The Impact of Arts with Mayor Michael Vargas

National Arts & Health Day – NLC’s annual celebration of the impact the arts have on public health around our country. It’s coming up later this summer on July 25th, and here to share how the arts have impacted his community is Mayor Michael M. Vargas of Perris, California.

For more information, visit us at nlc.org.

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Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 0:07

Welcome back to Cityspeak. I am your host, Melanie Fonder Kay, Senior Executive with the National League of Cities. Cityspeak gives listeners an insider's view of what local leadership in America means today and features conversations with government leaders and policy experts on the biggest issues and challenges facing America's cities, towns, and villages. Today we're talking about the arts and health and how they impact residents in every community across America. We're talking about National Arts and Health Day, NLC's annual celebration of the impact the arts has on public health. It's coming up later this summer on July 25th. Here to share about the arts and health is Mayor Michael Vargas of Perris, California. Mayor Vargas is a retired law enforcement sergeant with 30 years of service and was elected to lead the city of Perris in 2016 following his tenure on the Valverde Unified School District Board. He represents the region on several prominent committees while focusing on public safety, job growth, and youth development. The father of four, grandfather of eight, is dedicated to ensuring Perris remains a thriving community to live, work, and play. Mayor Michael Vargas, welcome to CitySpeak.

Mayor Michael Vargas, Perris, Calif. 1:32

Thank you, Melanie. It's great to be here.

Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 1:34

So the City of Perris has a thriving arts, culture, and health program. How did that come about and how did it become such a focus for your city?

Mayor Michael Vargas, Perris, Calif. 1:42

Good question, Melanie. In Perriis, we believe a healthy city is about more than infrastructure and public safety. It's about culture, creativity, and making sure residents feel connected to the community they live in. Several years ago, my city council adopted a public art development impact fee on new industrial development, which created a sustainable funding source for the arts and cultural initiatives. Since then, we've been able to invest in murals, sculptures, youth programs, and cultural celebrations that reflect the diversity of our community and strengthen our community well-being.

Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 2:17

What about the initiative shows how health and the arts are so interconnected?

Mayor Michael Vargas, Perris, Calif. 2:24

So one of the ways we see the connection is through our arts in our public spaces. Residents encounter murals, sculptures, and art design utility boxes throughout the city, many created by local artists and students. We have an initiative where we put put it out there to anybody in the community that wants to get involved in from design to printing out the for the the utility wraps. Then, of course, when the people, when our community see what they've done and it's actually on display, that creates a sense of belonging and pride, and that contributes directly to the emotions, uh excuse me, emotional well-being and community health.

Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 3:02

Tell me more about that. How do you see the arts really shaping the lives of residents? You talked about the reaction of the artists, but how do you see it impacting residents?

Mayor Michael Vargas, Perris, Calif. 3:10

Well, we support programming such as the art and dances uh classes, cultural celebrations such as our Cinco de Mayo, Juneteenth, International Mothers Language Day, Barrio Festival. These programs bring families together, celebrate the traditions of our residents, and create opportunities for our young people to express themselves. To enhance on that because we're so multi-diverse, so Cinco de Mayo, obviously, for our Hispanic community, Juneteenth for African Americans, International Mothers Language Day. I'm going to get back to that one. I want to touch on that. But the Barrio Festival would be for our Filipinos. Uh we have uh a uh Perris Valley Filipino American Association right there in our own city. Great food, by the way. But the International Mother's Language Day I'm very proud of because we are the as far as we know and understand, and if you even Google it, you can't see it anywhere else. But and and and I gotta talk to Google because then I see it pop up in Perris. But we are the first state in the United States to have an international mother's language monument.

Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 4:12

What is international mother's language then?

Mayor Michael Vargas, Perris, Calif. 4:15

To to to be to just bring it down to the nuts and bolts, it's all about linguistics. Linguistics. Don't forget your mother's language. And the Bangladesh community fought and lies were killed uh to to keep their mother language. The Pakistanians were trying to get them to say no, this you're only going to speak our language, but they fought, they fought, and then they won. February 21st is the anniversary date, so every 21st they they do celebrate it in our city. And it's actually a beautiful monument. It has five structures, uh, and it depends on what you want to make out of, but the center one is the largest and it's kind of bent over, and then you have two on each side. Well, the center one is the mother bending over, and the two on each side represent the four children, and then she has a red circle in the middle of her body that represents the blood. And what we've done in Perris is we in it where the red circle is, we've also have a silhouette of the globe to represent international, because that's I think it's just so important that you don't forget your mother's language. I and I'm a perfect example. I'm a br I'm a son, a child of five siblings. I'm the youngest, and my mother, my younger older brother next to me is five years up. My mother learned language before I was born, so my first language was was English, uh, which I was born in the United States, that's perfectly fine. But my brothers and sisters, I envy them because they speak fluent Spanish, and I had to learn what I learned in in high school and also what's most commonly known in the streets as Spanglish. I didn't learn it properly, but so when they when the Bangladesh community came to me about this, I said this is a marvelous idea because I hundred percent agreed to it. And brought it back to my council and we all agreed, and here we are.

Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 5:57

That sounds amazing.

Mayor Michael Vargas, Perris, Calif. 5:58

Yep.

Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 5:59

Now I understand you also have a play a role. Um can you tell us about the mayor's art contest and what it means to the young people who participate?

Mayor Michael Vargas, Perris, Calif. 6:08

Yeah, so that's our annual program that I'm very proud of. I'd invite students uh in Peris to showcase their creativity and have their artwork displayed in pu public spaces like City Hall and our parks. Uh, and then our special project that we have is our our tile uh murals. And what I mean by that is we've already have two parks now where we invite our local school artists to get together and they create murals on ceramic tiles and they piece it together, and here you have this beautiful artwork. So that you know, that to me is very important. And then as a former school board member, you know, so it's all about the youth.

Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 6:45

That sounds amazing. Um, the city of Perris also participates in a technical assistance opportunity with NLC. So, what can you tell us about the community health and well-being accelerator?

Mayor Michael Vargas, Perris, Calif. 6:57

Well, I can tell you that we just uh won the City Cultural Diversity Award this morning. Congratulations. Yes, it's awesome. So participating in the Community Health and Well-Being Accelerator has been an exciting opportunity for our city. It allows our city to collaborate with experts and other cities across the country to explore innovative ways to improve health outcomes, including how arts, uh, culture, and community spaces contribute to overall well-being. And this is what I like about NLC is coming together with states across, right? Bringing hearing different ideas, what they're doing in their state, and bringing it back to our local community. Also, as part of the program, Perris is developing a community health and well-being sustainability action plan. Our team is evaluating the resources the city already provides, uh, working across departments to identify service gaps and building a long-term strategy to strengthen programs that support the health and well-being of our residents. So very important program.

Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 7:57

So it sounds like the the opportunity to have the peer learnings or experience is is part of it. And then what do you see as the benefits um directly either on your staff or on your residents from being able to participate in something like that?

Mayor Michael Vargas, Perris, Calif. 8:13

Well, it it's definitely going to benefit our residents, right? And we're gonna try to put this program together. Uh so in my in my case, we have uh obviously we have our city residents and uh most commonly known as Perris Valley. If you think about it many years ago, there were these were all valleys, they're like these are like colonies. You have Menifee Valley, Merino Valley, Perris Valley. So uh our immediate surroundings is the unincorporated area. So I have Mead Valley, I have uh Good Hope, for example, uh, but they have a Perris residence, and some of them don't don't understand and that that's you're unincorporated, you're not in my city limits, but to them we are their city. So when we start working on this plan that we're putting together, right, we're we're we're identifying the gaps and what what services need to be and we have to include our our neighbors across our border lines because they come into our city looking for for health, for whatever care they may need. They may just simply shop or have their doctors. So it's this is a good opportunity for us, and I'm I'm very grateful for NLC for including this, and and uh my staff is very excited as well.

Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 9:22

Well, that's wonderful. Mayor Vargas, I'm sure there are city leaders who are listening to this and thinking about arts and health, and maybe they haven't thought about it as interconnected before, um, or maybe they just don't haven't thought about it that way. Um, what advice would you give them in pairing these two issues together?

Mayor Michael Vargas, Perris, Calif. 9:40

Well, I definitely encourage city leaders to think about what truly makes their community thrive. Uh the arts bring peoples together, uh celebrate culture, and create spaces where residents feel connected to one another. These experiences strengthen community pride, improve mental well-being, uh, and build stronger neighborhoods. Like I always said, it takes a village to run a city and and to keep a city going, and incorporating the arts and culture will only add strength to that village. Um I just highly, you know, re-emphasize to to my colleagues and other members of all of the of other states in the United States is to take advantage of these programs and uh especially in particular with uh NLC because you know you come together and you bring ideas together and you can go home with an idea and that can probably hopefully uh benefit your community. I will I come to NLC and I always will come to NLC.

Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 10:35

What gives you hope in these times?

Mayor Michael Vargas, Perris, Calif. 10:38

Funding? That's always a key question, right? You've got all these programs going uh and you know, development and then implementing them, you know, that's that's that's that's my hope is being able to implement these programs that we're coming up with.

Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 10:54

Which is why you're here exactly visiting. Uh tell us where you are and and what you're doing on Capitol Hill this week.

Mayor Michael Vargas, Perris, Calif. 11:00

So, you know, we we always come, we love it. Uh we got to meet with our legislators, uh bring back some some hopefully some money. But uh it's it's it's nice to have them on our site and to understand where we're at, you know, focused on housing, homelessness, public safety. Uh in fact, right now we're trying to build our third fire department in our city. So, and we are working on a project where the developers uh working on hopefully getting our hospital. We don't have a hospital in Perris. Oh wow. So the nearest hospital for my community is Code 3 Run Lights and Siren, you maybe get there 13, 15 minutes. Well, that's critical. Seconds is critical. Minutes too but too long. So it's always important for me to come out here uh to advocate for our community and talk to our legislators and tell them what what it is that we're f what what we need, what our needs are. Because you know, one shoe doesn't fit all either, right? But at least we come together as a unity, NLC, and let our voices be heard what it is that we need.

Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 12:01

Well, absolutely. Mayor Marco Vargas, it was such a pleasure to sit down with you today and thank you for sharing your story with City's speak listeners. It was great to hear more about the connection between the arts and health, and we hope everyone will join NLC when we celebrate National Arts and Health Day on July 25th.

Mayor Michael Vargas, Perris, Calif. 12:19

Well, thank you, Melanie. It was a pleasure to be here, and I thank you for this opportunity, and I thank NLC as well.

NLC 12:32

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