Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 115

Introduced by Senator Lara

(Coauthors: Senators Block, Corbett, Correa, De León, Hancock, Hernandez, Hueso, Liu, Mitchell, Padilla, Pavley, Steinberg, and Torres)

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Ian Calderon, Campos, Garcia, Gonzalez, Medina, V. Manuel Pérez, Rendon, and Rodriguez)

April 21, 2014

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 115—Relative to the Senator Jenny Oropeza Memorial Freeway.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SCR 115, as introduced, Lara. Senator Jenny Oropeza Memorial Freeway.

This measure would designate the portion of State Highway Route 710 that runs between Pico Avenue and West Wardlow Road in the City of Long Beach as the Senator Jenny Oropeza Memorial Freeway. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.

Fiscal committee: yes.

WHEREAS, Jenny Oropeza, who passed away on October 20,
2010, was a lifelong public servant who was active in her
community and was first elected to the Long Beach Unified School
District Board of Education, then the Long Beach City Council,
the Assembly of the State of California, and finally to the Senate
of the State of California; and

WHEREAS, During her time as a Member of the Legislature,
Jenny Oropeza was a champion for public transportation, health
care, education, clean air, equality, and the prevention of cancer;
and

WHEREAS, Senator Oropeza was so admired by her
constituents and community that she was posthumously awarded
the Political Leadership Award in 2011 by the Democratic
Women’s Study Club in Long Beach, which has renamed that
award the Jenny Oropeza Political Leadership Award; and

WHEREAS, The Long Beach Community Hispanic Association
(Centro CHA) posthumously awarded Senator Oropeza the Create
Change Community Service Excellence Award in 2011, which
will in future years be called the Create Change: Jenny Oropeza
Community Service Excellence Award; and

WHEREAS, In recognition of Senator Oropeza, the Long Beach
Lambda Democratic Club created the Jenny Oropeza Ally of the
Year Award, which was first awarded in 2011; and

WHEREAS, As a tribute to Senator Oropeza’s dedication to
fostering protections for key state public health programs, the Los
Angeles County Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, in joint
collaboration with the six other California-based Komen affiliates,
known as “the California Collaborative,” established the Senator
Jenny Oropeza Public Policy Internship position; and

WHEREAS, The City of Long Beach named the community
center in Cesar E. Chavez Park the Jenny Oropeza Community
Center and the Los Angeles Unified School District dedicated the
Jenny Oropeza Global Studies Academy at the Rancho Dominguez
Preparatory School; and

WHEREAS, Shortly after taking office in 2000, then Assembly
Member Oropeza became aware that the Alameda Corridor would
open in 2002 and that all the planned bridges, designed to prevent
cars from having to wait for trains to pass at street level, would be
completed, except for the bridge on State Highway Route 1 (Pacific
Coast Highway) in the community of Wilmington, which was the
busiest route along the Alameda Corridor; and

WHEREAS, The bridge to be built at that location would bisect
the Equilon Refinery and was therefore the most complicated and
expensive bridge to build, and there was not enough funding to
complete the on State Highway Route 1 bridge; and

WHEREAS, Senator Oropeza brought together the interested
parties, including the Department of Transportation, the Alameda
Corridor Transportation Authority, the Los Angeles County
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), the Equilon
Refinery, the Union Pacific Railroad, and the City of Los Angeles
to solve this problem of completing the bridge and was able to
help facilitate $107 million in funding from a combination of
sources that included state transportation funds, state Proposition
116 bond funds, federal demonstration funds, LACMTA funds,
and railroad funds; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates the
portion of State Highway Route 710 that runs between Pico Avenue
and West Wardlow Road in the City of Long Beach as the Senator
Jenny Oropeza Memorial Freeway; and be it further

Resolved, That the Department of Transportation is requested
to determine the cost of appropriate signs consistent with the
signing requirements for the state highway system showing this
special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate
sources sufficient to cover that cost, to erect those signs; and be it
further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of
this resolution to the Director of Transportation and to the author
for appropriate distribution.