Standing in solidarity with the community against unfair policies - 6 Decade in a Glimpse (Pius Lee Autobiography 7)

Chapter 10: Standing in solidarity with the community against unfair policies

Over the years, there have been legislations that did not treat the Chinese community fairly. I volunteered to get involved by raising money to retain attorneys and stood together with the community. Regardless of the outcome, I had no regrets. Below are two examples.

In 2010, the State Fish and Game Commission, which set policy for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (formerly California Department of Fish and Game which was voted by the State Legislature to change its name effective in 2013), voted to ban the import of non-native frogs and turtles.

Merchants strongly opposed the ban but were ignored. I reached out to the Governor's Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy (Secretary to the former Governor Gray Davis).

Four months later, the department chose not to implement the ban and continued to issue the import permits, but the frogs and turtles had to be killed before they were allowed to be carried out from the store. Also, a notice with such language must be posted in front of the store. Otherwise, the merchants would receive citations.

In August that year, permits were issued statewide to all merchants, who then reduced their losses, and provided more choices to our dining tables. I want to thank the former Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy for her strong support in this policy.

In October 2010, California passed legislation banning the sale, consumption, and ownership of shark fins. Starting July 1, 2013, a person would not own, buy, or sell shark fins, but shark meat could be consumed or for other purposes.

I believe it was extremely unfair that it was not acceptable to do away with a shark fin but not its meat. It would not protect sharks and it was a discriminatory practice.

I teamed up with a group of merchants and retained a team of lawyers to file a lawsuit challenging the legislation. We fought at the local level all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Attorney General supported our lawsuit but due to the animal rights groups' lobbying efforts, the Department of Justice withdrew its support and our case fell short.

Our association's attorney Mr. Joe Breall helped us by reducing his attorney fee. (Usually it would require $600,000 to $700,000 for a lawsuit working its way from the U.S. District Court to the U.S. Supreme Court.) He only asked for $100,000. I raised about $40,000 for the lawsuit.

Although we lost the appeal, we united and did our best. We were proud of our fight. I believed that the case's outcome also had something to do with the Chinese community lacking political power.

Although our legal proceedings failed, we would like to thank our lawyer Mr. Joe Breall for helping us appeal our case to the U.S. Supreme Court at an affordable rate.

In August 2013, I was appointed to the State's Earthquake Insurance Authority advisory panel. I encouraged homeowners to buy earthquake insurance and retrofit their homes. The San Francisco Bay Area lies above the earthquake fault. Earthquake insurance is expensive. I argued that there was a way for homeowners to pay for the affordable earthquake insurance coverage.

Since the federal government did not support the State's Earthquake Reinsurance coverage, the State should pass a law to guarantee the re-insurance policy premium plan without paying re-insurance premium coverage, your present insurance cost would be reduced to 50 percent of what you are paying now.

With the state serving as the guarantor of the reinsurance premium coverage, the risk would be very low. Because in the state's history, there were no earthquakes occurring at the same time from the North, Central and to the South of California. So, there is very low risk for the State of California to guarantee the cost of reinsurance policy's premium.

On August 1, 2013, some dried seafood stores in Chinatown received an English language citation from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife alleging that their receipts had no English language. I asked Joe Breall, an attorney representing the Chinatown Neighborhood Association, to go to the court and explain that these receipts had English numbers. The judge accepted the argument.

Since then, small businesses no longer experienced this type of trouble. I want to thank Joe Breall for helping small businesses in California to avoid similar legal challenges.

Publicly asked Mayor Ed Lee to improve the conditions of Chinatown

The Chinese community has had a tradition of buying goods to prepare for the Chinese New Year. In 2013, I recommended to Mayor Ed Lee with the help of Development Commissioner Benny Yee. Mayor Lee allowed merchants at Stockton Street to sell New Year products utilizing parking spaces for 14 days before the Chinese New Year.

Since then, over 90% merchants took advantage of this setup each year drawing thousands of Bay Area customers and visitors to shop in Chinatown. It became one of the special events 14 days before the Chinese New Year.

In a community party, I proposed to Mayor Ed Lee to use: Street cleaning with high-pressure water guns, graffiti removal, widen sidewalks, 14-day Pre-Chinese New Year Fair. My proposals surprised Mayor Lee because I had repeatedly sent these requests to him for a few months and just wanted these measures to be adopted that would help merchants who were impacted by the Central Subway construction.

On September 7, 2017, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and the Chinatown Neighborhood Association co-hosted an appreciation dinner for Mayor Ed Lee. I took the opportunity to relate to Mayor Lee about the Chinatown issues which triggered a report in the San Francisco Examiner dated on September 7, 2017, "Pius Lee had a surprise for the mayor when he sprung a number of community questions on him in front of the audience for all to hear.

"Mayor Ed Lee is always ready to offer solutions to these problems," he said. "Therefore, on behalf of the merchants doing business in Stockton Street, we respectfully ask you to consider the following."

“He and the Six Companies asked for Stockton Street's sidewalks to be extended five feet (from 10 feet to 15), in the name of pedestrian safety, for steam cleaning of Stockton Street ‘twice a week’ after 6pm, for Public Works to pay for graffiti removal along Stockton Street, and for the beautification of the Stockton Street tunnel."

After lion-dancers leapt and hopped to the sound of drums, Mayor Lee stood at the podium to directly address the requests from Chinatown before the banquet-goers.

"I can't do everything on the list Pius has tonight," Mayor Ed Lee said. But he announced, "I am committing for the next two years on Stockton Street, we will clean all the graffiti for free." Mayor Lee added, "We're going to work on extending sidewalks, work on advertising."

( To be continued in Issue 193 )

Editor's Note: Community leader Pius Lee retires in 2024 after advocating for the community in many ways for 60 years. He has recently released his autobiography book, 6 Decades in a Glimpse, as his personal memoirs for his friends and families, not for sale. Mr. Lee shares his book with community members to be reprinted in Wind Newspaper's weekly issues starting #186 in April 2024.