GONZALES — Gonzales City Manager Rene Mendez will be participating in an online event hosted by Zócalo Public Square on Thursday, June 17, at 6:30 p.m., “What Makes a Good Small Town.”
In addition to Mendez, the panel includes Coachella councilmember and civil rights attorney Megan Beaman Jacinto and former West Sacramento mayor Christopher Cabaldon. The event will be moderated by Diana Marcum, staff writer at the Los Angeles Times.
California’s smaller cities are often pitied when they are thought about. Media coverage of towns, especially in rural areas, typically emphasize their poverty, their lack of amenities and people, or their supposedly clannish cultures or peripheral politics.
But the reality is that small towns stand at the center of California’s biggest challenges — climate, energy, inequality, public health, education, water, broadband access and homelessness. Smaller cities like Gonzales have found clever solutions to problems that bedevil big cities.
Panelists will discuss what is it like to govern a small California town in the third decade of the 21st century and what lessons can the rest of California learn from the challenges and successes of a smaller city.
Over the past decade, Gonzales has implemented dozens of initiatives and programs designed to build a healthy community and advance long-term stability that have led to measurable progress on youth engagement, economic development, health care and broadband access and sustainability.
The city was recognized for its innovation and success when it was chosen from nearly 200 communities across the country to receive the 2019 RWJF Culture of Health Prize awarded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The online event is sponsored by the California Wellness Foundation and KCRW radio and is free to attend. To register, go to this link.
