Assembly member and De Anza College alumnus Evan Low hosted “Pancakes and Proposals,” a free event where members of the community could come and eat pancakes, while suggesting bill proposals to Low and his legislative team, written on the back of construction paper pancakes.

The event was held in the Campbell Community Center on Saturday, and aimed to open up the legislative process to community members, and hear and address their concerns.

“I think it’s important to listen,” Low said. “There’s a number of people who have come on a Saturday to voice their concern, to support legislation, to get us to do things differently, and or, frankly, to also voice their opposition to something I’m doing.”

Patrick Ahrens, Foothill-De Anza board member and district director for Low, raced around the event, making sure that everything was going well for those participating. 

While Ahrens was attending De Anza, he met Low, who was working for Assemblymember Paul Fong at the time. He has always looked up to Low because of his energy when it comes to local politics.

“It’s always been such an inspiration to see someone so young, progressive and really fighting to make an institutional change,” Ahrens said. “It’s not enough just to get elected and have opinions and ideas.” 

Participants were seated at tables, after grabbing muffins and coffee from the breakfast spread, and then delivered steaming pancakes made by volunteers who supported Low. They then were given the opportunity to talk with each other and visit the organizations participating, such as the U.S. Census. 

This event also drew a couple of protesters, who stood outside, holding up posters and an umbrella painted with the phrase “Assemblyman Evan Low is a segregationist.” They were protesting in opposition to stricter vaccine requirements and the possible removal of gay conversion therapy.

De Anza alumnus Edward Voss wrote down his concerns about living in the Bay Area on the back of his construction paper pancake, such as “rising health costs, rapid inequality gap and corporate tax avoidance.” 

Community members were also given the chance to line up and talk with Low personally about their concerns, as well as taking a picture with him. 

Within this year, Low hopes to tackle issues such as the housing crisis and meet student interests, both of which were concerns of community members who attended.

“We cannot live in the communities that we grew up in,” he said. “We talked about advancing the interests of students, about free community college, making sure that we lower the barriers, because we want to make sure we have an educated workforce.”

Low also wanted to ensure that the people who attended felt seen and listened to by him and his team.

“This is about representing the people that we work for,” he said.