Brian Addison

Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) can certainly take a cue from Cal State Northridge (CSUN).

Amidst much brouhaha last week, the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse opened in Long Beach, formally replacing the dilapidated mid-mod 1958 courthouse on Ocean Boulevard.

Long Beach Transit (LBT)'s latest board meeting held with it a severe amount of questions regarding the transit company's procurement of electric, zero-emission buses (ZEB) from Chinese company BYD. Eyebrows were raised over the proposed buses' weight significantly damaging roadways; the failure of the current China-made BYD bus passing federally mandated Altoona Testing, prompting a longer return time on the contract fulfillment as well as structural questions; and the mysterious addition to the contract that 20 more BYD buses would be purchased without the Board's formal approval of adding such an incentive.

After four years, many complaints, many praises, and a final acceptance that they really aren't that bad, the green Sharrows in Belmont Shore have turned 4. And with that, data have been released so that we can figure out precisely what we've learned.

Here's the way Cafe Sevilla owner Eric Van den Haute phrased it exactly: "Downtown Long Beach: Do you want a village or do you want a downtown?"

In a brilliant series examining venture capital (VC) investments--money largely invested in technology-based sectors--urban guru Richard Florida has taken data from Dow Jones and broken it down in maps and context. The macro-point is--in Floridian style--quite simple: though San Francisco/San Jose still account for an enormous chunk of VC investment, said investment is spreading into urban neighborhoods.

It should be no shock that Sen. Ricardo Lara--who represents the 33rd Senate District spanning Long Beach to Huntington Park--has a vast interest in protecting neighborhoods that line the 710 as it goes through its proposed expansion. His most recent attempt to empower neighborhoods, SB 811, would help give communities a greater say in whether or not Caltrans goes forward with a massive widening spanning Long Beach to East Los Angeles.

The Bicycle Drive-In occurs this Saturday from 6 pm to 10 pm at Park(d) Plaza, located on 4th Street between Linden and Elm Avenues. The event is free.

Sasha Kanno has always had a deep connection to the earth and what it can bring about--quite literally. In a continually booming urban landscape that often exchanges concrete for earth, the importance of reconnecting people to produce--straight from its source--is something that is important to Sasha.