Daniel Perez is running for National City Council District 4 against Victor Arreola and Councilmember Marcus Bush. Perez, 43, worked in corporate finance for 10 years before moving to real estate and mortgage loans.
“I currently serve on the Parks & Recreation and Senior Advisory committees. I am also the president of the Las Palmas Little League. I have two kids, so I coach their teams as well. I am past president of the National City Rotary Club. I help as much as I can with the nonprofit Adrians Way. It is one of my favorite things. It started off as a mentor program for disadvantaged kids here in National City, but it has evolved and now has a pantry at Sweetwater High School. They fill it full of food and kids are allowed to go there and get whatever they want to take home, and many times it is cleared out the same day it is filled. They fill another room with clothing, not just for the students, and it gets cleared out fast as well,” said Perez who claims No Party Preferene.
Perez said his top priority in running is to be a voice for the community.
“I feel like people who are currently filling seats on the council have forgotten that they are supposed to be a voice for the community and in it for themselves. I would like to bring that back. I think it is important to the residents and their concerns,” he said.
In terms of some of the city’s issues, Perez said homelessness continues to be a problem, safety issues, especially in the parks.
“I have to go to the park frequently and I am constantly finding drug paraphernalia thrown on the ground. It gets old going around and picking it all up before the kids get there. Our parks are in brutal shape. I think the focus needs to be on safety and the kids. We need to make sure we have clean bathrooms and provide a better environment for our kids. They promised Las Palmas bathrooms for 30 plus years. You have El Toyon Park which has a playground, with an entrance to the slides, with no slide. Many of our public use areas are a huge concern,” he said.
Perez said traffic is another issue.
“They did a lot of bike lanes, and it has really been a headache for everybody. It is definitely something that needs to be discussed because there are many residents fed up with it,” he said.
Perez said he wants to bring back common sense to City Hall.
“Get things done that makes sense. They built a dog park, funded it, but the bathrooms are disgusting. Why wouldn’t they fund new bathrooms first? We need to get our priorities back in order.
Perez said the relationship with the Port of San Diego and the city is horrible.
“We have a lot of property that is bayfront, yet we have no access to any of it. We have the marina and boat ramp, which is nice, but we really should have something. I know that they are expanding Pepper Park, which is great, but I believe that National City deserves its fair share. We are bringing in a lot of money through the Port here in National City, and it seems like we are last on the list when it comes to anything. Air quality has been an ongoing issue. I know there are many people pushing for change on the west side, but we do sit in the middle of three freeways,” he said.
Growing up in Imperial Beach, Perez said being on the west side of Interstate 5, and never recalls the soot in the air.
“Now I go outside to wash down my house and I can see the leftover residue that I have to get to with a detergent to break up the oil,” he said. “I do not understand why things have not changed. This has been ongoing since the beginning of time. It just does not make any sense.”
Perez said he believes that National City already has its fair share of affordable housing.
“We are the mecca of affordable housing. We have significantly more affordable housing than anyone else in San Diego. It blows my mind that we continue to push for more affordable housing, simply because it is not healthy. This is not a dumping ground to get our affordable housing numbers up for San Diego County. All I hear is subsidized housing, government funded housing. If anything, we need to increase home ownership here in National City. We are way too heavy on the renters, around 70% here in National City. That does not make for a healthy housing market. You need to have homeowners,” he said.
Perez said ultimately it is about getting back to common sense, not trends, fads, but to do what is better for the National City community.
“What we need here. Just because our neighbors in Chula Vista are doing this, does not mean that we have to copy what they are doing. It might not work for us here.”
It might be a good idea to start with, but we may need a different approach because National City is old. Some of our streets are very narrow. Whatever it may be, we must cater to our community. We cannot just follow because the masses are doing it. We need to our community and see what they need. That was lost with some of the people on the dais now. They are so involved with themselves, their political party, and following that leading. That is what I want to bring back,” he said.
