: The congressional district will also be part of it, including the areas where I grew up in West Puente Valley, the unincorporated area, Baldwin Park, South El Monte, El Monte, Pico Rivera, Montebello, and Southeast LA. This regional park will have such a large impact on all the communities that had to suffer and live through the landfill when it was operating. They'll be able to come and enjoy this space, not just the Environmental Justice Center, but also the trails and everything else that will be available to the public for the first time. Greenspon: We just had the dedication ceremony for the Environmental Justice Center. The park still has a bit of a way to go, as does the rest of the project, but this building has been completed at what one might call breakneck speed. This has been called your legacy project, even though your time in office isn't over. But it all goes back to 1994, when you were in the state Legislature. What made you say to yourself back then, "Something could be done with this landfill. It could become a park"? Solis: People had approached me and talked to me about it. Some of the groups involved included the Sierra Club. Belinda Faustino, the emcee for today's ceremony, was also a big part of it. She was working at the time for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, and we worked together for many, many years. She and other people were instrumental in helping me think about open space and how to incorporate it into public policy. How do you push for legislation, get the funding to back it up, and then create our own conservancy? This is also part of the conservancy we now know as the River Mountains Conservancy. I carried that legislation, which came about in the 1990s. You can't just build parks or convert a landfill into a park without funding. We had to secure state funding, as well as commitments from the responsible parties that operated the landfill. The LA County Sanitation District's tipping fees were set aside so that, when the landfill closed, the money could be used to convert it into a park. Greenspon: I've seen you a lot over the many years of my career, although nobody wants to know exactly how long that is. But I've never seen you this excited. Solis: Oh, I get excited! Maybe you haven't seen me in those moments, but the people who work with me know how involved I am. And I'll continue to be involved because environmental justice is everywhere, every day. We have to fight for justice. That's just part of who I am. Greenspon: Environmental justice and labor have been at the forefront of your entire career. Solis: Women's rights, domestic violence, fighting for immigration reform, and fighting for more park space. Open space matters because our communities have suffered so much, and they rarely have an opportunity to enjoy places like this. And this park is going to be free. Greenspon: With those things in mind, along with the other issues you've mentioned, I wanted to ask who or what inspired you to dedicate yourself to this work. If I had to guess, I'd say it was primarily your upbringing and your father. You've talked about him many times when attending an open-space grand opening. You talk about how he sought out these places for you and your family. Some people also know that your father was involved in the labor movement. Solis: He was a Teamster and a shop steward. He worked at a battery recycling plant not too far from here, in the City of Industry. You could see a lot of suffering because many of the people he worked with lived around here, surrounded by this landfill, while also working at the battery recycling plant. It's a very industrial area when you go down the hill, and people had to make a living. Many of those jobs are what we would consider harmful, dirty jobs. They're hard jobs, and sometimes they have health impacts because you're exposed to chemicals, contaminants, and things of that nature. My father would share some of the things he was fighting for: health care benefits and making sure people had good wages. If they were going to work in these very dangerous jobs, they should be adequately compensated and have health care benefits, retirement, and coverage for their children. Greenspon: There's also a major Superfund site under the La Puente Valley. Was your dad concerned about that when he took you out for the weekend? Solis: My father would take us to the mountains, to the San Gabriel Mountains. That's where he would take us. Greenspon: To get away from it all. Solis: He did. Partly because of his own ancestry. He grew up in rural parts of Mexico, where he enjoyed the outdoors, streams, and water. I think about it. He would take us up almost every weekend just to get away. And we loved it because we didn't get to see our dad regularly. He was always working. He was trying to help his family. There were seven of us, seven children. That's a big responsibility. Greenspon: That speaks to both of the things I identified as major influences on you: the environment and labor. But another thing you mentioned was women's rights, and you really can't separate these issues. Your dedication to labor, as people know, was also influenced by your recently lost friend Dolores Huerta, whom you wrote a moving tribute to on social media recently. Would you say she was part of what inspired you to become more than someone who cares about these issues, but someone who actually takes action? Solis: She was someone who talked to me about how to get people involved so they could help craft public policy. And I mean that in a way that doesn't always come to mind. It's not about having a high-paid lobbyist. It's about having grassroots people come out and testify, inform, and educate policymakers about the changes that need to be addressed. She taught me that, and I was very happy to be able to walk hand in hand with her on many occasions. We did a lot of work on pesticides. I didn't grow up on a farm, but I know how important quality of life is, especially for people exposed to dangerous pesticides that can kill you and cause cancer. But you also find these dangers in the workplace. My father encountered them in his factories. I remember him talking about people he knew who later developed cancer and tumors because of exposure to chemicals and things of that nature. It all came back to me in a way that made me realize these were things I wanted to work on. There's a way to change things so people don't have to suffer. Greenspon: So, in light of all this, what is the Environmental Justice Center going to be a place for? Solis: Learning, exploring, and hearing the stories of people who have been impacted by projects that have caused harm to their communities. But it's also about showing what can happen when you reimagine and repurpose a space, seek funding, and bring together the community, stakeholders, and responsible groups that want to make a change and a difference. There will be live classrooms and lectures here, as well as live animals. More importantly, there will be space to explore the mountain adjacent to the Justice Center, see wildlife and different species, and enjoy the open space. You can't get that just anywhere around here. Especially if you live below the surface of the landfill, all you see is blacktop. Everything is cemented. You don't even have the opportunity to smell the fresh air, enjoy the trees, or see wild animals. Those things are a luxury for some people. Greenspon: Can you give us any information about what's left to do on the park? Obviously, it's going to be a passive park, not a concrete-heavy development. We're just at the beginning of things with the Environmental Justice Center. Are you feeling confident about funding and the anticipated timeline for the project? Solis: There's still more funding to be secured. We're waiting on a federal grant that we applied for. At the time, Secretary Deb Haaland agreed to help support us, so we went through the process with her department, the Department of the Interior. The application was prepared, we received all the clearances, and we also got the state to help us. We're expecting a decision. I think it's about $14 million that we're waiting for, and we're hopeful that this administration will approve it. So we're crossing our fingers. But I think much of the hard work has already been done, and this place is going to be spectacular. There will be no place similar to this Environmental Justice Center in this park. I can tell you that right now. Greenspon: Now that you're terming out as a county supervisor, what do you want your successor to know about the job and the region's needs? Solis: The challenges are very great. The needs are very great as well. There are a lot of good community stakeholders, community-based groups, and organizations that want to see change. They want to see more transit, mobility, and pedestrian safety. They want to be able to access places using light rail, buses, and things of that nature. That's where investments have to be made. We still have a lot of infrastructure work to do to make that possible so we can get people out of their cars, walking and breathing clean air, getting healthy exercise, and living longer, better lives. Greenspon: I hope this isn't just another way of asking the same question, but after this very momentous election, what are your goals as you return to the House of Representatives? Solis: Some of them will be similar: fighting for justice, fighting for better health care and affordability, and reducing our reliance on greenhouse gas emissions. We also need to restore our democracy, enforce the rule of law, and bring some semblance of order and much-needed respect back to this country. There's been a lot of suffering. A lot of people have endured immigration raids and inflation. The cost of gasoline is also a major issue. Not many people have the luxury of traveling all over LA County because of the high cost of gasoline. We want them to use other forms of transit, and we want them to have good-paying jobs. All of that takes a lot of work, including making sure we're prioritizing areas with the greatest needs. This is one of those areas. As I described, some of the cities in the 38th Congressional District still aren't where they need to be. There are children who go hungry, seniors who don't have health care, and people living on the streets. There are also people who can't afford that extra payment, even on a mortgage. We have a lot of work to do, and we all have to work together. Greenspon: Supervisor Hilda Solis, thank you so much for joining us on SGV Connect, and congratulations on this beautiful beginning to a new park. Solis: I agree with you 100 percent. I hope people will be as impacted by this place as you were when you were surprised to see how beautiful it is. Greenspon: Again, you can see photos of the Environmental Justice Center, as well as the park's designs and the accompanying text, alongside this podcast. For Streetsblog LA and SGV Connect, I'm Chris Greenspon. ","author_name":"SGV Connect","author_url":"http:\/\/damientalks.libsyn.com\/podcast","html":"