Adrian Lopez-Juarez is a name that for most won’t ring a bell, a reality the 31 year old from Atwater is intent on changing. Lopez-Juarez is running against Kalisa Rochester for Atwater City Council District 2, and cites his time spent living in the district as the reason who can best guide it into the future.
Lopez-Juarez has spent his whole life in Atwater. Following in his father’s footsteps, he has mainly made his living as a field worker, with some time spent working in retail, and one year working in public works for the City of Atwater. He grew up in District 2, and while getting signatures to run for city council witnessed that the dissatisfaction from many residents remains.
“No one said, well, you know what? I feel like we’re doing good here. It wasn’t ‘now we need to change this,’ but ‘we don’t know who’s going to make the change,’” said Lopez-Juarez. He believes he could be the answer to that concern. “I just feel like since I’ve been there and I live there, I know what it is to be part of that area.”
Lopez-Juarez’s platform has three key points: economic development, housing, and public safety. He has an endorsement from current District 2 Councilmember Tyler Button. While the specifics for how he plans to address each are limited, he believes that one of the biggest steps for improving the more disadvantaged areas of Atwater is that he communicates directly with residents.
“I would say if I happen to get these four years, I would be there, in and out, day and night, working. Working as much as I can, talking to every single household…talking to everyone and really, really get to hear what they want to have changed, because for the campaign, you only have so much time. The clocks against you,” said Lopez-Juarez. “I’m on a time clock, and once you get into that position you don’t talk no more, you show. So you’re gonna show by being in there and working in there. I’ll talk to the mayor and I’ll tell everyone, even on my personal time with them, I could go help out. I’ll be there with the weed eater.
The weed eater is a big part of what Lopez-Juarez says would help areas like Determine Drive. He describes basic improvements like clean-ups and speed bumps as an important first step in improving quality of life: “We need to focus on first bringing up the house, keeping the house clean and maintaining the house.”
For Lopez-Juarez, these smaller improvements need to be made before moving on to the rest of the city’s wish-list: “Maybe I do wish this town would have already had money, so we could have gone onto the next step and maybe do better things like wanting to build a dog park, wanting to have better restaurants. But at this point, we’re not there yet.”
Lopez-Juarez only intends on staying with the Atwater City Council for one term if elected.
“When it’s all said and done, these are real problems from real people. So I would want to solve solutions like those and then continue going on to the next part of my life,” said Lopez-Juarez. “I only want another greater position in life. So it all comes with knowledge. It all comes with listening, more listening than talking.”