Long Beach

The massive Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement project—y'know, that pocket-change $1B, 1.5 mile roadway project that will sit perched above the Long Beach Harbor—has shadowed a smaller bridge project on Terminal Island: the Heim Bridge replacement project.

Contrary to common myth, not all advocacy websites want to discuss the plight of humanity's inability to catch up with itself, despite my last two Streetsblog stories serving as Example A and Example B of why that myth may have some validity.

Following an Associated Press article that was syndicated nationally by multiple outlets, the coast of California—particularly ——became the center of attention in regard to a controversial practice: fracking.

A handful of folk—some environmental experts, some local health advocates, some urban designers, some regular ol' citizens—stood in the Century Villages at Cabrillo, a small neighborhood lining the Terminal Island Freeway. They were directly across from where BNSF Rail wants to build their massive Southern California International Gateway (SCIG) rail yard and just south of Hudson Elementary. As people chatted, a small, heavy contraption was passed around, a number on its facade that was continually bouncing between 23,000 and 35,000.

For just over a year, the Southern California Streets Initiative, the co-publisher of Streetsblog Los Angeles and publisher of Santa Monica Next, has teased that a "Streetsblog Long Beach" is just around the corner. After forming a local advisory Board, and publishing news/opinion pieces by the Long Beach Post's Brian Addison, we're proud to make a little different announcement.

Back in April, former director of Long Beach Park, Recreation & Marine Phil Hester sat in front of a bunch of urbanerds and bicyclists, pedestrian-oriented folks and designers, and discussed an idea that is both brilliant and needed on a community level: the 2002 RiverLinks projects. RiverLinks would vastly use the underused L.A. River by connecting the west sides of Districts 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, and 9 to the river via biking/ped/green utopia.

Several labor and social justice organizations—thirteen to be exact—called on the three public agencies engaged with bus manufacturer BYD Motors to boycott their engagement while protesting in front of BYD's office in Downtown LA. However, despite all the shouting, chanting, and finger-pointing, all three agencies—LA Metro, Long Beach Transit (LBT), and the City of Los Angeles—are not making any moves that indicate they will abandon the troubled bus manufacturer.

There's something to say about collaboration in any sense of the term, be it social or political, design or communal. And the East 7th Street Collaboration--a congregation of the neighborhoods of Rose Park, Craftsman Village, and North Alamitos Beach--has opted to override the City in favor of getting their vision done themselves.

Contemporary. Hip. Accessible. Vibrant. Artistic.