📬 Councilmember Hector Sosa | District 2, Downey | April 20, 2026

How are you, District 2?

Saturday was the kind of day that reminds you why this city's identity runs deeper than any agenda packet. It started at the Youth Vendor Fair in Apollo Park, where kids were pitching their products like seasoned small-business owners. It moved on to the DUSD Mariachi Festival at Downey High, where folklórico, banda, and mariachi students put on the kind of performance you can feel in your heart. And it closed at the Downey Theatre, where our own Downey Symphony delivered a world-premiere concert that will be talked about for years.

One Saturday. Three different venues. All of it powered by Downey's students, teachers, volunteers, and neighbors. I loved it. Here is your update for the week ahead.

🚨 Public Safety

🔹 Drug Take-Back Event, Saturday, April 25: The City's next Drug Take-Back Event runs from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Saturday, April 25 at City Hall. Residents can safely and anonymously drop off expired or unused prescription medications, no questions asked.

→ ⚡ Why this matters: Unused medications sitting in bathroom cabinets are one of the most common starting points for accidental ingestion, misuse, and youth exposure. Getting them out of the home closes a door that never should have been left open, and it keeps those chemicals out of our water supply when people flush them down the drain.

→ 🎯 My take: Public safety does not start at the patrol car. It starts in the house, on the shelf, in the cabinet. This is a twenty-minute errand that protects your family and your neighborhood. If you have anything sitting around that you no longer need, put it in a bag and bring it by.

👉 View the Drug Take-Back Event details

💰 Budget & Finance

🔹 April 14 Council Meeting Cancelled, Next Meeting April 28: Last Tuesday's regular City Council meeting was formally cancelled, and the next regular session is now scheduled for Tuesday, April 28 at 6:30 PM in the Council Chambers at Downey City Hall, 11111 Brookshire Ave.

→ 💡 What is on the horizon: The April 28 agenda is expected to include the required update on the City's moratorium on Single Price Overstock and Discount Stores, often called SPODS. The Council first enacted that moratorium in May 2025, extended it last July through May 27, 2026, and staff has been studying how these stores should be defined and regulated long-term. A public hearing to consider extending the moratorium for an additional year is also expected later this month.

→ 🎯 Where I sit on this: My financial services background tells me the right answer is rarely the fastest one. When you are shaping land-use rules that will affect commercial corridors for a decade, you want staff analysis to catch up with the policy question. I will keep pushing for that analysis to come to the dais with clear data, clear tradeoffs, and plain-English explanations, so residents can weigh in before decisions get locked in.

👉 Read the Downey Patriot's moratorium update

👉 View agendas and city documents

💼 Economic Development

🔹 Youth Vendor Fair Turns Kids Into Entrepreneurs: The annual City of Downey Youth Vendor Fair, hosted by Parks and Recreation, drew a packed crowd on Saturday morning. Kids manned their own booths, set their own prices, handled their own sales, and in the process learned more about running a business than most of us learn from a semester of theory.

→ ⚡ Why this lands for me: I spent my career in financial services helping families plan for their future, and the one through-line in every one of those conversations is that financial literacy has to start early. A kid who runs a vendor booth at age ten already understands more about profit, loss, and customer service than most adults admit to. Hats off to our Parks and Recreation team for building this into an annual tradition.

→ 🎯 My ongoing focus: Small business is not an abstract economic sector in this city. It is the bakery on the corner, the family restaurant on Firestone, and eventually, the kid who set up a table at Apollo Park last weekend. Investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs is one of the most direct plays we have for long-term local economic health.

👉 Follow Downey Parks and Recreation for event updates

🔹 Downey Symphony Delivers a World-Class Saturday Night: The Downey Symphony Spring Concert at the Downey Theatre was everything the previews promised and more. Under the baton of Music Director Sharon Lavery, the orchestra opened with Baton Auction winner Eric Pierce conducting, then moved into the world premiere of composer Flora Cheng's four-movement work "Moth," with Cheng herself on piano. Pianist Andrew Edwards closed the evening with a stunning performance of Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1.

→ 💡 What made this one special: A world premiere, by a Warren High alum, performed at home, by our own orchestra, free to the public, is not something that happens in most cities. It happened here because Music Director Lavery made a bet on a hometown composer, and because our Symphony has spent 68 years building the kind of institution that can pull off a night like this one.

→ 🎯 A personal thank you: Daisy and I left the theater reminded of why the arts are worth the civic investment. World-class symphony, world-class performances, right in Downey. Thank you to everyone at the Downey Symphony, the Downey Theatre staff, the volunteers, and the families who turned out on a Saturday night to be part of it.

👉 Learn more about the Downey Symphony

🔹 DUSD Mariachi Festival Fills Allen Layne Stadium: Between the Youth Vendor Fair and the Symphony, Saturday also brought the annual DUSD Mariachi Festival at Downey High School's Allen Layne Stadium. From 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, mariachi, folklórico, and banda ensembles from middle schools, high schools, and college-level groups across the region took the stage, including our own Mariachi Oro de Downey.

→ ⚡ Why I keep showing up at these: Programs like this do not happen without teachers, administrators, and volunteers who believe that cultural education is not a luxury item. It is core curriculum. Enormous credit to the DUSD Mariachi program, instructors, and volunteer parents who pulled off an event of that scale.

👉 Read about the DUSD Mariachi Festival

📅 Coming Up

🔹 🌳 Arbor Day Tree Giveaway: Saturday, April 25, 8:00 to 11:00 AM at City Hall. The City will be giving away one free five-gallon tree per resident while supplies last. ID is required. Plant it in your front yard, your back yard, or in memory of someone. A tree is one of the simplest investments any of us can make in Downey's next fifty years.

👉 View the Arbor Day event details

🔹 👗 Assisteens Spring Tea & Fashion Show: Saturday, April 25 at the Chapter House Gardens, 7749 Florence Ave. One of the signature fundraisers for the Assisteens of Downey, and the financial engine behind many of the year-round programs those young volunteers run.

👉 View the Assistance League of Downey event calendar

🔹 🏛️ Next City Council Meeting: Tuesday, April 28, 6:30 PM, Council Chambers, Downey City Hall, 11111 Brookshire Ave. Agendas post in advance on the city website, and I always encourage residents to pull them up before the meeting rather than after. Public comment matters, in person or in writing.

👉 View the City Council calendar

📱 Stay Connected

Got a pothole to report, graffiti to flag, or a service request to submit? The Downey Connect App is the fastest, most direct path to getting things done. Available for both Apple and Android.

👉 Download the Downey Connect App

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook for more real-time updates, event highlights, and a look at what I am working on between newsletters.

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🚀 Doing Good Things in Downey

Saturday was a reminder that culture, commerce, and community are not separate lanes in Downey. They all ran through the same day, from a kid selling her first product at Apollo Park to a world premiere on the Downey Theatre stage a few hours later. That kind of range is rare. It does not happen by accident, and it does not stay alive without the people who keep showing up for it.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for the ideas, the questions, and all the good notes I get back every week. Hit reply anytime.

Together, we're building a community that works for everyone. Thank you for staying connected!

Hector Sosa
Councilmember, City of Downey
hecsosa@gmail.com