Interview with East Palo Alto Mayor, Ruben Abrica

Collective Roots has many government partners, but none more important than the City of East Palo Alto where so much of our work takes place. Wolfram Alderson briefly interviewed Ruben Abrica, Mayor of East Palo Alto, at the most recent meeting of the East Palo Alto Community Health Roundtable (a city-wide group convened by the Mayor in 2007).

WA: How do you view the work of Collective Roots and the Partnership with the City of East Palo Alto…any reflections you can share?

RA: I would say that it is very important partnership because when we first convened the East Palo Alto Health Roundtable, one of the discussion groups was around starting a farmers’ market and Collective Roots stepped up to the plate to assist. Raquel Medina was a City of EPA staff person that reached out to Wolfram and Collective Roots for help in 2007….and now the market is a reality (in its second year). Now we need to be sure that the market will always be there because in the past, similar efforts came and went…and now we must sustain it.

The other important connection is how Collective Roots is helping to solve the health data problem: the focus on getting good information, involving the community in the process, accessing many different data sources,  and developing a solution that will benefit all the organizations and interests in the City of East Palo Alto.

From my perspective as Mayor and being on the City Council I think making use of good (health) information is needed for the city government to be stronger advocate for health issues.

If we don’t have this information we will fall short…even though sometimes we can make predictions.  Because we are part of the national health dynamic, we know we are facing serious challenges, but nothing replaces having good local information and community participation. With the support of efforts like this, we can do a better job to represent the voters and the people.  I think our partnership with Collective Roots has been very fruitful.