As the mayor of my city, I would enforce new laws to live by that can paint a clear image of what first comes to mind when you hear “San Pedro”. Ever since I have been living in the city, I have been forced to overlook the homeless people roaming the streets. I recall going to Cabrillo beach as a kid and complaining about finding plastic garbage in the waters. Recently the city experienced multiple record-breaking kinds of weather, a rise in pollution percentages, and the homeless population is still at a vast number. As a young African-American student, I know my voice is limited but I would like to repaint the image of San Pedro.
   

The first issue I would address as the mayor would be homeless people. As I walk around my city, I see there are vast of homeless roaming the streets. Ranging from retired military veterans with (PTSD) to people who weren’t as fortunate as others. According to Social solutions web “ 15% of the population is considered to be chronically homeless”. Within the city, there is only one homeless shelter that I have knowledge of. I can reduce the percentages of homeless people by creating more shelters in the city of San Pedro. I would like to hold an event where friends with special trades repair common problems for a family in need. For instance, I could make it mandatory for at least 1 child per family perform these random acts of kindness around the community. In addition, I am going to create a company to help the homeless get jobs.The program would have leaders who would take them through the process of making their resumes, and provide with proper clothing for the interview. As the mayor of the city, I believe I will be able to homeless off the street.
   

Every day I drive home, I see gasses being emitted from the refineries. This has always been a concern but I have never really felt I would have enough power to make a change in my community. The city of San Pedro is home to the Port of Los Angeles, the largest Port in the United States since 2000. The Port has produced so much pollution over the past years in neighboring cities like Wilmington, San Pedro, and Carson. The refineries have caused the residents to have three times as many chances of being diagnosed with some variation of cancer. A good portion of the pollution is produced by the trucks since they run on diesel fuel and travel long distances. Back in 2011, there was a bill to start making it mandatory for truck drivers to buy big rigs that run off of electricity.This bill did not successfully pass since the council members did not consider how expensive it would cost for each independent driver to buy their personal new truck. I have thought that with my political power as mayor we could implement a petition for the Port of  Los Angeles so that we would be the approach the city council with a plan to start a training wheel program with a truck company. The company could help the workers pay off their truck by paying off half the truck for them and expanding the amount of time they have to completely pay off the truck. This would be a great investment since the car company would be able to make their money back with enough time and the mass of workers who would take advantage of the profitable deal.

Last summer, my family decided to take a trip to the mountains north of the city on a somewhat hot day. When we arrived we were barely able to unpack our tents until we were forced out of the area due to the aggressive wildfire. According to the News channel, the rise in the occurring wildfires this past summer is most likely due to the pollution in our economy. As we continue to pollute our planet the Global Warming only continues to become worse and worse due to the sun rays being trapped in the atmosphere. Recently, we have been hearing about some parts of the country becoming colder and having drastic floods although, in southern California, the temperatures have risen over the years. Majority of scientist have put the blame on man-made emissions of carbon dioxide - made from burning fossil fuels.Last year has been the hottest year in San Pedro since the National Weather Society started keeping track back in 1880.The 4-year drought was not caused by pollution but it only worsened the problem by causing more water evaporation. The point in which we had started affecting global warming was the start of the Industrial Revolution.There are so many ideas out there that have failed but I feel that if we chose an idea that was relatively effortless and convenient, it would succeed.We could start by funding the ride-sharing app, Uber to enforce people to start carpooling to reduce all of the fossil fuels being emitted into the air.Another idea would limit families to only own one car that runs on gas.This could bring the emissions down while also influencing the finances in electric cars which could result in some sort of partnership with the government, to make the electric cars more affordable.

Overall, I am  disgusted with the current state of my city and  I would love to help make this dream a reality, as the mayor of San Pedro.When people come to San Pedro they think of the port but I doubt that they think about what environmental toll the refineries takes on our city. They think of the of the insane homeless people roaming the streets of gaffey at night. They think of the bipolar weather that we experience  yet we don’t  consider the fact that we are the ones who are causing global warming.