Monday the California Assembly held its first meeting of the new Select Committee on Downtown Recovery chaired by democrat Matt Haney.

Big city mayors from San Francisco, Sacramento, Long Beach, and Riverside testified on the struggles facing their downtown neighborhoods.

Haney gaveled the hearing into session by saying “Struggling downtowns are a statewide challenge that urgently require a statewide solution.”

The event was the first of multiple hearings this session that will work on identifying the root causes of California’s issues with its big city downtowns.