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Thursday, August 11, 2016 - August 17, 2016
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COUNCIL MEMBER TAY AIMS TO BRIDGE CITY’S CULTURAL GAP
COMPLIMENTARY COPY VOLUME 20, NO. 32
Arcadia Community Center. – Courtesy photo
Fall Class Registration Pick up the latest copy of The Peacock Buzz to find out what is going on in the City of Arcadia! Copies are will be available at the recreation office, library, and city hall. For specific class information or registration forms, go to the city’s website at www.arcadiaca.gov under recreation and community services department. Registration for classes SEE PAGE 12
Foothill Unity’s Event Helps Low Income Students
Council Member Tay (left) speaks with City Manager Dominic Lazaretto at the recent reorganization of the city council
BY KATTA HULES Council Member Sho Tay is setting out to help Chinese immigrants feel comfortable in Arcadia. “What I would like to do is bridge the gap between Caucasians and Chinese,” Tay says, “We all care about this city. They love this city too, that’s why they all immigrate here.” Tay says there are three distinct batches of Chinese immigrants. The first batch came from Taiwan in the 1980s and went to college here. The second came from Hong Kong af-
ter Tiananmen Square, according to Bloomberg, a news and information company. The third, most recent, batch is from the Chinese mainland. “They come with wealth … [and say] ‘I want the biggest house I can afford.’ Even though they don’t have that many people.” This leads to misunderstandings, Tay says, where other residents think they are running boarding houses or rentals. “So we have to educate those [new immigrants]: if you don’t need it, don’t have it.” Tay has dealt with cultural mis-
understanding before. He talks about when the Arcadia Chinese Parent’s Booster Club (ACPBC) was started, there was backlash from the Parent Teacher Association (PTA). “They didn’t understand, then they got upset.” Meanwhile, the Chinese parents “want[ed] to volunteer, but because of language, they didn’t know how.” To remedy this, ACPBC sent delegates to PTA meetings to relay information back in Chinese at the next club meeting. One year, when Tay’s children were in high school, the PTA was trying to raise money for new
– Photo by Terry Miller
light bulbs. Unable to do it on their own, they turned to the ACPBC. The club ended up raising “enough money to buy [some] for the [entire] school district.” Arcadia has no programs to help new immigrants and longtime residents learn about each other. Tay is working to remedy that - through food. “How many Caucasians do you see in those Chinese restaurants on Baldwin? Very few, right?” He wants to take people, such as seniors from the comSEE PAGE 13
The Foothill Unity Center prepared more than 1,000 K-12 pre-registered students of qualified low-income families from Altadena, Arcadia, Azusa, Baldwin Park, Duarte, Irwindale, Monrovia, Pasadena, Sierra Madre, and South Pasadena at the 18th annual Back to School event on Tuesday. The event was hosted at the historic Santa Anita Park Racetrack. Families who use the services at Foothill Unity Center have incomes at or below 150 percent of the Federal Poverty Line and do not have the funds to furSEE PAGE 13